Bookshelf: Long-awaited follow-up to ‘The Help’ slated for spring release
When Atlanta author Kathryn Stockett published her novel “The Help” in 2009, it triggered a seismic shift in the publishing industry. Her literary debut about Mississippi domestic workers in the early ‘60s sold 15 million copies in more than 30 countries, spent two-plus years on The New York Times bestsellers list and was made into an Oscar-winning movie.
It also generated critical backlash over the fact it was a story about the mistreatment of working-class Black characters written by a white woman of privilege. It sparked a major debate in literary circles over who has the authority to tell a story, especially at a time when few Black authors were being greenlit by major publishing companies.
Regardless, “The Help” has a multitude of eager fans who have long-awaited Stockett’s next book. And now, 16 years later, their wait is finally over. Stockett is set to publish her sophomore novel, “The Calamity Club” (Spiegal & Grau, $35), in May 2026.
Set during the Depression in Oxford, Mississippi, “The Calamity Club” revolves around an unlikely sisterhood that forms between an 11-year-old “unadoptable” orphan, an unmarried woman seeking help from her social-climbing sister and a woman with a past who’s running out of luck.
“The story embraces a woman’s right to determine her own fate, which feels increasingly relevant these days,” Stockett told People magazine.
“The Calamity Club” doesn’t directly address racial issues, but it is set in the segregated South.
“Race is always in the background,” Stockett told The New York Times. “It’s probably always going to be in the background of any book I write.”
Get your Christmas shopping lists ready for the fourth annual Atlanta Indie Bookshop Crawl taking place through Nov. 30 at more than 30 bookstores across the metro area. Pick up a passport at participating stores and collect stamps from five shops to qualify for a special discount. There will also be raffles, giveaways and other incentives to stock up on books.
In addition to inside-the-Perimeter stores such as Charis Books & More, 44th & 3rd, A Cappella Books and Little Shop of Stories, participating stores include lots of suburban shops, such as The Crazy Book Lady in Acworth, The Book Worm Bookstore in Powder Springs and Read It Again Bookstore in Suwanee. For a full list, go to atlantaindiebookshopcrawl.com.
Small-town Georgia is the setting of “Booked for Murder” (Minotaur Books, $28), the second in the Old Juniper Bookshop cozy mystery series by P.J. Nelson, a pseudonym for a Decatur-based author, actor and dramatist.
Publishing Dec. 2, this cozy mystery is set into motion when Madeline Brimley, who has inherited her aunt’s bookstore in Enigma, discovers the remains of universally disliked Beatrice Glassie buried in her front garden. In cahoots with her elderly Aunt Philomena, a professor who was recently released from a mental health institution, Madeline sets out to identify the killer and free Episcopal priest Grace Coleman, who has been wrongly accused.
A Cappella Books and the Georgia Center for the Book present a reading from “Booked for Murder” and musical performance by The Dianas on Dec. 9 at Decatur Library. For details, go to georgiacenterforthebook.org.
Postponed because of a hiccup in the printing process, the Writers at the Wrecking Bar series event for Atlanta author Sheri Joseph’s fourth novel, “Angels at the Gate” (Regal House Publishing $20.95), has been rescheduled for Dec. 2 at the Marianna Room at the Wrecking Bar. In conversation with Atlanta novelist Susan Rebecca White, Joseph will discuss her atmospheric novel about a scholarship student navigating misogyny and patriarchy at a small private college in rural Tennessee. For details go to acappellabooks.com.
Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She can be reached at Suzanne.VanAtten@ajc.com.
