"The coven".

How did your book group get started?

Eight years ago I invited four of my closest friends and then asked each of them to invite one woman who was not part of our immediate circle. We range in age from 35 to 50 years.

We're a pretty opinionated group, and it's not uncommon for us to interrupt each other, talk over each other, and strongly disagree with each other. Our group, for better or worse, is not for the faint of heart. Nor is it for a very "genteel" woman. A soft-spoken person would probably not survive in our book club since we all have too much to say. At this point, it might be difficult to find women who would want to join our book club. Our dynamics are pretty set.

While our group is pretty relaxed, we've been known to ask members to leave if they're consistently absent. In our collective opinion, if a member can't make one Thursday meeting a month, then her life is too busy. Also, we don't like cooking for a no-show.

How do you choose your books?

Each month, the member responsible for hosting the next month's meeting provides a list of five-to-eight books that the group then votes on. Our only rule is that we can't consider a book that a member has already read. Our group has been pretty good about actually reading the books, even if we don't like them.

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What books has your group most enjoyed?

We really enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. We like historical fiction when done well, and the novel was raunchy enough to qualify as cerebral trash. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is a classic that has stood the test of time and still feels like a contemporary story. We really liked the writing style, felt that the novel was an interesting precursor to the women's movement, and appreciated the layers of political and social intrigue in otherwise banal social situations. Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone exposed us to an unfamiliar subculture, yet it was also a universal story. David Sedaris's When You Are Engulfed in Flames was also another favorite. What's not to like about someone who writes of mundane topics with such humor? Finally, we thought that Yann Martel's Life of Pi was an amazing and engrossing story; it portrayed a worldview we didn't have.

Which books didn't your group like?

We collectively disliked Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. We were initially drawn to it because it was billed as a great "summer read." But we begged to differ. The book not only lacked inspiration and creativity; its main crime as a "summer read" was that it simply failed to entertain us. We thought the main character was pathetic, and we couldn't relate to either her or the story.

We were fooled into thinking that Chuck Palahniuk's Choke would be as entertaining and creative as Fight Club. Choke follows the same template, but it isn't executed effectively. We couldn't muster up the energy to care about the characters or the thin plot.

What has been the best discussion?

We have had many entertaining and stimulating discussions--too many to list here. We had a good discussion at one of our most recent meetings with A Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life by Queen Noor. It's not so much that we loved the book but that it inspired good conversation about the world at large. That's always a good sign for us.

What have been areas of disagreement?

We all agreed to disagree over A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Those of us who disliked it thought that the story was cliched and too violently graphic and that the horrible things that happened to the women were over the top and were meant only to elicit a response from the reader. Others of us thought the book told a compelling story of how life is/was for women in certain parts of the world. Those voices did not find the violence gratuitous and felt the story conveyed an important message.

A unique profile of readers together.

BY DRINA BOBAN SAN FRANCISCO AND OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA