What Is “Everyone's Reading”?
Everyone's Reading is a community-wide reading program sponsored by Metro Detroit public libraries in Oakland and Wayne counties.
Now in its ninth year, Everyone's Reading promotes community dialogue through the shared experience of reading and discussing the same book. Additional programming, related to issues and topics in the selected book, is offered to enhance the reading experience.
This year's Everyone's Reading selection is Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow.
Why Read Presumed Innocent?
With the publication of Presumed Innocent in 1987, Scott Turow ushered in the age of the legal thriller. Despite many other skilled writers who followed—including John Grisham, Richard North Patterson, Lisa Scottoline and John Lescroart—Turows work remains unique: critically acclaimed psychological studies that appeal to a wide audience. Character rather than courtroom pyrotechnics dominates his elegantly written novels, which also raise important questions of morality, truth and justice. After earning his undergraduate degree, he graduated from the Creative Writing Center at Stanford and then taught there for several years. He graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 1978. Turow's credentials are unique among his peers.
How to Get Involved
- Check out Presumed Innocent from a participating library.
- Discuss the book and participate in the various programs.
- Use the Reader's Guide to lead your own book discussion group.
- Attend one of the special Everyones Reading events.
- Hear Scott Turow at one of the author appearances.
A Word from the Author
“I want to thank everybody who's participating in the 2010 Everyone's Reading event. Presumed Innocent was the first novel I published (although hardly the first one I wrote). Its success shocked me and permanently altered my life. But the book arose from much of the turmoil I felt as a young lawyer, trying to make sense of a life so divided by my loyalty to my young family and a prosecutors consuming duty to do right. I have been living with the novel again for much of the last five years, since I have just finished a sequel, Innocent, about Rusty Sabich twenty-one years later. I imagine I'll talk a bit about the new book and the old one when I get to Michigan.”—Scott Turow.
