2026 Community Reads,

Community Reads 2026

About Community Reads

James by Percival Everett

Community Reads is our Lexington-wide book group. Connect with your friends and neighbors by reading the selected book, joining in a book discussion or related program, and attending a book talk with this year's featured author.

Our 2026 Community Reads selection is James, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Percival Everett. A reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James is harrowing, darkly humorous tale told from enslaved Jim’s perspective.

Do you host your own monthly book club or discussion group? Visit any Lexington Public Library location to check out a book club kit, while supplies last. Each book club kit includes 15 copies of Happiness Falls and 15 discussion guides.

In Conversation with Percival Everett

Percival Everett

Join us for an evening with Percival Everett, National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of James.

A Distinguished Professor of English at USC and the author of more than thirty books, Everett is one of the most inventive and incisive writers in contemporary literature. His genre-bending work challenges readers to reconsider what it truly means to be human and demonstrates the power of literature to change the way we see the world.

University of Kentucky Libraries and the Lexington Public Library are thrilled to bring this American literary icon to Lexington.

When and where: Tuesday, October 13 at 6:00pm at the Kentucky Theatre

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are required.

Register Here

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Place a Hold on Libby

Listen to or read James on your e-reader by checking out a copy on Libby. Download Libby here.  

Place a Hold through our Catalog

Log into your account using your library card number and PIN here to place a hold for pick up at any LPL location.