Another Reason to Love Denver

I have a little bit of a crush on John Hickenlooper, the Mayor of Denver. He is kind of a geeky guy...a geologist turned restaurant owner and real estate developer. I first found out about him in 2003 when he ran for and became the Mayor of my fair city and even though he was a Democrat...I liked his ideas and the fact that a business man, not a career politician was going to be running the show.

For the last five years he has hosted a city wide Book Club with the goal being to get residence excited to read in their spare time. Normally, Mayor Hickenlooper selects the book but this year he is giving everyone the chance to vote on the choice of 27 books. You can go HERE to see the books, read a synopsis and a little about the author.

Previous One Book, One Denver Selections:

• 2004 Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
• 2005 Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
• 2006 The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols
• 2007 Articles of War by Nick Arvin
• 2008 The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

I love to read and I think this is such a great idea. Voting runs through June 15th and then the winning book will be announced on September 1st. If I'm lucky...I might live there by then!


In February of this year...he also launched the first ever pre-school aged book selection. The book for 2009 is the Cadecott Honor book: A Chair for My Mother by Vera B Williams. It tells the story of a young girl, her mother and grandmother who all save up their spare coins to purchase a much needed chair after their furniture was burned in a fire. It teaches the valuable lesson about how difficult times can be worked through with hard work you can make a difference. I'm going to order this for my kids today!


EDITED: The kids and I met the Mayor of Ogden today! We were at the Ogden Airport having lunch at Doolittle's and he came in for a sandwich. I wanted to ask him a bunch of questions about why there isn't any shopping in Ogden but Mallory was throwing her shoes across the restaurant.