BPW BOOK CLUB

APRIL 22, 2026 at 6:00 p.m.

BPW MEMBERS ONLY

Our Book Club Mission: This book club will focus on stories written by women, about women, and for women. Our aim is to create a space where pages come alive with conversation, where every chapter sparks reflection, and where words become tools for growth, empathy, and action.

• We will select a book that either highlights women’s journeys, is authored by women, or offers wisdom and guidance for women in all walks of life.
• Selections will span genres—memoir, fiction, self-development, and beyond—ensuring our reading list is as diverse and dynamic as the women in our group.
• We have developed a list of suggestions provided by previous Book Club members and we all agreed these are great books. If you have books you’d like to suggest we add to this list, please email BPW/FL and we can add to the master list.
• Our gatherings will foster thoughtful discussion, mutual encouragement, and the sharing of personal insights, forging bonds among members and igniting new perspectives.
• Please mark your calendar for Wednesday, April 22 from 6-7 pm.
• For our next reading: The Indigo Girl.

April Book:

The Indigo Girl

In this incredible story of ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice, an extraordinary sixteen-year-old girl in Colonial South Carolina defies all expectations to achieve her dream.

The year is 1739. Eliza Lucas is sixteen years old when her father leaves her in charge of their family's three plantations in rural South Carolina and then proceeds to bleed the estates dry in pursuit of his military ambitions. Tensions with the British, and with the Spanish in Florida, just a short way down the coast, are rising, and slaves are starting to become restless. Her mother wants nothing more than for their South Carolina endeavor to fail so they can go back to England. Soon her family is in danger of losing everything.

Upon hearing how much the French pay for indigo dye, Eliza believes it's the key to their salvation. But everyone tells her it's impossible, and no one will share the secret to making it. Thwarted at nearly every turn, even by her own family, Eliza finds that her only allies are an aging horticulturalist, an older and married gentleman lawyer, and a slave with whom she strikes a dangerous deal: teach her the intricate thousand-year-old secret process of making indigo dye and in return-against the laws of the day-she will teach the slaves to read.

So begins an incredible story of love, dangerous and hidden friendships, ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice.

Based on historical documents, including Eliza's letters, this is a historical fiction account of how a teenage girl produced indigo dye, which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina, an export that laid the foundation for the incredible wealth of several Southern families who still live on today. Although largely overlooked by historians, the accomplishments of Eliza Lucas influenced the course of US history. When she passed away in 1793, President George Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.

This book is set between 1739 and 1744, with romance, intrigue, forbidden friendships, and political and financial threats weaving together to form the story of a remarkable young woman whose actions were before their time: the story of the indigo girl.