The members of Mangia Mangia Book Club are the first to admit they love a good meal. The seven women who make up the club, which formally celebrated its 20th anniversary last month, laugh while saying theirs is a group that gathers around dinners and lunches to occasionally talk about books.

Six women joined Judy Sims at her Newtown home for that celebratory gathering, surrounded by plates of food, sumptuous holiday decorations, and stacks of books Sims has read or plans to read.

The Mangia Mangia Book Club — dubbed by Charles Borchetta early on — was created after Sims didn’t feel as thrilled as she’d hoped she would be during her first book club experience.

“It was a very serious group, and that wasn’t what I was looking for,” she said of her first book club experience.

After many members of that club moved away, leaving Sims and Carol Scolpino looking for something different, they decided to create their own mold.

“I wanted a group of people who wanted to spend time together,” said Sims. She and Scolpino each invited a few friends to join them for a book discussion. They also told each of those friends to bring along one of their friends.

“We told them, ‘It’s going to be a simple supper, and we’re going to talk about books,’” Sims recalled. “One of my goals was to have a group of people who liked each other, and just talking about a book.

“It had to be fun,” she added. “There wasn’t going to be a test.”

Although the formal 20th anniversary celebration was in December, the first gathering by The Mangia Mangia Book Club was in September 2002. The women joined Sims at her home and discussed The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester.

Among those to gather that September evening were Sims, Scolpino, and fellow Newtown residents and friends Wendy Borchetta, Cindy Pollock, and Jo-Ann Smith. Bobbie Swander joined soon after, according to Sims. The club’s newest member is Kathy Winton, who joined about four years ago.

Perspective And Creativity

As of December, The Mangia Mangia Book Club had read and discussed 246 books.

The group’s general genre is historical fiction although that isn’t a hard rule.

Wendy Borchetta, the club’s unofficial historian, said via e-mail the club’s genre is “very diverse in subject, events, time, authors, perspective, and place.”

In reading through the list of titles provided by Borchetta recording what Mangia Mangia has discussed during its two decades of discussions, there are dozens of familiar historical fiction titles. A few that pop out are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.

There are also memoirs by Mitch Albom, Barack Obama, Jeanette Walls; the psychological thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and the Cokie Roberts book Founding Ladies.

The club’s journey, says Borchetta, has been one of “expanding knowledge with each book.

“Bobbie, Carol, Cindy, Jo-Ann, Judy, Kathy and myself bring a slightly different perspective and creativity to the table, keeping discussions lively,” she said. “We’ve always been a small group in numbers but great in ideas and creativity.”

The club keeps an open schedule of titles, selected as a group.

“We always approve the titles as a group,” Sims noted. Members then have time to read at their pace.

“You can pick up and read our selected titles in advance,” she added. “This way there’s not a lot of pressure between meetings.”

Most titles have been on the best-seller list, but are not scheduled immediately upon a book’s release.

“Hardcovers can be hard to get sometimes,” said Sims.

Sims counts among her favorite titles She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb (“one of my all-time favorites ... an amazing coming-of-age story written by a man in a first-person female narrative ... very impressive,” she said of that book), The Art of Hearing of Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker (“a fascinating, beautifully written story”), and Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrel (“an enthralling, historical novel about the plague ... a masterful story about grief and love”).

She is looking forward, she said, to reading and then talking about Horse, Geraldine Brooks’s “historical fiction about American horse racing in the 1850s, 1950s, and 2019.”

There are no officers in Mangia Mangia.

“We try to have no domination in the group,” she said. “We discuss everything openly, otherwise that’s the killer of a book group, when you have one person who says what they say and won’t hear other opinions. That’s toxic.”

Sims says there is also an element of trust within the group.

“We discuss everything,” she said. “The book discussions often trigger new topics, often well off the book, so you have to feel like you can trust each other. That’s the thing, where you get to see a whole different level of trust, and from that comes love.

“We don’t always agree,” she added. “Sometimes we have big debates. Our discussions work well because the group agrees that you do not grow as a person if you cannot consider someone else’s point of view.

“Sometimes these discussions can become personal and intense. We also try to keep the talking and listening ratio balanced so that everyone has a chance to express their point of view. Let silence fall, then ask questions and discuss.”

While the group often finds itself veering off topics — “This is about sharing, and about what’s going on, but it’s not just a place to dump things,” Sims cautions — it is not a therapy group.

“It’s a book group, and there’s a big difference,” said Sims.

Bonding Over Books

Carol Scolpino says the members are the lead reason for the club’s longevity.

“Of course it’s the people,” she said via e-mail. “To be in the company of smart, creative, and interesting women is key. It’s about coming together and sharing our thoughts whether we agree or not, and also to hear a total new opinion or take on the book we are discussing.”

Sims agreed, saying that with a small group meeting regularly for 20 years, there has been a lot of personal bonding over books.

“If there are good times, we celebrate those,” she said. “If someone is sick, or there’s a tragedy, we also support that person as a group, and I think that’s part of what kept this going for 20 years.”

Sims had an early inkling, she said, that Mangia Mangia would continue.

“It’s like going into kindergarten with a friend, and you’re holding their hand,” she said. “There’s power in books, and sharing them with others.”

While most members of Mangia Mangia have moved out of town, they continue to meet regularly. Two now live in Southbury, one lives in Woodbury, one lives in Brookfield, and one drives back from New Jersey every month for discussions.

While Mangia Mangia first gathered for light suppers and discussions, the meetings now center around lunch or coffee and tea.

“Most of us are now retired, or working part-time, so we can gather earlier and be together longer,” said Sims. Meetings generally run about three hours, between the meal and discussion, she said.

“Our summer ones have occasionally strayed until dark,” she said with a laugh. “We’re here to have fun. It’s working, and it’s something that’s missing in a lot of people’s lives.”

Scolpino feels “incredibly lucky,” she said, “to be part of this group and have such wonderful friends.

“I look forward to another 20 years.”

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.