Reception 
Unity Theatre
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
5:30pm

The culmination of the 8th Annual Washington County Read, will be a free reception, open to the public, at Unity Theatre with refreshments, a dramatic reading, presented by Unity Theatre, and an interactive discussion with Honorary Chairs, Rev. Randy Wells, Executive Director of Faith Mission and Dr. Walter Jackson, Superintendent of Brenham ISD. In addition, various Washington County community members will have their personal stories related through a multi-media display.

Free to the public. No registration required.
8th Annual Washington County Read
City of Refuge
by Tom Piazza

Find a copy at the Brenham Book Nook or HEB. It can also be ordered online as an e-book, hardback, or paperback. And don't forget the Nancy Carol Roberts Memorial Library as a resource.
In his novel, City of Refuge, which won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, award- winning author and longtime New Orleans resident, Tom Piazza, tells this story as if the reader were experiencing the harrowing events before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. This page turner is a “must read” for all who followed, in utter disbelief, the life-altering events that took place during the hours, days before, and the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina. The story unfolds in the deep mid-August heat of the oppressive New Orleans summer of 2005, weather reports gave warnings about a huge hurricane swirling in the Gulf of Mexico. As national newscasts and meteorological reports show Hurricane Katrina taking aim at their beloved city, two families -- one black, one white -- must make decisions that significantly shape the rest of their lives.

“So detailed, so rich with New Orleans atmosphere, and so believable… it’s like living through the storm again. It’s a book that finally explains what happened and why people in New Orleans did what they did” says the Baton Rouge Advocate.

"Whatever Tom Piazza writes is touched with magic. As a former longtime New Orleans resident, I was astounded at how brilliantly Piazza captured (in vivid detail) the nuances of his City of Refuge. Although this is ostensibly a Katrina novel, Piazza transcends genre or pigeonholing in what is one of the most deeply humanistic portraits of people coping with cataclysm since The Grapes of Wrath."
Douglas Brinkley (borrowed from Tom Piazza’s website)
Help spread the message by making a READ tax deductible donation:
​Previous Community Reads:

2016: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza
2015: My Boys and Girls Are in There by Ron Rozelle
​2014: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni
2013: The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber
2012: The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton
2011: One Ranger: A Memoir by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson
2010: Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent
2009: Final Salute by Jim Sheeler