My book group has been going since about 1994 (that was when I joined and it was not new then).

Our protocol is: we each nominate 3 books about every 7-8 months, everyone votes and we choose one book from each person. Then, 2 months before we run out of books, we choose again for about 3-4 more books. This covers the year and allows us to choose books later in the year based on new interests or new book releases.

The person who nominated the book runs that month's book group meeting and we all make sure that everyone gets to speak and we try to minimize interrupting each other. Since Covid started, we have been meeting on Zoom. It is actually easier to minimize interrupting that way.

We do our fun chatting at the beginning or end of our meeting. Before Covid, we used to do a December potluck. Since Covid, we just take December off. Several of us are very high risk, and one person moved out of state, so we are continuing with Zoom so that everyone can participate.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE my book group!!! And we all know/like each other pretty darn well by now (not all of us have been in the group 29 years, but several of us have....)

One of the best things is that I read books which I would never have read on my own, and even if I don't always like them, it is still interesting to have a big variety. And we all agree that if you really dislike a book, you don't need to read it.

One thing that helps us with a variety of books/topics is that our book group includes both men and women.