Women of Words Book Group 

Alas, the detestable bird-faced harpies of CBS's Tuesday Night Book Club will no longer grace the airwaves. Not to worry. Local book clubs are popping up all over the country and now that television and popular culture have deemed reading fashionable, otherwise functionally illiterate, self-obsessed shrews have yet another public outlet for their unfathomable shallowness and vapidness. But Women of Words ain't some bunch of Danielle Steele-devouring bleach-blond Botoxed bimbos sprawled out on a chaise sipping Chardonnay. These are "quality women reading quality fiction" and their July selection (Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides) is a worthy testament to this credo. It's free to join. Just come correct in full effect. The Women of Words book club meets at the West Plano Barnes & Noble, 2201 Preston Road from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Call 972-612-0999. — By Geoff Johnston