Web-Exclusive Book Club Profile Unitarian Universalist Book Club, Boston, MA By Sacha Cohen, November 2005, May 2007 More than a just a good read

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The Unitarian Universalist Book Club began with a simple premise: socializing and reading make a great pair. Founded by two divorced Unitarian ministers, the group—an offshoot of a larger singles group founded in 1973—started as a way for "mature" singles to meet each other while enjoying a good read. While the umbrella singles group has long since disbanded, the UU Book Club—now in its 30th year—is still going strong, with 10 or more members at any given monthly meeting.

Over the years the club has morphed into a group of friends, both singles and couples, who meet at each other's homes. The group alternates reading fiction and nonfiction, with a poem thrown in about once a year, generally in December, when everyone's too busy to read a long novel. And, of course, there's food—typically a casual potluck affair.

While there are no hard and fast rules about age, the group tends to attract retirees ages 50 and up. Romance has even blossomed. To date, several couples have emerged from the group, including Dorothy O'Conner, 77, and her husband, Russell Berg, 91, the oldest member of the group. "We shared a love of books and had many other interests in common, and it quickly became clear that we were taking up a lot of space in each other's thoughts," she says of her courtship with Berg. Before they moved in together, Berg would phone O'Conner frequently, sometimes just to read a passage from a book they were reading. Inez Ward, 63, also met her husband, Alan, at the group 10 years ago. He proposed to her six months later, and she became a first-time bride at 53.

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O'Conner says she derives more from the group than simply a place to chat about books—she's developed lasting friendships that are both intellectually and emotionally fulfilling. "Discussing books with people over a period of years creates a special relationship that goes deeper than friendship," she says. "It's been very precious to me and others."

The group's selections over the past year have run the gamut from bestsellers to literary classics: Middlesex, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and The Red and the Black, among others. About twice a year members also reread classics such as A Tale of Two Cities. Next up are different biographies of Mark Twain.

"Many of us have commented that because of the book club we've read material we would not have read, left to our own devices," says O'Conner. For example, she found Seabiscuit "compelling" even though she has "no interest in horses." Another unusual pick, The Bone People, about the lives of three New Zealanders, was recommended by a member who had recently spent five weeks in that country.

Margaret Cain, 64, joined the group about nine years ago when she moved to Boston from central Massachusetts and was looking for a way to meet people. She's been a regular ever since. Like the others, Cain reads to "go to another time or place," and she enjoyed a recent pick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. "It took me to the Mississippi and another century. I laughed aloud at some passages…others were troubling." Inez Ward, on the other hand, was "disappointed" this time around with the Mark Twain classic. "I remember loving it as a nine-year-old," she says wistfully.

While the monthly conversations are always lively, O'Conner remembers that the nonfiction Dark Tide, about the 1919 Boston molasses tank fire that killed 21 people, prompted an especially "spirited" disagreement among members. Her husband, Russell, the self-described lone conservative in a group of liberals, was the only one who didn't blame the factory owners for the fire. But it's that type of intellectual debate that keeps the book club interesting, she adds. After all, what's the fun if everyone's on the same page?

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