Nora St. Laurent runs two book clubs near the Atlanta area and is the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) Book Club Coordinator. She currently writes a Book Club Column for Christian Fiction Online Magazine. You can read author interviews on her Finding Hope Through Fiction blog, located at http://www.psalm516.blogspot.com, and reviews around the web at The Christian Pulse Mag, Title Trakk, Novel Reviews, and Suspense Zone. Nora and her husband run The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org

Thrilling live events are happening monthly at The Book Club Network. Hundreds of people show up to win free books! Thanks to our two sponsors, B & H Publishers and Bethany House, we’ve given away many fantastic new book releases, such as The Chair by James L. Rubart, Words by Ginny Yttrup, The Sweetest Thing by Elizabeth Musser, House of Secrets by Traci Peterson, and many more. For a listing of all the fascinating books we’ve given away, check out Giveaway Central at TBCN site www.bookfun.org.

Membership to TBCN is free and allows you to participate in all the wonderful giveaway opportunities. You’ll also read author interviews, which include fun questions. For example, I like to ask, “If you had the opportunity to spend forty-eight hours with any two people in the history of the world, alive or dead (besides Jesus), who would you pick, why, and what would you do?”

TBCN Community consists of avid readers, book club members, book club leaders, book club leader wannabes, bloggers, and authors of fiction and nonfiction books. It’s a great combination in Christian fiction and nonfiction. Book clubs have set up pages to share what they’ve been reading and doing and to give others a peek into their book fun. Book clubs also set up special events, listed at the bottom of TBCN, hoping you’ll join them.

October 17 at our live giveaway event, we announced the winner of our first Book Club Leader Appreciate Award: Rachel Savage of Calvary Chapel of Melbourne Women’s book club.

Tyndale Publishers gave away ten copies of Randal Wallace’s new book The Touch and asked us to award it to a book club at the network. We looked at all the Book Club pages and picked Rachel for her support and hard work. Rachel keeps her page current, lets everyone know what book their group is reading and their choices for future book readings, which is helpful for other clubs at TBCN.

She posts interviews their group has done with authors. She sends the author their group’s questions, then posts to the network their answers for all to enjoy. She asks other book clubs what books have worked for their groups and which ones didn’t. She participates in discussions and is an encouragement to the clubs. She’s quick to respond when e-mailed with questions, concerns, or when I’ve asked her for an idea. Rachel likes hearing from other club leaders and members. She loves all the giveaways we have at TBC, and helps to spread the word about them.

If you get a chance, check out Calvary Chapel of Melbourne Women’s Book Club. If you live in Melbourne, Florida, I’m sure she’d love to have you join her group. We appreciate all the groups that take the time and effort to set up their pages and spread the word about The Book Club Network and all the book fun we have there.

Other clubs at TBCN have posted their book club chats with authors and their book discussions on the page.

Who are the people at TBCN? We have a variety of avid readers who want to find out the next Christian fiction and nonfiction releases. There are book club leaders and members searching for their next book club picks. Members are also seeking ideas to make the book club experience fun and memorable. They are members learning what it takes to be book club leaders, how to get a book club started, where to meet, and what other club leaders recommend to read.

We have a couple of Online Book Clubs that have set up pages to entice you to join them for online discussions. They have the books listed that they’ve read and will read soon.

We can’t overlook the book addicts who love to win books, and there are those who can’t wait for our monthly live chats, which go so fast it makes your eyes pop out! We have hundreds join us monthly, quite a few members who lurk, and several who jump in and try to type and read super fast. Several are from Australia, many from Canada, and the rest all around the United States.

Let’s not forget the authors, because without them there would be no books! No book fun, no book signings, live author chats! It’s been enlightening to watch authors and book clubs connect in a very special way here at the network. Want to jump in? You can at www.bookfun.org.

Until next time.

Nora St.Laurent