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.
October 2026
The Hollow Inside by Brooke Lauren Davis
Fiction/Thriller
Published in 2021
Sixteen-year-old Phoenix has spent most of her life on the road with Nina, the woman she calls Mom, surviving through charm, deception and theft. But when Nina brings them back to her hometown of Jasper Hollow, she has something more dangerous in mind: revenge against Ellis Bowman, the man she claims destroyed her life. Phoenix is supposed to help expose his secrets, but when she is caught spying on the Bowman family, a quick lie unexpectedly earns her a place inside their home. For the first time, Phoenix gets a glimpse of the family – and the sense of belonging – she has always wanted.
The deeper Phoenix digs, however, the less certain the story becomes. A death, a disappearance and a tangled history of betrayal begin to contradict everything Nina has told her, while Phoenix finds herself falling for Ellis's daughter, Melody. Torn between loyalty to the woman who raised her and the family she is beginning to love, Phoenix must decide how much truth she is willing to uncover – and what she is willing to sacrifice for revenge. With its atmosphere of small-town secrets, shifting loyalties and moral grayness, The Hollow Inside is a gripping and emotionally charged thriller about family, identity and the dangerous stories we tell ourselves about the people we love.
This meeting for discussion of Book #226 is currently scheduled for October 31 at 5 PM.
November 2026
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Speculative Fiction
Published in 2003
In a world where corporations have replaced governments, science has become entertainment and nearly anything can be bought, Jimmy grows up feeling like an outsider. His closest friend, the brilliant and enigmatic Crake, possesses a gift for science that Jimmy can never match, while Oryx – a mysterious woman whose image has haunted Jimmy since childhood – becomes the object of both men’s fascination. Years later, Jimmy finds himself working alongside Crake and Oryx at the center of an ambitious genetic-engineering project, unaware of just how profoundly their lives – and the future of humanity – are about to change.
Now Jimmy, calling himself Snowman, may be the last ordinary human alive. As he struggles to survive among genetically engineered creatures and a strange new breed of humanlike beings known as the Children of Crake, memories of his old life begin to reveal the chain of choices that brought the world to ruin. Blending dark humor, romance, satire and chilling speculation, Oryx and Crake is a haunting examination of unchecked scientific ambition and corporate greed, as well as a deeply personal story about friendship, love, loneliness and guilt. Margaret Atwood imagines a future that feels both wildly fantastical and unsettlingly close to our own.
This meeting for discussion of Book #227 is currently scheduled for November 21 at 5 PM.