Alison Melville of United Arab Emirates talks about her book club, "Women in Abu Dhabi." Members come from various countries --- including Britain, China, India and Italy --- so the discussions are always lively and thought provoking, with an immense range of insights. Read on to learn more about this diverse group.

Q: Does your group have a name and/or a theme? How long has your group been in existence?

A: We are a group of expatriate women living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (in the Middle East). We call ourselves "Women in Abu Dhabi." The group has been running since at least 1989, but with an immense turnover of members because of the short length of time that people stay --- the original members have long since left Abu Dhabi.

Q: How many members do you have? How many men, how many women? What age are most of your members?

A: Our numbers vary because of the rapid turnover in people living here, but we try not to get above about 12 members or below about 8. We never get everyone attending and often at least one person hasn't read the book, but that doesn't matter. There are no men in the group. Ages of members vary at present between our thirties and our fifties.

Q: How often do you meet? Where do you meet?

A: We meet once in three weeks, in the home of a member on a Tuesday afternoon. The actual meeting place varies, without being too strictly rostered.

Q: Do you eat at your meetings? What do you eat? Who brings the food?

A: The hostess provides tea, coffee and cookies/biscuits, maybe some fruit --- just light refreshments.

Q: Who leads the discussion? Do you use reading group guides?

A: Traditionally the hostess starts off, but she can say as much or as little as she likes before throwing the discussion open. We have a "captain" (the reason for this title is lost in history!) who generally keeps the discussion going, makes sure everyone has a chance to speak, etc.

If we find a reading group guide, such as those on your website, we will generally bring it along. We find that the guides somewhat vary; some seem to ask questions that are like essays in an English Literature course, others have very trivial questions, while some are excellent. We tend to use them as backup if our spontaneous discussion has dried up or if they raise a point that nobody has brought up. We never feel any obligation to discuss the question if we don't want to!

Q: What kind of books do you read?

A: Mostly modern fiction, ranging across many cultures. We also read a few nonfiction titles and the occasional classic.

Q: How do you choose your books? Do you choose one new book at each meeting, or do you choose the books for a number of meetings ahead of time?

A: We have a slight problem in getting books here. There are no public libraries where we can borrow titles and the bookstores have a very limited range. So we tend to plan ahead so that group members can buy books when they go home to the U.S., Britain or wherever, and bring us back some copies. We put money into a kitty that we use for buying a few copies of each title to pass around.

As to which books we choose, it is usually a personal recommendation from a member of the group. Sometimes we decide "blindly" to read a book that has won an award or received good reviews. Something that has proved quite successful is to select a title from the shortlist of the IMPAC awards, run by Dublin City Libraries. These books are not usually ones that any member would rush to recommend for "easy reading," but they are worth reading and give rise to good discussions.

Q: What were some of the best discussions or favorite books the group read?

A: Over the past year or so we have had good discussions on The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner and Silas Marner by George Eliot.

Q: How do you keep things fun?

A: We seem to hit the right level without much effort. We don't actively try to "have fun" as we chiefly gather to discuss the book, but neither do we get bogged down in by-laws and regulations or too-serious literary criticism.

Q: What advice would you give to other reading groups?

A: Aim for a wide variety of people and of books. Don't confuse a book that is a "good read" with one that will be good to discuss. The difficult books often yield the best discussions.

Q: Is there anything else unique or noteworthy about your group that you would like to share?

A: I think we are unusual among book groups by our very nature. We are extremely international in our make-up --- at present we include members from Australia, Britain (both England and Scotland), Canada, China, India, Italy and the United States. In the past few years we also have had members from Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Syria and other countries. In addition, a lot of the ladies in the group have lived in other countries or are married to men from a different culture, so we can get an immense range of experiences and insights.

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