The Tea Time Book Club
by Lady Tea

Where does the tea part come in at a book club?
Some groups like to meet at coffee or tea houses, or even restaurants. Some groups prefer a setting a bit more casual, and choose to meet in someone's home. This can be the same individual's home each meeting time, or it can rotate among the group members. The host chooses the refreshments, and the book and then tea is served.

Remember the book club has to have organization to run smooth.
The name can be a character from a book. I belonged to a book club years ago, it was called The Quincy P. Morris book club after the only American in the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. It is up to the members or appointed person of the book club to decide this.

Make it fun, bring your favorite cup to your first meeting.
Take turns tell why the cup is special to you. Tell why you want to be a member of the Tea Time Book Club* ( the name of our book club). This is the time at your first meeting to make decisions, who will host the next tea. Remember they get to choose the book. This person will send out invitations to all the members ( it is a good idea to keep members to around five total).

Plan how often to meet.
We decided that every six weeks was a good amount of time to finish a book. We all read the book chosen by the host and show up for tea at the hostess's home on the appointed day and time. We have tea and discuss the book. We love tea and love to read too. Our group get into interesting interpretive discussions and questions.

The Book
You can choose to read best sellers, new releases, romance, horror, mysteries biographies, science fiction or switch off and mix genres something different each time. This will have to be discussed and decided by all.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

This one of my favorites. Our club chooses to stay mostly within a specific genre. Again it depends on the members and what all decide.

Have a movie night once or twice a year this is good around the busy holidays when it is hard to find the time to read. Get together watch the movie first, then get the book and read it for your next meeting. I love this as the discussion goes wild. You now put a face to the character, also the tea talk is how the movie and book differ. You could switch read the book first then watch the movie. This is when you hear I never would have thought of that character looking or sounding like that I thought........

The Tea
As for the tea table, that varies according to each member's personality. Sometimes tea times are very proper and other times they are quite informal. It really doesn't matter as long as the atmosphere lends itself to fun, fellowship and conversation. You might even want to add some whimsy to your tea time and bring in some themes from your book:
Come in dressed like what you think Jo from Little Women might be dressed in, or come and stay in character throughout the tea.

Serve scones, have oolong tea or a peach flavored oolong (try loose tea, once you have the leaf it is hard to go back to the bag) If you do prefer the bag that is fine. Republic Of Tea has a wonderful peach tea, it is delicious hot or iced. (This tea comes in tall round containers.) Find a lace cloth for the table, adorn the table with mixed wild flowers or daisies. Take your tea outside in the garden for a change. Let your creativity soar.

Tea Favors
Tea favors are optional. You might have one or two larger ones to give away as door prizes; one drawing for just coming, and one drawing for everyone who finished the book. Here are some ideas for book and tea favors, but you might consider some that go better with your theme:

• Tea cup candles - these are easy to make and can be quite inexpensive if you can find tea cups at one of the many dollar stores.
  
  
• Tea cup pincushions - these would be fun to give after reading a book like Little Women.
  
  
• Tea cup or tea pot flower arrangements - individual tea pots are quite small and make delightful little flower arrangements. Again the dollar stores are great for this.
  
  
• Introduce your guest to loose tea. Look for infusers, yes the dollar store, (don't laugh I am saving you money) then get the precut round toiling at the craft store, scoop loose tea into center,bring up sides, close tight with a twist tie, next tie the infuser with ribbon over twist tie.

Remember you have only about two turns a year if there are five of you. So have fun, read, sip your tea and think of Lady Tea, that's me!

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