Nora St. Laurent runs three book clubs outside of Atlanta and has established a successful model that has made her a resource for others who would like to establish clubs. To Nora, Book Clubs are a Ministry that revolve around relationships and through this, the Lord would love the women that He put in her life extravagantly. She facilitates a safe environment where women can enter into relationships. She says it best: "This is not about what church you belong to or how well you know the Bible. It also is not a matter of whether or not you go to church. God has called you into relationship with Him and with me and the other ladies in this group to love, to be loved and to encourage each other." She has a vision to duplicate the model to reach as many people as possible and is writing a book about how to do just this. Visit her blog at http://www.psalm516.blogspot.com/

Here is a bit about Donna Moore before we begin.

Donna Moore lives in the small town of Joshua, Texas where she drinks entirely too many diet cokes and inhales large quantities of dark chocolate. She loves old musicals and Christian romances. She is a wife and the mother of three children who she says makes her laugh more than she ever should. She left teaching to stay home after having her third child. This has given her the opportunity to write and study the craft of writing fiction hopefully leading to her being published someday. She is an avid reader and blogger. Her blog Write by Faith host author interviews and book reviews along with other things that strike her fancy. She is a Deacon at St. Matthew Cumberland Presbyterian Church where she is actively involved in the women’s ministry and adult discipleship.

The interview:

It’s always exciting to get together with other book club leaders and find out what their group has been doing. Donna Moore is a book club leader at her church. She has agreed to stop by and give us a glimpse into what her book club ladies enjoy. Here are a few questions I asked Donna:

Can you describe what members can typically expect at your meetings? Does your book club have a name?

Faith Meets Fiction is the name of our book club. We are a group of women who share a love of reading novels that reflect our Christian views. Doesn’t that sound like a great beginning of a purpose statement?

Every month we read one book and meet on the fourth Thursday at 6:00 PM. We always, always, always have chocolate. I think the ladies would have my head if it didn’t appear on the table.

At the beginning of every meeting we start with prayer, and of course when you have women together in one room, we all have to share stories about what’s happened in our lives over the past month. Every month, I also share books that I have reviewed on my blog. These are generally pretty short talks to introduce other books that we might not have a chance to read. Then we dive in and discuss the book we have all read. I have a list of discussion questions to get the ball rolling, but usually after a question or two the discussion takes on a life of its own.

Tell us some books that you have read at book club that your members raved about. What made them love the book so much? This might help other clubs in their book selection process.

We tend to like the romance novels and lean more toward contemporary, but we are flipping between historical and contemporary. I can’t get them to jump into a fantasy or science fiction novel. It’s important to know what the people in your group like to read, but it is just as important to try new things.

• The Guy I’m Not Dating, Too Good to Be True, and Beach Dreams by Trish Perry: We loved this series and it’s probably one of our favorites.
• Kissing Adrien by Siri Mitchell: This discussion centered on the differences of Christianity in other cultures. We also enjoyed The Cubicle Next Door. Siri Mitchell writes wonderful romance with lots of humor.
• A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman: This was one of the first historical novels we read.
• Elvis Takes a Backseat by Leanna Ellis: Since many of the ladies are Elvis fans, this was a particular hit.
• Faking Grace and Splitting Harriet by Tamara Leigh: When we read Splitting Harriet we had to have jelly bellies instead of chocolate. One of the things we identified with Tamara Leigh’s writing is that she looks into the world of contemporary Christians. She shows life inside churches and what it is like to be a Christian in today’s world.
• Petticoat Ranch by Mary Connealy: We love her humor first and foremost, but she also does a great job and demonstrating and poking fun at the differences between men and women. • The Shack by William Young: By far the liveliest discussion we’ve had, and we opened this one up to men.

Have you ever had an author speak at your book club, in person or on the telephone? If so, who? How did the meeting go? Any surprises you learned about the author?

Britta Coleman, the author of Potter Springs, came to our book club last September. She is an incredibly sweet woman. I had met her at a writing conference the year before and purchased her book. She discussed how she came up with the idea for the book while lying in her bathtub, trying to relax while her kids called for her under the door. Potter Springs it is about a pastor’s wife who runs away to Mexico. Britta Coleman is truly one of the sweetest authors I have met.

Another author who has come to visit with us is Leanna Ellis. She was the keynote speaker at the mother-daughter tea last April, and she will attend the book club this April while we discuss Lookin’ Back Texas.

We’re not able to do phone conferences, but we do have local authors come and speak. So if any authors in the Fort Worth, Texas, area would want us to discuss their books, I would love for them to contact me.

The entire interview with Donna Moore can be read on my blog www.psalm516.blogspot.com. Thanks, Donna, for stopping by and letting us get to know you.