I'm reading our group read, On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, and very much enjoying it! It's about a trio of Black women singers in the 1950s. You?

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 (15th July 2026). ⭐ I agree with (the few) people who've written negative reviews before me. I made it to the dinosaurs thinking I was reading some sort of prologue. No joke. I flipped back to the table of contents, then flipped forward to the next section and the next and the next. Endless interminable descriptions of the development of the area over eons of time. Since some 35,000 reviews exist here on Goodreads with a total nearly 5 star cumulative rating, I guess this book must get fabulous at some point, but I'm so not into it. And I love history. Not finishing. No way. ⭐ 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!)

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.

We do have a rule against self-promotion in this community. (Thank you, everyone, for sticking to it and helping to make this community great. It's much appreciated!) But I thought we could have the *occasional* post where members can share their stuff, whatever it may be. So have at it! Comment on this post (and only on this post!) and share your website, social media, Skool community, links to your books, Substack, etc... whatever you like! It doesn't have to be HF-related. Two requirements: (1) Tell people what to expect. So if you post your Substack newsletter or your IG or your Skool community, tell us what it's about. Don't expect people to have to go look at your link to find out. Let them know if they might be interested. If it's about cooking, writing memoir, travel, makeup, business, photography, reviewing horror novels, whatever... tell us what it's about. (2) Don't just drop a comment and run. Check out other people's stuff. Read through the other comments, like them, and — if you're interested in the description — check out their links. Enjoy 😊