(360) 943-5001 - Fax (360) 586-6838 - 415 Tumwater Blvd. SW - Tumwater, WA 98501
Reference & Information line: 704-INFO (360-704-4636) in Olympia area or toll-free 1-800-562-6022.
TRL Web site: http://www.trlib.org

Media Contacts: Jim Lynch is available to reporters for interviewing at (360) 789-0948;

Leanne Ingle, Communications Specialist, 360-704-4508, or outside Olympia calling area: (877) 284-6237, ext. 2508; e-mail: lingle@trlib.org

Library announces "Timberland Reads Together Author Series Featuring Jim Lynch"

A new opportunity for the public to join in a districtwide Timberland Regional Library community reading program begins now with "Timberland Reads Together 2006 Author Series Featuring Jim Lynch". The program invites all adults and older teens to read the internationally acclaimed novel, "The Highest Tide", by South Sound’s Jim Lynch and to hear the author. First published in September, the book is now out in paperback. A readers’ guide will be in all Timberland libraries the second week of May. Lynch will read from and discuss his novel at free presentations in early June in all five counties served by the library system. He will also answer questions and sign books. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the events. Timberland Reads Together celebrates writers for their contributions to broadening our worlds. "Besides promoting a passion for reading and bringing people together around books, Timberland wants to support its own community of writers—and what a great author to start with!" said TRL Director, Jodi Reng.

Monday, June 5, 7 p.m.
Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington Street SE, Olympia

Tuesday, June 6, 7 p.m.
Driftwood Playhouse, 120 East 3rd Street, Aberdeen

Thursday, June 8, 7 p.m.
Shelton Civic Center, 525 West Cota Street, Shelton

Tuesday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Centralia Timberland Library, 110 S. Silver Street, Centralia

Thursday, June 15, 7 p.m.
Ocean Park Timberland Library, 1308 256^th Place, Ocean Park

Jim Lynch grew up on a lake near Seattle, exploring Puget Sound as a child during weekend trips aboard his parents’ sailboat. After graduating from the University of Washington in 1985, he worked as a newspaper journalist in cities as far away as the tiny fishing village of Petersburg, Alaska and Washington, D.C. Lynch moved to Olympia eight years ago to work as the Portland Oregonian’s Puget Sound reporter. Meanwhile, he was also publishing short fiction in literary magazines. The Highest Tide is his first novel.

"I'd always hoped to write a novel with Puget Sound as a backdrop, but with ‘The Highest Tide’, I could actually plunk the reader in the same vivacious waters and mudflats that I enjoy with my wife, Denise, and daughter, Grace, on the outskirts of Olympia," said Lynch.

Lynch’s study overlooks the tidal flats of South Puget Sound with its dramatic 20-foot tidal shifts that reveal an ever-changing display of marine life. It’s a place where, as the book’s main character Miles O’Malley says, "the Pacific Ocean comes to relax."

From Lynch’s imagination, as well as intensive research and direct observation, emerged "The Highest Tide".

Gifted 13-year-old Miles O’Malley, during one of his nightly explorations of the tide flats near his home, is the only witness to the final moments of an elusive sea creature unknown to the area and never before seen alive by human eyes. The sudden celebrity that ensues is an embarrassment and a distraction from all that really matters to Miles—marine life and Rachel Carson; the decline of his elderly friend, the mystic Florence; the changes in his and his parents’ lives; and troubled Angie Stegner, once his babysitter, now a major obsession. The tide flat itself is a living, breathing, changing character and Miles is the perfect guide to its wonders.

The Highest Tide was published simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury. Critically acclaimed, it has also been published in more than 20 countries and translated into six languages so far. Lynch recently sold the movie rights to Fisher Stevens, the actor/director/producer who first read the novel while preparing to perform it for its audiobook version.

At the five free June presentations, Lynch will share what his book is about for him, but he says, "I encourage people to take whatever they want from a novel without the author or some lit prof telling them what they should pull from it."

The paperback edition is now in bookstores. Timberland Regional Library has over 100 copies of the hardcopy edition and 20 copies of the unabridged CD edition to lend.

The previous Timberland Reads Together book was "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. Well over 2,000 people read the book last September and October and 1,500 people participated in the related events. The title still does a brisk circulation in both print and audio versions.

"By promoting this book and program we enabled community members to come together, in many cases meet people they didn't know, and look at their own communities in the context of the issues raised in the book. Rather than being a solitary pastime, reading was promoted as a powerful social activity that builds connections," said Reng.

The Timberland Reads Together page on the library’s Web site – www.trlib.org - includes more information about the book and author. It also includes book discussion questions and suggestions for related reading and viewing.

Timberland Regional Library serves the information, reading and lifelong learning needs of the Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston county public at 27 community libraries and 5 cooperative library centers. The library system is funded by local property taxes. For information on any subject, the public can telephone Timberland’s Central Reference Service librarians at 704-INFO (704-4636) in the Olympia area or 1-800-562-6022, toll-free, from all other areas. Or they can "Ask a Librarian" online at www.trlib.org. Anyone needing special accommodations to participate in a library’s program may contact the library a week in advance.

Revised 02/23/07