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.

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 (3rd July 2026). ⭐ Honestly, wtf? I mean, we all know the blind person trope (Daredevil, etc) and the lovable Nazi trope (Hiroshima Mon Amour) and the mystical object searched for by evil Nazis trope (Indiana Jones), so why throw all of these together? The book was readable but no more so than a pulp fiction thriller. Honestly, I don't see this as being Pulitzer quality. The characters were ok, the narration interesting, but a masterpiece? The best US fiction in 2015? Perhaps not. And please don't accuse me of being too harsh - All Quiet on the Western Front, The Winds of War, The Caine Mutiny and The Sympathizer are all better war stories than this one. Might as well give Bob Dylan a Nobel for Literature while you are at it...oh damn, they did! Still not happy with this one. Sorry, but I just cannot appreciate it. I think it was a terrible choice for the Pulitzer, every bit as bad as The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes was for the Booker Prize in 2011. In retrospect, [Author's] 2021 bestseller [Book title] was far, far better than this one, but still suffered from being predictable and having paperthin character development. As for the TV adaptation (1) the author got what he asked for because he was begging for it all through this miserable book and (2) 27% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Nuf said. ⭐ 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!)

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?

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 😊

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 (25th June 2026). ⭐ There was so much potential in this story and all of it was unfortunately ruined by poor writing and quick cleanup and just...uuuugggghhhhhh. I kinda want to throw this book in the trash. I really enjoyed [Character 1]’s and [Character 2]’s stories, but [Character 3]’s was so ridiculous. [Character 3]’s character was immature, clueless, and terribly underdeveloped. Actually, I hated [Character 3] throughout the book but by the end, I wished she’d jumped off the bridge instead of [Character 2]. • [Character 3] can’t remember the emergency number in England to help her sick husband, but instead of asking her new English friend who’s right in front of her face, she instead decides to run back to the hotel, thereby wasting precious time. • [Character 3] applies to Cambridge Univ online one night and the next day begins making plans on how to divorce her husband, quit her job at the family business, secure student housing, etc. She’s an American. Does Cambridge accept foreign graduate students that quickly? PROBABLY NOT. • She blabbers on throughout the entire book about being a historian then ends up choosing a grad degree in British Literature - a subject that is NEVER mentioned in the book but once, and only as an aside. • And maybe because she chose to be a Brit Lit major, this is why she feels like it’s appropriate to fling the vial back into the Thames and keep certain things to herself...BECAUSE HISTORIANS CANNOT DO THAT. EDITED TO ADD: [Character 1], the 18th-century feminist apothecarist, keeps a ledger of the names of all the women who’ve come to her for assistance in taking out the men who’ve wronged them. And I’m okay with that. Except when she knows the end is near and the police are closing in on her...so she decides to leave the ledger OUT to be discovered? Claiming that not acknowledging the women publicly erases them from history, but not considering that those women could all be hanged if their crimes are discovered???? That’s cowardice, not feminism.