Category: Historical Fiction

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Penguin| 5 May 2026| 638 pages e-Book| Review copy| 4*

Fourteen years ago I read Kathryn Stockett’s first novel, The Help and loved it. I also watched the film and loved that too. So when I saw on NetGalley she’d written a second novel. The Calamity Club, I requested it and was pleased to find that I loved it, too, although maybe not quite as much as The Help.

Description on Goodreads:

In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high.

Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford on a mission to ask her social-climbing sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. And Charlie is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely sisterhood—but in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, women’s freedom is fragile, and making an enemy can have dire consequences, will the price they pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?

My thoughts:

It took me a long time to read this book as it’s so long and detailed, with lots of characters and covering such emotive and serious issues. Maybe it could have been shorter, without losing any impact and it’s unevenly paced with slow sections that made the story drag at times. And I was surprised that the ending was so abrupt. Having said that the characters are wonderfully depicted, with depth making them really believable, especially Birdie, Charlie and Meg (although I wonder if she comes across as too adult for an eleven year old). The locations are well described, which really helped me as I don’t know the area at all.

The title tells you what you need to know. Set in 1933 during the Great Depression calamity follows calamity for all the characters; the miseries, pain and suffering are unrelenting right from the start as Meg enters The Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls in Oxford, Mississippi. Her mother Charlie had gone shopping on Christmas Eve and never returned, leaving eleven year old Meg to fend for herself, until she was rescued by an unknown man – who he is is only revealed much later in the book. But this is not the end of Meg’s misfortunes as she is cruelly treated by Garnet Pitman, the head of the orphanage.

Birdie, meanwhile is living in Footely (a fictional small town) in the Delta, with her mother and sick grandmother. They fear they’ll lose their home as they are unable to pay the forty-three dollars they owe in property taxes. Her sister Frances has married Rory Tartt, a member of a wealthy family living in Oxford and Birdie travels there to ask for help. However, all is not right in the Tartt family and Birdie finds they’re unable to pay off a mortgage of  $2,754. Birdie then helps Frances and her mother-in-law as they try to raise the money to save the Tartt’s grand house as well as Birdie’s home.

What follows is truly remarkable, when Charlie comes up with a plan to raise the money through the Calamity Club she and Birdie set up in the Tartt’s house, employing a group of prostitutes. This could have developed into a farce, but it’s actually a story highlighting the hardships suffered by women at the hands of men and the Anti-Vice Leagues. So-called feeble minded women and those considered to be sexually promiscuous, were imprisoned and sterilized. Above all it’s a story of the women’s resilience, courage and determination to survive against all the odds. I loved it despite its length.

My thanks to the author and NetGalley for a review copy.

A Small Part of History: Book Beginnings on Friday & The Friday 56

Published on by Margaret2 Comments

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading. You can also share from a book you want to highlight just because it caught your fancy.

A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott, is one of the books I’ll be reading soon. It’s one of my TBRs, historical fiction I bought in 2008. I’m featuring it today as the book caught my eye this morning as I browsed my bookshelves. I took it off the shelf and it made me think of all those cowboy series on TV that I used to watch about pioneers venturing out West. More recently I’ve enjoyed watching Taylor Sheridan’s television series Yellowstone and the prequels 1883 and 1923. 

It’s described on the back cover as:

an epic, heartfelt story of courage in the face of appalling adversity, and a haunting portrayal of how America was forged. Above all, it is a story of people and how the ties that bind us most strongly are those of friendship, of family and of love.

But what makes this book look a bit different is that it’s told from a woman’s perspective. In her Author’s Note Peggy Elliott explains that she’d read ‘a wonderfully thought- provoking book, Women’s Diaries of the Westward Journey which pointed out how different women’s experience on the Oregon Trail had been compared to men’s.’

The book begins :

My papa always told me it was best to start a story at the beginning when I confused him by jumping into the things somewhere in the middle. so I am not going to talk about where I am today or even last month, because it all really begun back in June of 1845.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, but she is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. You grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Page 56:

Poor Lizzie! There were dark shadows beneath her eyes and Rebecca could see pale blue veins throbbing in her forehead. What words of comfort could she possibly bring her, not being a mother herself? To have a young child on the trail brought one set of worries, but to bring yet another into the world while still travelling must present even more of a burden.

The map at the front of the book shows the length of the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City.

Description from the back cover:

In the summer of 1845 Rebecca Springer and her family join the Oregon wagon train in search of land thousands of miles away. It’s a hard and dangerous journey through blizzards and searing heat, over prairies, desert plains and mountains and, at times, it seems as if it will never end. But an unbreakable bond develops amongst the travelling women as they are tested, physically and emotionally, and their shared experiences of new life and tragic death will bring them closer than blood ever could.

