Read any good books lately?

Yes, say the members of a book club with close ties to UC Davis: About half the 20 members — all women — are university employees or retirees, and most are alumni.

The club started 17 years ago — long before Oprah launched hers. Members range in age from their mid-30s to mid-60s, and several of the founders are still active.

UC retiree Lorna Belden is one of them. She said she belonged to a book club in Chico, but, after returning to Davis around 1988, she stopped reading.

"I had been back a year and had not read a book," said Belden, who was a dietitian at the Student Health Center. "I said, 'I gotta read.' … I really needed the impetus of a club."

At a workout with Davis Aquatic Masters, she mentioned the idea of a book club to her swimmer friends — and the rest is history: about 200 books devoured, then lots of discussion followed by tasty desserts at monthly meetings.

Besides the first group of swimmers, this club with no name includes co-workers, neighbors, friends of friends, even someone who got involved after meeting a club member at Peet's Coffee.

Lee Ann Bailey, a student services representative in student accounting, was in at the beginning.

She described two kinds of book club members: "People who read a lot already: They want to discuss. And people who don't (read a lot): They want the encouragement to read more."

At this month's meeting — the club meets the first Tuesday — members discussed Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, a novel that puts forth a giant what if: What if famed aviator Charles Lindbergh (who, in real life, had been honored by the Nazi regime and who gave a speech blaming the Jews for pressuring the United States to get involved in the war in Europe) had been elected president, instead of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1940?

Belden said membership in the club prompts her to read books that she would never have considered on her own, like Watching TV with the Red Chinese, by Luke Whisnant (a "funny, poignant first novel about cross-cultural mores and love," according to Publishers Weekly).

Melissa Tyson, a UC Davis grad who works as a reading teacher aide in Davis, said the club's discussions can change people's opinions. "Maybe you read it and didn't like it," she said. "But then you hear other people's interpretations, and you like it."

Every November, members suggest book titles for the coming year. One caveat: The books must be available in paperback by the time the club is scheduled to read them. Voting determines the year's 11 selections; there is no selection for December, when the club holds a party and presents a movie in lieu of a book discussion.

For 2006, the titles include The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and Runaway by Alice Munro. For March, club members are reading Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C.S. Forester. The club reads every genre, including mystery and romance.

Despite the club's myriad links to UC Davis, the reading list does not include The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, the university's community book project for 2005-06. Why? Because members had already read it. The same thing happened with The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman, the campus's inaugural book project in 2002-03.

Clearly, this book club is ahead of the curve. And long lasting.

"To be around as long as we have, we must be doing something right," said Sandy Graham, manager of nursing education at the UC Davis Medical Center. She has been a member since the club's second year, and is the only member from Sacramento.

While studying for her master's degree, Graham said, she found the book club to be "a nice reprieve from school."

Membership stays right around 20, and that might be one of the reasons for the club's longevity. Even if a few members cannot attend a meeting, there are still enough in attendance to make for a good discussion.

The club is not likely to expand, members said, because they do not want to give up the luxury of meeting in one another's homes.

Last week, 15 members gathered in a circle in a west Davis living room to talk about The Plot Against America. Following the club's custom, every member had a turn to make initial comments. "Then the foray begins," said UC retiree Ann Lincoln, who was a computer programmer at the School of Law.

Graham said: "The books we dislike are the ones we have the best conversations about."

The club's discussion is wide open, and, with a book like The Plot Against America, wide open is a good thing.

Various members described the book as "too ugly," "scary," "chilling" and "tense." Discussion topics ranged from anti-Semitism and people's forced relocation and assimilation; to civil rights, terrorism and the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad; to tyranny, politics and whether Roth intended people to correlate his President Lindbergh with today's George W. Bush.

Current affairs

Leslie Westergaard, a Davis alumna who works as production manager at The Davis Enterprise, said: "You could read this book at any time (in history) and apply it to current events."

Roth's story also is about family, a Jewish family in New Jersey. "The characters are so well written, you didn't miss people," one member said. Other members spoke of surprises, disappointments and "hanging ends" — things never explained.

Roth came in for criticism for long sentences ("They drive me crazy, they're so long," one member said) and long descriptions, as well as the book's dark tone.

"There are so many awful things in the world, why write about an imaginary thing?" Bailey asked.

The club does not use discussion points or questions that are included in the back of some books, or which can be found online. Tyson said the club's open format keeps club meetings from turning into an English class.

This club is far from an English class. After all, how many English teachers do you know who conclude their lessons by serving cheese blintzes with cherries?

Book club interest abounds nationally

National book organizations contacted by Dateline did not have statistics on informal book clubs — how many there might be and how many people participate — in the United States. Google was no help, either!

Anecdotally, however, book clubs seem commonplace and especially popular among women. "Among women our age, 90 percent of women my age are in book clubs, I think," said Lee Ann Bailey, 51, who has been a member of a Davis book club for 17 years.

The Sac Aggies Book Club, affiliated with the Sac Aggies Alumni Chapter, began three years ago and has a roster of 60 to 65 members, club founder Lisa Cooney said by e-mail. She said six to 12 members attend the club's monthly discussions, scheduled the third Thursday. The club's February selection was The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. In April, the club is taking on Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

For more information, e-mail Cooney at lncooney@surewest.net.

The UC Davis Bookstore has a special offer for book clubs: With two weeks notice of your club's reading selection or selections, the store will ensure an adequate supply of the volumes and sell them to club members at a 20 percent discount. Contact the store's trade book buyer, Paul Takushi, at 752-9072 or generalbooks@ucdavis.edu.