If you enjoyed reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett back in 2009, you ‘ll be happy to know she has, after 17 years, written another mesmerizing story, The Calamity Club. Evidently many readers were eagerly awaiting her second novel as it became number one on the New York Times bestseller fiction list the week it debuted in May 2026.
The Times says, “A heart-wrenching, often hilarious story of economic hardship, moral posturing, and the particular yearnings of childless women and motherless girls.”
Set in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933 during the Great Depression, the book follows three females—an orphaned girl, an unmarried bookkeeper, and a resourceful down-on-her-luck woman—whose lives converge amid the poverty, hypocrisy, and constrained freedoms of the Depression-era Deep South.
Another review says this book is for you if you like:
* historical fiction not centered around a war
* strong female characters
* learning about our nation’s history and how it treated women and children
* plots that keep you guessing
* dual narration/multiple POVs and characters
Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, 11-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.
Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.
Author Stockett says of her two main characters, Birdie and Meg: “As different as these two are, I wanted them to have a lot in common. It’s not a mother-daughter relationship, it’s more two like minds looking at the world together. Also, both these characters just want to find a place where they fit in the world. I think that’s something a lot of us search for in life.”
So whether you’re searching for your place in life or just searching for a good read, The Calamity Club, is an uproarious, action-packed, 656-page book.
It’s also available as an audible book (a whopping 28 hours) with excellent narration and there are many interviews with the author on YouTube.
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings.
Reviewer Violetta Armour is the author of five novels including the award-winning I’ll Always Be With You, available on Amazon. A former bookstore owner in Ahwatukee, she currently resides at Robson Reserve in Sun Lakes where she is working on her sixth novel.