I have been running book clubs for several years. I discuss characters, themes, structure, POV, specific plots and always end with “what will you take away” from the novel. I feel that I might be getting a little stale and would love some suggestions to liven things up or add something new. My groups meet once a month but I meet 9 different groups. I might be the only one feeling this way but welcome ideas from this group.
Just a thought - perhaps you could find two+ reviews with differing points of view, whether major such as one reviewer finding fault with the entire book OR just reviews with minor different POV. Read the highlights of these opinions to club members and then ask them to discuss why the differences. Seek out reviews for the book from different cultures or countries, too, if possible.
When I was in a club sometimes every member would bring one question to the discussion (other than those provided by the publisher.) This concept often yielded brand new ideas to explore.
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I do not facilitate a book club, but having worked in a public library for many years, I helped a large number of book club members and facilitators find just the type of alternate information you speak about in your comment. I think yours are great ideas and any one of them could be just the breath of fresh air a book discussion might need.
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Hello Judi–in my book club experience, which is not all that broad, members not only enjoy discussing the book, but they also feel good about being asked their opinion in a broader sense. Perhaps you could ask the book club members what they might add to or take away from the format in order to make their book club experience more satisfying, engaging, entertaining, challenging or . . .
The ideas could then be a point of discussion for freshening things up. Or not, in the event that the members are satisfied with the way things are. 
Thanks for the suggestion of comparing divergent reviews. Sometimes when we read an award winning book, that we haven’t enjoyed, we discuss what is the criteria for the award. I don’t use the publisher’s questions. My groups pay me so I want to give them something they can’t get on their own.
My experience is that it is difficult to get members to say too much. 
And…we do not like those pre-prepared questions from the publisher or some professional place. They seem to bring one-word answers or no response.
I try to start with was it worth reading and that brings a bit of a response.
Best of luck at your next meeting. It’s difficult.
Good ideas about different reviews.
Something that’s worked well in my bookgroup (we’ve been meeting for more than 40 years now!) is to ask each member to pick a line or passage that meant something to them. It could be that they found it beautifully said, or terribly expressed, or that it confused them, or angered them… It’s pretty effective in getting discussions going. We don’t have a paid leader, but each month, someone leads the discussion, and we generally include as much as we can find about the author, and significant reviews, both pro and con.
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In one book group, the leader usually asked what was a favorite line or thought expressed by one of the book’s characters and why. The responses from the group often brought out something I’d either glossed over or not really reflected on.
A new question that was asked a book group this month was” what were the red herrings and how did they impact who you thought did it?” That worked with the mystery we’re reading - not sure that would work with other genres.
Hi Judi, I’m impressed with your book club experience. A couple things that over the years were fun additions to our monthly club meetings were: Always including a biography about the author.
Sometimes aspects of their own life can be noted in the book which makes the read even more interesting. Second thing we did one time was take two fiction works about the same topic by two very different authors and compare how their styles made the topic uniquely theirs. The third thing is to schedule a book at the same time a play or movie will be playing. In our case Fahrenheit 451 was being presented at a local theater so we adjusted our book schedule to include that book the same month. It was extra fun to have an out-of-the book outing together, and intriguing to experience how the book was interpreted to the stage.
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I’m in a Book Club/social club and we have had very lively and fun discussions when we pose this question: “If this Book was made into a movie, who would you cast?”
Also, my experience with Book Clubs is to break into small groups. We like to limit our round table discussions to 4-6 people. A great was to start discussions is to ask for each person for a ROSE (something they liked) and a THORN (dislike).
Wow 9 different clubs is impressive! I haven’t run any clubs but I do participate in a few myself. I always like to keep a list of interesting passages or just sentences from the books I read - the more I can collect from one single book, the more I like a book. It would be good to have your members discuss any passages that especially stood out to them and why. I think you should also try reaching out to authors directly and see if they can participate in the discussions or just be available to any questions about their books - I think that would be interesting perk to have to your clubs.