THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett + New Years Update

Well, first off, before I get to the review, hope y'all had a very merry Christmas and New Years! I got some awesome gifts for Christmas, including some liquid chalkboard (been wanting to have a chalkboard on my wall for awhile). So I painted it right away and now, I can't stop using it. *Sigh...* How I love thee chalkboard. I also spent some great time with some family that I don't typically get to see but once a year. And for New Year's Eve, I ended up going to some friends' house where we ate waffles around a bonfire and blew up stuff (and I'm not talking about fireworks).

Although I don't actually have any written New Years resolutions, and I didn't give it much thought, I've decided that I want to get better about my blog-posting. I need to post on schedule, and warn if I'm not going to be able to for whatever reason. I'm also going to finish my novel this year. Hopefully this spring-which would be pretty darn cool. And lastly, I'm going to start using more GIF's. I've begun stalking Tumblr, which is GIF galore. So, of course, this post is going to have several....

February 10th, 2009 - Amy Einhorn

Books/Putnam

Synopsis: Three ordinary women are about to take one

extraordinary step.

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 t

hey 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.

Well, if you haven't heard about THE HELP, you might be dead. Not only have c

ritics and magazines and newspapers adored this book, but they adored the film adaption, too. But don't feel bad if you didn't know much about it. I only knew that it was about black maids. But it was much more than that.

So, basically this is how I got my hands on it, and what I thought of it-

I kept hearing about it. Kept hearing about it. Kept hearing about it. It was getting so much acclaim! It was gaining ground of awesomeness. But, see, I don't typically like historical fiction.

AT ALL. Oh, gosh. IT'S SO FREAKING BORING! Typically. And, I thought, no offense, but I think the whole 60's

African-American civil rights movement has been told in all the ways that it can.

I don't think I'm the only one that goes

...when historical fiction is mentioned. "But no!" my friends said. "It's awesome!" They were like:

And I just went:

But then several other friends who I really trust when choosing books told me to read it. "I hate historical fiction, too," they said, "but it's phenomenal."

So I borrowed it, and started reading. I was less than a chapter in when I realized that I was going to adore this book. The characters are so wonderful. I love how the point of view switches from Aibileen, the sweet, endearing maid, to Minny, the sassy maid, to Skeeter, the college grad who wants to write. And speaking about writing, this book's gorgeous in the prose department! Just listen to this, from the first page:

"But I ain't never seen a baby yell like Mae Mobley Leefolt. First day I walk in the door, there she be, red-hot and hollering with the colic, fighting that bottle like it's a rotten turnip."

I just love how it's written with that accent. But what I think I liked the most was that this time, the civil-rights story isn't told by a courageous man who wants to fight the government, or by a determined high-school sports coach that wants to integrate teams. It's told by women who can lose a whole lot. And they're fighting perfectly sweet looking ladies'-league members with new dresses and shiny cars. It shows the sinister side to what goes on during a polite summer game of bridge. It's literally one of my all time favorite books now. EVER. It's my favorite adult book.

When I finished it, I was like:

And when I see my friend who let me borrow the book next, I'm gonna be like:

Well, see ya on Friday! And hope you're having a good year so far!

-Aaron