Are you looking for your next great book club selection?
Are you a book club host in charge of discussion questions?
Check out this Go as a River book club kit!

I have noticed that visitors frequently arrive at this website as a result of searching for book club discussion questions. Occasionally, I will address certain discussion possibilities for book clubs in my reviews, but I have not created specific posts that book club members could use as a resource. Thus, a new feature is born: Book Club Kits. I’m grateful to Jo @ JoLindsdell for the inspiration and encouragement and for modeling what this post might look like. (Jo has several book club kits to check out!)
Book Club Kits will be posted in the feed as I create them but will live under a Menu Tab. This is the SECOND but not the last! I envision maybe four per year (one per quarter) and each one will be one of my five-star reads.

Let me know what you think! Does a Book Club Kit interest you?

I chose West With Giraffes as my first book for this new blog feature because it’s page-turning, engaging, unputdownable, and highly discussable with a unique premise.

Today, I’m featuring Go as a River as my second book club kit. Enjoy!

Book Club Kit: Go as a River by Shelley Read

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
**This post contains SPOILERS**

Book Information:

Genre: Historical Fiction (begins in 1948)
Categories: Complicated Family Drama, Coming-Of-Age, Adoption, Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mid-Century Rural Colorado
Publisher: ‎ Spiegel & Grau
Publication Date: February 28, 2023
ISBN: 1954118236 ISBN-13 : 9781954118232
ASIN : 1B0B71C17R4
Number of Pages: 321
Purchase Link
Content Consideration (TW): relinquishing a baby, emotional abuse, neglect, survival, adoption
My Reading Experience: Although heavily character-driven (literary fiction), I was captivated from page one, and I found the reading experience compelling, memorable, and thought-provoking.,
Link to my 5 Star Review

My Summary of Go as a River

Victoria Nash’s family grows famous Nash peaches on their Colorado farm and orchard. One day, seventeen-year-old Victoria meets a young stranger that will change her life. This is a story of impossible choices, desperation, prejudice, sacrifice, heartache, resilience, and survival.

Historical Notes:

The 2018 newspaper article from the Denver Post about the event that flooded the town of Iola, Colorado.

About the Author, Shelley Read

Shelley Read is a fifth-generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications.

Author’s website: https://www.shelleyread.com/

Author Interview

Author Interview Here
Shelley Read on the Writers on Writing Podcast (on the craft of writing this novel)

Reviews:

If you have a blog review of Go as a River (my review), drop it in the comments and I’ll include it here.
Carla @ Carla Loves to Read
Bonnie Reads and Writes
Kirkus Starred Review

Book Flights/Companion Reads:

Do you love reading books about rivers and wilderness, you might enjoy:
Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny (nonfiction, wilderness and rivers, the story of two female scientists who defied gender roles to ride a wild river and map the botany of the Grand Canyon); and The River by Peter Heller (wilderness survival, river adventures, suspense, and friendship). Some have also compared the survival aspects of Go as a River to Where the Crawdads Sing by Celia Owens.

Book Club Discussion Questions:

1.

In what ways do you feel Wil is important in the story?

2.

Victoria is “stuck” in her life as the “woman of the house” and an orchard worker in the family business. Have you ever felt stuck? Have you ever used silence as a weapon or a form of defense? If you’ve felt stuck, what actions did you take? How did you escape or change the situation?

3.

The presence of water in a story is usually symbolic. How do you think the river is symbolic in here? Do you notice other symbolism in the story?

4.

Of the many themes, explain a strong connection you have with one.

5.

Which of Victoria’s strengths do you most admire? What character traits do you share with Victoria?

6.

How often and in what ways do you think a woman’s identity is chosen for her? Who or what might shape a woman’s identity? Family? Culture? Financial Resources? Life Circumstances?

7.

Farmers and others in the valley are displaced by the dam project. In what other ways, is the theme of displacement evident in the story?

8.

Victoria finds her escape in the mountains. How safe or comfortable do you feel in the wilderness? Do you feel that this plan of Victoria’s is wise? What other options might she have had? What would you have done in her circumstances? While hiking or camping, have you been faced with a survival experience?

9.

What do you think of Victoria’s desperate plan to ensure the survival and safety of her baby?

10.

What do Wil and Ruby Alice have in common? In what way is Ruby Alice important in the story?

11.

In what ways do you think the creation of Wil’s character adds another layer of depth to the story? Why does the author write him with this specific cultural identity? In what ways are his heritage and cultural experiences important to the story? What opinion do you think the author has about indigenous people and do you have evidence to support your conclusion?

12.

The author of Go as a River establishes a strong sense of place through vivid descriptive and sensory details. Which part of Victoria’s environment did you experience most vividly in your imagination? Could you smell the ripe peaches? Did you feel the power and/or peacefulness of the river? Did the isolation of the mountain cabin cause anxiety?

13.

Have you experienced the mountains and rivers of Colorado? What wilderness experiences do you have?

14.

Did you know that Colorado grew peaches?! I wonder if you can taste the difference between a Colorado peach and a Georgia peach? I volunteer for a taste test!

15.

What do you appreciate about Zelda’s character? Does the theme of “women supporting women” resonate with you? How does Zelda’s support and encouragement make a difference for Victoria? Have you experienced support from women that has encouraged you or changed your life?

