Ready to turn your back on the lies “progressivism” has told you and find true happiness as a trad wife?

Well, maybe think again. At least, that’s what author Caro Claire Burke asks us to do in her new novel, Yesteryear.

It’s about a woman named Natalie who’s raised in a conservative household, remains naïve through her schooling at Harvard, marries the wealthy son of a prominent politician, and starts making babies. Soon after that, she starts filming the babies, and the sourdough starter, and the cows on Yesteryear Ranch, her home and backdrop to her life.

The problem is, Yesteryear isn’t as picture-perfect as it seems on Instagram after ten takes. Natalie doesn’t milk cows or lesson plan or honestly even like to fix her kids breakfast. So she hires nannies and tutors and farmhands until one day she wakes up on a lumpy mattress in a frigid cabin and finds herself transported back to 1855.

I can’t wait to talk to someone about this book, which is a good sign Yesteryear might be perfect for book club. There’s much to discuss.

Yesteryear book club questions:

-Did you think Natalie was mentally ill? Why or why not? If so, when?

-Should Natalie and her husband be a little more savvy after college?

-Natalie is sometimes strategic and other times not. How do you account for the dichotomy?

-What role does religion play in this story?

-What do you think the author is trying to say about conservative values, and do you agree with that assessment?

-What do you make of the way Natalie feels about motherhood?

-If Natalie wasn’t a trad wife, what else would she have been?

-Was Shannon a victim or an opportunist?

-Given all the characters’ relationships, what does the author get right and wrong about marriage?

-Should there be limits on exposing children on parents’ social media accounts?

-What conversation is the author starting about social media?

-How could Natalie have made being a “trad wife” more sustainable?

-What did you like or dislike about the book?