The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett is an excellent novel set in 1930s Oxford, Mississippi. Stockett tells a dual story in alternating sections of eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur and twenty-four-year-old Birdie Calhoun.

It was the Depression and Meg's mother never returned home one day, resulting in Meg winding up at the Orphan Asylum. It was run by Garnett Pittman, a woman who tormented Meg, keeping her out of school and telling her how unworthy she was. Garnett had intended to send Meg to work in a cannery when she turned twelve, but she got adopted to Tom and Lucille Heidelberg, with Tom kind and Lucille a drunk. 

Birdie grew up in the Delta, where she still lived with her mother and grandmother, and was convinced by her mother to travel to Oxford to ask her younger sister Frances for money. Frances lived with her husband Rory and his mother, Mrs. Tartt, in a large home and was judgmental and shallow. It came out that they didn't actually have money anymore as Rory had been fired from his job and left, taking everything of value in the house. He had also taken out a mortgage that was past due. 

Frances had been volunteering at the Orphan, idolizing Garnett. Birdie also began volunteering there and met Charlie Lefleur who came looking for her daughter, Meg. Charlie told of how she didn't leave Meg, rather had been sent to prison, where Garnett had her declared feebleminded, leading to Charlie being tied down and sterilized by the state. Birdie learned that Meg's father is Garnett's husband, why she hated Meg so much.

Charlie moved in with Frances, Mrs. Tartt, and Birdie after Rory left, working around the house in exchange for a place to stay. Frances and Mrs. Tartt make plans to go to try to find Rory, and Charlie convinced them to take in boarders at the house and run a dime-a-dance business. Charlie's actual intention that Birdie learned of was to run a brothel in the house to try to make money to get Meg back. Birdie agreed to continue with the business, to raise money to help Charlie try to reclaim her child, Mrs. Tartt keep the house she and Frances lived in, and Birdie's mother and grandmother get by. 

It's a compelling book that's full of heart, and interesting because it seemed at times to be going a certain direction, but that's not what happened. The end features an author's note about the forced sterilization of women in the early twentieth century for reasons of feeblemindedness or moral depravity, with the number of victims possibly pushing into the hundreds of thousands.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston is a lovely novel that tells the story of an eighty-two-year-old who discovers the wheelchair-bound body of Bernard Greer, who looks like Frederick. 

Fred was on the verge of homelessness and his wife Dawn had passed away after fifty years together. They had wanted to have children, but were never able to. Fred wheeled Bernard to try to find someone who could help, but then loses control of the wheelchair and Bernard's body falls into the river. At this point, Denise, a caregiver from Bernard's assisted living home, comes across Fred and assumes he Bernard. Fred tries to rectify the mistake, but Bernard had dementia so the protestations are cast aside as Fred taken back to the home as Bernard.

Also told in the book is the story of Hannah and Sadie, young sisters whose lives are upended when Sadie diagnosed with cancer, and their father, who we learn was Bernard, unable to cope with the pain of Sadie's illness and then death. He left Hannah and her mother, and Hannah vowed never to forgive him. 

Fred at the home tried to explain that he not Bernard, but people ignored his statements given Bernard's dementia, so Fred settled in with a warm place to stay that provided his meals. He became a friend to many, including home residents Albert and Val, and caregivers Kevin and Linh. Kevin fell for Linh, and Bernard encouraged him to approach her. Albert and Val were deeply in love, and Albert had advanced dementia and thought Fred was his brother Fred, who died in a car accident on the way to Albert and Val's wedding decades prior. They had another wedding in the home, with Fred serving as the best man, Albert's brother.

The stories of Fred and Hannah come together as he learns about her as Bernard's long-estranged daughter, and the two connect, at first with Hannah wanting to simply tell off the father she hadn't seen in decades and then with them reconciling. Fred learns of Hannah's money troubles and that her husband left her when she became pregnant. The caregiver Denise who found Fred and assumed he Bernard was struggling in life, with an emotionally abusive husband and drinking problem. Fred discovered her drunk at work and showed a great deal of grace to her in a time of need. Later in the book, estate attorney Andrew Mora comes into the picture.

