Thursday Tea is a weekly meme highlighting what I’m currently reading (and drinking) and if I feel the two complement each other.

The Book

The Calamity Club
by Kathryn Stockett
Publication Date May 5, 2026

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?
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to resilience, friendship, and the fierce, funny women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

 

The Beverage:

 I’ve been reading The Calamity Club while I eat breakfast. That means I’ve been reading Kathryn Stockett’s new novel alongside a cup of coffee with caramel creamer.

The Assessment

Do I think coffee complements The Calamity Club? It depends on the character. I think Birdie, who is outspoken and is a hard worker, would be more likely to drink coffee as it is a robust drink. Frances, on the other hand, is a social climber, and I can see more as a tea drinker as it is “danity.” Either way, I do think coffee goes well with my current read, but maybe without the creamer.