The Margaret Sloss Women’s Center hosted its first book club meeting Thursday, and beginning next semester, the club will meet monthly.

The meeting consisted of 11 faculty members and students, all enthusiastic to read and deliberate the books.

The book club is exciting to Betty Baker, program assistant for the Intensive English and Orientation Program, because “everyone wants to be here, and everyone wants to read the books.”

The women engaged in the club came up with the group name, ChickLit’s.

ChickLit’s is offered to students, but staff members are also encouraged to come.

“It’s nice to have a wide range of people involved in the book club because it will make it interesting with all the different age groups’ perspectives,” said Sarah Thies, sophomore in construction engineering.

The first gathering consisted of going over a list of books that Penny Rice, book club facilitator and director of MSWC, assembled by gathering information from other women’s centers across the nation. The members in the book club could also suggest any books they wished.

The women decided to take a vote on which five books they were interested in reading about throughout the remainder of the year.

The women took into consideration when choosing the books that they wanted a mix of time periods, topics, authors and a good balance between depressing and happy stories.

Penny Rice explained to everyone, “I will not be lecturing about the books. I want to have conversations about the books and discuss any questions that came up for you while reading.”

Students and faculty members can find the books on amazon.com, at Parks Library and Ames Public Library and at the local used book store, Firehouse, in downtown Ames.

The book club will meet from noon to 1 p.m. the following dates: Jan. 20, Feb. 17, March 24 and April 21.