Sabina Shaneyfelt is a member of the “Friday Friends Club” near Cincinnati, OH. In this interview, Sabina explains how her group resolved to select titles for the upcoming year after poor experiences with books selected from bestseller lists. She also talks about the origin of the group, which is rooted in a book club to which a member’s sister belongs.

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

A: Our book club name is "Friday Friends Club." We were founded in 2006.

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

A: We have 10 members, all women. We average in our 40s.

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

A: We meet the third Friday of each month, except for April and June. We don't meet due to vacations. Our November and December meeting is combined, and we go out to dinner and have a $10 new or gently used book exchange. We don't read a book at this meeting due to holiday commitments but will usually read a longer book for January. We meet at members’ homes on a rotating basis.

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

A: The host prepares a meal and tries to tie it in with the theme of the book. For example, when we read Middlesex, we had a feast of Greek food. We recently read The Other Boleyn Girl and had a suckling pig along with other foods from that time period. The dinner is always delicious!

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

A: We usually pass the discussion questions around the room and take turns reading the questions from the book or the reading group guide.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: When we started we were disappointed in our selections from bestseller lists so we decided to try the host selecting the book. We prefer this method. We enjoy the variety of topics and genres we have been reading.

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: Some of our members like to order their books online with free shipping. So we set the October meeting as the date to have book selections made for the upcoming year. This helps keep everyone organized and saves everyone time and money.

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

A: We've never had a bad discussion.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: It's fun just getting together. Our mission statement is to "Have fun and expand our reading.” We all enjoy the food themes. We have some real gourmet cooks in our group. We all enjoy visiting each other's homes and having dinner and discussing the book. We always take a group photo of our members at the end of each meeting. At one of our first meetings, the host gave everyone a party gift tied in with the theme of the book. So now the host always gives a simple party gift!

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

A: We always communicate via email. We always keep it fun!

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