Book Review: The Calamity Club (1933 Mississippi, strong women, saga, historical fiction)

The Calamity Club, by Kathryn Stockett (Spiegal & Grau, 656pp HC, 2026, $24.01) by the author of The Help 

Because "The Help" is One of My Favorite Books

I simply had to read The Calamity Club, also by Kathryn Stockett, and somehow obtained the large print edition which is more than 1100 pages long. Great for reading in bed at night though - in low light.

Horizontal Saga (rather than a vertical saga)

It was Oxford, Mississippi (home to Ol' Miss) - 1933. The times were hard: banks were foreclosing on houses. People were out of work and yet cars like the Pierce-Arrow had curtained windows. Birdie and Charlie and young Meg were three women down on their luck but making do.

Author Kathryn Stockett writes with just the perfect ratio of conversation to prose to keep you reading to find out what the next section of the plot will be. Though while some of the twists and turns are predictable, some are not - but they are surprisingly right. 

Reminds me of a season's worth of a TV series, with one situation after another, yet all are tied together with the same characters.  And I really liked the three main ones, even with their flaws.

We have an orphanage, some very wealthy people,  a couple of women who are simply selfish but don't realize it because others cover for them and love them anyway, a few prostitutes with hearts of gold and their temporary house of ill repute, a boyfriend and a death, forced sterilization ("Mississippi  appendectomy" of women), church and movies, Co-Cola, a mysterious stranger, Me-Maw (that's grandmother for you Northerners), and more. 

Family

It's all about family: the family you are born into, the family you make, the family you marry into and take care of.

Titles are Important

A book title can be important and can be a treasure hunt if you can figure it out. The Calamity Club per se is mentioned once but the meaning is throughout. And front cover illustrations can also portray what is inside, but sometimes that is harder to ascertain. That's where a reader's guide will come in to assist book clubs.

The Ending

If you think I would tell you how this book ends, you are wrong! But what I will say is that it is like a good movie where, as the pages and chapters go by, there are so many loose ends that you wonder how it will end: how can Stockett possibly tie everything together and make it believable? But, she does and you will realize there is only one possible ending that is credible and you didn't guess it.

And, in the end, I cherish To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help, but The Calamity Club gives them a run for their money if you don't get bogged down in the length.

Book Review: The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love (15 short true stories by famous writers)

The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love, edited by Alice Hoffman (Scribner, 2026, $41.95 Large Print* HB, 231 pp), a New York Times bestseller

One Adorable Cover Dog!

Not sure how or why I reviewed this book since I generally don't review collections of short stories* but The Best Dog in the World was worth it! A collection of 15 short stories by authors that you know: Emily Tan (The Good Luck Club), Dr. Nick Trout (veterinarian), Isabel Allende, Jodi Picoult, Bonnie Garmus (Lessons in Chemistry), . . . . 

I suspect editor Alice Hoffman asked a few super-grand writers to tell the story of their favorite dog or the dog that taught them the most about living and life. Their heart dog. Maybe the dog who raised them! Or who picked them out at the shelter. 

So we have the story of one author who is not a dog person but who, over the years, almost becomes one. Actually, instead of becoming one, perhaps we should use that writer's words: "Maybe I am not a dog person, but I am this dog's person." (p, 79)

Little Gems Along the Way

A couple of very memorable things along the way are the drawings of each dog, in pencil lines only, and the paw print

that introduces a chapter or two (named after the dog, including one dog called Ninety-Nine) as well as "hidden" sentences that are worth repeating because they are such gems, so perfect that you will remember them, and/or the dog and/or the author. Best Dog may just  convince you to read other books by some of these writers - and it was fun to read their short biographies in the back.

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*Why not? Because I have experienced collections whose stories vary greatly in interest and quality. Best Dog is almost entirely worth the read, however.

Book Review: Preggatinis (OT) (Mixology for the Mom-to-Be)

Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be, by Natalie Bovis (Globe Peqout, 2024, 156pp PB, $22.95, 2nd edition)

A Book of Mocktails for the Mom-to-Be ("Liquorless Libations")

Are you "preggars" (pregnant) or do you know anyone who is (I bet you do!)? If so, then this is the book for you: before, during, and after the blessed event. With gorgeous photographs by Claire Barrett, this second edition is a "must-get" (and must use - often). As a matter of fact, some people buy Preggatini just for the luscious scrumptious photos! Others, for the inventive prose. And still others, for the original recipes that can also be made with real alcohol - or not. So no one need be left out.