There's choices made by both Fred and Hannah in kind of gobsmacking scenes towards the end of the book and and the overarching thing about Fred is he's kind. This is to Hannah, Denise, Albert, Val, Kevin, Linh, and others he comes across. It's a funny read in places and the book jacket notes it about "grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family." Then in the author's note, Johnston writes a lovely missive about the source material of this her first book, with mention of her grandfather Fred (who she dedicated the book to), mistaken identity, doppelgangers, and redemption.

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris is a fun book of essays by the humor writer.

His latest work follows in the tradition of previous efforts like Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, and Happy-Go-Lucky, with Sedaris providing short chapters on his life, with the veracity of the stories being as he says "true enough."

In The Land and Its People, topics include his sister Amy Sedaris, him looking to replace the household work done by Hugh for after his hip-replacement surgery, and his efforts to win at the gamified Duolingo language learning app. 

Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski

Big Fan by Michael Schur and Joe Posnanski is a fun work of nonfiction subtitled Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love. Things that stood out in the book...

Mike's thesis (which Joe latched onto) about sports fandom: 1. Life is boring, and sports provide entertainment. 2. Life is chaotic, and sports provide order. 3. Life is lonely, and sports provide community.

Joe at the 2000 Australia Olympics match where Rulon Gardner beat Aleksandr Karelin in Greco-Roman wrestling, and Joe after lived a sportswriter's dream hearing stories from Gardner's mom and dad.

TV writer Megan Amram and how her phoneme-color synesthesia causes her to see in her head letters, numbers, and words with different colors, helping make her incredibly quick at things like crossword puzzles and other mental gymnastics.

Liverpool soccer fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at a match.

MLB reporter Tim Kirkjian: "anytime you go to a baseball game, you might see something you've never seen."

The semifinal of men's basketball at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Steph Curry torched Serbia. 

Joe and Mike (and Mike's kids) hugging Mookie Betts, who they refer to as the "Greatest Living American."

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood is a lovely novel that tells the interwoven stories of Violet Powell, Harriet Larson, and Frank Daigle. Powell is a twenty-two-year old released from prison after a drunk driving crash that kills a local teacher. Larson is a retired English teacher who leads the prison book club which Powell was a part of. Frank is a retired machinist who was married to the woman killed in the car crash.

The jacket notes it a hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. When the women at book club, they've they’re not just the crimes that put them in jail. Every week they would start by saying, “I am a reader. I am intelligent, I have something worthy to contribute.”

Violet, Harriet, and Frank meet in a bookstore in Portland, Maine. Violet was buying the novel she was reading in prison book club when released. Harriet choosing the next title for the club to read, and Frank working as the handyman at the store. Violet and Harriet were surprised to see each other and Frank and Violet shocked at meeting. Violet felt an overwhelming guilt about her crime, and Frank as well felt bad about scaring Violet with his reaction to seeing her in the store. Forgiveness is a thread that runs through the book and in fairly short order, the three became friends.

It comes out that Frank’s late wife Lorraine was planning on leaving him prior to the accident, and had told their daughter Kristy that Frank having an affair, not the opposite which was true. Harriet gets Violet a job as a lab assistant at the university, working with Dr. Petrov, an animal behaviorist who studies the intelligence of birds, parrots Bob, Alan, Oliver, and Charlotte, all able to speak and understand English. Then fellow book club member Dawna-Lynn escaped from prison and came to Harriet's house, while she, Violet, and Frank there. It's a fun and a lovely book, with people who care for one another, and has a nice postscript about their later lives.

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a novel that begins in 1950s Iran. Seven-year-old Ellie's father dies and she and her mother have to move. In Ellie's first day of school, she meets a fellow student, Homa. 

The two become fast friends, with the irrepressible and brave Homa often leading Ellie to new experiences. Ellie's mom takes up with her late husband's brother, Massoud, and the three move to a wealthy neighborhood. Later, Ellie in high school has Homa reenter her life, joining her school from the neighborhood where they met. 

The Shah had taken control of Iran, away from the democratically elected prime minister. From fourth grade, Homa wanted to be a judge, and Homa's father had been imprisoned by the Shah's regime for supporting people's rights. Ellie met a fellow student, Mehrdad, and they began a relationship, and the three after graduation attended Tehran University, with Homa still aiming to set laws in the country. 

Homa was arrested for her part in student protests for women's rights and free speech, with Ellie accidentally making it happen, and went to jail. Homa was sexually assaulted in prison and came out pregnant. She was married by Mehrdad's friend Abdol, who loved her before she was arrested and was willing to marry Homa and help raise her child Bahar as his own. Had he not, Homa as a single woman with a child would have been a pariah. Abdol later died in a fire in a movie theater, with the doors having been locked to prevent people from fleeing to safety.

