Chapter One Book Group
Chapter One is a community of friends committed to enriching our lives through shared experience of the written word and meaningful discussion. The group was established in January 2008 and is currently celebrating its eighteenth year.
Each month, Chapter One dives into a new book selected directly from group nominations. Selections can vary as much as our members.
The group continues to meet and celebrate literature each month in the Chillicothe area of Ohio.
April 2026
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Fiction
Published in 2025
At sixty-three, PJ Halliday should be enjoying life after his lottery win, but grief has anchored him in Pondville, Massachusetts – still numb from the death of his daughter, lost in old habits, and painfully out of step with his own adult child. When he spots an obituary that signals his high-school crush is newly single, PJ seizes the moment and resolves to drive across the country to the Tender Hearts Retirement Community in Arizona to rekindle their spark. But life, ever unpredictable, hands him an unexpected road companion: his late brother’s orphaned grandchildren, a reluctant daughter tagging along and Pancakes – a therapy cat with an eerie knack for sensing death. What begins as a sentimental quest becomes an unforgettable journey of messy dysfunction, comic mishaps and surprising tenderness on America’s highways.
Annie Hartnett infuses this road-trip tale with her signature blend of dark humor and raw heart, transforming a story about loss into an ode to second chances and unconventional family. Along the way, PJ and his ragtag crew – flawed, lovable and achingly human – grapple with grief, forgiveness and the unpredictable collisions that can lead us back to hope. From the absurd to the heartbreaking, The Road to Tender Hearts reminds us that life’s greatest detours often take us right where we need to be.
This meeting for discussion of Book #220 is currently scheduled for April 11 at 5 PM.
May 2026
Remain by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan
Romance/Supernatural Fiction
Published in 2025
When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation – that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family – sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.
Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out… a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves and the laws that govern our existence. Love – while transformative – can sometimes be frightening.
This meeting for discussion of Book #221 is currently scheduled for May 16 at 3 PM.