Bobbi G. Furst of Lyndhurst, OH talks about her book club, Beautiful Minds. In this interview you'll find out what the group's favorite (and not-so-favorite) books have been thus far, and what Bobbi does to ensure that her fellow members enjoy themselves before, during and after their meetings.

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

A: Our name is Beautiful Minds and we have been meeting for about 8 months now.

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

A: We have 20+ members, only women, ages 30-40.

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

A: We meet every six weeks at my house.

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

A: The women who come to the meetings bring the appetizers and the dishes are "inspired" from the book that we've read.

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

A: I lead the group and make up most of the questions that are asked, but I do look up on the Internet to see if there are any other interesting questions that I could add.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: We don't have one particular genre. We have read all types.

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: I ask for suggestions from all the members and they send their ideas via email to me. I then select five books from those selections and we vote on the next book at our current book club meeting.

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

A: I really liked the Wicked by Gregory Maguire book discussion. The different aspects that people drew from it were really interesting. Our favorite book was probably The Secret Life of Bees. Everyone really liked that book.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We have 30 minutes before we start the discussion to get food and some wine. While we discuss, everyone is laughing and finding humor in most of our books. After the book discussion is over, we vote for our next book and mingle with all the ladies.

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

A: Keep an open mind to other people's views and beliefs because that is why you are there in the first place, to share one another's thoughts. Try controversial books and see what happens.

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

A: No horror stories, thank God. We did read Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen and I thought everyone would love the book because it was so lighthearted. But I was so surprised when there were people who were offended and basically thought it was a terrible waste of time.

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

A: I love having only women there. I can appreciate men's points of view too, but I think we really come out of our shells when it's only women.

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