Renee's Reading Club, with 57K members, is an online haven for book lovers  

Renee Weingarten is a part-time librarian at Peninsula Public Library in Lawrence. But when it comes to recommending books, her reach extends far beyond the southwestern Nassau community: Thanks to Facebook, she has an audience of nearly 60,000 around the world.

Weingarten, 66, of Atlantic Beach, is the founder of the Facebook group Renee’s Reading Club. It started as a forum for her to share book recommendations and has since grown into a global community of readers — mostly women — who post their own book reviews, seek advice on what they should read next and share memes (“Books and chocolate make life bearable,” for example).

The group has become so popular that Weingarten regularly hosts Facebook Live events with authors — she’s booked guests through April — and has been publicly thanked by numerous writers for her support.

“I’ve been called many things, such as ‘Facebook famous’ and a literacy leader . . . I never imagined the impact I would have on people’s lives,” she said.

A LIBRARIAN’S ROOTS

Weingarten said she has loved books and libraries most of her life. As a young girl growing up in Hewlett, she read many of the popular books of the time, by authors such as Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume. The Nancy Drew mysteries were another favorite.

“Two other books that still stand out are ‘Harriet the Spy’ by Louise Fitzhugh and ‘All-of-a-Kind Family’ by Sidney Taylor (about five Jewish girls growing up on the Lower East Side). As I look back, the books by Taylor were my first introduction to historical fiction, which is one of my favorite genres today,” Weingarten said.

Later, she would gravitate to “A Stone for Danny Fisher,” a novel by Harold Robbins about a Jewish family during the Great Depression, as well as the fiction of Sidney Sheldon, she said.

In the sixth grade, Weingarten said she was on the “library squad” at Franklin Elementary School in Hewlett, which later became the Franklin Early Childhood Center. She would go on to work there as a librarian for more than 25 years. “Who knew that my ‘library squad’ days would become my career and then lead to creation of Renee’s Reading Club?” she said.

Weingarten said she reads about 80 books annually, alternating between heavier and lighter reads. Her favorite authors are Lynda Cohen Loigman, Joyce Maynard, William Kent Krueger, Brenda Janowitz, Alyson Richman, Rochelle B. Weinstein and Lisa Barr. She also enjoys what she calls “quick page turners,” like the psychological thrillers written by Freida McFadden.

Weingarten said she launched Renee’s Reading Club in July 2017, after fellow members of the Sunny Atlantic Beach Club and others would ask for recommendations.

“People would go to her cabana and ask her what to read. She would tell them,” said Janowitz, who is friends with Weingarten. “Then she started doing it on Facebook. It was organic.”

Weingarten said she chose Facebook because her friends and other people her age use the site. The group grew rapidly during the pandemic.

“It was gradual growth in the beginning, and then it skyrocketed,” she said. “So many people told me I got them through COVID. They didn’t know what to read and everybody was stuck inside.”

MEMBERS FROM 30 COUNTRIES

As of early November 2024, the group had more than 57,000 members hailing from every state and more than 30 countries, including Israel, France, Italy, Germany and Australia, as well as Brazil, South Africa, Thailand and Hong Kong. The group, which focuses primarily on fiction, is very active, with multiple posts daily.

“What she’s built is quite amazing . . . She took her love of books and created a beautiful online community for other book lovers,” said Janowitz, who lives in Muttontown.

Alyce Goodstein, an attorney who lives in Rockville Centre and is a club member, remembers meeting Weingarten in 2019 at an author event at the Rockville Centre Public Library.

“I remember feeling like I met a celebrity. I became so familiar with her through the group,” said Goodstein, 52, who recently read “Tell Me Everything,” by Elizabeth Strout. “So many friendships have evolved from meeting through her group. She’s good about keeping it as a place of positivity and the love of books.”

FACEBOOK LIVE

In 2020, Weingarten said she started putting on Facebook Live events with authors. Janowitz was her first guest.

Some events have garnered more than 2,000 views, including those with author Lisa Scottoline, who writes legal thrillers and historical fiction, as well as Alyson Richman, the bestselling author of “The Lost Wife.”

Weingarten said she often receives advance copies of books, in the hopes that she will post about them in the Facebook group. But, she said, “I only share books that I’ve enjoyed and that I believe others would, too.”

Novelists like Loigman have cited her in the acknowledgments of their books. Matthew Daub, author of “Leaving Eastern Parkway,” and Maynard have also thanked her for her support.

“Your group, and you, have been an integral reason for the success of ‘The Bird Hotel,’ ” Maynard has said, referring to her 2023 novel about a young American artist who restores and runs a hotel in a Central American village.

Weingarten said she is sometimes singled out at author events, as Barr did at a signing at the Sid Jacobson JCC in Roslyn recently.

“She said she wanted to say hello to Renee Weingarten,” she said of the event with 250 people. “I got a shout out at this book luncheon, which was pretty cool.”

Janowitz said the group partnered with her on the launch of one of her books, attracting dozens of members. “We had a great event,” she said. “It was fun to meet the people you were talking with online.”

Although she has no way to measure the exact effect her group has had on book sales, Weingarten said, “There is a definite impact.”

She added, “When I share books, many will respond in the comments that they ordered the book based on my recommendation. There have been authors that have told me that I’ve done this for their books.”  

DIGITAL, PRINT, AUDIO

Weingarten, who likes to read in her den near her golden doodle, Sophie, and at the beach, said she prefers to read paper or “real books,” because she likes “to feel a book and read it.” But in the Facebook group, she said members are a mix of digital, print and audio enthusiasts.

What’s important, she said, is matching readers with books — whatever the format.

“What do people want from a book?” Weingarten asked. “When somebody asks me for a book recommendation, I try to feel them out. Do they want something light, deeper, historical fiction, a page turner? People are looking for different things.”

She said the purpose of her group is to recommend books, not review those that readers dislike. “I have so many authors on my site,” she said. “I really impress upon people it’s a positive site for book recommendations.”

But she believes the group’s impact has become much larger than simply offering book reviews.

“Our site is truly an incredible community of book lovers who are always looking for their next amazing book to read,” she said. “I think you create a community, going beyond books. A common interest is a common bond.”

And she said people still drop by her cabana to see the real (not virtual) Weingarten, who typically keeps a stack of books beneath a “Renee’s Reading Club” sign, including many she lends like a portable library.

Weingarten said, “No one should ever be without a book.”