BBAW Guest: Book Club Girl + Giveaway

(We'll be celebrating some of the different niches in book blogging this week. One of the ways we'll do this is by having different authors and bloggers share with us! Welcome, Book Club Girl, one of the nominees for Best Book Club Blog!)

As Book Club Girl, the question I'm probably most often asked is, how do you pick the books your group reads? Having been in several book groups over the years, I feel like my current group has really hit on a winning formula that keeps everyone feeling as though they have a say and no one dominating the group with their taste or choices. It's pretty simple really. Each month, the hostess for that month is responsible for presenting 5 books for us to choose from. We do the selection process for the next book first (well, after some socializing time) and before we discuss that month's book. Each book is presented briefly and then passed around the group for everyone to have a look at. Several group members choose their five books by heading to the bookstore and finding out what other book groups are reading -- most independent booksellers will post this information -- as well as have someone on staff who knows what's hot in reading groups. Libraries are also a great source for your initial five books to peruse.

After everyone's had a chance to take a look, we hold two rounds of voting. In the first round, you can vote for two books. I find this very helpful, as it's often difficult to narrow my choice down to one book right away. Then we take the top two vote getters from that first round and vote on those in the final round. This time you only get one vote. Occasionally we run into some tie situations, but we keep voting until they're broken. If there's a book that was a very close second, we try to bring that to the next meeting as one of the next 5 choices. What's great about this system is that it is (mostly) democratic and everyone has their moment in the sun each year to present 5 books that they're passionate about or interested in.

Should your turn to host your book club be coming up, enter to win the Book Club Girl Hostess Survival Kit and you won't even have to think about what 5 books to choose, as I'll send you 5 wonderful books to get you started! In addition, the Survival Kit will include everything you'll need for a great night -- you just supply the venue and the chairs! One lucky winner of the kit will receive:

* A basket of cheese, crackers, cookies and wine for up to 12 people
* 5 great book group books to vote on for your group's next pick. And Book Club Girl will then donate 12 copies whichever book is chosen for your entire group to read.
* 12 Book Club Girl mousepads to give out as party favors that night
* 12 Book Club Girl bookmarks to mark everyone's favorite passages
* 12 Book Club Girl coasters to protect your coffee table from all those wine glasses!

Enter to win by posting a comment at Book Club Girl about how your book group chooses books. At the conclusion of BBAW, we'll do a random drawing of the comments received to pick the winner!