Carmel Valley residents – and other dog lovers – are invited to start 2024 curled up with the same book.

Starting Wednesday, Jan. 10 until late March, Carmel Valley residents are invited to pick up one of over 60 copies of Loving Edie: How a Dog Afraid of Everything Taught Me to Be Brave, and read along with the community as part of the One Book One Village project. This touching story about a fearful puppy growing up into a healthy adult dog is available at the Carmel Valley branch of Monterey County Free Libraries – no library card required.

The collective reading experience will culminate with a bunch of dog-related events – a dog book storytime, a dog parade, a meeting with the author, Carmel Valley-based Meredith May, and more – that kick off Saturday, March 23 and end Saturday, April 6.

May grew up in Carmel Valley. She remembers it without tourists and wineries and recalls little foot paths all over the village and long evenings with bonfires. After a successful career as a journalist in the Bay Area – 16 years at the San Francisco Chronicle; she was short-listed for The Pulitzer Prize – May returned to Carmel Valley to settle down.

She and her wife got Edie, an 8-week-old female golden labrador in late 2018, around the time when May was wrapping up her first book, a memoir titled The Honey Bus.

As opposed to other golden retrievers, Edie was everything but easy. “She was full of fears,” May says. “She wouldn’t even go around the block. It was a wild ride.” Almost five years later, Edie, now on Prozac, is thriving and goes out for puppy dates. “I’ve learned how to listen to her,” May says.

“What can be better than a book about a dog?” asks Maria Roden, speaking on behalf of the nonprofit Friends of the Carmel Valley Library. Roden would know – she used to co-own Olivia & Daisy Books in Carmel Valley Village. “It’s such a universal topic. The book is for everybody, starting at age 10.” You don’t have to be a Carmel Valley resident to participate, but please return Loving Edie after you’re done reading.

Friends of the Carmel Valley Library worked hard to organize the whole event, involving local businesses and a panel of experts: a vet, a dog trainer and an animal chiropractor. “Maybe we will make it an annual event,” Roden says. “Each year with a different book. We’ve got nothing to lose.”

ONE BOOK ONE VILLAGE begins Wednesday, Jan. 10. Special events run Saturday March 23 – Saturday, April 6. Visit focvl.org for details.