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The Bookends Book Club — Canton, Michigan

How did you get together? Book club member Sabrina tells the story: "When I first moved [to Canton, Michigan] in December 2005, my first three goals were to find a church, bible study and friends. When I met my next door neighbor Tara, we were both reading Memoirs of a Geisha. After talking about the book, I asked her if she wanted to go see the movie together. We went to the movies and out to dinner afterward to discuss it. We had such a great time that I suggested to her that we should start our own book club. We chose The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. We both took four books and walked around our new subdivision knocking on doors asking women if they wanted to join our book club. The first eight women that said yes were given the book and asked to join us in January 2006 at my home for the first meeting. We are so excited to have such a diverse group of women. We were all so excited for our new book club and friendships. Over the past three years, we have been there for each other with love, food and friendship during childbirths, surgeries, birthday parties and more."

Where do you usually meet? We rotate houses the fourth Saturday of each month. Every month, someone volunteers to host the meeting at their home. The host makes dinner, and we discuss the book as we eat. We chose to rotate homes so we can keep the intimate and cozy setting.

Which of Oprah's Book Club selections have you read together?
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski.

What are your all-time favorite selections? Fall on Your Knees, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

How do you decide what to read next? We discuss the upcoming books at the meeting and then decide as a group what book to read next. Sometimes it is based on a recommendation about a great book, wanting a deeper read, wanting an easy read, etc.

Are you planning any special trips or events around a book you're reading? Not as of yet. We decided this year to do some community service as a book club. We have decided to focus our outreach on books or reading. In the past, we've gone to the movies together to see The Kite Runner and The Da Vinci Code. We also watched The Other Boleyn Girl on television during one of our monthly meetings.

We all went to The Oprah Show together for a taping. We even received the cool Amazon Kindle. Thanks, Oprah! 

See what this book club had to say during the Edgar Sawtelle webcast!