16.

One of the ways the theme of grief is explored in this story is through leaving and then revisiting your roots. Do you still live where you grew up? If you’ve moved away, how often do you visit your roots? Can you identify one specific and special place that defines roots for you?

17.

Adoption is addressed in this poignant story. If you are adopted, how does that affect the conversation? Do you have thoughts about how the adoption storyline was portrayed?

18.

What do you think of the title? How do you think it fits the themes of the story? In what way is a peach used as a symbol or metaphor in this coming-of-age story?

19.

What are your thoughts about the ending? Were you satisfied? Did you find it hopeful? Do you wish it had been more fully developed or was it just right? What, if anything, would you change about the ending? Were there any loose ends you wish had been tied up? Would you enjoy a sequel or follow-up story? Did you wish for an epilogue?

20.

If you were to recommend Go as a River to a friend, what superlative would you use to describe the book or your reading experience?

Quotes:

“The landscapes of our youth create us, and we carry them within us, storied by all they gave and stole, in who we become.”

“Love is a private matter, to be nurtured, and even mourned, between two beings alone. It belongs to them and no one else, like a secret treasure, like a private poem.”

“He rarely looked to the future, and to the past even less, but gathered up the current moment in both hands to admire its particulars, with no apology and no sense it should be otherwise.”

“He would teach me how true a life emptied of all but its essentials could feel and that, when you got down to it, not much mattered outside the determination to go on living.”

“Try as we might to convince ourselves otherwise, the moments of our becoming cannot be carefully plucked like the ripest and most satisfying peach from the bough. In the endless stumble toward ourselves, we harvest the crop we are given.”

“Our peach orchard, the one last beautiful thing.”

“I learned from a young age the tenacity of ruin.”

“I, like women throughout the ages, knew the value of employing silence as a guard dog to her truth.”

“By showing on the surface only a small fraction of her interior, a woman gave men less to plunder.

“God will take a life, God will give a life, and God will make a life unrecognizable. God won’t warn you what’s coming next.”

“A girl of seventeen can be foolish, especially one who knows nothing of love’s extraordinary power until it overtakes her like a flash flood.”

“I’ll go as a river,” said Wil. “My grandfather always told me that it’s the only way.”

” Just as a single rainstorm can erode the banks and change the course of a river, so can a single circumstance of a girl’s life erase who she was before.”

“There is a kind of sadness that transcends sadness, that runs like hot syrup into every crevice of your being, beginning in the heart then oozing into your very cells and bloodstream, so that nothing–not earth or sky or even your own palm–ever looks the same. This is the sadness that changes everything.”

“I figured that if my trees could survive, uprooted and against the odds, then, damn all bad fortune, so too could I.”

“That length of the great river told my story. I felt equal parts love and anguish for its winding path, and awe that it had followed me here.”

“Each day, I was building a life of my choosing, and it was a good life. I knew what was missing, but I was also appreciative of what was there.”

“Strength, I had learned, was like this littered forest floor, built of small triumphs and infinite blunders, sunny hours followed by sudden storms that tore it all down. We are one and all alike if for no other reason than the excruciating and beautiful way we grow piece by unpredictable piece, falling, pushing from the debris, rising again, and hoping for the best.”

“Flowing forward against obstacle was not my whole story. For, like the river, I had also gathered along the way all the tiny pieces connecting me to everything else, and doing this had delivered me here, with two fists of forest soil in my palms and a heart still learning to be unafraid of itself.”

“I wondered at the sense of it all–this journey I have called my life, so like this drowned river that keeps being a river even as it is forced to be a lake, moving forward against obstacle and dam, continuing to flow with all it has gathered because it knows no other way.”

“My son walked toward me, as I walked toward him, each trusting that the earth would hold us as we made our way along the pebbled shore.”

A Themed Book Club Party

(Etsy also has an amazing collection of ideas for peach-themed decorations and snacks for any party.)

Peach shaped plates!

More peach-themed party goods.

Themed Snacks

Here’s a peach cookie cutter!

Easy Fresh Peach Pie:

(If you do a search for peach desserts on Pinterest, you will find a multitude of delicious recipes! Do you have a favorite peach recipe?)

(my personal recipe)
one baked pie crust
sliced (and peeled) fresh, ripe peaches to generously fill a (baked) pie crust
Glaze:
combine and cook until
clear:
1 C water
1 C sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 heaping Tablespoons of corn starch
add:
3 Tablespoons of dry peach jello and stir
pour over peaches (I let it cool a bit)
Refrigerate
Enjoy!
(you can use the same glaze for fresh strawberry pie by substituting peach jello for strawberry jello)
Sorry I don’t have a picture!

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My book reviews and Book Club Kits are FREE!
Sharing my posts and reviews is a wonderful way to support my blog. Donations help offset the costs. Thanks in advance!

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QOTD:

Have you read Go as a River or would you consider it for your book club?
Do you find this book club kit helpful?
Let me know if you end up using it for your book club and how it goes.

ICYMI: How to start a book club.

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Happy Reading Book Buddies!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

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I purchase or borrow from the library all books I review unless explicitly stated that the book is free (arc).

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