And now I’m really looking forward to reading this book.

If you have read A Small Part of History, what did you think?

Spell the Month in Books June 2026

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted by Jana on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month. The goal is to spell the current month with the first letter of book titles, excluding articles such as ‘the’ and ‘a’ as needed. That’s all there is to it! Some months there are optional theme challenges, such as “books with an orange cover” or books of a particular genre, but for the most part, any book you want to use is fair game!

As Jana is not back on her blog yet, there is no theme for this month, so I am featuring books that spell the word June using the first letters of the book titles. These are all books that I’ve read and are linked to my posts on them.

J is for Julius by Daphne du Maurier

Julius is the life story of a ruthless man, driven by his lust for power, and his dedication to getting ‘something for nothing’. It’s a chilling tale about a man whose love for his daughter brings about his ruin. It was her third book written when she was twenty-six. It may lack that magic quality of her later books, but it is still compelling and disturbing reading, rich in detail and characterisation.

U is for Ultimate Prizes by Susan Howatch

I read this book before I began blogging, so no review. It’s the third book in the Starbridge series, six self-contained yet interconnected novels that explore the history of the Church of England through the 20th century. I loved all six books. This one is about Neville Aysgarth, archdeacon, and right-hand man of the Bishop of Starbridge, who has spent his life chasing worldly success. In 1942 he has a perfect wife, a perfect family and a perfect future in the Church of England – all ultimate prizes.Then Aysgarth meets an attractive young socialite and is soon dangerously and chaotically involved in adultery, hypocrisy and obsession.

N is for No Further Questions by Gillian McAllister

I was hooked right from the start of this book. It plunges straight into a trial as Martha sits in the courtroom listening to expert witnesses being questioned  and cross-examined about the death of her baby, Layla, just eight weeks old. Her sister Becky is accused of murdering her. Martha doesn’t want to believe Becky is guilty but as the trial proceeds, as medical and social worker witnesses as well as neighbours and a school teacher present their accounts it looks increasingly bad for Becky.This is a tense, tightly plotted book and I was gripped. I didn’t want to stop reading it and when I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, about the characters and their relationships, about how they had got themselves into such a terrible situation. 

E is for The Elopement by Gill Hornby

This is historical fiction about the life of Jane Austen’s niece Fanny Knight and Mary Dorothea Knatchbull, Fanny’s stepdaughter. Fanny’s father was Edward Austen, who was adopted by the wealthy Knight family. In 1820 Fanny married Sir Edward Knatchbull, a widower, with six children. Fanny and Mary Dorothea, the only daughter, had a difficult relationship right from the start. Fanny is not a warm character and Mary is reluctant to accept her as a substitute mother, but Fanny comes from a large, happy and sociable family and Fanny’s sisters become Mary’s first friends. Her aunt, Miss Cassandra Austen of Chawton, is especially kind. Her brothers are not only amusing, but handsome and charming, and when Mary and one of the Knight brothers fall in love and want to marry Fanny is not all happy.

Top Ten Tuesday: New-To-Me Authors I Read in 2025

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want. Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to Jana in your own Top Ten Tuesday post. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

The topic this week is Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 (New-to-you authors you discovered, new genres you learned you like, new bookish resources you found, friends you made, local bookshops you found, a book club you joined, etc.)

I decided to list 10 of the 24 New-to me- authors I read last year. I’ll be looking out for more books by these authors.

Gordon Corera – The Spy in the Archive, nonfiction about Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who defected to Britain in 1992. Mitrokhin, a quiet, introverted and determined man, was a reluctant defector, because whilst he loved Russia he came to hate the KGB and the Soviet system.

Sarah Freethy – The Seeker of Lost Paintings, historical fiction set in two timelines, one in the 1940s in Italy and the other in 1997 in London and Italy, about the mystery surrounding a lost painting by Carravagio. 

William Horwood – The Boy With No Shoes: a Memoir, (the author of the Duncton Chronicles, which I haven’t read). This is a long and detailed book. It is beautifully written and as he tells the story of his very early life there are many times when it moved me to tears. His writing is so clear that the places and people he describes spring to life as you read. I loved it, one of the best books I read last year!

Alex Howard – The Ghost Cat, a novella and historical fantasy fiction about Grimalkin’s nine lives from 1887 to 2022. As well as the main story there are Grimalkin’s observations and notes explaining various events and technological changes that had taken place in each period.

