LiteraryNick’s Book ClubIt’s a book; it’s a movie; it’s the focus of Nick’s Book Club this month (the University Book Store was closed Christmas, the regular meeting day). Nick DiMartino, a published novelist (all ghost stories) and a produced playwright, has the eye and ear for good lit, and brings the talk around to The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. Published in 1925, it has riveting elements: Beautiful, wealthy, spoiled Kitty marries a young doctor (but not for love), and they head to Hong Kong. She has an affair; he has a rendezvous with a deadly cholera epidemic. Doctor dies, she returns to England and finds the grit to raise her unborn daughter as a strong, independent woman. Some think the book outlines a woman’s spiritual journey. Others point to feminist threads. What do you think? What does Nick think? What do Naomi Watts and Edward Norton think? They are the leads in the new film version of Veil, which opens Dec. 29. Conference room, University Book Store, 4326 University Way N.E., 634-3400, www.bookstore.washington.edu. Free. 7 p.m. JOANNE GARRETT