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.

I finished only 3 in June, when I usually manage 4-6, so I have fewer to choose from and none of them was really anything to write home about, unfortunately. Hopefully July will be better. What about you?

I'm reading Mirrors & Smoke by our member @Adrienne Stevenson for fiction. It's about a herbalist and midwife in Niagara, Upper Canada, before and during the War of 1812. For non-fiction, I'm re-reading The Pinks by Chris Enss. It's about the first women detectives in the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the 19th century. Do you read outside when the weather's nice? I always like the *idea* of it, but rarely do it these days, even though I used to love reading in parks when I was a student.

I’m reading American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. In other plans, I’m having coffee with the local writers I recently did a 30 day writing sprint with. AND my daughter comes home from Paris 🎉 (My son comes home from the UK on Friday. It’ll be so good to have them both home again!🥰) Photo is my daughter wearing Winnie the Pooh ears at Paris Disneyland.

I've almost finished The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott, and I'm really enjoying it! I've intended to read Doctor Zhivago for years — it's been sitting on my shelf for quite a few — and this book has moved it up the TBR. I didn't actually know it was politically so important. Here's the publisher's description of Prescott's novel: At the height of the Cold War, Irina, a young Russian-American secretary, is plucked from the CIA typing pool and given the assignment of a lifetime. Her mission: to help smuggle Doctor Zhivago into the USSR, where it is banned, and enable Boris Pasternak’s magnum opus to make its way into print around the world. Mentoring Irina is the glamorous Sally Forrester: a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit, using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Under Sally’s tutelage, Irina learns how to invisibly ferry classified documents—and discovers deeply buried truths about herself. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/603995/the-secrets-we-kept-reeses-book-club-by-lara-prescott/ What about you? What do you have on tap this weekend? (And have you read Doctor Zhivago?)