Historic Bookmarks - Official Book Club of Mecklenburg County Historic Landmarks Department
Mecklenburg County’s Historic Landmarks Department already offers its Adventure Club so that you can visit our county’s historic properties. Now we’re launching a new initiative so that you can learn more about those properties: a brand-new book club specifically associated with the history of Mecklenburg County and North Carolina, as well as historic preservation efforts in general. We call it “Historic Bookmarks” (yes, very “punny”!).
Our Historic Bookmarks book club is holding its first-ever book club meeting at Camp North End and we want you to join us! We’ll be discussing Charlotte’s role during WWII with Charlotte’s own Meredith Ritchie, author of Poster Girls, a historical fiction novel set in Charlotte during WWII and based on true but forgotten events.
Event Specifics
Registration: Please register online by July 9.
Weather: If it rains, we’ll move across the street to the Free Range Bar patio at 301 Camp Road, Charlotte.
Parking: Camp North End has ample parking. We recommend using the Mount Entrance Parking Lot at 1774 Statesville Avenue, Charlotte.
Questions? Contact us: [email protected]
To purchase a copy of Poster Girls: Poster Girls - softcover, Warren Publishing
Author Bio
Meredith Ritchie is the debut author of Poster Girls. Her historical fiction novel takes place in North Carolina during WWII, and is based on the true but forgotten events that happened in her hometown. When her triplets left for college, she wrote Poster Girls as a cure for acute empty nest syndrome. She now lives in Charlotte with her husband, two cats, four chickens and grown adults that occasionally return to her cozy coop.
Poster Girls was named 2022 "Best of the Nest" for fiction by QC Nerve magazine and was recently named as part of the 2024 North Carolina Reads program sponsored by NC Humanities, a division of the Library of Congress. A lifelong learner, Meredith believes history told in the form of stories can never be forgotten, especially history that happened in our own backyard.
Book Synopsis
After an unwanted southern migration, an upside-down world in 1943 offers military wife and mother, Maggie Slone, a job at Charlotte’s largest wartime employer––the massive and dangerous Shell Assembly Plant.
Meanwhile, military wife and Alabama native, Kora Bell’s steadfast determination enables her to navigate the challenges she faces as a Black woman seeking employment under Jim Crow.
A shared love of literature spurns an unlikely friendship between Kora and Maggie, and the two work together to unify the plant’s workforce. Stringent rules are necessary when the air is charged with gun powder and polite society, until Maggie and Kora must break them in order to support their families, end the war, and bring their husbands home.
Told from two perspectives, Poster Girls is driven by the true but forgotten events and accomplishments of a diverse group of ordinary American women, both relevant and necessary to stop modern cycles of misunderstanding.