If you haven’t read Kathryn Stockett’s The Calamity Club yet, run, don’t walk to the nearest bookshop and get it! It is a treat – American historical fiction, some great humor mixed in, tugs at your heart, and makes you furious – all in one book. I have a new favorite character from fiction – Meg – whom I would love to put in a room with Scout Finch, Cassie from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and Starla from Whistling Past the Graveyard. These girls could get some real work done in this world, and I’d want a front row seat to see it happen. Calamity Club has a second strong female protagonist in Birdie, who reinvents herself over and over to do what she thinks is the right thing, even though she may not be the beneficiary of her efforts. The house she works so hard to save is her spoiled sister’s and her sister’s husband’s family home; the girl she tries to save from going to a cannery (Meg) is not her daughter but the daughter of a stranger, Charlie, who needs her help. Birdie is a fierce character – outspoken, smart, savvy – but she also wants to be loved and maybe appreciated, although that doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for her. While Ole Miss is not portrayed in the best light in the novel, the small town of Oxford, Mississippi, is portrayed the way it should be in a novel in this era; women had few choices, men had most of the jobs, and it was hot. The history of the Sterilization Law becomes the “why” of the story, and before this book, who really knew about it? I don’t recall learning that in high school. Reading The Calamity Club may take some time, but it is well worth it. I couldn’t put it down; I had to see if Meg was going to be okay.