Book Clubs
Have you ever thought of starting your own book club? It’s easy and fun! All you need are a group of good friends who share your love of reading. Mother/daughter book clubs are also a great way to get some quality mother/daughter bonding time and discuss important life issues brought about by books.
Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Invite friends to participate. All you need is three or four friends to get started. More will inevitably join when they hear about how much fun you’re having talking about books (and all the other topics that seem to come up). You’ll probably want to limit your group to ten to fifteen people—it gets hard to have a good discussion when a group is too big.
2. Decide how often to meet. Most clubs meet once a month, but you can meet every other month, four times a year—whatever makes the most sense with people’s schedules.
2. Coordinate where and when to meet. Find one person who is willing to host or rotate from house to house. You might also have fun meeting at a local coffee shop or restaurant. It’s often best to set a consistent time for all your meetings so the group can plan far in advance.
3. Coordinate food. A good discussion needs good food! If you’re rotating hosts, the host could also provide the food for that meeting. Or make it potluck where a few people bring a little something. Sometimes people even coordinate the food to go with the book they are discussing, like for example having an ethnic food like sushi or burritos or a dessert like flan or tiramisu!
3. Choose the book. At your first meeting, have everyone bring a book they have read and would like to share. Some groups require that the book be available in paperback to minimize costs and that it not be too long (less than 300 pages) so people have time to read it. Have each member describe the book and why it would be both a good read and good for discussing. A diverse selection of books is always nice so everyone gets to read something they like, and everyone gets to try something new.
5. Plan the discussion. Someone should be in charge of leading the discussion. This could be a different person for each meeting, whoever picked the book, the host etc. It also helps to have pre-planned discussion questions. Many books have reading group guides available on Amazon.com, from the publishers' websites, the author's website (Like this one! See “Teacher’s Guide” for either book and scroll down to ‘Questions for Discussion’), or simply by Googling the title of the book and "guide" or "discussion guide." But if questions aren’t available, make up your own. Remember, this is supposed to be fun—talk about what interests you in the book.
6. Invite the author. Some authors might even be willing to come to your book club if they live locally. If you choose one of my books and you live locally I’d love to come! If you don’t live locally I still might be able to phone in and if you put me on speaker phone it’ll be just like I’m in the room, only I won’t be able to enjoy the food!
Have you ever thought of starting your own book club? It’s easy and fun! All you need are a group of good friends who share your love of reading. Mother/daughter book clubs are also a great way to get some quality mother/daughter bonding time and discuss important life issues brought about by books.
Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Invite friends to participate. All you need is three or four friends to get started. More will inevitably join when they hear about how much fun you’re having talking about books (and all the other topics that seem to come up). You’ll probably want to limit your group to ten to fifteen people—it gets hard to have a good discussion when a group is too big.
2. Decide how often to meet. Most clubs meet once a month, but you can meet every other month, four times a year—whatever makes the most sense with people’s schedules.
2. Coordinate where and when to meet. Find one person who is willing to host or rotate from house to house. You might also have fun meeting at a local coffee shop or restaurant. It’s often best to set a consistent time for all your meetings so the group can plan far in advance.
3. Coordinate food. A good discussion needs good food! If you’re rotating hosts, the host could also provide the food for that meeting. Or make it potluck where a few people bring a little something. Sometimes people even coordinate the food to go with the book they are discussing, like for example having an ethnic food like sushi or burritos or a dessert like flan or tiramisu!
3. Choose the book. At your first meeting, have everyone bring a book they have read and would like to share. Some groups require that the book be available in paperback to minimize costs and that it not be too long (less than 300 pages) so people have time to read it. Have each member describe the book and why it would be both a good read and good for discussing. A diverse selection of books is always nice so everyone gets to read something they like, and everyone gets to try something new.
5. Plan the discussion. Someone should be in charge of leading the discussion. This could be a different person for each meeting, whoever picked the book, the host etc. It also helps to have pre-planned discussion questions. Many books have reading group guides available on Amazon.com, from the publishers' websites, the author's website (Like this one! See “Teacher’s Guide” for either book and scroll down to ‘Questions for Discussion’), or simply by Googling the title of the book and "guide" or "discussion guide." But if questions aren’t available, make up your own. Remember, this is supposed to be fun—talk about what interests you in the book.
6. Invite the author. Some authors might even be willing to come to your book club if they live locally. If you choose one of my books and you live locally I’d love to come! If you don’t live locally I still might be able to phone in and if you put me on speaker phone it’ll be just like I’m in the room, only I won’t be able to enjoy the food!
