I am so proud of my book club. If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you probably know that. Most of us have been together in this group for the past 7 or 8 years. A few of us, have been there the entire time – it will be 10 years of Bookies in August. That’s 120 book club meetings. That’s 120 book club book choices and 120 book club books read.
Every July we have a free read month. July is so busy in Minnesota, the weather is finally pretty reliable, people have weddings, and family gatherings, weekends at the lake, camping, fishing. grilling…. anyway, we do not have a mandatory read in July. Just read what you want and share at the event. And so, that being said, here is what The Bookies read and recommend :
Columbine by Dave Cullen – recommended by Sharon
Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen – recommended by Kaydi
The Chesapeake Bay Series by Nora Roberts – recommended by Amy M
The House Of Dark Shadows Series by Robert Liparulo – recommended by Amy P (reading with her young teen daughter)
The Chronicles Of The Kings Series by Lynn Austin – recommended by Lori P
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer – recommended by Angie
What To Expect When You Are Expecting – recommended by Jodi (our going to be new mama member!)
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan – recommended by Jodi
We ate and laughed and talked books. What to read, what to skip…. We talked movies and summer plans. And we sat ina beautiful yard just enjoying the company.
Another great year and event – we crowned our new Queen Lori (see that picture in my morning post -it’s awesome!).
Book Journey 
You have shared glorious stories of your wonderful book group and it brings inspirations that I will be sure to share with my three book groups! I love your Bookies Queen events and the idea of a “free” reading month–summer is a great time to do that when everyone is really busy with family events and traveling. It gives one a “freedom” to read for fun and share our favorites with fellow bookies!
Linda we do have a lot of fun. As the group grew (18 of us when we are all in attendance) the dynamics changed a lot. I had to be more creative in our meetings to keep everyone on task. The result of this is some fun moments that every person in the group plays a part in.
I have a couple girls who bring props and pictures of items and places that are in the books we read. If we potluck we try to theme the food to the book.
As we continue on, I hope we expand on some of this. We are talking about dressing up for our Classic Read month now which is every October.
I will definitely share some of your fun ideas at my book group (one of three!) tonight. It’s going to be a hot day in Cleveland, mid-90’s, but we hope to meet outdoors this evening too. Our “Candy’s Book Group” (named after one of our founding members who now lives in CA) has been meeting on the third Thursday of the month since 1987 (23 years and still going strong!). We are a small and mighty group who have been together through the raising of our children, adoptions, divorce, illnesses, new jobs, parents aging, elementary, middle school, high school, college years and marriages of our children and recently, our first grandbaby!
Linda,
I have a year in review recap book that I hand out to the girls every January. It is like a walk through memory lane of our past twelve months, the books we read, the things we did and the funny and serious moments.
If you would like a copy email me your address and I will gladly drop one in the mail for you. I have them for every year we have existed and it is so fun to see how we have grown in our reading.
I love the “Royal Throne”!! Congratulations to Queen Lori!
Thanks Vicki – it is kind of fun 🙂
Very cute “throne”!
I love the idea of the ongoing support network of reading friends. I’ve only ever been in book clubs that were short term…we always ended when someone moved, or in some cases, we all did.
Our lives have been a process of change, with connections lost. Adrift…sad.
This is why I love books about friendships that transcend the passage of time.
We have been pretty blessed Laurel – we started out in fall of 2001with 3 of us. Two of the original three are still in the group. We grew from there 😉
Sounds like you had a blast. What fun to have such a long-standing book club, too!
Hannah – it is pretty fun. We have had such a strong group from the start that it really surprised me to hear other people say they could not find book groups in their area – or they can not find book groups that talk books – but use it instead as a social gathering and rarely get to the book discussion (I have picked up a couple of those from other groups).
When I hear that it really makes me open my eyes to the true blessing our group is. 🙂
Well, part of the reason I don’t have such a group is that I’ve lived in several different far-flung places in the past 10 years, too.
Hannah, I love that we all can have the online book discussions then! 😀
I love the royal throne! How wonderful that you have been together for 10 years! I group is going to be starting our 7th year together in September and I wouldn’t trade one of our ladies in for anything. It really is a special bond that is created.
Jo-Jo – that is exactly right. One of our ladies drives a long way to meet with us each month (I think it is 35 miles). She says that it was one of the best things she ever did for herself was by saying yes to joining our group and loves the friendships she has developed with us.
