BOOK CLUB SEPT 17: Taking Manhattan

August 27, 2025
Book Club, Book Group

Join us at the Library for our September Book Club!

Title: Taking Manhattan by Russell Shorto*
Book Club Date: Wednesday, September 17
Time: 5:30 pm
Selected by: Sarah Malinowski

*Author Russell Shorto will give a book talk about this novel and others he has written at the Museum on Sunday, September 28.

The author of The Island at the Center of the World offers up a thrilling narrative of how New York―that brash, bold, archetypal city―came to be.

In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general.

Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery.

Book Club books are chosen by various members and. Our group generally meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month with a few exceptions. As we make our monthly choices, the library has or can get copies of all the books. You can also get them via LIBBY with your library card and on tape. Many are on Audible.

Please be sure to bring your calendars so that everybody can pick a month this year to choose a book that inspires them. As always, the library has copies of the books if needed. As we make our monthly choices, the library has or can get copies of all the books. You can also get them via LIBBY with your library card and on tape. Many are on Audible.

Best wishes,
Abby

How to become a Fishers Island Library Book Club member?
Contact Abby McCall or Ann Banks, or just come to a meeting, and you will be added to the contact list. Easy!