Ruth Jones – By Your Side, an emotionally charged book as Linda Standish takes on her last case for the Council’s Unclaimed Heirs Unit, tracking down Levi Norman’s next of kin.

Jess Kidd – Murder at Gull’s Nest, crime fiction set in the 1950s in a seaside town. At times it feels like a cosy crime mystery, but it’s also rather dark and foreboding, whereas at other times there’s some humour and also a hint of a romance.

Rhiannon Lewis – My Beautiful Imperial, historical fiction set in the 19th century in both Wales and Chile. It begins in Wales in March 1865 with Davy Davies, a young teenager who is at the age when he must decide whether to work at the mill or to be a sailor like father. It’s based on the actual events of the Civil War in Chile and the experiences of the author’s ancestor, Captain David Jefferson Davies. 

Hannah Richell – One Dark Night, crime fiction, with a spooky, tense atmosphere about the police investigation into the body of a young woman is discovered in the woods the morning after Halloween. I loved it, one of the best books I read last year.

Lynda Rutledge – West With Giraffes, historical fiction with a colourful cast of characters, about the twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. It conjures up a vivid picture of America in 1938 during the Great Depression and the Great Hurricane of 1938, the most destructive storm to strike New England in recorded history until 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.

Owen Sheers – Resistance. I love historical fiction, but this is different – it is alternate history. Sheers speculates upon how the course of history might have been altered if Germany had won the Second World War and invaded and occupied Great Britain, an alarming prospect. The plot centres on the inhabitants of the isolated Olchon valley in the Black Mountains of south-east Wales close to Hereford and the border between Wales and England.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions To My Wishlist

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. For the rules see her blog.

The topic today is Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes, I’ve picked the Ten Most Recent Additions To My Wishlist.

  • The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker – the 2nd book in her World War One trilogy (Regeneration Trilogy Book 2).
  • Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym, a funny, poignant and hopeful story of human connection.
  • Venetian Vespers by John Banville, an eerie, Venice-set novel.
  • Victim of the Aurora by Thomas Keneally. In the waning years of the Edwardian era, a group of gentlemen wait out a raging blizzard in the perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter, poised for a strike at the South Pole.
  •  Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett, a biography of Count Lev Tolstoy.
  • Voices of the Dead (A Raven and Fisher Mystery Book 4) by Ambrose Parry.
  • The Ghost Ship (The Joubert Family Chronicles Book 3) by Kate Moss, a swashbuckling tale of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the high seas.
  • Green for Danger by Christianna Brand, book 7 of the Inspector Cockerill Mysteries.
  • Normal Women: 900 Years of Women Making History by Philippa Gregory
  • Unfinished Portrait by Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott. Agatha Christie also wrote about crimes of the heart, six bittersweet and very personal novels, as compelling and memorable as the best of her work.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

Lake Union Publishing| 2001| 346 pages| e-book| I bought it| 5*

Description on Amazon:

An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.

“Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes…”

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

Part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story, West with Giraffes explores what it means to be changed by the grace of animals, the kindness of strangers, the passing of time, and a story told before it’s too late.

My thoughts:

I read West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge in September this year but didn’t get round to writing about it then. I don’t think I need to add anything to the description shown above other than to say that I loved this story. I didn’t really expect to like it as much as I did – that took me by surprise. It has a colourful cast of characters, all fictional apart from the owner of the San Diego Zoo, Mrs Belle Benchley, a remarkable woman. In the Historical Notes at the end of the book she’s described as ‘an early glass-ceiling breaker‘. She began working at the zoo in 1925 as a civil servant bookkeeper, and working her way through a number of different roles eventually becoming known in the late 1930s as ‘the only female zoo director in the world‘. She believed that the only way people would care about wild animals was to meet them.

Not knowing much about American history I found the Historical Notes very helpful, particularly those about the Great Hurricane of 1938, the most destructive storm to strike New England in recorded history until 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. The journey the giraffes took was primarily the Lee Highway, the more southern, of the transcontinental routes at the time, designed to be a southern counterpart to the northern Lincoln Highway. The author’s website is fascinating giving lots of information about the book, photos from newspaper articles and details about her writing process.

It conjures up a vivid picture of America in 1938 during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, hobo cards, nomadic workers taking jobs where they could, desperate Hooverville dwellers in shanty towns, sundown town racism, and circus animal cruelty. But of course, it is the giraffes that are the two main characters. It is a remarkable book and if you like historical fiction based on fact, books about travel and an exciting story I think you’d enjoy it too.