8 Ways to Make Book Club Meetings Unforgettable

By Amelia Mularz

Delicious as your snack mix is, it takes more than pretzel rods and raisins to keep your literary cohorts clamoring for more. If your group's once rapid-fire email chain has become slightly unhinged or you've already lost one member to the new season of American Idol (the nerve!), use these ideas to revive a lackluster reading group. Photo by Getty Images.

1. Invite the author to your living room (she just might say yes).
You can debate the author's intent until the chardonnay has run dry-or you can just ask her. Thanks to new ventures like Jean Hanff Korelitz's Book the Writer, you can get an author to your club meeting (at least in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco). For $600, a writer, such as Ilene Beckerman, Jayne Anne Phillips or A.M. Homes can show up at your door raring to discuss her work. Budget-minded bookworms should pair up with another club (see point 7) to keep per-member costs low. An even cheaper option: Virtually host an author via Skype. Try reaching out through a writer's Facebook fan page.

2. Read something scandalous.
When a relatively conservative group of 60-somethings chooses a saucy read like Fifty Shades of Grey, everyone shows up. Marcia Maule, a member of a book club in Crystal Lake, IL, says there was no shortage of conversation when her group gave gateway erotica a try last year. Leslie Sansom, who runs the virtual reading group The Dirty Girls Book Club, says other titles that may appeal to those new to the genre include Gabriel's Inferno, by Sylvain Reynard, and the Crossfire series, by Sylvia Day. Just be careful where the conversation takes you, warns Sansom. "You don't want to say something that might embarrass your partner at the next BBQ."

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3. Indulge your inner child.
For Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, fantasy of the G-rated variety fuels her gatherings. "I've always loved children's and young adult literature," she explains. "But I'd ignored it-I thought I was the only adult who had a special taste for it." Fortunately, a friend revealed a passion for Harry Potter, and Rubin suggested they start a group. They read a mix of classic titles (The Secret Garden), modern (Harriet the Spy) and contemporary (Wonder). Incorporate one youthful pick in your club for now, like the YA novel The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, which is getting its own movie. A selection garnering buzz should assuage any critics.

4. Try some food for thought.
Just behind "What will we read?" is the all-too-common book club quandary "What will we eat?" Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, authors of The Book Club Cookbook, consider characters' taste buds (for example, readers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo could sip on glogg-a hot spiced wine popular in the story's setting of Sweden) as well as the writer's. For instance, they uncovered that the vanilla kipferl cookies in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief are "ones he remembered making around Christmastime with his mother as a child growing up in Australia," says Gelman. For Zusak's cookie recipe, plus a slew of others straight from writers, go to BookClubCookbook.com. Another good resource: ButteryBooks.com. There you'll find literary-inspired noshes, as well as recommendations for décor,

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5. Dress the part.
A group of women have gathered in northern California sporting baseball jerseys. Are they an intramural team? Nope; they're the Readers in the Hood, and they've just finished Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding. Club member Marsha Toy Engstrom says that once or twice a year a book begs to be celebrated in an "overboard" way. Kathy Murphy, founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club, which has 570 chapters across the country and 15 abroad, agrees. "Girls love to play dress up, no matter their age." In addition to the occasional title-specific costume, Murphy encourages her readers to wear tiaras, animal print and wild accessories ("the crazier the better!") to monthly meetings. Goodwill finds welcome.

6. Change the scenery.
There's no rule that says a book club must take place in a living room…or even on land, for that matter. While Maule's group gathers on a pontoon boat once a year, Heather Rabkin's New York City club never meets in the same location twice. Blame it on their pint-sized Manhattan apartments, the group dines out at theme-appropriate eateries each month. For the Balkans-based novel The Tiger's Wife, they visited a spot called Balkinka, and for the Swedish murder mystery novel, Faceless Killers, they headed to Scandinavia House. If you don't have access to a restaurant selection of Big Apple proportions, a local park, coffeehouse or pub can be a nice break from your usual setting.

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7. Mingle with another club.
Engstrom admits that facilitating a conversation with a larger group can be challenging, but the fresh voices are worth it. To find other clubs in your area, check out ReadersCircle.org or ask at your local bookstore. When you find a good match, approach with a plan, whether it's a big bash for a particularly epic selection or, as mentioned earlier, co-hosting an author. Maule, on the other hand, has her sights set on crossing the generation gap. She's merging her group of Boomers with the Gen Xers in her daughter's club to read Meg Wolitzer's The Ten-Year Nap, a novel about motherhood.

8. Take your reading on the road.
For the ultimate in book club bonding, Murphy recommends packing your bags. In addition to her annual book club convention in Texas (where you can find authors in costume too!), she's taken members inside the New York Public Library, on a literary tour of France and Italy and to famed author Eudora Welty's home in Jackson, MS, among other places. Visit LiteraryTraveler.com for inspiration, plus planned tours, like a bookish summer trip to Iceland. For local literary hotspots, check out the book Novel Destinations. You may find you live close enough for a day trip to Louisa May Alcott's home (Concord, MA) or Harper Lee's favorite catfish joint (Monroeville, AL).

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