Sheila DeChantal is the discussion leader for "The Bookies" in Brainerd, MN. In this interview, Sheila discusses the factors that have allowed the club to grow from its original three members to 14 over the last seven years. She also talks about the club’s annual "Prom Dress Picnic" and explains how a discussion about The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King changed the group forever.

Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?

A: We are called "The Bookies." We started our group in August 2001.

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?

A: Currently we are at 14 women. We have never excluded men; it just turned out that way. We are a variety of ages from mid-20s to 70.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?

A: We meet the second Tuesday of each month. We take turns choosing where we meet. We usually are at local restaurants, but occasionally we meet at someone’s home and do potluck in the theme of the book we are reading.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?

A: We do eat dinner together at a restaurant, or we all pitch in when we meet at homes. I love the imagination put into the potlucks!

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?

A: I lead the discussion and always look to reading group guides first for the questions to go with our discussion. The discussion questions are as important as the actual reading of the book, and sometimes a book may be so-so. But the review (thanks to good questions) can be fantastic!

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We are really all over the board but mainly stick to newly released fiction. We vote on books that the group chooses. We read a classic a year, mysteries, suspense, true stories, romance, chick lit, Christian --- quite a smorgasbord.

Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?

A: We ask that each member try to bring a book to nominate. We ask that the book be a newer release so we can find it easily. Being a larger group it is important that we are all able to get the book easily. We choose our books one month at a time, finishing each meeting with the nomination of the next month’s read.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?

A: There have been so many. The one that really stands out for me is The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux. We had the best discussion with that book and a deeper discussion about the paths not taken...it was a great meeting I will never forget. The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King changed our group forever. With the reading of that book came the election of our own annual nominating of a Queen of our group who is our tie-breaker vote in book choices and restaurant choices if the person whose turn it is to choose is not in attendance. This book also introduced our yearly "Prom Dress Picnic," where we dress up in prom dresses and compete to be the next Queen.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: As the group has become bigger I have found it more and more important to keep it fun and interesting. The potlucks themed around the books are fantastic. We recently reviewed The Year of Fog, and someone brought birthday cake with the missing child character’s name on it because she had a birthday during the book --- so we had a birthday celebration for a fictitious character! Fantastic! We also on occasion have each written reviews like the large publishers and newspapers do on the backs of books. They were extremely funny, and I always record these happenings for our Year In Review books everyone receives in January.

I already mentioned the prom dress picnic.

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?

A: If you love to read or are stuck in an author rut, book clubs are the way to go. You meet so many wonderful people and can have the best discussions! Keep it fun --- don't get too serious and stay laid back and not too structured. Try to have a specialty month a couple times a year (ours are the annual picnic, which is free read month --- read what you want and report in on it --- and October is classic month). We try to attend movies that are about books we have read and have done an authors tea once.

Q: Do you have any horror stories, amusing anecdotes, or other special tales to tell?

A: Not a horror story, but I will always remember that when we started there were three of us. Our second meeting fell on 9/11. No kidding. I remember we were a new club, so I didn't want to not show up in the event that someone new attended. With the whole worst morning, I showed up at our meeting place fully expecting to have out about 10 minutes and go home. But they were there. They had decided that there was nothing we could do from home and what was going to happen was going to happen. So we reviewed our book and shared our thoughts on the sadness of what was happening.

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?

A: I think I have covered it. We are a group of women from different walks of life. The original three all worked together. Two of us are still in the group. From that three we just went with word of mouth. Others from work joined, then came friends, a couple of family members --- AND most recently one new girl to our area found us on the Internet from the last time I filled out this review with ReadingGroupGuides.com. She called me, we chatted, she came in December and she joined! Last month’s meeting was at her home!

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