Alpha Chi Omega hosts an online book club just for alumnae! To sign up for the book club, join our Facebook group
AXO Book Club. Each month, we will read a new book and have a virtual discussion via the Facebook group. Every few months, we’ll extend our virtual discussion to a live video conference where we can discuss the book “face to face.” We’re excited to offer a new opportunity for alumnae across the country to connect and engage based on common interests. If you have questions about the book club, you can email
October Davis, assistant director of volunteer management.
Book of the Month
THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT BY CLARE POOLEY
For our first read of 2022, we will begin with a story about a solitary green notebook, which will tie together the lives of six strangers and lead to beautiful friendships and more. As they write the truths about the deepest parts of themselves in the book, they realize that it wasn’t as scary as they thought. The Authenticity Project is about learning that being your true self is the brave road that leads to happiness.
Past Books
December
Do you believe in love at first sight? Laurie is confident that it doesn’t exist, until she sees Jack through a snowy bus window. Magic starts to swirl even though they just shared a quick glance. Fast forward one year (during which Laurie searched every bus stop in London) to a holiday party where she sees Jack across the room. Unfortunately, Jack is introduced as her best friend’s new beau. Throughout the next 10 years, we follow fate’s effect on the twists and turns of the road to happiness.
November
Unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant is asked to write the biography of Evelyn Hugo. But why did Evelyn select Monique to write her story after all these years? Evelyn Hugo’s life as a Hollywood movie icon was equally glamorous and scandalous. As Evelyn tells the story of her life beginning in the 1950s, including her seven husbands along the way, Monique starts to feel close to Evelyn. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the places their lives intersect are tragic and irreversible.
October
Our story, set during the #MeToo movement, begins with the sudden and alarming death of Truviv, Inc.’s CEO. Ames, a company higher-up who is riddled with whispers about his treatment of women, is set to take over the entire company. The whispers are constantly ignored and hidden away, until the secrets get too loud to conceal. Sloane, Ardie, Grace and Rosalita have worked with Ames for years, but after a recent inappropriate move on a female colleague, they aren’t willing to let it go. Their decision to speak up creates a catastrophic shift in the office that not everyone will survive.
September
Written by the investigative journalist who broke the story, this nonfiction book details the rise and fall of Theranos. The technology corporation and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, were hailed as “the next big thing” and backed by billions of dollars in startup investments. There was just one problem: the technology didn’t work. We’re excited to bring this true story to the book club; follow along as the author retells his investigation into one of the biggest corporate frauds.
August
Ever wonder how your life would be if you made one different choice, if you could undo one regret? This novel, straddling the science fiction and fantasy genres, lets us into a library at the edge of the universe, filled with books that each contain the story of another reality, another life you could have lived. Nora Seed is faced with the chance to trade her life for another. As she considers reversing some of her life choices, she must decide what makes a life worth living.
Trigger warning: suicide
July
As the weather heats up this summer, we’ll travel to Tehran, Iran, where the political turmoil of the 1950s has also reached peak temperature. There, teenaged Roya finds refuge in her neighborhood stationery shop. Amid the books, she meets her first love, Bahman, passionate about poetry and justice. But the day before their wedding, a coup interrupts their love story, and Bahman never shows up. More than 60 years later, fate leads Roya back to Bahman for the chance to ask him why he left and how he was able to forget her.
June
We were excited to kick off summer with our first ever mystery thriller, Pretty Revenge. Kerrie O’Malley’s life is not what she imagined. She’s jobless and in an unfulfilling relationship.
She’s unhappy with everything and can pinpoint the exact moment her life veered off course thanks to the very person she looked up to, Jordana Pierson.
Eighteen years after the incident, Kerrie sees Jordana living the gilded life – a successful career, a loving husband and the perfect social life. Only Kerrie knows about her dark past and decides to seek revenge. Join us in June as we read this suspenseful novel exploring just how far somebody is willing to go for vengeance.
May
In May, we read the book most recommended by book club members for 2021! The Vanishing Half is a mesmerizing story of Black twins living two very different lives. One lives in the same small, Southern town where they grew up, now with her daughter. The other has moved to a new city and is secretly passing for white – her husband oblivious to her past. Surprises pop up when the lives of their daughters intersect. Join us in May as we explore this thought-provoking novel that everyone is talking about!
aPRIL
In this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy novel, we’ll meet Allegra Cobb, a Princeton grad working on Wall Street. She’s dreaming of a simpler life centered around yoga when everything goes awry. She unknowingly has a romantic night with her new boss but wants to leave her high-stress job in favor of a career more related to her yoga interests. Can she last until her big bonus hits her bank account? Find out as we read the novel described by The Skimm as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Wall Street.” We’ll laugh and cry as we follow Allegra on her journey of self-discovery.
March
March is women’s history month, and we could think of no better way to celebrate than inspiring our sisters with this timely novel. Untamed is part memoir, part call to action. It is the story of a woman learning how to live for herself, instead of the world’s expectations of her. It is a story of bravery, setting boundaries, making peace with our bodies, honoring our feelings and unleashing our wildest instincts. As Glennon insists, “The braver we are, the luckier we get.” Join us in reading Untamed in March and be inspired to live a life that has others saying, “There she is.”
February
Every February, Alpha Chi Omega celebrates Healthy Relationships week around Valentine’s Day. In a nod to our dedication to healthy relationships of all kinds, we’ll be reading Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. This book tells the story of two friends and one of the most influential and important relationships in their lives – their friendship. As a sisterhood, we know that female friendships are incredibly powerful. We will celebrate and encourage our own ‘big friendships’ as we dive into Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow and Ann Fiedman.
January 
To kick off the new year, we’re starting our reading list with this fun, lighthearted story:
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. We’ll meet Eleanor Oliphant, an eccentric young woman living on her own with a carefully timed schedule of her daily events. She meets Richard an equally eccentric young man who works in the IT department in her office. Together they save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, and the three become friends. Will this new friendship change their lives of isolation? Will Eleanor find love?