Book club has been broadening horizons for 20 years

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Mary Kuhlman at the
Pemberville Library. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

PEMBERVILLE – It’s likely that the Portage River Readers have read enough pages over the last 20 years to
stretch the length of the river they’re named for.
This year, the book club is marking two decades of broadening its literary and cultural horizons.
"It gets to be a compulsion," said member Lois Wozniak. "You have to be there. It’s a big
part of your life – to share, to be able to read a book and get stumped on something and to have these
folks all read the same books."
Leading the group comes naturally to Mary Kuhlman, who directs the Portage River Readers. A 1951 graduate
of Bowling Green State University, she taught for 25 years in Toledo and Eastwood, teaching classes as
wide-ranging as algebra, English and even health.
"And I felt like a different person in a math class than I did in an English class," she said.

Kuhlman retired from teaching in 1985, and, while a member of the Pemberville Public Library Board, the
then-librarian, Jane Kohlenberg, asked if she’d be interested in starting a book club.
The rest is history.
The club meets eight months of the year – they take December off, as well as three months in the summer –
and read one book each month.
Kuhlman curates a list of possible options for the group to read, and they vote on the slate of books for
the year.
"I don’t always win," she said of when she sometimes tries to steer the group in a particular
literary direction. "And that’s all right." Notably, she said that science fiction hasn’t
really taken off with the members.
"But she is trying to broaden our perspectives," said member Marilyn Bowlus. "In this
small town of Pemberville, she’s trying to broaden our perspectives."
Bowlus was a student of Kuhlman’s when she taught in Toledo. She joined the group after moving to the
area.
"And that was neat. My old teacher. And she still is a teacher as leader of this book group, I want
you to know. She’s my old teacher, but she’s still teaching, in a very subtle way."
Indeed, Kuhlman takes into account three considerations when choosing the books she presents to the group
for approval:
• First, she looks for books "that will help us appreciate, preserve, and strengthen our
democracy."
• Second, "books that will enlarge compassion, so that we can truly feel the joys and sorrows of
more people."
• Third, "books that will help us develop a world view so that we will truly understand that all
countries must work together to preserve our planet and avoid conflicts with one another."
Using those guidelines, the Portage River Readers have covered literary ground as diverse as "The
Frontiersmen," by the late Bellefontaine-based author Allan Eckert, "Infidel" by Ayan
Hrisi Ali, "The Hundred Secret Senses" by Amy Tan, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua
Achebe and "The Garden of the Beasts" by Erik Larson.
With Russia and the crisis in Crimea in the news, the group will kick off the fall with
"Russka" by Edward Rutherford, a sweeping epic of Russian history that is 700 pages long and
covers 1,800 years. They’ve gotten the book early in order to have extra time to read the massive tome.

While there are around 15 club members, eight to 10 usually show up for meetings at any one time. They’ve
been able to get copies of their books from sources such as the NORWELD regional library consortium and
the Pemberville Public Library.
"Fortunately our wonderful librarian will get those for us through interlibrary loans. So we get
them both ways," said Kuhlman. "I wanted to be sure that nobody was left out because they
couldn’t afford to buy the books."
After reading, the members each month take turns making presentations to the group.
"We have different philosophies of presentation, too," said Wozniak. "What I like to
happen is that everybody just lets loose with what they thought of the book and what their problems
were."
The club has gone through a name change over the years.
"This started out as the Pemberville Library Book Club," Kuhlman recalled. However, she heard a
few years ago that one person listed it publicly as "Mary Kuhlman’s Book Club" and "I
thought ‘wait a minute, that’s not really fair.’ It takes more than one person for this book club to
exist. So many people have contributed to it in so many ways."
One of the members then came up with its current moniker.
The group is always open to new members, and there’s no limit to the number who can participate. It was
noted, however, that the group has hosted very few men over its two decades of existence.
"I don’t think we’d object" if a man came, said Bowlus.
With 20 years of leadership under her belt, Kuhlman says she has no plans to retire from the club.
"Groups do need a leader, and she’s been doing this for 20 years and that’s a huge plus,"
Bowlus said. "And having this opportunity in this small town, too" is important.

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