Ellie and Mehrdad married and she and Homa saw each other once when Bahar was a baby, and then again when she a teenager. Ellie and Mehrdad moved to New York, and Homa asked if seventeen-year-old Bahar could go live with them. Iran was becoming engulfed in protests and Homa stayed to fight for people's rights. In 1979 the Ayatollah took power and a mandatory headscarf for women, or hijab, became law. The book is about the repression of women in Iran, the "Lion Women" who fought bravely for rights, and a friendship through the years. It's an excellent read and a refrain from Homa throughout the book is to love madly.

Down the Drain by Julia Fox

Down the Drain by Julia Fox is a memoir that details the life of the actress from Uncut Gems from childhood to now. In the forward she writes "this is for the dreamers and the delinquents" and the takeaway from it feels to be how lucky she is to be alive and not in jail, with this in part because (as she writes) she's attractive.

The book starts in 1996, with her as a six-year-old landing in New York City from Italy. She came to the U.S. to live with her father, who wasn't incredibly interested in parenting. The Italy she left featured her also not terribly interested in parenting mother, and grandfather who basically raised her. It was a ridiculously chaotic childhood in New York, basically exhibit A in how not to raise kids, rather just let them raise themselves, with an environment of drugs, sex, violence, and stealing.

After she barely graduates from middle school, she goes back to Italy, then takes up with a guy there. She hates it and goes back to New York for a visit at Christmas. She takes up with a drug dealer for a couple days, then back to Italy. She then on her own gets a ticket back to New York to be with her violent, drug dealer guy. Her father put out a missing persons poster, one with her wrong birth year, height, and weight. 

She got arrested, barely passed drug tests while on probation, and then a job as a dominatrix, which led to her getting a sugar daddy who paid for everything for her. The book in a lot of ways is a detailing of depravity, with the seemingly endless stream of insane stories.

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel tells the story of seventy-seven-year-old Pepper Mills. She moves into a retirement community in Austin, Texas, starts seeing another of the residents, and becomes pregnant. 

Other characters in the book include Pepper's children, Alice, Darcy, and Max, along with her ex-husband Roger, also a resident of the retirement community. Her grandchildren are seven-year-old twin boys Oliver and Pierre, and teenage girls Sari and Lola. In the retirement community, Pepper meets and starts a relationship with Moth Holden, and becomes friends with Maisie and Dot. 

The news of Pepper's pregnancy, possible as a side effect of an experimental cancer treatment decades earlier, gets out and people gawk at her and/or try to attach here to their various causes or business ventures. There's interesting things in the book about the lack of autonomy women have over their bodies depending on what state they live in, relationships they form, and things they do for one another, particularly Pepper for her granddaughter. 

Lola came to Pepper and said she was pregnant so they along with Moth drove to New Mexico so Lola could have an abortion. Shortly after, Pepper's baby girl, Bob, was born, and then Pepper became an abortion fairy, driving people across state lines to be able to have abortions. It's a nice book. 

The Names by Florence Knapp

The Names by Florence Knapp is a lovely novel that tells the story of Cora, the naming of her newborn son (whose father wants named after him), and its impact on the lives of Cora, her nine-year-old daughter, and son.

The book progresses in sections, with each having three chapters. The first section tells the story of their lives at the time that Cora registers her son's name, second their lives seven years in the future, and subsequent ones over a thirty-five year span.

The first chapter in each section tells the story of what occurring in their lives if Cora registered for her son the name Bear as Maia wanted, the second chapter about if Cora registered the name Julian that she thought of, and third if she registered the name Gordon after her abusive husband, a well-respected doctor in town.

It's an interesting construct that Knapp puts together and she in the novel shows the impact of the naming decision, creating alternate universes for Cora, Maia, the son, and even Cora's mother. There's so much that happens in the lives of the characters based on the name choice made by Cora. In one universe without a father, in another without a father and mother, in a third with them there in an abusive house of horrors. It's a powerful book, beautiful and heartwarming at times, devastatingly sad and painful at times. 

