"The Calamity Club" by Kathleen Stockett. Started a little slow but on recommendations from others I stuck with it and so happy I did. The character development was so interesting. Loved the lovable characters and didn't even like some of the others, as planned. Very much enjoyed the book, could it have been a bit shorter, I believe so. The way I looked at it was that it was 2 books in one. It would be wonderful to follow Meg's future as she was such an exceptional "person".

This is *The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett* - her first novel in 17 years since the global phenomenon _The Help_ (2009). It came out *May 5, 2026*, and went straight to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Here is a summary in English:

*The Setting:*
*Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.* The Great Depression. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, funny, and heartfelt.

*The 3 Main Women:*

*1. Meg Lefleur - 11 years old.* Abandoned by her mother on Christmas Eve a year ago. Now she is one of the "unadoptable big girls" at the *Lafayette County Orphan Asylum* (called "the Orphan"). The cruel chairlady who runs the orphanage, Garnett, labels the older girls as children of "feebleminded" mothers and targets them. Meg refuses to believe her mother left her on purpose, and fights every day to keep her spirit alive. Soon she will be sent to work in a cannery in Biloxi when she turns 12.

*2. Birdie Calhoun - 24, unmarried, outspoken bookkeeper.* She lives with her mother and grandmother in the Delta and they are about to lose their farm because of back taxes. She travels to Oxford to beg her younger sister *Frances* for money. Frances married a wealthy banker and hides her poor roots. But Birdie discovers Frances's charmed life is built on lies - her husband is gone, her money is gone, and her mother-in-law controls everything.