Tuesday night my book group celebrated 15 years of reading together.
We figured we had read at least 109 books as a group beginning with Memoirs of a Geisha. Over the years we have added and lost other members but have had a total of 21 people involved.We don't have too many rules but originally we did have one- you had to read the book before recommending it to the group. Later we added a couple of more rules- books should be available in paperback (clearly we formed before kindles), the host should not be the same person who selected the book- too much to guide the discussion and make sure everyone is well fed and glasses are filled, books that were over 400 pages should be suggested summer reads, and the person who selects the book is encouraged to provide some information about the author and have questions to generate discussion. A few years ago we instituted a time at the beginning of our meeting for catching up ( limited to about 30-40 minutes). We learned a little bit more about each other. Many of us had kids in the same school(s) and played the same sports (soccer, tennis). We have a holiday party with a Yankee Swap (usually no book discussion), a June potluck dinner with summer reading suggestions, and recently we have been meeting at my home in September, in Rhode Island, for a weekend gathering to kick off another year and select books for the year with the understanding that there might be a change or two but at least we have an idea of what we will be reading and can plan accordingly. We had a beautiful delicious catered dinner (Small Kitchen Big Taste- check out Karen's blog!) Our dinner started with
and this
then we had a yummy salad
. We selected two main entrees- one of roasted pork and the other lemon salmon. Of course there were a few of us who wanted both so some plates had both with the roasted vegetables and polenta.
. We were having so much fun I forgot to take a picture of dessert which was a brown butter roasted plum tart with brown sugar whipped cream. Delicious!
It was a wonderful evening.
We figured we had read at least 109 books as a group beginning with Memoirs of a Geisha. Over the years we have added and lost other members but have had a total of 21 people involved.We don't have too many rules but originally we did have one- you had to read the book before recommending it to the group. Later we added a couple of more rules- books should be available in paperback (clearly we formed before kindles), the host should not be the same person who selected the book- too much to guide the discussion and make sure everyone is well fed and glasses are filled, books that were over 400 pages should be suggested summer reads, and the person who selects the book is encouraged to provide some information about the author and have questions to generate discussion. A few years ago we instituted a time at the beginning of our meeting for catching up ( limited to about 30-40 minutes). We learned a little bit more about each other. Many of us had kids in the same school(s) and played the same sports (soccer, tennis). We have a holiday party with a Yankee Swap (usually no book discussion), a June potluck dinner with summer reading suggestions, and recently we have been meeting at my home in September, in Rhode Island, for a weekend gathering to kick off another year and select books for the year with the understanding that there might be a change or two but at least we have an idea of what we will be reading and can plan accordingly. We had a beautiful delicious catered dinner (Small Kitchen Big Taste- check out Karen's blog!) Our dinner started with 
and this
then we had a yummy salad
. We selected two main entrees- one of roasted pork and the other lemon salmon. Of course there were a few of us who wanted both so some plates had both with the roasted vegetables and polenta.
. We were having so much fun I forgot to take a picture of dessert which was a brown butter roasted plum tart with brown sugar whipped cream. Delicious!
It was a wonderful evening.
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