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NewsNovember 28, 2003

Cape Girardeau Central High School principal Dr. Mike Cowan flinched when librarian Julia Jorgensen suggested "Tuesdays with Morrie" for the next United We Read program. In the book, Mitch Albom recounts his visits with his dying friend and mentor, Morrie Schwartz. The book was a best seller and was made into a TV movie starring Jack Lemmon...

Cape Girardeau Central High School principal Dr. Mike Cowan flinched when librarian Julia Jorgensen suggested "Tuesdays with Morrie" for the next United We Read program.

In the book, Mitch Albom recounts his visits with his dying friend and mentor, Morrie Schwartz. The book was a best seller and was made into a TV movie starring Jack Lemmon.

Cowan thinks the book is "emotionally moving," but his own brother, Kevin, had died just last summer. Cowan wasn't sure he was ready to talk about "Tuesdays with Morrie," but he wasn't going to let that get in the way of United We Read.

Now he's glad about the choice.

"Sometimes a book of this nature is going to be very therapeutic in helping you face the challenges of living," Cowan said.

The principal will lead at least one of the discussions in February when the school sponsors the third annual United We Read program in February.

So far, public readings have been scheduled at Centenary United Methodist Church, at the public library and at the Girl Scouts office. Any organization that wants to hold a reading should call Jorgensen at 335-8228.

The book is available in paperback, in large-print format and in an audio version.

Albom had lost touch with his university professor for 20 years and had to re-establish contact. That rediscovery will be a major part of the discussion.

"We don't want to dwell on the fact that Morrie dies," Jorgensen said. "The focus is more on reconnecting with somebody you haven't been in touch with for a long while."

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Anyone who would like to locate a lost friend can receive help from students beginning the second week in December. Jorgensen hopes those experiences will become part of the discussions in February.

Part of the plan is to have people write about people who have an impact on their lives and to compile those stories in a book.

Jorgensen originally wanted to read Elie Wiesel's Pulitzer Prize winning "Night," an autobiographical book about the Holocaust. She was dissuaded.

"Several people I admire very much said it was too heavy," she said.

Albom's book is far from lightweight.

Classes at the high school have been assigned the book. High school students will lead some of the discussions.

Jorgensen started "United We Read" three years ago with the reading of John Grisham's fictional "A Painted House." Public readings were held every day of the month that February. Last year the book was Rick Bragg's autobiographical "All Over but the Shoutin'."

Originally she thought she might be like Don Quixote tilting at windmills by trying to get people to read more. That isn't how United We Read has turned out.

"I like to think the community is a little more aware of reading because so many people talk about it," she said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182

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