One New Year's Resolution I Actually Completed - Starting a Book Club!

In the beginning of 2014, I made a New Year's resolution. This is a pretty common thing for me to do. What was uncommon was its success. My resolution was to start a book club. And this week, we just had our ninth meeting!

I know some of you reading this are book club aficionados. You've belonged to a book club for years. Others are rookies, or maybe looking to start a book club like I was hoping to. I don't have many words of wisdom, but I can share how our group went this year.

We started out with four members, and have gradually grown to six. Seems about the perfect size so far. Each month, we meet at a different member's house, and they provide the food. We haven't done anything fancy or themed with the food yet (although we did order Chinese food when we read Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet). Discussion about the book happens before, during, and after we eat. It just seems to flow around our conversation about our lives and other things. We usually refer to the reader's guide questions in the back of the book if there are any. At the end of each meeting, we pick the next book we will read, as well as where and when we will meet.

So we're not the most organized, plan-ahead sort of group. But I've discovered that book club is really just whatever works for you and your group, so we're going with this for now!

Here are the books we've read this year:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
Room by Emma Donoghue
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

The Book Thief and Orphan Train seemed to be our favorites. The Goldfinch was our worst read of the year. Our advice is to avoid that one, if at all possible. The one we just discussed on Monday was Unbroken. What a powerful book!

Lots of great books generated lots of great discussion. I can't wait to see what 2015 will bring.

Do you have any book club wisdom or questions to share?