2.01.2016

Starting a Book Club

Happy February chickies!

Did you have a good weekend?

Ours was a fun one, as we spent it with several friends at the river, celebrating one of Bryce's longest friends, Will's birthday! The guys got in lots of hunting time during the last weekend of the season, we stayed up late playing drinking games, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather in a beautiful place!

Today I'm excited to share a recent venture with you--starting a book club!


You probably know that I've been in a book club for quite some time that would more aptly be named a wine club. I really love this group of girls and our monthly meetings, but have always wanted to also be in an actual book club that includes...well...discussion of books!

In December, I finally got around to creating this actual book club and thought I'd share my process and how we're organizing things with you!

First things first, what was most daunting to me, was recruiting enough people to start the club. I often felt overwhelmed by finding enough friends that would be interested in an actual book club. A friend, Cassidy and I had been talking about it for a while. It wasn't until after discussing it with another friend, Meg, who I learned coincidentally also knows Cassidy, did I figure out how I wanted to do it. To me, groups like this are most fun when they bring different types of people together. I got to thinking, that to remove the burden of recruiting everyone and to add some diversity to the group, Cassidy, Meg, and I could each recruit 2-3 friends. When I ran the idea by them, they loved it and our book club was formed!

We recruited a group of 12 girls and I hosted the first club at the beginning of December. Because I only provided about 3 weeks notice for our initial gathering and it would be our first time meeting one another, I put the book on the back burner for this time. I picked the book Where They Found Her which I mentioned in this post, but told the ladies to not feel pressure to have to finish it. The main purpose of our first meeting was to meet, mingle, and make a plan for our club moving forward.

Our first meting was so much fun. I made these ham biscuits (always a crowd-pleaser), this salad (a new favorite!), and a modified version of this potato soup (I added an extra can of chicken broth, halved the cream cheese, and added a bag of shredded cheddar cheese at the end)! And you didn't think I forgot dessert did you? I made everyone's favorite cookie dough rice krispie treats.

On that night, we had lots of girl talk, but also decided how we wanted to run the club. This is what we decided:
  • We will take turns hosting and meet every 4-6 weeks based on book length (longer books need extra time)
  • The hostess of the month will send out an email polling members on dates and 2-3 book options; this will give the book selections variety, while also avoiding choosing a book that many girls have already read
  • The hostess will provide drinks and munchies and also create or find a set of discussion questions
  • Each meeting will include book discussion as well as fun girl time
  • We want to also sometimes do book club field trips, where we meet outside of homes (wine bar, anyone?)
  • We want to occasionally pick books that are coming out as movies so that we can go see the movies together as a club
Two weeks ago, we met for our 2nd time, and discussed All The Light We Cannot See. Our overall consensus of the book was that it was a beautiful work of literature, but not the most riveting or exciting read. I appreciated the book and was glad to have read it, but at the same time, didn't love it. During the snowy weekend, I flew through The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls which had been one of the other polled choices for our January meeting. Highly recommend that! Next up is The Secret History, which is another long one so I need to get reading!

When previewing discussion questions before our last meeting, I came across this recap of another All The Light We Cannot See book club meeting! Can we say #bookclubgoals? Talk about a swanky, sophisticated event!

And because, I can't leave y'all with such a pictureless post, I am sharing some pictures of last week's wine book club meeting at Emily's. Emily is a sorority sister that I reconnected with last year and have become really close friends with! She is now in both book clubs with me. She is a huge blog fan and has amazing design taste, so I couldn't resist snapping some pics of her home to share with y'all!






Are you a bookworm like me?

Any books you recommend for our club?

Have a great day!

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