ReadingGroupGuides.com - The Ultimate Book Club Roundtable

The Ultimate Book Club

Lisa Watkins is a member of “The Ultimate Book Club” in Culver City, CA. Together for 11 years, members of her group take pride in thinking “outside of the box” and often incorporate themed activities or field trips into their discussions. In this interview, Lisa shares the qualities that make her book club unique, exciting and fun, and offers advice for other discussion groups looking to do the same. She also talks about some of the community outreach activities in which her book club participates.

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

A: We are called “The Ultimate Book Club,” and we’ve been together for 11 years.

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

A: We have 11 women and no men. Age ranges from 36-52.

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

A: We meet once a month at various locations depending on where the hosts would like to meet. For example, one hostess picked The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. She mailed invitations informing the group that we will be a detective for the day and that we may need to solve a cryptogram (so wear comfortable shoes). She held her meeting at the Getty's Museum in Los Angeles while there was a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit going on. We toured the exhibit and learned history about the artist. We had lunch in the cafeteria to discuss the book and paired up to solve the cryptogram that was noted at the bottom of each invite (so much fun). The cryptogram winded up being everyone’s first and last name.

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

A: Yes, we eat whatever the hostess provides. Normally, we center the meals around the theme of the book. We read the book A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. The hostess held the meeting at an Afghan Restaurant. The Afghan owners provided us with a complete Afghani meal, an interesting history lesson and a dance. It was a lovely and educational experience!!

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

A: The hostess leads the discussion and it's up to her to use reading group guides, questions that are in the back of the book or create her own questions.

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: All sorts, including The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Snow Flower and Secret Fan by Lisa See, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The list goes on.

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: The next book club member in line chooses a book of her interest. We announce the next book at the end of the current meeting.

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

A: Some of our favorite books include:

The Good House by Tananarive Due
Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Some of our favorite discussions include:

Sugar by Bernice McFadden
A Conversation with the Mann by John Ridley
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We think outside of the box and hold meetings at places relating to the book. For example, we read Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley, and the hostess invited us to a Murder Mystery Dinner and show. She gave us pocket-sized murder mystery games in our swag bag.

We read Selah's Bed by Jenoyne Adams, which was about Selah's memories. The hostess instructed us to bring pictures of us from past meetings. Unbeknownst to us, the hostess rented a stretch Hummer limo (this is where the discussion took place while going to the scrapbook store). As we stepped out of the limo she handed us a scrapbook and paper to use during the scrapbook demonstration she planned for us. When we were done, we headed back to her house, where her husband created gourmet meals for us that we chose before we left for the event.

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

A: Try to think outside the box. Try to create questions that create discussions (not just a yes or no answer). Create games that incorporate ideas from the book. Depending on what you’re reading, make the conversation relevant to life circumstances, make it personal. Your meeting should incorporate all the senses --- smell, taste, sight, sound and touch --- all relating to the book.

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

A: One member, not mentioning any names, read the book, came to the meeting, was involved in the conversation and wondered why she didn't remember any of the scenes the members were taking about. Halfway through the meeting she realized she read the wrong book; instead of James Patterson’s Beach Road, she read James Patterson's The Beach House.

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

A: We have been together for almost 11 years, and every meeting is different. We take November and December off so each member has one meeting a year. This gives you plenty of time to choose a book and plan your meeting. We have kept the membership at 10, and just recently we’ve added one more person. We read one book a month. Our club has had meetings in the most unique places, from a Temecula winery, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Glen Ivy Hot Springs Spa, to an old ’50s restaurant in Hollywood and a scrapbooking store. Our meetings are always exciting, always different.

We also collect dues each month. We decided at the end of the year what non-profit organization to which we would like to donate. A portion of the money went to the AIDS Foundation, the Heifer Foundation and to a girls’ book club named “Just Us Girls” (we voted on the name). We wanted to reach out to young girls between the ages of 12-15 to get them interested in reading and to show them the importance of literacy, the camaraderie of young girls and how you can make reading fun. One of the hosts set up a meeting with Eso Won Bookstore located in Leimert Park, which is a district in Los Angeles, CA to host a book club at their facility for preteens. A couple of the young ladies in our book club do scrap-booking. They brought their scrapbooks of past meetings, which showcased our book club outings and the eclectic arrangement of books we read. Needless to say, he was impressed so he allowed us to host the meeting at his store. We invited over 20 young ladies. We picked the book The Secret Life of Bees for the girls to read. We created an eye-catching flyer with a registration slip attached and mailed out personalized invitations to each girl who registered. We decorated a section of the store with bee-like decorations, played games, served food and gave each participant a swag bag that consisted of honeysuckle lotion, Bit-O-Honey candy, a notebook and other items relating to the book. This turned out to be a very rewarding experience.

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