Adrianne Watson of Chicago, IL discusses her book club, S.T.A.R. ("Simply Thrilled About Reading.") She talks about the importance of enforcing written rules that still leaving room for having fun, the ways in which she and fellow members bond, and encounters with their favorite authors.

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

A: The name of our Book club is S.T.A.R. "Simply Thrilled About Reading" Book Club of Chicago, formerly known as "Sisters Thrilled About Reading." We will be together five years come March 2005 (founded in March of 2000) by my mother-in-law, Karen Watson, and myself, Adrianne Watson.

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

A: We currently have 13 members (11 women and 2 men), hence the name change. My husband happens to be one of the members. Very interesting. The ages of our group range from 27 to 60.

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

A: We meet every 5 to 6 weeks at each others' homes. We find it much more relaxing. We have met outside of our homes one time, and still find that it is more relaxing in a more hospitable atmosphere.

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

A: We definitely eat at all of our meetings!! That is the first thing that we do. The meeting typically starts at 4:00 p.m. There is a 30-minute grace period for the latecomers ($1.00 fine after that 30 minutes). During the first 30 minutes, the members walk in the door looking for food. If the food is not ready...OH BOY!!

We eat a variety, from sandwiches to full course meals. We've had nacho bars, taco bars, baked potato bars. We've had pizza, and even a Thanksgiving meal in the summer. It depends on the hospitality hostess. The hospitality hostess (the home where the meeting is held) prepares the meals and we bring the drinks and/or desserts. It has been working out very well this way.

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

A: The book host leads the discussion. Yes, we have used the reading group guides several times. I obtain our Web site (www.starbookclub.us) and I often link our books back to the reading group guides page if you have a guide listing for our book. I find them very helpful and informative for those wanting to get a description of what we are reading. I currently went to Reading Group Guides to see if you had our current selection, Standing on the Scratch Line by Guy Johnson. Sad to say that you don't...but that's okay. That doesn't happen often.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We read all kinds of books, from mystery to love stories; all genres. We have read Danielle Steel, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, Margaret Wright, and Wally Lamb. We have also read E. Lynn Harris, Eric Jerome Dickey, Victoria Christopher Murray, Terry McMillan, and more. Visit our Website to see our past and present books read (www.starbookclub.us)

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 one book at a time. In the beginning of our term, numbers are pulled and we go in order of the numbers. Whoever has #1 chooses the book (book host) and #2 will be the hospitality host, which is the one who prepares the meals for the meeting. For the next discussion #2 will choose the book and #3 will be the hospitality host, and so on.

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

A: My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due and The Coldest Winter Ever by Sistah Souljah. We found the questions to continue flowing with My Soul to Keep. Would you choose eternal life if you could? hmmm.....

Q. How do you keep things fun?

A: Sometimes we give away gifts at the meeting, like a copy of the next book that we will be discussing to the person who participated more in the discussion. But the most fun is our Annual Spa Retreat where we get together for a weekend in spring and discuss our upcoming goals, play games, and then have a Pajama Party as our Finale. The Pajama Parties are hilarious --- last year the theme was a Wig PJ party...sooo much fun. The two founders (my mother-in-law and I) purchase gifts (star key chain, star pen, calculator with a star logo, etc.) for all of our members. They really look forward to seeing what their next gift will be, and we try hard to choose something unique but practical.

We also have an End of the Term Party, when everyone has had their turn to choose a book. We play games like "Guess who this character is and from what book?" We print out lines from different books and have them write down which book they think it came from. We also mix up author names, character names and titles, and ask them to put the right character with the right book and the right author. We give away Border gift cards and prizes for this as well. We also give certificates to the person who has not missed or been late to any meeting. And more...

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

A: My advice is definitely to have written rules and stick to them. Even though my members squawk about the rules every once in a while, I find them saying, "If we didn't have rules...where would we be?" It keeps everything in-line and in perspective. I would also say to have fun and plan things outside of a book discussion to get to know each other: a fall outing, a weekend away...or a private End of the Year/Term party. My members love it!!

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

A: Horror story...hmmm....Only thing I can think of is our Holiday Party last year where we had over 150 people as guests and the party did not go as well as we planned. We booked a room, which was gorgeous, only to arrive on the day of the party to be moved to another room, which was cold and definitely not what we wanted. Our guests had no idea (except those who heard us complaining before the party started). Everyone enjoyed themselves and, despite the situation we were forced in, we had a wonderful time as well. We have since filed a better business report against the establishment and they have refunded our money. Long story...but it was horrible.

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

A: At Christmas time we donate books to the Illinois Reading Literacy Program for underprivileged children and adults. Our group, along with other book clubs, is mentioned in The Book Club Cookbook (p. 291). We have had a telephone conference with Tananarive Due; an exclusive private dinner date with Karen Quinones Miller; received a letter from Dean Koontz, who would love to have a telephone conference with us; and the newest and most exciting thing is that we were part of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" book club segment, which aired on Wednesday, September 15. The book choice was Anna Karenina. On Saturday, September 11th S.T.A.R., along with other book clubs, was down at Oprah's studios filming a mock mini-marathon that was part of the book club segment as well. We loved it and have met other book clubs as a result of this, and are planning to get together and have a big group discussion. We are/were excited!! Too bad we were a couple of days late...we didn't win one of those cars :-)

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