Board of Directors

2026 Officers:

My friend Anne Newhouse and I were in a neighborhood book club and somehow she heard about volunteer opportunities at the library.  (She is a former school librarian.) So we both signed up!  That was over 15 years ago.  From the time I was a small child, I’ve always loved to spend time at the library, so it is a natural fit for me. 
I think I would have loved to be a librarian!

I was a bookstore volunteer for many years, up until I was asked to join the board and be a president-in-waiting when Marsha Holcomb decided to step down from that role.  Now I have been board president for a number of years. I do the schedule and other administrative tasks, keep up with the bookstore volunteers, attend FULCO Friends Council meetings, interview and train new volunteers, introduce authors, complete the board meeting minutes, and lead bi-monthly board meetings.

I love the people, including our board and bookstore volunteers, the librarians, and our patrons.  Also I love books and am a voracious reader. Definitely a lifelong reader. I can remember checking out a pile of books every week, starting in grade school.  I would walk to our town library after school several afternoons a week and stay until suppertime.  I was a double major in college:  English and Psychology. Favorite early books: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.

Favorite genres are Literary fiction and historical fiction, with an occasional well-written thriller thrown in for variety.

Favorite authors include:  Ann Patchett, Maggie O’Farrell, Bill Roorbach, Fredrik Bachman, Julia Glass, Peter Heller, Donna Tartt, Tana French, Ethan Canin, Amor Towles, Jonathan Franzen, Stephen King

I found FOSSL the same way many others have.  After seeing me in the bookstore time after time, the lovely Janet Greene suggested I volunteer.  Now, I have a shift every week, and the people, the work, and the conversations with book lovers make it a favorite bit of respite every Thursday.  I eventually was asked to fill a vacancy on the board and become the FOSSL Secretary.  

It’s inspirational to be around creative, energetic, book-loving people who share the aim of bringing books of all kinds to readers of all kinds.

My mother came from life-long readers, and she passed that on to me and my six siblings. She read to us every night.  Afterward, I would sneak the book under my covers and try to read it on my own.  Earliest memories after Uncle Wiggly and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were my mom’s childhood books (Maida, the Happy Hollisters), all filled with adventures, friendships, and the most vivid descriptions, plus maps!  Later I discovered everything the library had to offer, including Madeleine L’Engle , C.S. Lewis, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  

My favorite writing now is by authors like Ann Patchett, Abraham Verghese, Colm Tóibín, Erik Larson, Amor Towles, Elizabeth Strout, Claire Keegan, Monica Wood, E.M Forster, Kazuo Ishiguro, Tana French, and JK Rowling (in her different forms), to name just a few.

I still love books—I love that dusty book smell!–but a lot of my “reading” now is listening!  I love a good audio book experience, and many great authors have kept me company while I cook dinner or walk the dogs.  My genres are varied:  short stories, essays, classics, non-fiction, and fiction, but I also appreciate a good mystery, graphic novels, and some teen lit.  

Started volunteering in the library shelving books in 2021. A few years later, the library manager suggested FOSSL was looking for a treasurer, so here I am!

I staff the bookstore one morning a week and handle all the money for FOSSL.

I love meeting and getting to know all the people involved as well as feeling I am contributing to a great cause

I’ve always been a reader. I’m in several book clubs, and I like that that makes me read things I might otherwise not pick up. My go-to’s are mysteries, but I like a large variety of books.

Directors:

I started shopping with my children in the new FOSSL bookstore, and fell in love with the quality of the books. Our family has regularly used the library since we moved to Sandy Springs, but the bookstore was a revelation! My best purchase ever was 10 Daniel Silva hardcovers in perfect condition for $20 for my mom for Christmas. Amazing.

I work under Joe and sort, distribute, and price donated books. I pride myself on my careful sticker removal (Ha!), and I love meeting the front of the house volunteers, many of whom have worked with FOSSL for years, and all of whom have the best book recommendations!  Beyond getting to know the other volunteers, I love seeing the variety of books our donors send in.  I now bring cash to all of my shifts!

I learned to read on Agatha Christie and Harriet, the Spy, resulting in a super suspicious approach to life. Literary biographies, political, poetry, Faulkner, and books about the book trade are favorite genres. I used to keep my books pristine—now I’m very into marginalia, especially when I buy a used book! (Sadly, no FOSSL bookstore books have marginalia!)

My favorite place to read is in an airport. I love reading in other cities during bad weather. I work in Seattle, so that enables excellent reading time. 

Favorite recommendation: if you loved the Sweet Pickles books with the neighborhood map in the end pages, you will love the old school Dell $.25 Agatha Christie’s with maps at the back. And Faulkner editions with maps of fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Maps rock. 

Long-time Collector, Bookstore Worker, Bookseller, 15-year volunteer 

Favorite Books:
Crossing to Safety – Wallace Stegner
The Shipping News – Annie Proulx

I became involved with FOSSL in the late 90s when they had book sales. In 2008 I joined the Board and became Board Chair in 2009. Currently I am a FOSSL Board Member.  I volunteer in the book shop, get authors to talk at the library and write book reviews for the FOSSL newsletter.

Working in the bookstore allows me to meet people of all ages ( toddlers and older) and backgrounds who enjoy reading. We may discuss books and how they became book lovers.  

I live in Sandy Springs and think it is important to give something back to the community. So might as well do something I enjoy too.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa. where Andrew Carnegie built his second library. The first was outside of Pittsburgh, in Braddock, for his steel mill workers.  So as a preschooler every Tuesday and Thursday my mother took me to get books at the Carnegie Library Bookmobile that came to our neighborhood.  Once a month we went to the huge Carnegie Library and Museum building in the neighboring Oakland area to get books.   

When I became a teenager my parents allowed me to walk with my friends on Saturdays to the Carnegie Library in Oakland.  When I moved to Atlanta after college in the seventies, the first thing I did was get a library card.   

So I am a lifelong reader and user of the library.

I currently belong to several bookclubs so I do read different genres with each group. But if I had to choose, it would be detective novels by  Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Harlen Coben or Louise Penny. Although historical fiction is also a favorite.  Recently I have read Graham Moore’s and Piper Huguley’s books and enjoyed them.

I have been involved with FOSSL for 10+ years.  I was recruited by Janet Greene who I volunteered with at Community Assistance Center.  I volunteer in the Book Store and serve on the FOSSL Board, helping with communications. I have been a lifelong passionate reader, my mom was a librarian and I just love being around books. My favorite genre is Literary Fiction. 

I always enjoyed the library growing up as a source of information, entertainment, and after retirement was looking for an opportunity to donate my time.

Along with our staff of five, the intake team is responsible for sorting through the daily donations of books, selecting, and pricing those that are to be sold through the bookstore, and redirecting those we cannot use. 

Very rewarding to see books being recycled to new readers and generating money to support program programs at the library

Current favorite genres are police, procedural, and mystery as well as biography and other fiction

 

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