One Book One Valley
Since 2011, our community has been coming together around a single book. It takes the form of an annual literary celebration called One Book One Valley, and it has led us on some amazing journeys.
We welcome you to take part in this tremendous opportunity to celebrate literacy, storytelling and community through the shared reading of a single title.
2025 Book
Saddle up! One Book One Valley is here!
The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts
About the book: In 1954, sixty-three-year-old farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey: She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. Annie, who wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died, bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow. Annie had little idea what to expect beyond her rural crossroads; she didn’t even have a map. She did have her ex-racehorse, her faithful mutt, and her own unfailing belief that Americans would treat a stranger with kindness.
A New York Times bestseller, The Ride of Her Life is a “heartwarming [and] engaging folk-hero biography” (Kirkus Reviews) of a woman – and her four-legged companions – who inspired an outpouring of neighborliness in a rapidly changing world. This triumphant story of optimism, courage, and good humor will fill readers with joy, hope, and delight.
Copies of the book are now available at the Library, thanks to generous support from the Friends of the Library Foundation.
Join us in celebrating literacy, community, and storytelling through the shared reading of a single title! Check out all One Book One Valley programs on our calendar, or browse the featured list below:
- Journeys Large & Small, Inside & Out: A Personal Writing Workshop with John Calderazzo (January 7)
- Show & Tell for Grown-Ups: The Ride of Her Life (January 13)
- The Ride of Her Life Book Discussion (January 16)
- Saddles, Soviets, & Service Stations: Trivia Night (January 23)
- Healing with Hearts & Horses (January 25)
- Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History with William Taylor (January 27)
- The Ride of Her Life Book Discussion (January 29)
- An Evening with Elizabeth Letts (January 31)
- An Afternoon with Elizabeth Letts (February 1)
Thanks to all local readers who cast your votes for the 2025 title, and thank you to our “One Book” committee, composed of Library staff and book-loving community volunteers.
2025 Finalists
- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
- Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
- The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts
Past Winners
- 2024: The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
- 2023: Finders Keepers by Craig Childs
- 2022: The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
- 2021: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
- 2019/2020: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
- 2018: Why Won’t You Apologize by Harriet Lerner (presented during Conflict Resolution Month)
- 2017: The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande
- 2016: No community vote; the Library celebrated its centennial with eight different authors throughout the year
- 2015: We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
- 2014: The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
- 2013: Plainsong by Kent Haruf
- 2012: Doc by Mary Doria Russell
- 2011: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
