In Kathryn Stockett’s latest, The Calamity Club, set in the early 1930s in Oxford, Mississippi, we follow the lives of several women and one young girl as they hope, dream, and work to build a better life and future for themselves from the scraps of the Depression. Birdie comes to town to borrow money from her sister, Frances, who recently married a rich boy but didn’t invite her family to the wedding. Frances is busy climbing the social ladder and doesn’t want anyone to know that her family is poor. Charlie moves to town for a job but disappears one evening, leaving her young daughter, Meg, alone. Meg is then forced into a new chapter of her life at the local orphanage, where the Chairwoman despises her and the wealthy white ladies of Oxford volunteer, including Frances. When Birdie is asked to help with the bookkeeping, she meets Meg and becomes involved in helping her get adopted. Then Charlie returns to town, looking for Meg and with a story to tell. When Frances’s new family, the Tartts, face severe financial hardship, the women join together on a money-making scheme, hoping that it will solve all their problems. But it may or may not work out the way they think. An entertaining story about the hardships and difficulties women faced as they tried to work and achieve some level of financial and personal freedom during the Depression.
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, (List Price: $35, Spiegel & Grau, 9781954118812, May 2026)
Reviewed by Mary, The Little Bookshop in Midlothian, VA