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 civic dialogue through the shared reading of a single title.
2024 Vote
Voting is now live for 2024’s One Book One Valley!
After much review and careful thought, our One Book One Valley committee, made up of community members like you, narrowed the selection down to three titles, each with great discussion and program potential. Now through August 18, we’re seeking your vote to choose the 2024 book.
The three finalists listed alphabetically by author are:
- The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Find brief summaries of each book and cast your vote to choose the winner here. Please, only submit one vote per person.
We’ll reveal the winning title in early November, then One Book One Valley takes place in January. Copies of the book will be available for reading and sharing, made possible through the generous donors of the Estes Valley Library Friends & Foundation.
Thanks also goes to our “One Book” committee, which over the past decade has been composed of Library staff, Friends & Foundation board members, and book-loving community volunteers.
2023 Book
Readers in the Estes Valley chose Finders Keepers by Craig Childs as the 2023 One Book One Valley title.
About the book: Written in Childs’s trademark lyrical style, Finders Keepers is an atypical ghost story. Visit lonesome desert canyons and fancy Fifth Avenue art galleries, journey throughout the Americas, Asia, the past and the present, and take an intense, impassioned investigation into the nature of the past and the things we leave behind.
To whom does the past belong? Is the archeologist who discovers a lost tomb a sort of hero — or a villain? Or something in between? If someone steals a relic from a museum and returns it to the ruin it came from, is she a thief? As Salter Reynolds with the LA Times reviews, “Childs looks at moral issues from a variety of angles. He doubts others as he doubts himself, a beautiful inverse of the golden rule. He raises questions like the best teachers, the real teachers – have you thought this through? What are the results of your actions? What is your role in this brief chapter?”
In January and February, we held a diverse lineup of One Book One Valley programs, including speakers drawn from the various perspectives in the book. The series culminated in a visit from Craig Childs himself on Monday, February 6, 2023.
If you’d like to dive deeper into last year’s One Book One Valley subject matter, check out this supplemental resource guide, curated by Eric White, Adult Services Librarian and director of this year’s One Book One Valley.