Congratulations on the success of your book club!
I got the Next Door app about 9 months ago and one lady on there was posting about a book club regularly, however it was always on a day I was working.
Then one month I wasn't so I sent a message and said I'd come along. I've been to 7 meeting since then, there's only 4 of us, another lady came once but we must have put her off as she never came back!
The first few meeting we went to a restaurant for dinner but that has since closed for renovations, so the last few meetings we've been alternating going to each other's homes and we all bring food to share. I thought it would be fun the first time to bring food that related to the book, and that's been picked up by the others and now we bring food based on the country where the book is set.
Last month's book was the biography of one of Princess Margaret's ladies in waiting - so we had a boozy meal in honour of them and I made gin & tonic jello shots & a trifle, but I made the jello with champagne.
We all come from different careers but are close in age and we all get along really well. We actually do spend a bit of time talking about the books as well as getting to know more about each other's lives. One lady lived in the UK for the last 20 years, another is a curator at our main art gallery, one is an ex teacher and I'm the nurse so we often see different aspects of the books we read which makes it interesting.
One of the reasons I joined was to be open to reading a wide variety of books, but as it's turned out I seem to be the one who is selecting most of them.
I'm glad I decided to take the chance and meet up with a group of strangers.