She brought tears to my eyes…
It looks like you guys had so much fun! And a great list of book recommendations too. I just finished Life as We Knew It and thought it was a thought-provoking and compelling YA read.
Alyce, I want to read that book and think it is on the TBR shelf as where many books come to my home and gather 🙂
This makes me want to do outdoor activities with my book club immediately!
LR – when we have the weather to do it – I love to do outdoor events 😀
Oh my gosh! What a fun book group! Does the Queen get anything special during her reign or just the glory of being picked? One of my book groups has been going for 19 years this month!
Helen – the Queen gets has the right to make event changes (such as this Queen event) as well as add others. She breaks all ties when it comes to voting on books to read, and if the person who is suppose to pick where we meet next, it falls to the Queen.
Of course there are the perks…. like the personal jet, castle, and unlimited cases of white gloves 😀
What fun! Thanks for sharing the wonderful photos with us.
My neighborhood book group will read its 100th book in September (though I haven’t been with them the whole time). We considered a beach weekend to celebrate but the timing didn’t work out, so we’re having our meeting at a nice restaurant in town. I love my book group, too!
Sue
Sue,
we did the 100th meeting in December and that was fun – I have pics here somewhere. We got a sheet cake that said Bookie s- 100 meetings strong and did a potluck. 🙂 Have fun and congratulations!
Congratulations to Queen Lori! I love the throne 🙂
Your book club really does sound wonderful and fun!
Thanks Nikki-ann they are a great group!
Sounds and looks like you had a great time!
Check your messages at Facebook, I hope I found an answer to your glitch.
Dollycas aka Lori
Thanks Dollycas – I will do that 😀
That looks like such fun. I wish I had a book club like that. I wish I had one or two more people to talk books with that weren’t just on the internet.
Andrea – I started with where I worked, hung a sign on the time clock with a book title and a time and place where we would meet. No one responded. I thought for sure I was going to be hanging out by myself having a coke at this pizza place I picked. And then… two showed up. And a couple months later… two more….. and so on… 😀
The royal throne is hilarious! It brought back memories of my first and second back surgeries! I’m glad you ladies had fun. 🙂
LOL Jill it took me a minute there to figure out what the throne had to do with your back surgeries….. its been a long day 😀
Your book club looks like FUN!
Thanks Kathleen!
What a wonderful book club you have! And to be around for 10 years – such an accomplishment!
The group is awesome and we have grown so much in our reading Amused. It was exciting to listen to how much everyone was reading yesterday!
This sounds like an awesome group to belong too….would love to find a group of women to meet with monthly and talk books and such!!
I think anyone can do it Staci – just pick a place and a book and put the word out. Local Libraries, work place…. if you don’t want people you don’t know ask some friends if they would want to get together once a month for dinner, or snacks and chat books.
One friend of mine does a mother daughter group and she invites the young girls to choose the books and they discuss them together. So fun!
Wow, I can only hope my bookclub gets to be like that. We’ve been doing it for 2 years now.
Hi Michelle, I found the important thing for us was to keep it simple and fun. I have heard from some that there are just too many rules and guidelines and it becomes work. I encourage the girls to come as often as they can. I rarely get all 18 of them at the same meeting but we usually average between 12 – 15.
What a wonderful group and book club. 10 years, wow. If there isn’t a club in our area, There needs to be one. Will have to call my friend in town that works at the library to check for existing ones. I really need to find others to read with and discuss books with.
Know of 2 in the county where I worked, but they don’t function like a regular book club. They pick 12 books the beginning of the year, have 12 members and rotate the one copy of each book every month. No one reads the same book at the same time, few read the ones they get, and they never discuss them. Not what I thought a book club was supposed to be.
Wow Pat that book club sounds – hard…. never discuss the book? Whats the point?
I think it is just an excuse to get together and socialize. Fine, but don’t call it a book club. If you don’t read the books and discuss them, it isn’t really a book club.
I know some groups like that too. In fact I have picked up some of their members because they want to discuss books.
What a fun book club you have! Love the throne. As well as the idea of a free read month. Summer is always so busy and we have several ladies that have a hard time getting through the book selections. May just have to institute that idea in my own club.
Lisa I take my fun quite serious. I found that “throne” at a garage sale and waited in line for over an hour to pay one dollar for it. 😀
It is a great book club. Thanks for being our glue Mrs De Chan.
Ahhh, thanks Kaydi! 😀