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."