Next up in Purdue’s Big Read
Big Read takes a mystery route with ‘Aunty Lee’s Delights.’ Plus, it’s the final day for early voting ahead of Tuesday’s primary. And Tippecanoe Co.’s assessor takes call for appeals on the road today
Thanks to today’s sponsor, Fairfield Township, presenting its Family Resource Fair Saturday, May 18, at Junior Achievement at the YMCA, 3001 S. Creasy Lane.
NEXT UP IN PURDUE’S BIG READ: ‘AUNTY LEE’S DELIGHTS’
After tackling a modern translation of “Monkey King,” a 16th century Chinese epic by Wu Cheng’en, in 2023, the Purdue English Department’s annual community Big Read heads into a mystery based in Singapore.
The program last week unveiled the selection – “Aunty Lee’s Delights,” the first in a series of five “Aunty Lee” mystery novels by Ovidia Yu – at the West Lafayette Public Library.
“The text checked a lot of boxes on our list of what we were looking for in a book selection,” Derek Pacheco, an associate professor of English at Purdue and the Harriet M. Crews and Sandra K. Biggs Director of the Big Read, said.
“We knew we wanted to do something fun and accessible, and cozy mystery was a genre we hadn’t done before,” Pacheco said. “At the same time, we also wanted to provide readers with a diverse and engaging perspective, a chance to learn about and discuss another culture.”
The Big Read has been going since 2017, aimed at bringing people together for reading and discussion of timely, relevant works of literature. The books are free, funded through an endowment set up by donors Harriet Crews and Sandy Biggs, available at public libraries.
Programming will start in earnest in September, with title announcements in May to give classes and other readers time over the summer to come prepared to discuss in the fall. The Big Read has become a staple in some high school classes and for Wabash Area Lifetime Learning Association (WALLA).
“Aunty Lee’s Delights,” released in 2013, centers on Rosie Lee, a widow who operates a catering business while doing some amateur sleuthing on the side. (Good morning, Jessica Fletcher.) The plot start when the body of a woman washes up on the beach of Sentosa and Aunty Lee starts nosing around.
Past books in the Big Read included: “Monkey King: Journey to the West” in 2023; “Mexican Gothic,” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, in 2022; “Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel; “Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead; Emily Wilson’s translation of “The Odyssey;” and Naomi Novik’s “Spinning Silver.”
“I usually try to come up with a few book possibilities each year and the I run them by our local partners, asking them what they think,” Pacheco said. “‘Aunty Lee’ was the one that really caught their interest. I think it will be a great crossover read for people of all ages.”
For more information, reviews of “Aunty Lee’s Delights,” schedules and more, go to: www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/the-big-read
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PRIMARY DAY IS TUESDAY: A VOTER GUIDE: If you’re just getting up to speed on the May 7 primary – hey, that’s tomorrow – here’s a quick voter guide on where to vote, who will be on ballots, candidate Q&As and what’s at stake in contested races. Click the link below.
ASSESSOR’S CALL TO CHALLENGE PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS: Here’s a reminder that community meetings assembled by Tippecanoe County Assessor Eric Grossman start this week on his call for taxpayers to appeal their new property tax assessments, mailed out last week. The meetings come two months after Grossman sounded an alarm about changes in state law that would slice as much as 60% off the assessments of large apartment properties in Greater Lafayette, potentially leaving residential and other business property owners with larger percentages of the overall assessment and, ultimately, a larger percentage the overall property tax. The idea, Grossman said, is to encourage enough people to challenge their assessments via constitutional appeals based on inequity to focus attention on what he contends is a system that is drifting further from market value basis with too many specialized deductions baked into Indiana tax codes – “disparate enough to stretch anyone’s concept of uniformity and equality.” The details get into the assessing weeds, but to read more, click the link below.
The meetings start tonight:
6 p.m. Monday, May 6, Harrison High School auditorium, 5701 N. County Road 50 West, West Lafayette
6 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, McCutcheon High School auditorium, 4951 U.S. 231 South, Lafayette
6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, West Lafayette Intermediate School, 1838 N. Salisbury St.
For more information, go to: www.tippecanoe.in.gov/1324/2024-Appeal-Info
Thanks, again, to sponsor Fairfield Township, presenting its Family Resource Fair Saturday, May 18, at Junior Achievement at the YMCA, 3001 S. Creasy Lane. For more details, check fairfieldtownship79.in.gov.
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Our Assessor has written a screenplay and called it a FAQ. I'm imagining William Shatner in the role of Q.