Stanley Gordon West, author of new publication Blind Your Ponies, will be visiting St. Peter this coming Tuesday, March 8. The author’s visit is part of the St. Peter Reads program, which  strives to bring members of the St. Peter and Gustavus community together through reading.

Since the program’s start in 2003, the St. Peter community has read a number of different books, sponsoring events and activities to coordinate with each. On March 8, as part of St. Peter Read’s eighth Annual WinterRead, Gordon West will visit the St. Peter Public Library for meet-and-greet and book signing from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.  and will be speaking at the Lind Interpretive Center in the Linnaeus Arboretum at 7:00 p.m.

Gordon West, a Minnesota native living in Shakopee, has gathered a large audience of devoted readers. He has made himself known by personally selling his novels from bookstore to bookstore. One of his earlier novels, Amos: To Ride a Dead Horse, was made into a made-for-TV movie for CBS starring Kirk Douglas. The book that will be the focus of the 2011 WinterRead, Blind Your Ponies, was originally a self-published book, as per West’s style. However, the book has sold over 40,000 copies and was formally published and re-released by Algonquin Books in January.

The book has received rave reviews from readers and publishers across the nation. Hillary Vonckx, of Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle, Wash., calls Blind Your Ponies the “feel good novel of the year.” She continued by saying that “this novel will keep you on the edge of your seat and bring a smile to your face for days.”

The story centers on the small town of Willow Creek, where everyone has a troubled past, broken dreams and is bravely looking toward a future of hope. According to the publisher’s description, “Author Stanley Gordon West has filled the town of Willow Creek with characters so vividly cast that they become real as relatives, and their stories–so full of humor and passion, loss and determination–illuminate a path into the human heart.”

St. Peter’s WinterRead follows the example of other Minnesota cities including Minneapolis, Duluth and Fergus Falls in the community reading phenomenon that began in 1998.

With the upcoming feature of the novel, which Publishers Weekly calls an “uplifting story of triumph and human decency,” the Unity in Community-St. Peter Reads program continues to thrive.