Book club questions for On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton explore what happens when children grow up to chase dreams their parents never imagined for them.
What binds families together, despite the jealousies and rivalries that can tear sisters apart? What is the meaning behind our collective dreams and struggles? How do we celebrate who we are admist the way other people view us?
On the Rooftop is a Reese’s Book Club Pick for September 2022. It is an utterly imaginative and brilliant story, set during a pivotal moment of U.S. history. Rich with detail and emotionally savvy, this is a story that celebrates the legacy of dreams and determination, and invites us into the most intimate spaces of remarkable families, complicated by grief.
The Synopsis
At home they are just sisters, but on stage, they are The Salvations. Ruth, Esther, and Chloe have been singing and dancing in harmony since they could speak. Thanks to the rigorous direction of their mother, Vivian, they’ve become a bona fide girl group whose shows are the talk of the Jazz-era Fillmore.
Now Vivian has scored a once-in-a-lifetime offer from a talent manager, who promises to catapult The Salvations into the national spotlight. Vivian knows this is the big break she’s been praying for. But sometime between the hours of rehearsal on their rooftop and the weekly gigs at the Champagne Supper Club, the girls have become women, women with dreams that their mother cannot imagine.
The neighborhood is changing, too: all around the Fillmore, white men in suits are approaching Black property owners with offers. One sister finds herself called to fight back, one falls into the comfort of an old relationship, another yearns to make her own voice heard.
Book Club Questions for On the Rooftop
1. ON THE ROOFTOP uses church hymns and songs throughout the novel in various ways. All of them have special and spiritual meanings for the characters. Are there any songs that are special to you? What makes them powerful?
2. How would you describe the relationship between the three sisters — Esther, Ruth and Chloe — in your own words?
3. There are many different kinds of love displayed in ON THE ROOFTOP, from familial to romantic to communal. What type do you think is most important and why?
4. On page 75, Mr. Franklin says to Vivian, “There’s two different types of people in the world…two types only: people who know how to call up a desire, and command it into stone, and people who don’t.” What do you think he means by this? Do you agree with him?
5. Ruth is the first sister to stray from the family’s plan of being star singers; she has a baby with her husband. Have you ever had a life event take you somewhere completely unexpected? If you had the chance, would you do things differently?
6. Each sister has her own unique dream, and, more importantly, so does their mother. Do you think dreams should only be about your own desires, or should they take the wishes of others into account? Why or why not?
7. Vivian dreams of success for her daughters and wants them to have a better life than she did, but ultimately, all of them have different priorities. What do you think defines being successful? Do you think each of the girls finds success at the end?
8. One of the major themes of the novel is learning how to adapt to the changes of a rapidly moving society, even when some of those changes are not positive. Music, food, faith and family are the constant tools that the characters utilize to make this new world work. What tools or rituals do you have in your life to help you with change?
9. Towards the end of the novel, on page 269, Freddy says, “Now I see we can’t escape forward movement. It’s coming. Even if we don’t bend to it, it’s here.” How would you describe each character’s reaction to the future that is unfolding?
10. Throughout the book, the Fillmore neighborhood is being impacted by gentrification and targeted by unfair city planning, and as a result, an entire population of people must leave their community for good. How do you think the experience of losing their family home affects each of the family members? What do you think the lives of Vivian and the sisters would have been like a year later if they were able to stay in San Francisco?
Additional Recommendations
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
Money can’t buy happiness… but it can buy a decent fake.
Ava Wong has always played it safe. As a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home—she’s built the perfect life. But beneath this façade, Ava’s world is crumbling: her marriage is falling apart, her expensive law degree hasn’t been used in years, and her toddler’s tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.
Enter Winnie Fang, Ava’s enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China, who abruptly dropped out under mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, Winnie is looking to reconnect with her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Ava once knew has been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange. The secret to her success? Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit scheme that involves importing near-exact replicas of luxury handbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport to help manage her business—someone who’d never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava. But when their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishes once again, Ava is left to face the consequences.
Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life.
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened?
Late October. After midnight. You’re waiting up for your eighteen-year-old son. He’s past curfew. As you watch from the window, he emerges, and you realize he isn’t alone: he’s walking toward a man, and he’s armed.
You can’t believe it when you see him do it: your funny, happy teenage son, he kills a stranger, right there on the street outside your house. You don’t know who. You don’t know why. You only know your son is now in custody, his future shattered.
That night you fall asleep in despair. All is lost.
Until you wake . . .
. . . and it is yesterday.
And then you wake again . . .
. . . and it is the day before yesterday.
Every morning you wake up a day earlier, another day before the murder. With another chance to stop it. Somewhere in the past lies an answer. The trigger for this crime—and you don’t have a choice but to find it.
Happy reading! ❤️
I love to read and I enjoy exploring a range of genres including contemporary and historical fiction, mysteries, thrillers, nonfiction, and memoirs. If you would like me to review your book, feel free to reach out to me!