The Help by: Kathryn Stockett

The Help by: Kathryn Stockett


A new perspective in the civil rights movement. It takes place just as the movement is getting underway and is told from 3 perspectives, 1 white woman (Skeeter), 1 older black woman (Aibeleen) and 1 young black woman (Minny). The black women both work as maids, which seems to be the only work black women were able to get in Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter is desperate to be a writer, and she gets a mentor in New York. She encourages Skeeter to write on the movement from the perspective of maids in the area. She writes stories with the help of Aibeleen and Minny.

I don't want to give much away. Aibeleen has raised 17 children, and when we come in she is starting a new job with a new baby. It's really heartbreaking to watch this story unfold, where you see these families fully hand over their children to black women they barely know, but think they'll catch a nasty disease if you use the same bathroom...and Aibeleen does a better job raising and loving that baby than the mother does.

Minny is outspoken...she's been fired a LOT for her mouth. She has a nasty secret about why she lost her last job, that she won't share with anyone. But because a certain woman who thinks she runs the town has spread rumors that Minny stole silver...she can't find anything except a strange job out in the country. I love how this one unfolds...it's not perfect but it is entertaining and she is finally with a good family and is told she has a job for life.

Skeeter was best friends with that woman who supposedly runs the town...and she offended her because of a little typo in the league newsletter (ended up getting a lot of toilets dropped off in her front yard). So she is cut off from everyone in the town. She meets a man and they get close, almost engaged but her political views which have been radically changed since interviewing the maids pushes him to walk away. She has to decide to stay with her family, or pack up and move to New York where she has finally gotten a job.

Do the town residents figure out the book is about them? Do things change? Read this book - it's great! A lot of things I never thought about, and I couldn't begin to know what any of those women felt - but it makes you stop and think. Have we improved? The best line in the book - "We {women} aren't nearly as different as I thought we were."

(I was not paid for this review...or even asked to do it...but if you click on the amazon link I may earn a commission if you buy it) - thanks for reading!

Monday Melee--Fracas

The Monday Melee « fracas:

1. The Magnificent: Name someone you absolutely adore, and tell us why. I adore Carolyn. She and I have had our conflicts, but I've come around to loving her very much. She wants to help everyone. She is incredibly generous. And she loves to share her books with me, and will take my recommendations seriously as well. She is my husband's sort-of-adopted-mother. She has taken care of him for the last 20 years. She is one of my closest family members and I wouldn't trade my time with her for the world.

2. The Muddy: Tell us something about life you just don’t “get”. I don't get how a mother can find out her brother shot her baby-girl with a bee-bee gun and her response is "so? it was just her arm!" My brother has more sense than to ever do that, but if he did shoot either of my boys, I would have had him arrested and it would have been the LAST time he saw me and the boys.

3. The Magnetic: Name something or someone good (or bad) you’re drawn to and you just can’t help it. Tell us if you want to change this or not. JoAnn Fabric...god I love that store. It's not even that great of a selection, but it's full of possibilities. Is it good or bad? Mostly bad, as I load up on stuff I'll never do. Would I change it...guess not. It's a store that makes me feel good.

4. The Mainstay: Who or what is something you just can’t live without? Why? I cannot live without Biggby iced mocha-mocha. Ok, I'm sure I could but I really don't want to. It's so sweet. I get it skinny (non-fat milk) and no whip cream and then the super is only 6 weight watchers points. That's hardly light, but yesterday before church it was my breakfast.

5. The Masquerade: Tell us something about yourself we wouldn’t already know. I suffer from depression...of course you may already know that. Before I was pregnant with Ivan, I was taking anti-depressents, but I went off them as soon as I found out I was pregnant. The doctor was actually leary of taking me off them, but I had read the side effects of a pregnancy, so it was important to get them out of my...and Ivan's...system. We slowly got me off them and agreed to keep an eye on me, especially after Ivan was born.

6. The Mettle: Tell us about a time you showed courage in yourself, or tell us what you wish you had the courage to do. To continue with above, when I had CW I had such serious Post-Pardum depression that I was close to suicide. Instead of letting myself go that route, I got into therapy and hit a lot of the bad stuff in my own head. I give myself credit for this, because therapy is hardly a happy, feel-good time. It is confronting all the crap in your life that you try to avoid most of the time.