The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Posted by Ms K on September 13, 2026 in All | Leave a comment

There is nothing sweeter (for me) than having a killer book on the go that I simply cannot wait to get back to each day. Speeding tickets be damned.

The Calamity Club is one of those books. The downside of this personal brand of sweetness, of course, is the sourness and deflation when you finish it. (Me last night, after five very happy hours devouring this story — it was a rocking Saturday night Readheads).

Set in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933, Kathryn Stockett — author of the one and only The Help — takes us deep into Depression-era America, where money is scarce, racism rages, booze is bootlegged, respectable society is anything but, and women have few options when life deals them a rotten hand.

A tip: you won’t need your electric blanket to warm up at night. Your blood will be boiling.

At the heart of the story are two very different women: eleven-year-old Meg, left motherless and living in a grim orphan asylum, and Birdie Calhoun, a young unmarried woman desperately trying to help her struggling family. Their worlds collide, along with a wonderfully motley collection of women who are all, in one way or another, fighting to survive. And survive they do — with ingenuity, friendship, a fair amount of questionable decision-making and, eventually, a rather unconventional business venture.

Birdie is particularly fabulous, and dear, dear Meg wormed her way into my heart, where she’ll be staying rent-free for some time yet. She had it tough. The treatment of the children in the orphanage is heartbreaking (and far too believable), but Meg’s resilience and sass are absolutely beautiful.

There’s plenty of darkness here — poverty, misogyny, child neglect, eugenics and the horrifying control exerted over women’s bodies and choices — but there is also plenty of light and cause for cheer sprinkled throughout these 600+ pages.

And I’m calling it now: The Calamity Club is destined to be a movie, just like The Help. These characters are simply too good not to bring to life on the big screen.

Whoever is responsible, though, please make it happen bloody quickly! I miss them already.

But that is just my two cents worth.