Historical Fiction · Free kit
The Briar Club
Washington, D.C., 1950. At Briarwood House, a tired all-female boardinghouse in Foggy Bottom, the boarders pass in the hall and keep their secrets. Then widow Grace March takes the attic room nobody wants, parks sun tea on the windowsill, and starts a Thursday supper club whose only cover charge is a can of food. An English war bride, a National Archives secretary, a sidelined baseball star, a Capitol Hill clerk, a Hungarian artist in exile, and a HUAC secretary fluent in Red Scare certainty become an unlikely family — while Grace hides the most dangerous secret in the house. When violence arrives at Thanksgiving, the Briar Club has to decide who the true enemy is, and what friendship is willing to cover.
“Just like people, houses go to sleep if bored.”
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Plan your meeting
The Briar Club This or That
Answer in under three seconds. No wrong answers — only revealing ones.
1 / 40
Rapid fire (60 seconds)
Read these aloud as fast as the group can shout answers.
- 1. Sun tea on a windowsill or Coffee from the percolator?
- 2. Attic room or Parlor with doilies?
- 3. Red beret or Respectable church hat?
- 4. Thursday supper or Bridge-club night?
- 5. Ginger biscuits or Swedish meatballs?
- 6. One canned good or A store-bought dessert?
- 7. Painted vine on ugly green walls or Leave the walls alone?
- 8. Baseball bat in the closet or Recipe box on the shelf?
- 9. Lucky Strike out the window or Follow the no-smoking rule?
- 10. Mason jar or Fine china?