Learn Hardcore French: Nous avons un club de lecture, et notre groupe se rencontre tous les mardis soir. - We have a reading club, and our group meets every Tuesday evening.

lecture in French usually means reading, not lecture/talk like in English.
The pattern nom + de + nom often expresses purpose or activity:
- un club de lecture = a club for reading
- une salle de sport = a room for sport
- une salle de classe = a room for class

un club de livres would sound like a club *of books* (as if the books are the members), which is odd.

un club de lire is ungrammatical, because after de you normally use a noun, not an infinitive verb, in this kind of expression. You could say un club pour lire, but it’s not the usual phrase for “book club.”

Why is it nous avons un club de lecture and not nous sommes un club de lecture?

Nous avons un club de lecture = We have a book club.
- Emphasis: this group of people possesses/organizes a book club.
Nous sommes un club de lecture = We are a book club.
- Emphasis: the group itself is the club.

Both can be grammatically correct, but they mean slightly different things:

If you’re talking about a group of friends who created or participate in a book club, nous avons un club de lecture is natural.
If you’re describing the identity of your organization (“Our organization is a book club”), nous sommes un club de lecture can work better.

Why is it notre groupe se rencontre and not just notre groupe rencontre?

The verb rencontrer by itself is not reflexive and means “to meet (someone)”:

Je rencontre Marie. = I meet Marie.

When people meet each other, French often uses the reflexive form:

Nous nous rencontrons. = We meet (each other).

With un groupe, you can talk about the members meeting each other, so you use the reflexive:

Notre groupe se rencontre = Our group meets (the members meet among themselves).

If you said notre groupe rencontre without se, you would normally need a direct object:

Notre groupe rencontre qui ? — Notre groupe rencontre un auteur.
= Our group meets an author.

So se rencontre expresses a reciprocal action among the group members.

Is notre groupe se rencontre the most natural way to say this, or could I say something else?

It’s correct, but many French speakers would find these options more natural:

Notre groupe se réunit tous les mardis soir.
(se réunir = to get together, to hold a meeting)
Notre groupe se retrouve tous les mardis soir.
(se retrouver = to meet up again / to get together)

Nuances:

se réunit is a bit more formal or organized (meetings, committees).
se retrouve is more casual (friends meeting up).
se rencontre is perfectly understandable, but less idiomatic with groupe in this habitual context than se réunit/se retrouve.

Why is it notre groupe se rencontre (3rd person singular) and not notre groupe se rencontrent?

In French, verbs agree with the grammatical subject, not with how many people are inside that subject.

le groupe is grammatically singular → you must use se rencontre.
The fact that the group contains many people doesn’t change the verb form.

Compare:

Le groupe se rencontre. (singular)
Les groupes se rencontrent. (plural)

So notre groupe se rencontre is correct; notre groupe se rencontrent is incorrect.

What’s the difference between tous les mardis soir, le mardi soir, and just mardi soir?

They all talk about Tuesday evening, but with different nuances:

tous les mardis soir = every Tuesday evening (repeated habit)
- Strong emphasis on every Tuesday.
le mardi soir = on Tuesday evenings / Tuesday nights (in general)
- Also expresses a habit, but a bit less insistent than tous les.
mardi soir (without article) = (this/that) Tuesday evening
- Normally refers to a specific Tuesday in context:
  - On se voit mardi soir ? = Shall we meet (this) Tuesday evening?

In your sentence, tous les mardis soir clearly means the book club meets every Tuesday evening as a regular schedule.

Why is it tous les mardis soir and not tous les mardis soirs with an s?

Both tous les mardis soir and tous les mardis soirs are possible, but:

In practice, tous les mardis soir (with soir in the singular) is much more common.
French often keeps time-of-day words like matin, après‑midi, soir in the singular in habitual expressions:
- tous les matins
- tous les dimanche matin
- tous les soirs

Adding the s in soirs is not wrong, but it sounds heavier and is usually avoided in everyday speech. Native speakers almost always say tous les mardis soir.

Could I say chaque mardi soir instead of tous les mardis soir? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say chaque mardi soir and it’s correct.

Nuance:

tous les mardis soir = every Tuesday evening, slightly more colloquial, very frequent.
chaque mardi soir = each Tuesday evening, a bit more formal or “item-by-item” in feeling.

In everyday speech, tous les mardis soir is more common. Chaque mardi soir can sound more written or slightly more emphatic on each individual Tuesday.

What’s the difference between soir and soirée? Could I say tous les mardis en soirée?

soir and soirée are related but not identical:

le soir = the evening as a time of day, more neutral and factual.
- Il travaille le soir. = He works in the evening.
la soirée = the evening as a duration/event (how the evening passes, what happens).
- J’ai passé une bonne soirée. = I had a nice evening.

In habitual time expressions for schedule, soir is more natural:

tous les mardis soir ✅
le mardi soir ✅

You can say tous les mardis en soirée, and it will be understood, but it’s less standard and may sound like you’re saying “at some point during Tuesday evening” rather than at a fixed time. For a regular meeting, tous les mardis soir is the most idiomatic.

Can I use on instead of nous and say On a un club de lecture?

Yes. In everyday spoken French, on is used very often instead of nous:

On a un club de lecture. (very natural orally)
Nous avons un club de lecture. (more standard/written, also fine in speech)

Notes:

With on, the verb is always 3rd person singular:
- On a, on fait, on va…
But it usually means “we” in modern spoken French.

In formal writing (reports, essays, official documents), nous is safer. In casual conversation, on is more idiomatic.

Could I change the word order and say Tous les mardis soir, notre groupe se rencontre?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct and actually very natural:

Tous les mardis soir, notre groupe se rencontre.

Placing the time expression at the beginning of the sentence is common to emphasize when something happens, especially in storytelling or explanations.

Both orders are fine:

Nous avons un club de lecture, et notre groupe se rencontre tous les mardis soir.
Nous avons un club de lecture, et tous les mardis soir, notre groupe se rencontre.

Same meaning; the second gives a bit more emphasis to the regular schedule.

Is the comma before et necessary in Nous avons un club de lecture, et notre groupe se rencontre…?

In French, the comma before et is more flexible than in English. Both of these are possible:

Nous avons un club de lecture et notre groupe se rencontre tous les mardis soir.
Nous avons un club de lecture, et notre groupe se rencontre tous les mardis soir.

Differences:

Without the comma: slightly more fluid, common in simple sentences.
With the comma: creates a small pause, can emphasize that these are two related but distinct pieces of information.

In everyday writing, many people would omit the comma here, but keeping it is not a mistake.

Are there any important pronunciation points in Nous avons un club de lecture and tous les mardis soir?

A few key points:

Nous avons:
- There is a liaison: nous_avons → pronounced like [nou-zavon] (the s of nous sounds like z).
un club de lecture:
- club sounds roughly like English “club”, but shorter, with a softer b.
- lecture is [lek-tyr] (approx. lek-tyr), not like English “lecture.”
tous les mardis soir:
- tous here is usually pronounced without the final s: [tu] (because it’s not followed by a vowel and is used as an adverb).
- les is [lé].
- mardis: final s is silent → [mardi].
- soir: final r is pronounced in French → [swar].

So you’d hear something like:
[nou-zavon œ̃ klœb də lektyr e tu lé mardi swar].