Author Natalie Bovis, also a mixology instructor, has done it again (or done it first again).  Preggatinis is the first-written book whose reviews appear in this blog* but this Preggatinis is the second edition. Nevertheless, it has everything you need to know to drink wisely and healthily while pregnant. And before. And after, too! Starting with equipment, glassware and 'little umbrellas' . . . .

With seven chapters including First Trimester, Second Trimester (Hot Buttered Mum's Rum, and "White Hot Mama" (below)

White Hot Mama

that resembles a Starbucks drink [only better!]), Third Trimester ("Call Me Princess Preggatini" - below),

Call Me Princess

and Holidays (try "Father's Day: My Honeydew," the drink below with melon, lime, green tea and non-alcoholic rum ) (with recipe superimposed)

Father's Day - My Honeydew

this book will have you picking it up often, if only to "look at the pictures." But feel free to imbibe when you feel like it.

No Time to Waste

These 75 original recipes also have substitutions for those of us who are not currently pregnant or who may be teetotalers: merely substitute as the directions say, e.g., use Chardonnay rather than nonalcoholic Chardonnay. 

In addition, differently shaped cocktail glasses are suggested for each drink and described in the first few pages; the appropriate glass appears in silhouette with its name in parentheses. You just can't go wrong with Preggatinis - have fun doing it!

*Cocktails with My Cat

and Drinking with My Dog 

Book Review: Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show

Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show, by Tommy Tomlinson (Pulitzer Prize winner) (Simon & Schuster, 2024, $28.99, 230pp HB)

And, of course, our cover girl, the human one, is wearing purple, the color of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (along with gold of course)! She is the handler for a lovely Afghan Hound, the striking blonde of the dog world.

But, Before I Get into the Review, . . . .

I have been thinking about fiction versus nonfiction books lately. A good fiction book is one you can't put down - you are part of the story. A good nonfiction book is one you can put down, plus it takes longer to read. However, there are some nonfiction books that read like a novel - fast!

Dogland is one such book. Author Tommy Tomlinson follows the dog show circuit for three years. Though not an avid dog person originally, he writes with such a flair and humorous style you would just love to meet him. 

Are Show Dogs Happy? Are Pet Dogs Happy?

Tomlinson sets out on his odyssey of more than a hundred dog shows in the hopes of finding the answer to the question of whether or not dogs are really happy. After all, we, not the dogs, have chosen the career for show dogs. Secondarily, Tomlinson attempts to learn more about the human-animal bond: does it exist? Do dogs really love us or do they just love the food and toys we give them?

The book is about one Westminster Kennel Club dog show (2022) and one dog, a Samoyed, followed by our author for the three years and more than 100 wins (111 to be exact). Will Striker win at Westminster? 

The author digresses wondrously, conversationally, with original humor, and includes snippets about We Rate Dogs and Thoughts of Dog and Michael Vick  and even Uga, the U of GA* mascot, a bulldog.

Footnotes

Footnotes give descriptions of the more uncommon dogs plus the reader learns about breed standards, the written description of the goal for each breed - how the dog looks and acts. And the breed standard for the Chow Chow is 2,213 words long - longer than the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address combined! (p. 71)

And what book about dogs wouldn't also include a chapter on the author's dog? 

And wondrous quotes like this one of Erica Jong's: "Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss." (p. 197)

* Also the mascot of Yale, Butler, Georgetown and the Marine Corps. I wonder what it would be like if Georgia played Georgetown - Bulldog against Bulldog?

Book Review: The Nightingale (WW2, France, two sisters)

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah* (St. Martin's Griffin, 2015, 608pp, $17.99) Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year. Major motion picture with Dakota and Elle Fanning. Also in Large Print**

"Oh, no! Not another humungously long book" - at more than 600 pages (I'm used to 200-pagers), I groaned, but started it on a Friday. By Sunday, I had finished it. And I will read it again. And again.

Another Heart-Stopping Novel by Kristin Hannah

How does she do it? It must be magic: an incredible story, well-told. 

