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The Book Festival is proud to present its annual Literary Feast, the Book Appétit luncheon. This year’s luncheon will feature KATHRYN STOCKETT. Seventeen years after her debut novel The Help became a cultural phenomenon—15 million+ copies sold, #1 New York Times bestseller, Academy Award-winning film—Stockett returns with The Calamity Club, an unputdownable story of unbreakable women fighting for what’s rightfully theirs. This event will benefit the 15th anniversary of the Book Festival. Included in the costs is a signed copy of the featured book for each attendee.
SPECIAL THANKS:
Event Chairs: Ed and Aida Snyder
Event Committee:
About Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the 
University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Seventeen years after her debut novel The Help became a cultural phenomenon—15 million+ copies sold, #1 New York Times bestseller, Academy Award-winning film—Stockett returns with The Calamity Club—an unputdownable story of unbreakable women fighting for what’s rightfully theirs.
“I fell in love with this coming-of-age story… it’s both heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time.” —Oprah Winfrey
About The Calamity Club
Set in Depression-era Oxford, Mississippi, during one of the darkest chapters in American history, three unforgettable women’s fates collide: Meg, a fierce orphan abandoned by her mother on Christmas Eve; Birdie, who has come to Oxford seeking help from her wealthy sister, only to find her charmed life is built on lies; and Charlie, a woman pushed to the brink with nothing left to lose. When their paths converge, Charlie hatches an audacious
plan to reclaim control over their lives. But in a place where hypocrisy is rife, and women’s freedom hangs by a thread, even the smallest act of defiance can bring calamity.
Stockett writes: “There is no lifeboat coming for these women, no husbands, no fathers, certainly no government programs. Everyone expects these women to fail. And out of this, sparks a terrible, awful, glorious idea.”
Together, they discover they’re unstoppable.
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer. Once again, Stockett brings a Southern town vividly to life with her signature warmth, humor, and razor-sharp insight into women on the margins. Early readers call it bigger and bolder than THE HELP—filled with characters you won’t soon forget.
This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious.
