May 2024 Spotlight: Readers by the River
Our March 2024 Spotlight is celebrating 15+ years together!
Readers By The River started as a group of Friends of the Library in 2001. We currently have 11 members, two of which are Charter members. We meet monthly in our Municipal Building with a view of the Oswego River on most days. Our members range in age from women in their 60’s to one member who is 91. While most members are native Fultonians we have transplants from NYC and various other places.
We try to include a variety of genres in our monthly selections. We enjoy Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, History, Humor, Biography and Memoirs. We also read a Classic each year such as To Kill a Mockingbird or Gone With the Wind. We also try to read local authors and invite them to discuss their books at one of our meetings. In the past few years we have been visited by Joyce Cook, author of Elmira Spencer, a memoir of a local Civil War nurse. John Mercer came to discuss his YA book, They Call Me Zombie.
Each December we meet at a local restaurant for lunch to discuss which books we want to recommend for the following year. Our one hard and fast rule is that you may not recommend a book that you have not read. This rules out a lot of duds! The person recommending the book will lead the discussion of that book.
Some books we have enjoyed are:
Team of Rival by Doris Keerns Goodwin
Sisters In Spirit by Sally Roesch Wagner
Nomad Land by Jessica Bruder
West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Books we are excited to read this year are:
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
The Widow Maker by Susan Gateley (local author)
The Winthrop Agreement by Alice S Simpson
All of our Spotlight Groups receive a box of books for discussion! Algonquin Books will be sending the members of Readers By the River copies of Their Divine Fires by Wendy Chen, Days of Wonder by Caroline Leavitt, and Silver Alert by Lee Smith.
To enter to become an RGC Spotlight group, email a picture and description of your group to info@readinggroupchoices.com.