Two of my yard sale treasures. The boots actually fit me. They're children size 3. And check out my new Vans which cost only $5!
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Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Father's Day
Katie checking out the works of her favorite author, Maine's own horrormeister, Stephen King. She's built up an extensive collection of his books.
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Monday, June 29, 2026
The Calamity Club (adult historical fiction)
It took me over a month and a half to get my hands on Kathryn Stockett's The Calamity Club. When I finally acquired it six days ago it had 286 holds on it. Just think--nearly three hundred people desired to read it enough to put in a request.
Which is perfectly understandable. Stockett made quite a reputation for herself when her debut novel, The Help, dropped in 2009 and made it's way to the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list and was made into a movie. Most deservedly.
Both books have an awful lot in common. Both are set in turbulent times in America: The Help in the 1960s when the Civil Rights struggle was really dividing the country and The Calamity Club in the 1930s when the nation was in the relentless grip of the great depression. They give the reader a real sense of what life felt like back then. Both center themselves around the lives of the downtrodden: Black domestic workers in The Help and the desperately poor and powerless in The Calamity Club. And both have a strong social justice theme.
The Calamity Club is narrated by three truly unforgettable protagonists.
Eleven-year-old Meg was taken to the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum when she was discovered alone, abandoned by her mother. That would be bad enough in itself. The whole place is in a moldy state of disrepair with sub par housing, food, everything. Although the babies and toddlers are loved by the volunteer ladies who staff the place, the "big girls" are scorned and neglected and seen as defective. If they are not adopted by twelve they are sent to work in a cannery.
But Garnett, the woman who runs the place, --for some unexplained reason--hates Meg. Instead of attending school--which she loves--with the other big girls she must spend her days alone in a room that is a serious health hazard with the window boarded up. And Garnette is determined that she go to the cannery rather than get a chance to become part of a family.
Birdie had worked part time at a drug store and lived with her mother and grandmother as finances got tighter and tighter until they had no alternative to sending her to visit her younger sister. Frances is married to a bank executive from a monied family. They live with his widowed mother in a big old house. Surely they can spare enough to keep their in-laws from going under...
...or maybe not. Weeks go by without Frances making any effort to effort to ask Rory for the money. Maybe their show of prosperity is merely a sham...
...Maybe it will take really drastic action to keep their own big house from being foreclosed on.
Life has really been cruel to Charlie. She's just been released from prison after spending time behind bars on a totally bogus charge. She's lost the only person who matters to her and is determined to get her back, ever though any way she can think of carries a serious risk of arrest and reimprisonment.
This deeply engaging book will touch on all your emotions. As you read episodes ranging from tragic to triumphant with a little bit of burlesque thrown in for good measure, you'll find yourself rooting for Meg, Birdie and Charlie to achieve their security and happiness.
The Calamity Club has a very strong social justice undercurrent which Stockett makes explicit in her author's note.
"As I was writing this book, a curious fact caught my eye. It was regarding an act that made it legal to sterilize any person in Mississippi deemed an imbecile."
[Reviewer's note: This dubious privilege was extended to the nation as a whole in the Supreme Court's tragically misguided Buck v! Bell.]
Sexual promiscuity was considered to be a symptom of imbecility. It was a very subjective decision. Imbeciles were considered so overly sexual they would produce legions of illegitimate children who would be a drain on society. Sterilizing these women and children was considered society's protection from individuals whom eugenicists considered a clear and present danger. The number of females who were robbed of the chance to become mothers has been estimated at 70,000 but could be much higher.
"It is with the utmost sincerity that I acknowledge the women who endured this shameful chapter of our nation's history, and those who fought--and continue to fight for women's healthcare as a human right today."
On a purrrsonal note, if I'd lived back then I might very well have been sterilized. I have petit mal epilepsy as a result of a concussion when I was ten. I knew from really early in life that I yearned to have children. Being a mother has given me more joy than just about anything else in life. I would have been heartbroken if I'd been robbed of the opportunity.
A great big shout out goes out to the people Stockett acknowledged.
Jules Hathaway
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Sunday, June 28, 2026
Katie
And a new little friend. She bought this hen for her handsome, fluffy orange and white cat, Archie.
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