Homeless Ministry Book Club

The book club began November 3, 2009 and was modeled after a homeless book club founded in Boston, which was featured on CBS. The book club serves as an important and personal extension of the homeless ministry at Bethel. The church provides the books at no charge and participants discuss their readings on Tuesday mornings. Trust, self-esteem, and respect are some of the positive attributes that emerge from a healthy dialogue with one another. Suzanne Alexander and Dave Baskerville serve as leaders in the book club. In addition, Suzanne is the founder of the "Streets of Madison" a blog which provides the latest updates on the authors and schedules for discussion.

Technology allows us to easily communicate with people around the country, and various authors have generously donated their time to SKYPE with the homeless ministry book group and some authors have personally visited with the group. In November 2010, Reverand Ron Tibbitts, founder of the Boston Book Club visited our group. He stated, at the time, that there were 27 homeless book groups across the nation.

Book Club Leadership:

SUZANNE ALEXANDER - Suzanne writes fiction, much of it inspired by the years she spent working as a physician. She co-leads the book club for the homeless in Madison and blogs about it at www.streetsofmadison.blogspot.com. She lives with her husband and teenage son. Something people might not know about Suzanne is that she and her son once took first place in teamform at a local karate completion!