Pamela Lockman from Winnipeg, Canada talks about her book club, Wild Women Who Read (WWWR). Read on to learn more about this interesting group of teachers who love to chat, snack, and are anything but "wallflowers."

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

A: We've been meeting for about 3 or 4 years now. We just decided on our name yesterday: Wild Women Who Read (WWWR) [Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada]

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

A: 8-10 --- a few people have come and gone, but there is a steadfast and loyal bunch of 8 of us. Our ages are from 30-60.

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

A: Every 4-6 weeks, about 10 times a year. We usually skip December and July. We meet at a different member's house each time. We have a scribe who keeps track of our meeting locations, the books we've read, and upcoming dates of meetings and books we plan to read. She emails us reminders.

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

A: We have food and drink treats at every meeting. One of our "rules" is that the host provides the goodies, which should be as simple and easy as possible. No one is allowed to bring the hostess gifts. We all teach or something related to teaching and our meetings are usually on a weeknight (7:30 till about 10:00), so we don't want to stress out on preparing anything fancy. Thank goodness for specialty food stores! We usually have cheese and crackers, fresh fruit, some "bad" dessert, and wine.

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

A: One person (who started the group) always has to say, "So.... what did you think of the book?" and then the discussion begins. If she hasn't said it yet and someone else thinks it's time to begin, that person will say, "Tannis......" We don't have a "leader" -- it's pretty much a free-for-all and lots of fun. We all love books and get excited about them and our opinions of them, but we all know how to back off and let each other talk. We sometimes use the guides as backup. We also often bring along reviews from various sources.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: Lots of different kinds. We try to stick to literary fiction most of the time, but we've read nonfiction, romance, bestsellers, and all sorts of other things as well. We like to read Canadian authors fairly regularly.

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: Everyone brings suggestions and we choose from those. We usually plan about 3 books ahead. Sometimes one of us will bring a book she's already bought so people can get a look at it, sometimes we'll bring reviews from various sources --- one member brings emails from her sister about what her group has been reading.

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

A: We had GREAT discussions about Life of Pi, The Red Tent, Pope Joan, and Three Junes. One of our liveliest discussions was about How Late It Was, How Late, which people either loved or hated. We're looking forward to our next book: One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: None of us is a wallflower, and we all really like each other. Two members of the group work in the same school but rarely see each other during the day. A few of us are on a committee that meets monthly. But we don't often see each other outside of the book club, and so we catch up on all sorts of things besides talking about the book. We bring photos and stories of our latest travel adventures; news about kids, spouses and new boyfriends; and sometimes a little present (usually a bookmark!) from some far off place like Korea, Stratford, or New York. Group members (all or some) have done other things together, like go to a reading, play golf, a spa weekend --- and they always come back and share with the rest of us!

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

A: Plan at least several months ahead --- most people are busy and need to be able to put it on their calendar. We choose books that are available in paperback because so many of us like to buy our books (rather than use the library) and hardcovers are usually so much more expensive. Have one person act as scribe and email reminders. We have a rule that we can't talk about the book (to other group members) outside of the book club. Even if we haven't finished the book, we come to meetings because we don't want to miss anything!

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

A: Our attachment to each other has definitely grown since we began this "club." We've become a very special group of friends for each other, way beyond just "book club buddies."

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