Challenge: 50 Books discussion

If you have a book club, "real life" or otherwise, do you have any suggestions from which other book club members could benefit? Looking for anything from how to pick a book, how to keep a lively and friendly debate alive, finger sandwich recipes and anything in-between.

Also, what books did you read that generated the most or best discussion?

The Glass Castle generated good discussion. As did Fool by Christopher Moore.

I ran a bookclub before I moved, and I started a new one after I moved. Initially, we attempted to pick books for an entire year and stick to that schedule. That doesn't work. We also moved our club from meeting at a bar to meeting at the person's house whose pick it was that month.

what I've found works best for the book clubs I've been in:
1) Have an eclectic group of people in your club. That way, they pick their favorites and there's always something different to read. We never stick to one type of genre of literature. Some months we read graphic novels, nonfiction, horror, sci-fi. There's always something different.
2) If the book doesn't generate book discussion, don't worry about it. Get together for love of reading rather than to prove you have something to talk about.
3) WINE.

:)

Faye wrote: "If you have a book club, "real life" or otherwise, do you have any suggestions from which other book club members could benefit? Looking for anything from how to pick a book, how to keep a lively a..."

My book club did a skype discussion with Warren St John, author of Outcasts Unlimited. It really brought insight into the discussion. The book club does this once a year. I think our moderator contacts them through goodreads.

My mothers book club did something fun with A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. It has recipes that go along with stories of her life. Mom made a meal with 7 of her recipes. It was fun and brought about a lively discussion.

We had two books which generated a lot of discussion- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.

In terms of what works, you need people who are readers anyway, as non-bookworms have a tendency to put the book down without finishing or not start it at all. It's really frustrating to have members who don't read the book!

I am not part of a book club, but I sat in on one and looking for discussion questions beforehand (if they aren't in the back of the book check online) was good for fueling the talk.

Lindsey wrote: "The Glass Castle generated good discussion. As did Fool by Christopher Moore...."

Yes, wine is #1 with my bookclub, everything else comes second! Just kidding....

My group is made up a lovely group of kewl ladies from the area who all have different interests but come together every 5 weeks to chat about a book we read as a group and discuss characters, storyline, etc. (same thing, no genre mandate) and this past year, one of our members had to move away and now we just skype her in to when we meetup.

It is great to have questions about the book in the back, if not, we check online and use as a guidance for discussion. (@ Seruh - great minds think alike)

Choosing a book works best in our group, if everyone suggests 1-2 books and they go into a pot and we draw 2 books for the next month read, and also do the following month - for the reason if a member cannot attend due to work, life, etc or if they are are a slower reader, they then have a chance to read the second book. Plus, we keep the pot of suggestions and re-draw every two months to ensure that people's suggestions get read over the year. So then everyone gets to read their suggested book usually within the year.

We do rotate meetings at everyone's home and in the summer, we usually head to the local park or beach to do an outdoor bookclub (pinic style). Change of scenery is good and the hostess of the evening usually provides some sort of nibblies for the guests.