A City That Reads Together
There is something quietly ambitious about asking an entire city to read the same book at the same time. For the third consecutive year, Garland Public Libraries is doing exactly that with One Book, One Garland, a citywide reading initiative built around the idea that a shared story can spark conversations that would not otherwise happen — between neighbors, across library branches, and throughout a community that is easy to move through without ever truly stopping to connect.
This summer, that shared story is Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel.
What the Program Is, and Why It Has Stuck Around
One Book, One Garland is aimed at adult readers and carries a straightforward premise: one title, one community, one summer’s worth of reading, discussion, and discovery. The program does not ask participants to register, pay a fee, or commit to a schedule. The invitation is open. Pick up the book, read it at whatever pace fits your life, and show up to whatever events interest you.
The fact that the program is now in its third year says something real about how it has landed with Garland residents. Community reading initiatives are not uncommon in Texas cities, but sustaining them past a first or second run requires genuine participation. Libraries can plan events, but they cannot manufacture the kind of word-of-mouth enthusiasm that brings people back a second and third time. That One Book, One Garland has reached this milestone suggests the program has found its footing in the city’s cultural calendar.
This Year’s Selection: Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel
The choice of Dwelling as the 2026 selection gives the summer’s programming a clear thematic center. The title itself invites the kind of reflection that tends to make for rich group conversation — what it means to inhabit a place, to belong somewhere, to make a home in the fullest sense of that word. For a city like Garland, which has grown and changed considerably over the past few decades and continues to draw residents from across the country and around the world, those questions carry particular weight.
Kivel’s work has not yet become a household name on the national literary circuit, which is part of what makes a program like this worthwhile. Community reading initiatives have a history of introducing readers to books they would not have found on their own, and Dwelling appears to fit that role here.
A Series of Events Planned Throughout the Summer
The library system has organized a series of book-themed events to run alongside the reading period this summer. Specific dates and locations for individual events were not fully announced at the time of publication, so readers interested in the full schedule should check directly with Garland Public Libraries or visit the library’s page on the city website for updates as they are confirmed.
What the library has made clear is that the events are designed to complement the book rather than simply celebrate it — discussions, workshops, and programming that engage with the themes Kivel explores in Dwelling. That approach tends to work better than a single author appearance or a one-night event, because it gives readers at different points in the book multiple entry points into the conversation.
How to Get Involved
Getting started with One Book, One Garland requires nothing more than finding a copy of Dwelling. Garland Public Libraries operates multiple branches across the city, and library card holders can check the catalog to request the title. The Central Library is located at 625 Austin St., and branch locations are available through the library’s pages on the city website.
For residents who prefer to purchase their own copy, the book is available through standard retail channels. The program does not require participants to read through the library system — only to read.
Adults who have participated in previous years of One Book, One Garland will recognize the format. For those coming to it for the first time, the program is as low-barrier as a community event can be. There is no quiz at the end. The goal is conversation, and conversation tends to go better when people feel like they arrived voluntarily rather than because they felt obligated.
A Broader Summer of Library Programming
The timing of One Book, One Garland places it alongside a crowded summer schedule at Garland Public Libraries. The children’s side of the library system is running its own full slate of programs under the Club Curiosity banner, including science shows, STEAM labs, and animal encounters. The makerspace at the Central Library is offering introductory laser cutting classes for residents 13 and up. And an award-winning magician named Mike Williams is scheduled to perform at the Central Library as part of the summer reading series for younger audiences.
The adult program sits alongside all of that activity rather than competing with it. On a busy Saturday afternoon when the library is full of kids cracking geodes or watching a magic show, the adults in the building might be picking up their copy of Dwelling from the holds shelf on the way out the door.
That kind of layered programming — something substantive for every age group, happening in the same spaces at the same time — is what a well-used public library looks like in practice. Garland’s system appears to be living up to that standard this summer.
For more information on One Book, One Garland and the full summer events calendar, visit the Garland Public Libraries page on the city’s website.
