Carmen Crenshaw-Hovey of Thalwil (Zurich), Switzerland talks about her book club The Not-Swiss Moms Book Group. As its name suggests, all members are mothers who come from different countries. Read on to learn more about this group.

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

A: The Not-Swiss Moms Book Group. A friend of mine and I started this group about 6 months ago.

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

A: Our group has 9 members who are all women, mothers and expats here where we live just outside of Zurich, Switzerland. We are in our 30s and 40s and come from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand.

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

A: We meet once a month in each other's homes.

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

A: We all bring something to share. I have learned not to eat dinner before these meetings :-)

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

A: The person who hosts the meeting facilitates the discussion. But once we get going no "leader" is necessary.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: Up to now we have read novels. They have ranged from Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad to Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It.

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 choose the books about 3 months in advance as sometimes they need to be ordered and each member takes a turn choosing the book and hosting the meeting for its discussion.

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

A: We just talked about this last night and we couldn't come up with ones that we all agreed upon. White Teeth by Zadie Smith and The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen were both really interesting discussions.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: Fun is had just by being with a group of moms where we are able to complete our sentences since our kids aren't with us!

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