I started reading our August bookclub book (The American Queen) on August 7th and it is so good and so intense! I am extremely invested in what happens next, but I'm also taking my time and savoring the journey. I've never really read historical fiction before that was based on the history of where I live and I really like this experience!
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I first learned about the Kingdom of the Happy Land in 2021 when I checked out and read a book entitled A Brief History of the Black Presence in Henderson Count (you can read my brief review of that book at the link). There's a short chapter in that book about the Kingdom of the Happy Land and I was fascinated! The main library branch in Hendersonville has the copy I read and I highly recommend checking it out.
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I immediately looked up everything I could find online (which wasn't a lot) and then moved on to other things.
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So when I heard about The American Queen's release a while back, I was extra excited!
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Last month, to prepare for this month's book club, I went back to the history of it all in order to refresh my memory and here are links to most of the resources I've found about the Kingdom of the Happy Land's history:
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You can find the short chapter from the book I checked out in 2021 at this link, which is part of the Henderson County’s Black History Research Committee's website: https://blackhistories.org/.../the-kingdom-of-the-happy.../
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The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hendersonville hosted a local Black educator and librarian, Ronnie Pepper, to talk about the Kingdom of the Happy Land in July 2022. You can watch a video of his nearly hour-long talk at this link: https://uufhnc.org/services/the-legend-of-happyland/
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And finally, Southern Mysteries has a just-under 30 minute podcast episode about the Kingdom: https://southernmysteries.com/.../thekingdomofthehappyland/
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I hope these resources help get you excited for this month's book club! 
~Betsy