Here at Live Arts, we’re pretty big nerds. Or at least the blogfolk are. So we got really excited about a project designed by our Community Outreach All-Stars: a Festival reading list! Yippee! This compilation, hopefully to hit a shelf near you soon, includes a) books that upcoming Live Arts shows are directly based on, b) books that influenced the shows’ creation in some way, and c) books that the artists just can’t put down. We’ll post some of our favorite artist suggestions here on the blog so you can get crackin’ on your arts-tastic summer reading spree.

Today’s literary pick: Sanctuary at the Live Arts Festival this fall.

The novel is an Italian murder mystery novel set in the year 1327 that, as the good old Merriam-Webster Anthology of Literature tells me, “stands on its own as a murder mystery . . . [but is] more accurately seen as a questioning of truth from theological, philosophical, scholarly, and historical perspectives.”

Ok, not a beach read.

But before you see Sanctuary, at least check out this book’s postscript. Brian says he was “as (if not more) inspired by the postscript then I was by the book.”

And if you’re someone who Sparknoted your way through literature class, there’s still hope–even Brian wasn’t really feeling this text the first time around. “I am glad I waited until recently to read it and not in college when I was supposed to,” he says. “I wouldn’t have been nearly as ready to play.”

Go grab a copy, it’s your turn to play.

–Mara Miller

Sanctuary. Brian Sanders’ JUNK. Theater East at The Hub, 626 North 5th Street. 9/3 – 9/18.