It's always exciting to find other women who love reading as much as I do. In that vein it is especially nice when I come across of group of women who work together to come up with ways to make their book club stand up and out. Tasha Martin, the founder of Sistah Friend, a book club in South Carolina is so dedicated and excited about her group that she sent me an email asking me if I would consider adding her to the book club link here at the Women's Lit site at Bella. Well...that was a no brainer. Her request actually got me to thinking, why not feature a Book Club of the month on the Women's Lit site. This is a wonderful way to share ideas with other book clubs across the country.
So, hats off to Sistah Friends our first book club of the month!

Sistah Friend is book club for all women who enjoy reading African-American literature. Founded in 2004, we are an online community and based in Columbia, South Carolina. We are sisters that crave stimulating conversation with others like us, those who share a respect and love of African-American expression through words. The idea is to create a fun and friendly forum to openly express our feelings, thoughts, and journeys through reading. For site meetings, each month a member chooses a book and leads a monthly discussion. Each meeting is designed around a person, place, or thing from the selected book. For example, in reading Blackgentlemen.com, edited by Zane, the lead Sistah recreated a web page on a hotel room’s wall and had members pick a Celebrity’s profile and read and answer a book discussion question listed on the back of the card. For site meetings, we have four main rules: read the book, attend the meeting, contribute to the discussion, and BE CREATIVE! Online, our membership is open to all women who read Black literature. We have forums, chats, and blogs for members to interact with each other. Online rules include interacting in at least one of the communication forms to remain a member.

We are not simply a book club; we are a true sisterhood. We support each other in all areas of life. During each site meeting we begin with the questions: Does anyone have any good news? Does anyone have a problem to bring to the table? We laugh or cry, but after the news is aired, we lock it away in our problem box, symbolizing that we are not to think about it during the meeting. At the closing of the meeting, the leading Sistah throws away the slips of paper symbolizing that we are letting go of problematic personal issues. Online, we also have a virtual problem box.

We are currently accepting new members online and in Columbia, SC. We are also looking to add new branches in various U.S. cities.

Be sure to visit the forum and share your thoughts about this article with other readers.