So I've mentioned briefly before that I had joined a ladies book-club. Well back in July I wasn't able to attend the meeting due to scheduling conflicts so I wasn't there when they announced that our next assignment was to read The Help by Kathryn Stockett! I was so ecstatic when I found out because finally it was a book I hadn't read yet! And not only that, but it was one on my TBR pile. Double bonus!
I ADORED this book! Yeah! Finally a book I could rave about! After the last couple reviews I was starting to feel like a Negative Nancy and was really hoping I would have something positive to say :-) And Lawd (that's how they say it in The Help) have mercy! I'm sure glad I read it!
The story revolves around three women set back in the 60's in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a time of uproar and turbulence as the lines drawn between races were challenged and crossed. The author gracefully switches between the three character's points of view in such a way I was never confused or lost. I absolutely fell in love with the characters and was completely emotionally tied up in the well-being of Skeeter, Aibileen and Minnie. Though I have to admit, Minnie was my absolute favorite! There is a scene in there that will have you rolling on the floor. I felt as if Minnie were in the room herself telling me about the "something terrible" she did! I really don't want to give anymore away than what the synopsis already portrays - but you will absolutely fall in love with these characters and be astounded that this is a first-time novelist. Put this one at the top of your TBR list! Kathryn Stockett is sure to become a favorite of mine and I'm looking forward to see what she comes up with next!
Here's my bookclub meeting at the Arrington Vineyards in Arrington, Tennessee for dinner and discussion on The Help!
Can you honestly imagine a more beautiful location to have a book and some wine?
Description: Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.
Rating: *****!
Recommend: Completely!
1. I remember, I remember rarely anything.
