A member recently sent me a note that her book group likes to read books that have current TV or theatrical releases. They'll read the book together, and then, once done, go watch the movie and then hold a discussion on the differences or similarites both have to one another.

What does your group do that is a bit different, something that might flag up the occasional dry spot? I'd love to hear the idea myself, and sure the others who visit would as well!

I don’t know if what we do is “different” from other groups but I feel it helps our group function better. December has become our “free” month. All of us have families and December is such a busy month that we don’t choose a book to read as a group that month. Instead, each of us recommends a book or two that we have read that was not a reading selection for our book group. Additionally, we use December to set up the next 6 months of books we plan to read as a group. We discuss genres, authors, favorite book cover, any books that were a real disappointment, etc. It is a nice way to get a little book club business done and to discover some new authors/reading material :-)

We have done a few book/movie months. Our most recent was IN HER SHOES by Jennifer Weiner. We do 1-2 book/movie selections a year and they are a lot of fun for us!

I feel like too many people would cheat and not read the book!

A: Christmas 2006. We don't read a book in December. We usually have a little Christmas party where we eat and enjoy chatting. This particular Christmas we had a "Dickens" of a time! You can order a book online called Christmas with Dickens by Cedric Dickens. Here is the website: http://www.jackprises.com/index.html.

I ordered the book and used it exclusively to do a Dickens Christmas Carol Christmas party. We used recipes inside the book and everyone brought an authentic dish. My wife and I provided the Christmas turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce. On this same website I ordered the CD of Gerald Charles Dickens doing a dramatization of A Christmas Carol on the CD. We had wassail to drink and appetizers when the guests arrived. We listened to stave one of A Christmas Carol enjoying the wassail and appetizers.

Then we took a break to do restrooms and such. Then we listened to stave two. At the end of that we had our meal. We played traditional Christmas carols from the time of Dickens’s life while we ate.

Then, at the end of the meal, I offered coffee and more wassail if anyone wanted it. We listened to stave three. Then we played a game that was played at Dickens’s lifetime that was listed in my book. At the end of the game, we listened to stave four. At the end of that stave we had our "Christmas pudding" dessert. One of the members brought a tapioca pudding with a vanilla wafer crust and put in a sprig of holly, and she had made up a tray and lit a candle on the tray to have "a flaming pudding!" (It would be neat to do the real Christmas pudding that is in the novel…some other year!)

After our "pudding" we listened to stave five. At the end of stave five we opened little presents that everyone brought to exchange, and then I had found little shot glasses that I had put Snowflake stickers on to decorate. Everyone picked a "drink" to pour into their shotglass and then at the end we did a toast to "God bless Us, Everyone!" and then downed our shot. I let everyone keep their shot glass and then I presented each member with their own copy of A Christmas Carol and a recipe for a traditional English drink featured in the novel called a Smoking Bishop, which Scrooge and Bob Cratchit enjoy together. (I tried the recipe the Christmas of 2007 and it's good!) I also had everyone take a short quiz on the story. I found it online. It had 10 questions. I quickly graded them, and the person with the top score won a copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore, which was published about the same time or so as A Christmas Carol.

Everyone raved about what a good time they had and how we should do it again sometime. This book you can order also had a table blessing to do before the meal and other things too numerous to mention to do for the evening. I'd highly recommend your book club do this too. I had our house all decorated and had a very festive table. We got out our nice china and crystal and it was a very enjoyable evening. We started the festivities at six and it was about 9:30 or so when everyone headed home all warm inside after hearing Charles Dickens’s lovely Christmas story!

To order paperback copies of A Christmas Carol, you can go to this website: http://store.doverpublications.com/0486268659.html. I ordered copies for all my book club members and right now they are on sale 75 cents apiece --- unabridged! (I paid a dollar at the time!)

We did this with The Five People you Meet in Heaven. We read the book, and for our discussion night, we rented the movie and had carnival themed food. It was awesome.

We also watched In Her Shoes after reading the book.

I love this idea. Of course we are usually disappointed in the movie in relation to the books, but it is fun to see how the characters are brought out by the directors.