One Book, One College
One Book, One College is a college- and community-wide reading program with the goal of fostering a community that encourages reading for pleasure, critical thinking, global awareness, and multicultural understanding.
One Book, One College is a college- and community-wide reading program with the goal of fostering a community that encourages reading for pleasure, critical thinking, global awareness, and multicultural understanding.
Each year the One Book, One College (OBOC) committee chooses one special book to be read by students, faculty, staff, and the community at large. Workshops, discussions, lectures, and/or other related activities are organized around the selected book throughout the Fall and Spring semesters. Faculty are encouraged to incorporate the “One Book” into their classes across the curriculum.
The program’s highlight is the much-anticipated annual author visit to RCSJ’s Cumberland campus. OBOC invites community members to read its selection and welcomes them to attend the annual author visit and book signing on a first-come, first-served basis.
2026–2027 One Book: Go as a River by Shelley Read
Go as a River grips readers from its first few pages and resonates long after its last. The internationally best-selling novel is full of contrasts: beauty in the face of ugliness, gentleness juxtaposed with brutality, help and hinderance found in family, nature’s resilience in the face of peril, hearts wide open and bigoted, and hope amidst despair.
Historical, environmental, and coming-of-age fiction, Go as a River has been translated into 34 languages and is in development for film.
A former award-winning senior lecturer at Western Colorado University, Shelley Read is a mom, a mountaineer, a world traveler, a fifth-generation Coloradan, and an award-winning author.
Meet the Author!
An Evening with Shelley Read is sponsored by the Cumberland County Educational Foundation and RCSJ’s One Book, One College.
An Evening with Shelley Read, Live and In-Person
Wed., October 14, 2026, at 7 p.m.
Guarancini Fine & Performing Arts Center, Cumberland campus
The event is free and open to RCSJ faculty, students, staff, and the community at large.
Go as a River is available from RCSJ’s Barnes & Noble Bookstores and other major booksellers.
- Josh Austin, Assistant Professor of English, Cumberland
- Danielle Carroll, RCSJ Board of Trustees Member
- Judy Cirucci, Co-Chair and Assistant Professor II, English, Cumberland
- Dr. Anya Cronin, Professor of English, Gloucester
- Toni DiTomo, Professor/Coordinator Developmental English, Cumberland
- Jan Feldman, Community Liaison
- Yolanda Garcia Balicki, Esq., RCSJ Board of Trustees Member
- Kelly Hayden, Librarian, Cumberland
- Maria LeBlanc, Co-Chair and Executive Director, Cumberland Campus Educational Foundation
- Susan Nardelli, Special Assistant to the President-Institutional Advancement
- Meredith Vicente, Director of Special Services, Cumberland
- 2025-2026 The Essay by Robin Yocum
- 2024-2025 The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton
- 2023-2024 Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- 2022-2023 The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
- 2021-2022 The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
- 2020-2021 Maid by Stephanie Land
- 2019-2020 Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
- 2018-2019 The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff
- 2017-2018 The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
- 2016-2017 Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston
- 2015-2016 The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
- 2014-2015 Until Tuesday by Luis Carlos Montalvan
- 2013-2014 A Mighty Long Way by Carlotta Walls Lanier
- 2012-2013 Faithless by Joyce Carol Oates
- 2011-2012 Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario
- 2010-2011 The Soloist by Steve Lopez
- 2009-2010 Strong Medicine Speaks by Amy Hill Hearth
- 2008-2009 The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
- 2007-2008 Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell
- 2006-2007 Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
- 2005-2006 My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
- 2004-2005 The Color of Water by James McBride
Instructors who plan to incorporate the book into their classrooms may request an instructor copy and a discussion guide/resource packet by emailing Judy at [email protected]. Instructor copies are limited and will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.
To nominate a work of fiction or a memoir for the One Book, One College committee's consideration, please email Judy at [email protected].
For assistance please contact:
One Book, One College
Judy Cirucci, OBOC Committee Chair
856-200-4603
[email protected]