The Read Between the Wines Book Club of Long Beach, NY consists of a very enthusiastic and closely-knit group of friends. Their spokesperson, Michele Williams, describes their unique method of choosing monthly reading selections, and explains why she and the other members don't like to take themselves too seriously. She also names two books that reading groups should stay away from and shares details about the club's light-hearted website.

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

A: Our name is "Read Between the Wines" and we began in January of 2004. We have a website: http://bookclub.megawilliams.com.

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

A: We began with 8 members, and now have 12 full-time members. We are all women between the ages of 23 and 33

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

A: We try to meet once a month, but due to schedules, we average about 10 meetings a year.

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

A: Yes, we always eat. We switch between members' houses and restaurants, though we prefer meeting at members' houses. We try and match the cuisine with the book, if possible. For instance, when we read The Namesake, we went out to an Indian restaurant. The host usually cooks or orders in, and other members bring drinks and/or dishes.

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

A: Typically, our president or whoever recommended the book will lead the discussion.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: All kinds --- fiction, nonfiction, memoirs.

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 a new book at each meeting. We started by having each member bring three choices, and then the club would vote on them. After a while, there were a lot of books that weren't chosen, so we went back to the ones not chosen and would choose from them. We vary how we choose, but we never choose more than one at a time. We like to get recommendations from other people we know.

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

A: The Kite Runner, Slave, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close were our top 3 rated books, and they all generated great conversation. The Five People You Meet in Heaven was a very emotional conversation.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: That is not difficult. We are a fun group and we're all friends, so we socialize before and after the meetings. We also have a few cocktails and try to have a theme for each meeting to mix things up

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

A: If you have not read The Kite Runner, read that. Also, do not read Skinny Dip.

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

A: We once decided to go back and revisit high school by reading Judy Blume's Forever. Not a good idea. Kids books were meant for kids, not an adult book club!

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

A: We have a website: http://bookclub.megawilliams.com. It has the history of the books we've read and member profiles, mixed in with some humor. It gives our ratings for each book as well. We try not to take ourselves too seriously, because though we are a book club, it's more about getting together with friends and having meaningful conversations.

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