Becky Morgan is a member of “Glamour Girls Lit Society” in Huntington, WV, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary in December. In this interview, Becky discusses the inspiration that led this group of women to form a book club. She also talks about a memorable discussion she and her fellow members had with a local author and encourages others to seek out author chat opportunities.

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

A: Our group is named the "Glamour Girls Lit Society" and was established in December 2007. We are excited to celebrate our one-year anniversary!

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

A: We have five women in our group. All are college-educated and between the ages of 29-31.

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

A: We rotate meetings at the homes of members.

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

A: We always eat at our meetings. The host for each meeting prepares the food for the group. If a book has a clear theme, the host usually takes that into account when planning the meal.

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

A: The host, who in our case is the member who has selected our current book, leads the discussion but everyone participates. We always use reading group guides when available, and ReadingGroupGuides.com has been a valuable resource for strengthening our discussions.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We have read a variety of books over the past year. One key element that we continually express is that the formation of our book club was not only to share great books with each other but also to experience books that we typically would not select for ourselves. Each member of our group has a different reading interest that provides a wide range of genre selections.

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 rotate our selections among the members and select one book at at time. A highlight of our meetings is the reveal of the next month's reading, which the member selecting keeps a secret until the end of each discussion. The member who selects the book serves as the host for that meeting.

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

A: Our best discussion thus far was a meeting with a local author, Claudia Pemberton, to discuss her debut novel Love Leaves No One Behind. She graciously sat down to review her book with us and stayed to eat with our members and enjoy some of the recipes included in her book, which were prepared for the meeting. Meeting with an author is a wonderful experience, and we highly encourage book clubs to seek out authors when possible. We also had a great discussion of a book club favorite, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We look forward to each meeting, and everyone has embraced the benefits that belonging to a reading group can bring. The wine and cocktails don't hurt!

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

A: We would just tell anyone thinking about starting a club to just jump in and begin. We discussed starting a group for months before we actually selected a first book and scheduled a meeting but are so glad that we followed through because we have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Research other reading groups to gain insight on what has proved successful for others and try incorporating new ideas into your club.

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

A: The first rule of book club: What happens in book club...stays in book club.

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

A: We are an organized group with a monthly newsletter and online page where we post information on upcoming book events and photos from our meetings. We also rate each of our selections at each meeting on a five-star scale with five as the highest rating. We usually have to compromise on a rating for a book because everyone rates it differently but we have enjoyed this process and routinely look back to see what we rated particular books.