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Chicago Library's 'One Book, One Chicago' Program To Go Year-Round

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The city's popular "One Book, One Chicago" book club at the Chicago Public Libraries will expand its slate of programs, but will focus on one book a year instead of two.

WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports the shift in the program will allow for a more detailed examination of each book selected by the Chicago Public Library system.

One Book, One Chicago Expanding

Public Library Commissioner Brian Bannon said, with the program now focusing on one book a year, the activities surrounding each selection will last longer than the typical month of the previous book club.

"We're finding that the one month was limited, so one of the recommendations that came to us – actually through our programming team – is what if we really select one book, and spend an entire year deeply exploring the themes and questions that are brought out within it," he said.

This year's book, Isabel Wilkerson's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Warmth of Other Suns," describes "The Great Migration," when millions of African-Americans moved out of the rural South to Chicago and other urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest and West between World War I and the 1970s.

At 640 pages, "The Warmth of Other Suns" is the longest book ever picked for the "One Book, One Chicago" program.

For a list of events offered at local libraries during through March 2014, visit the "One Book, One Chicago" website.

"There will be opportunities to experience music that is part of the Great Migration," Bannon said. "We're actually working with StoryCorps, which will be in 13 locations in Chicago libraries to capture … people's own personal stories of how migration has shaped themselves personally, as well as their families."

Bannon will discuss the book and the program during this week's "At Issue" program, airing Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

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