Turns out that maybe 19th century American pioneers, travelling west had it both harder and easier than we might imagine from the books and movies we've seen. Harder because many of them didn't have wagons and had to travel on foot 😬 Easier because fatal encounters with native Americans were rare. According to this article, more people died from mishandling their own firearms that they brought to protect themselves from native people. 5 Biggest Misconceptions About Pioneer Life What's something you learned recently?

Our group read is On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. Who's reading it right now? See the calendar for the details of our Zoom discussion.

I think it counts! Either way I know there are a lot of history fans in this group who might get a kick out of this Tom HollandS match up.

Even well-loved, super-popular, award-winning books have their serious haters! 😂 This is historical fiction. All guesses are encouraged (no googling, though!). This is meant to be fun. Don't be dismayed if you disagree with the review. Any spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors are copied directly from the review. I’ll post the correct answer tomorrow (9th July 2026). ⭐ Spoilers but geez what an insufferable main character. Like, I'm sorry [Character name] but you're right, it's pretty horrible parenting to not realize your ten year old has missed two months of school because you're too busy conducting an illicit 'empowered' affair with your new bff from the women's liberation club. And the fact that your husband has been working on his novel for like two years and is now a few months away from finishing it means that it's probably good teamwork to let him finish before you completely give up on helping at home and raising the kids in order to go to do your own thing. So you really do probably deserve your comeuppance. Except since this is meladrama the comeuppance is going to come from the complete left field and be so wildly ridiculous that in one evening...a) your husband finds out about your lesbian affair, b) he gets physically threatening apropos of zero red flags before, c) your son decides to burn his father's life work in the fire because you seemed mad, d) your son is revealed to be a mastermind book thief (he's 11), e) your son runs off onto the streets and joins an Oliver Twist style street gang...as one does, and f) your husband goes off and hangs himself. Seems reasonable. Oh did I not mention the 1993 part of the plot? That's because nothing there really mattered and I didn't care about it. I do want to go visit the New York Public Library again now though. That's my takeaway. Don't read this book it's too boring and insufferable for anyone to endure. ⭐ What do you think? What's the book? (In this case, if you can think of only the title, but not the author, that's ok!)

Happy Fourth of July to our members in the US! Hopefully, you’ll be able to squeeze some reading in around the festivities. What are you reading? I’m reading our group read, On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. It’s 1950s historical fiction about a trio of Black singing sisters.