Resident Plans Launch of New Riverdale Park Book Club

For nearly six months, Liz Bolin searched for a nearby book club to join where she could read and discuss books that she found interesting – books from various genres. But nearly all of the clubs she found had specific angles.

"I wanted to find a club that didn't seem to have a particular leaning," she said. "I found one that was very political, and some had a focus on ethnic writers. I'm not opposed to reading those types of books, but I didn't want to be limited."

In June, at the suggestion and with the support of her neighbor, she decided to start what she believes is Riverdale Park's only book club.

"There are none in the area as far as I know. I was surprised that there wasn't a book club nearby because of all the people in the area with higher education [degrees]," she said.

The club's first meeting will be held 7 p.m.on  Aug. 28 at town hall, where members will discuss "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" by Aimee Bender.

"We chose the book because it's a mainstream fiction book, and we thought that would appeal to a broad range of readers," Bolin said.

Bolin, who said this is her first book club, plans for the group to meet monthly and intends to bring other genres, such as biography and historical fiction, into the mix.

"I hope that everyone comes into the meetings with a recommendation so that we can narrow [the titles] down and take a vote," she said.

Bolin said she did some research online about how to run a successful book club – using sites such as Oprah's Book Club – to help her establish some guidelines but hopes that the group will govern itself.

"I'm going to open [things] up to the group about where to move if they want to have meetings somewhere else … and about what night they want to meet," she said.

For updates, prospective book club members can follow the group on its Facebook page.

For now, Bolin is just looking forward to her first meeting. 

"But I don't expect a huge turnout. I know that these things take time," she said.