Open to discussion

On that cold morning, with an unremarkable four inches of snow on the ground, Dawn Webb was nervous. She and the rest of the Digressing Diva’s Book Club in Michigan -- retired secretaries, grandmothers, Webb’s former eighth-grade teacher -- had gathered early for the big phone call at the Bridgeport Public Library. Webb stuck to the usual routine, smoothing a plastic tablecloth over a conference table and serving coffee with a themed snack, like the time they had hardtack biscuits to go with a novel they read on the Civil War.

But the gathering was about to take a heady turn.

The Divas had been selected by lottery to participate in HarperCollins’ new “Invite the Author” program, in which authors join a book club discussion by telephone. The Michigan group had won a conversation with the first featured author, Ann Patchett, who wrote the bestselling “Bel Canto” (2001). “Oh, they just were so excited,” said Webb, 51, who was pretty thrilled herself. “I’ve never really met an author before or talked to one before.”

The HarperCollins effort underscores the continuing momentum and influence of reading groups, which recently got an unexpected high-visibility boost. At a dinner in Washington, D.C., last week, Oprah Winfrey told the Assn. of American Publishers that she plans to revive her TV book club, focusing on literary classics instead of new releases.

But even after Winfrey retreated from the book scene last April, the influence of book clubs had continued to attract notice. Since Winfrey’s departure, other TV shows have rushed to fill the void with their own clubs, including NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” The clubs are being courted in other ways as well -- booksellers and public libraries offer displays of suggested reading choices while sometimes playing host to their own groups, and publishers provide free guides to featured books and include suggested discussion topics.

HarperCollins’ marketing department came up with the “Invite the Author” program as a way to attract more book clubs to the publisher’s Web site. “One of the most powerful forces, really, in the book marketplace is word-of-mouth,” said Richard Rhorer, the company’s marketing director. “With book clubs, you have a group of people who you know talk about books ... the opinion makers. Book clubs are the opinion makers for reading.”

The contest, which began in February, is being offered twice a month to book clubs that register on the HarperCollins Web site. Participating writers will include Wally Lamb, author of the novel “I Know This Much Is True,” a 1998 Oprah’s Book Club selection, and Bruce Feiler, who will discuss his bestselling nonfiction books “Abraham” and “Walking the Bible.”

Hundreds of book clubs nationwide registered for the discussion with Patchett, said Rhorer, who would not give a specific figure.

The opportunity would be a book lover’s dream, said Maryl Kruger, 54, co-founder of a reading group in the Agoura Hills area that recently discussed “Bel Canto,” in which one of the protagonists is an opera singer. “We had several questions where we said, ‘I wonder why she did this? I wonder if she had a background in opera?’ To have the author there would be too amazing.”

Kruger, who is a high school English and drama teacher, said she has noticed such efforts to court book clubs. “I suddenly feel like, yeah, maybe we do have some power.”

In Michigan, the Divas don’t feel like they’re holding any cards, said Webb, who has lived in the township of Bridgeport all of her life. But she did admit that the ladies are outgoing, and if they find a book they want to chat up, “they would stop someone in the grocery store.” The library sometimes puts up a display of books that the group has read, and community members seem eager to examine the choices, she said.

Once a month, the Divas meet to discuss their choices, which have included Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Bernard Lefkowitz’s “Our Guys,” the nonfiction story of a young woman’s rape by high school football players. “We picked ‘Harry Potter’ once because we wanted to see what the big hoopla was about,” Webb explained.

The group is easygoing and good-humored, tending to stray from the topic at hand: hence the name Digressing Diva’s, as Patchett, 39, would discover.

That afternoon, Webb served chips and salsa, a wink at the setting of “Bel Canto,” which takes place in an unspecified country in South America. The novel tracks the evolving relationships between a terrorist group and hostages during a takeover of a vice presidential mansion.

In Bridgeport, just outside Saginaw, the phone rang right on time. “Hi, Michigan,” Patchett said. Her voice, through a speaker phone, sounded warm and relaxed. Patchett told the group that she was at home in Nashville with her dog and could talk as long as they wanted.

Webb thanked her for calling and blurted: “Do you have your pajamas on?” Everyone laughed. It turned out that Patchett was wearing sweatpants.

The ice was broken. The tone remained friendly, more like an afternoon tea than “Meet the Press”; no one probed very deeply into character development or the book’s much-debated ending.

Questions ranged from how Patchett got the idea for “Bel Canto” (from a hostage takeover in the news) to why one of the terrorists had shingles (she wanted an “outward manifestation of inward suffering”).

Talk also strayed to subjects including Patchett’s own reading list (she’s on a Philip Roth kick) and knitting (Patchett gets patterns from a friend in New York City).

Mostly, the Divas wanted to tell Patchett how much they loved her book. “I liked the vice president,” someone said. “I loved the way he had to go around and pick up garbage.” “I loved him,” another woman chimed in. “Never even made coffee for himself [before],” another clucked.

At the end of the hour, the group was trying to get Patchett to drop by the library on her September visit to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, 2 1/2 hours away. “C’mon, Ann!” a Diva urged. Patchett promised to keep them posted on the details of her visit.

Later, Patchett said the Divas seemed “like terrific women. They seem bright and really engaged, and I admire the fact that they get together on Thursdays and go to the library. It’s all so much about women getting together. The book is just the excuse. The book is the key to getting you in the door for what you want -- companionship and intelligent conversation.”

The group lingered to talk about “just how nice Ann was” and how they hoped to see her in person someday. The Divas were relieved that the call had gone so well. “You want to say something halfway intelligent,” Webb said. “You don’t want her to think we’re a bunch of hicks from Michigan.”