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A dozen women -- all well-educated and thinkers -- meet each month in either Greensboro, Oak Ridge or Jamestown to tell each other exactly what they think.

The more differences of opinion, the better the meetings, said Donna Dinkin of Greensboro, a public health professional and consultant. "It's surprising the discussions you have &ellipses; it's stimulating," she said.

The group has two rules, Dinkin said:

1. Everyone's voice matters.

2. You must always talk about the book.

The group is called The Bookclub. Dinkin said the name of the group she founded "is not too creative on our part. In the beginning it was called the Cardinal Cove Bookclub." That was nine years ago, when Dinkin passed out leaflets in her neighborhood soliciting women to help form a club.

Eight charter members started the club in November 1999 and January 2000. "We have grown beyond the neighborhood," she said.

Dinkin, Tracy Patterson and Dixie Branch, all of Greensboro, are the remaining early members. Heather Champion of Oak Ridge came along in 2002 and Michele Collins of Greensboro joined in 2004. Four members have joined since last year.

Over the years, 13 women have dropped out of the club because of changes in schedules or moving from the area.

Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of the month. Members take turns facilitating and hosting the meetings.

"I find it exhilarating when 10 or 12 well-educated women get into a heated discussion of a good book, and I love to be right in the middle of it," said Ellen Wolf of Jamestown.

"The women are well read, and some have traveled quite a bit, and some have worked or are working in challenging careers," Wolf said. "They are a diverse bunch from stay-at-home moms to Ph.Ds.," she said.

"We are all free to express our own opinions and insights," Branch said. "We can disagree, but in the end we listen to everyone and respect each other for our differences. It is interesting to me to read a book and then find out that someone else saw the same book in a different way."

Every member gets to pick a book, but all members read the same book each month and join the discussion.

"I haven't loved every book I've read, but I've loved being exposed to them," Champion said. "I've been surprised by books I never thought I would enjoy and ended up loving."

"The most enjoyable thing about the club is the opportunity to discuss the books," said Beth King of Greensboro. "It is very seldom that we have the same reaction to a book, and I really like that. I think that anything that makes us think differently or see something from someone else's perspective makes us better, more understandable people. A good book club, like a good book, does that," she said.

The club has had "fascinating women" during the seven years Champion has been a member, she said. "I look forward to this night every month."

"I actually plan my life around these meetings," Dinkin said.

Typically, book selections are either a classic, one by a Southern author or science fiction, Dinkin said. "Books on crime don't fit well as discussion books for this group."

Some children's books have been the monthly selections. Fifty-eight of the 80 books selected have been fiction.

Beth King, Wolf and Champion were on the same page in liking Khaled Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns." King said, "I read his first book and assumed this book would not be as good. It was better than expected, and I love a good surprise."

That rare coming together was explained by Wolf, who has a bachelor of arts degree in comparative literature from UNC-Chapel Hill: "We could all relate to the book as women and wives, but we also learned so much about the Afghan culture, and what women have to deal with in such a culture. The plight of the Afghan heroine in the book gave rise to discussions of freedom and equality, what they mean for women now and what they have meant for women in the past."

A big part of the success of the club is the members genuinely like each other.

"The discussion is usually great, but I also enjoy spending time with other women to talk about our lives and our concerns," Champion said.

Dinkin founded the club after realizing as a work-at-home-mom her main conversations were about work and diapers. "That's what I did -- work and change diapers," she said.

Once the club was organized, she had new friends and adventures. Dinkin quotes from "The Buddha and the Terrorist" by Satish Kumar: "Not every book will change your life, but any book can. Not every discussion will make a difference, but a conversation can change the world."

Dinkin still remembers the first book the then-fledgling club read, "Memoirs of a Geisha," by Arthur Golden.

The selection for this week -- No. 80 in the history of the club -- is the nonfiction "My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey" by neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor.

If a book gets "too heavy," the group has a solution.

When members got bogged down in 2000 reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway, "Someone read CliffsNotes to summarize it," Dinkin said. "Sometimes CliffsNotes are allowed."

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com