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.

Our group read this month is On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. I’m starting it today. Anybody else started it yet? Our zoom discussion is 17th July.

SPOILERS!! This summary contains spoilers for Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Don't read this if you want to avoid them. @Adrienne Crowley used Granola to capture a summary of our conversation. I think it did a better job that the Zoom AI. This is a condensed version of those notes. If you've read the book, feel free to share your thoughts on anything! - The group was sharply divided on Natalie: some found her unbearable almost immediately, while others saw her as tragic, naive, and shaped by fundamentalist upbringing, low self-esteem, and social media pressure. - Several people felt Natalie’s unraveling was psychologically legible, but Caleb’s transformation was much less convincing. His long-term complicity, abuse, and commitment to the 1855 setup felt underexplained. - The 1855 twist landed strongly at first, but the more the group unpacked it, the more plot holes emerged — especially around hiding from the law, staying nearby, Natalie’s memory gap, and whether the setup could really hold for so many years. - Clementine’s long delay in intervening was one of the biggest unanswered questions. Even with the explanation that she wasn’t believed at first, people still struggled to understand why no one stepped in sooner. - The group had a nuanced discussion about religion, gender roles, and fundamentalism. Most felt the book critiques rigidity, performance, and harmful systems more than any one denomination, though they could understand why some Christian readers might feel attacked. - The social media thread resonated strongly: the group talked about curated identity, trolls, praise, parasocial audiences, and how the split between “online Natalie” and real Natalie helped drive her collapse. - Reactions to the Anne Hathaway adaptation were mixed. People were skeptical of the casting and curious how the fragmented time structure and twist would translate to screen. - Overall, the group agreed the book was compelling, well written, and rich in ideas, even if some of the plot mechanics felt shaky on closer inspection.

Edited to add: the date is Friday 17th at 4pm Pacific. The event with the Zoom link etc. is under on the Calendar. We'll meet by Zoom mid-July. If you'd like to participate in a Zoom discussion, please choose all the dates/times you CAN do and I'll choose the one with the most votes. Here's the Google form for voting: https://forms.gle/uAW4HEemRM8oUmzt5 If you don't know if you'll be able to get the book in time (or if there are other factors that might interfere) please vote if you plan to TRY to read it and attend. If you don't plan to read it and/or you don't want to attend, don't vote 😉 I'll announce the winning date/time on Wednesday, so everyone can mark their calendars. Here's the post with the description of the book: https://www.skool.com/historical-fiction-club-3193/our-next-group-read-will-be?p=126743da Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

The vote wasn't even close. On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton got more votes than the other two options put together. We'll meet on Zoom mid-July, so try to get your hands on the book in time to read it before then! I'll do a poll soon to select the exact day/time for the Zoom call. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/on-the-rooftop-margaret-wilkerson-sexton?variant=40989343252514 At home they are just sisters, but onstage, they are the Salvations. Ruth, Esther, and Chloe have been singing and dancing in harmony since they could speak, and have become a bona fide girl group whose shows are the talk of their San Francisco neighbourhood. Thanks to the rigorous direction of their mother, Vivian, the Salvations find themselves with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that could catapult them into the national spotlight. But sometime between the hours of meticulous rehearsal on their rooftop and the weekly gigs at the Champagne Supper Club, the sisters’ lives start to evolve — and soon they must face changes that threaten to splinter the community, the Salvations, and even the family.