I have read a lot about World War II but Kristin Hannah not only tells the reader what it was like to live during that uneven upheaval, she shows the reader: you are there, experiencing everything but wish it were not so.

Again, we have two sisters and a family torn apart by death, the aftermath of one war, and daily life during another war with the sisters as different as night and day. Fighting, both realistically fighting to live and, figuratively, fighting to save others. Finding love in those times of trial and tribulation, and pain and unfairness. And finally, the reader identifying with both sisters, who have chosen different routes, different roles to play but each one just right for her own character and personality.

Powerful

It is France beginning in 1938 and going through 1945. And it is Oregon in 1995. One sister struggles to save her family and friends who are Jewish while the other, a mere teenager, fights in the Resistance. Each one not knowing what the other is doing (for their own good) and then Father compounds the situation.

Although some might consider Nightingale to be a good candidate for a DVD or television movie, I suggest a series. And though several of the action sub-plots are unsurprising (guessable in advance, predictable), nonetheless, the book is one that you will carry around with you, hoping to sneak in a few pages while standing in line or waiting at a red light even: you are so enthralled with both the plots and the characters that they seem like friends who you can't wait to get back to.

The Nightingale is considered Hannah's best novel and is the best selling. Read it!

*Also by Kristin Hannah: Magic Hour

Firefly Lane

The Women

**Try reading Large Print books: you can read them in bed at night with low light!

Book Review: Three Wild Dogs (and the truth)

Three Wild Dogs (and the truth), by Markus Zusak (Harper Collins, 2024, $27.99, 223pp HB) Read a sample here and listen to a sample here.

By the incredible Australian best-selling author* of The Book Thief,

Love in Times of Chaos

Three Wild Dogs is not exactly about three wild dogs, but they were all rescues and rather boisterous and extroverted and difficult if that can be said for a dog. Or maybe they were rather wild but not feral, having come from a 'group home' (dog shelter).

As I was reading I wished I could see what the dogs looked like because in my mind's eye it was hard to picture them (especially the colorful Reuben), when, lo and behold I chanced upon two groups of pages with photos of the dogs and their humans! The author's two children have a lovely unique relationship with the dogs and vice versa: Reuben, a large rambunctious canine, deliberatively walks perfectly when walked by daughter Kitty but  pulls when the author walks him. Nobody trained Reuben to do that.

A very unusual nonfiction book (with expletives on occasion left in) written by an established fiction author, Wild Dogs will have you bonded near the end where the denouement is revealed. You will understand the love a man has for a dog (or two or three).

The worst thing about a dog is his shorter life span, compared to his human. Perhaps that is why dogs live in the present. 

I loved the foreshadowing and foreboding that Zusak includes and, thank goodness, sometimes the anticipation of unfortunate events did not seem all that critical to me. At times, this is the story of regular family pets - but at other times, I could just strangle the author as he could just strangle his dog for running away or starting a fight. I quietly thought to myself that I wished he had found a positive reinforcement trains for his dogs. Life would be less chaotic but also less full of  forgiveness and love for the unbridled behavior of the dogs.

*The Book Thief is also a 2013 movie (trailer) 

and #1 New York Times bestseller and Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century.

Book Review: Growing Home (children's, unusual friendships)

Growing Home, by Beth Ferry (Simon & Schuster, 2025, $17.99, 272pp HB, ages 7-9, grades 1-4), a Barnes and Noble Children's Book of the Year for 2025 and co-illustrated by brothers Terry and Eric Fan

Even today, in October 2026, when you wander through a Barnes and Noble store,  you will be inundated with the front cover of Growing Home and rightly so. We finally were able to review a copy and were we ever glad we did!

For middle-schoolers, it can be a long book of 71 chapters! But the chapters are short so a young girl or boy can take these animal and plant friends along and sneak in a chapter or two on the sly. Parents will get the characters a bit mixed up what with the human names for them, with the exception of the ivy plant named Ivy. We have a  grumpy goldfish Toasty, a traveling spider Arthur, Ollie the violet (misnamed however, it is obvious) and some nefarious humans, along with an 8-sided fish tank, a marvelous bird cage and a break-in.

The story will remind you of Mary Poppins with the adventures in the possible setting of London. Each character has a slight superpower but has to discover it and they don't start out as friends but learn along the way to use their powers for the 'good of the order.'