An interesting choice Knapp made was to not have the three different realities be all good in one and all bad in another. There's unexpected turns taken in the lives of the characters, particularly for the son and what happens with him if he named Bear. It seems as if just as the impact of a name is shown, detailed as well is the impact of both the choices people make and the vagaries of things that happen in their lives. In the first universe, Bear dies of a wasp sting, in the second, Julian gets his family back (with mention of him running past a wasp nest), and in the third, Gordon rescues his mom (with no wasps noted). The epilogue has an alternate timeline for the father, and closes with another for Cora's son, had a different name, Hugh, been chosen.

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe is a solid work of nonfiction subtitled A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth. Keefe details the story of Zac Brettler, a nineteen-year-old who in 2019 jumped to his death from a balcony overlooking the River Thames in London. 

It's a deeply reported book that covers London, including it's wealth from both financial institutions in the city and foreigners, with the many empty luxury apartments owned largely as investments by those out of the country. Keefe delves into the influence of Russian oligarchs and their families on London, as well as the criminal underworld and how someone can get sucked into it all. 

Zac in his early teens become enamored with money and status, it comes out that he at nineteen presented himself to strangers as Zac Ismailov, son of a wealth Russian oligarch and heir to his fortune. Zac had a connection with a man, Mark Foley, tied to oligarch Roman Abramovich, who owned Chelsea Football Club, and became close with two older men, Akbar Shamji and Verinder Sharma, known as Indian Dave. 

Shamji was a hustler and Verinder a gangster, someone who made a living collecting debts owed to underworld characters. Zac purported to be in business with Shamji, including foreign cars and mining, and told his parents that he was staying in an apartment of Sharma's that was empty. At least Sharma appears to have viewed Zac as a mark, someone who could enrich him with Zac's family money. 

Zac went missing and several days later his body was found in the Thames. It then came out that there was video footage from the Mi6 building of Zac alone on an apartment balcony, and then jumping. His hip clipped the embankment wall, nearly making it to the water from the fifth floor. Shamji and Sharma in between Zac going missing and his body being discovered expressed concern to Zac's parents about his well-being and purported to not know his whereabouts, but additional video revealed that as a lie. Cameras captured footage of Shamji leaving the apartment he was in with Zac and Sharma, Zac then jumping, Sharma returning to the apartment and leaving again, staring into the water below the balcony. From additional evidence, Sharma may have broken Zac's jaw before he jumped, and likely threatened his life. It appears that rather than a suicide, Zac jumped from the balcony hoping to land in the Thames and escape, but hit the embarkment on his way in. 

Police knew that Shamji had lied to them, with Sharma answering no comment to all questions, but couldn't prove that a murder had been committed, especially after Sharma died of a drug overdose. The video of Zac jumping along with the death of the principle suspect caused the police to stop investigating. The book is a fascinating portrait of an underworld, including with a Russian oligarch connection, and somebody sucking themselves into it, playing a game that wasn't a game to the other parties. Zac's mom Rachelle noted in the inquest to his death that he "wanted money and power, fast." Zac got tied up with a charlatan and a gangster, and died quite possibly attempting to escape violence. 

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Heart the Lover by Lily King is an interesting novel that tells the first-person story of a main character through decades of her life.

In the fall of her senior year of college, the narrator meets two other students, close friends Sam and Yash. They nickname her Jordan and she starts dating Sam, with a convoluted and often stormy relationship between the two.

She and Sam break up and she later starts a relationship with Yash. The two of them go to visit Yash's family in Tennessee and she goes to Paris for a job. He flies there for an extended visit, they have an amazing time together, and Yash receives a job offer in Paris. He decides to go back to America, and the two of them are to then live in New York City. All their plans are made, and then when she arrives in New York, she learns that he hasn't come, rather has gone to Atlanta to move in with Sam.

The book jumps forward in time to her as a married adult with two kids, one of whom suffers from seizures and debilitating pain and has made the choice to have a high-risk surgery to get better. She hears from Sam, who tells her Yash is dying, and she flies to see him along with Sam, his family, and Yash's family. She and Yash express how much they mean to each other and she tells Yash that she had his baby twenty-seven years ago and gave her up for adoption. Her contact information was left in case the daughter ever decides to get in touch, and then she could tell her daughter about Yash.

She leaves the hospital around the time Yash goes unconscious and goes for her son's surgery, landing and receiving a message from Sam that Yash died. It's kind of a lovely book about relationships over time.