You've discussed the ways to make your club even better and you've even made a plan to make a plan.  But can you think of a better time of year to change your club's internal policies, enact your 14-point manifestos and even consider selecting a new slate of candidates to run things around the club?

A few ideas for the new year:

• Choose books that you will actually look forward to.  Not because you "have" to, or that they are the "it" books of the moment.  Find a book that is fascinating to you and make your case, backed up by your own carefully thought out remarks, reviews and recommendations.
• Read authors new to your group.  Chances for a memorable discussion are greater with an author's best work vs. his or her latest offering.  Authors like to write, but that doesn't mean you have to read all of their output.
• Assess those things that are working in your book club and those that aren't. You don't have to embark on a grandiose restructuring, but maybe a tweak here and there about the way books are selected, the way members volunteer for hosting or even who might take on the planning responsibilities for a night out.
• Don't reject challenging, yet fascinating, non-fiction.  Just because a literary biography is long and may even have footnotes, take the challenge.
• No time like the present to act on your ideas for club trips, author visits, guest lecturers or special two- to three-month reading extravaganzas for longer books or series.  And if you are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (reading it over two to three months, but of course), don't forget to reward yourselves with a viewing of the miniseries.  Diaphanous wardrobe optional.

By now, you are in full holiday mode, in life and in book clubs. 

For holiday inspiration, I turn to Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.  Incredibly and seasonally, she was a guest at our library and had important new information to share and to wear.

Amy's wardrobe:  Amy looked adorable in a replica of the famous Barbie dress, "Friday night date".  White puffed sleeved blouse under a bright blue dress festooned with appliqued daisies, birdhouse and forest mushrooms.

Audience participation: Amy encourages someone from the audience to engage in a craft that involved pantyhose, a burlap kind of material, bags of beans and large felt eyes.  Evidently it was to create something to drape over one's eyes after a hard night of entertaining.  "OK, she's weird," Amy pronounces about the volunteer.  "Just keep working," she ordered later.  Amy is an Aries.

On pal Stephen Colbert: "He's a bad cook." 

A gift from the audience: Very on message, Amy received from a fan a box of nuts (she was genuinely pleased) and a squirrel nutcracker (not as enthralled as perhaps she should have been, but she did note that the squirrel is the state animal of North Carolina).

Amy's holiday meal plan (so far): a big tenderloin for Christmas and butter cookies, one of her favorite recipes in the book.

Person Amy would most like to have at a dinner party: The founder of the Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low. "I would make her do the dishes."

Opening next month, the long anticipated adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement.  A companion paperback edition features the films stars Keira Knightly as Cecilia Tallis and James McAvoy as Robbie Turner.  Though perfectly cast and Oscar-tracked, readers who pick up these editions often complain: How can we imagine the characters any other way?  If this sounds like you, look for the "traditional" cover of the now-classic almost-Booker winner novel which opens on the hottest day of the summer in 1935.   Atonement steams its way through World War II in a masterful, sweeping and romantic yet ultimately tragic conclusion.  Or is it? Waste no time in pitching it to the club.  And check out the dashing Atonement trailer.  Saoirse Ronan plays the young Briony and she is the major revelation of the film.

After your extensive reading, preparation and viewing, discuss why the Atonement movie was not stretched out to its proper Granada Television length (Brideshead Revisited). And did you know there was a Pride and Prejudice miniseries from 1995 that did not star Keira Knightly?

You and your club talk about it all the time, but somehow you never leave the couch.

Even day trips require planning and some would argue extensive planning.  The thought is just too daunting for some groups.  But the upside?  Taking a trip with your book club is something more than fun and interesting: it encapsulates and amplifies the whole book club experience. 

Here is a simple plan for making your book club travel dreams come true:

• Plan something close to home but not a place you can reach every day.  Getting there is part of the experience and you are all in it together. Two to three hours away is optimal.
• Did I mention planning?  A point person or persons is essential.  And this person's job description is merely: make it happen.  No one wants to be this person by election.  This only leads to grumbling and bad vibes. Someone has to really want the job, and dare I say it, campaign for it?  If you or your club lacks this passionate organizer, chances are you will never get out the door.
• Once the destination is established, regular email communication is everything.  If you are staying overnight, reserving a special rate in advance may work for your group.  But beware: the passionate organizer could be responsible for no-shows.  It might be most effective -- and achievable -- for each member to make his or her own reservations.  Remember, people always have to drop out at the last minute.
• Bring cash and keep track of what you order if it is a group meal.
• Wear comfortable shoes, and prepare to walk as much as possible.
• Plan to visit the sites thematically connected to the book and arrange for knowledgeable tour guides.  Everyone will agree it is worth it in the end.
• Don't forget to arrange a time and place to have your book club.  After all, that's why you are travelling in the first place. 

The hottest book you are about to read was published between 1865 and 1869, its author has been variously described as one of the greatest novelists of all time, a visionary genius and a nut. And the translators of this tome are getting the full celebrity treatment.  Of course we are talking about War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy newly translated by the husband and wife team, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

We loved the Oprah-annointed translation of Anna Karenina, and we are ready for new Tolstoy challenges.  But we are afraid we will be laughed out of the club when soon, we pitch the 1296-page tome.

If your club thinks Water for Elephants was long, try something different in arranging for a very special book club:

• After the jeering has stopped, ask if any member of the original club wants to read War and Peace. 
• You now have a dedicated group, at least three from your original book club, but why stop there? Ask around and find a few more dedicated members-to-be.
• Divide the book into three sections. Meet on a monthly basis on a different day of the week and time than the original club.  
• Try organizing around a weeknight dinner or a Sunday afternoon.  A smaller group also means more flexibility. Schedules should align so that everyone can make each discussion. 
• Finish your discussion within three months.
• Celebrate with grand Russian-themed banquet in the style of Count Rostov and enjoy the supplications of those who didn't read the book when they beg for an invitation.