The Help by Kathryn Stockett

444 pages

"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." -Dust Jacket

I LOVED this book. LOVED IT! It's my favorite type of book: a fictional story about life and "real" every day people. It reminded me of The Secret Life of Bees, with characters that jump right off the page, grab your heart and make you fall completely in love with them. Their Southern talk and spunk brought a smile to my face. I just love Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter. They are inspiring, brave women. All the characters are so well-written. Miss Hilly is a good protagonist. You love to hate her. She's so prejudiced and nasty. Which makes Minny's revenge so sweet. Then there are those characters who want to go against the status quo and just aren't quite strong enough but you feel hopeful for future generations. Writing the book within the book changes the characters' lives in ways they both imagined and didn't. My two favorite quotes:

"Sometimes, when I'm bored, I can't help but think what my life would be like if I hadn't written the book. Monday, I would've played bridge. And tomorrow night, I'd be going to the League meeting and turning in the newsletter. Then on Friday night, Stuart would take me to dinner and we'd stay out late and I'd be tired when I got up for my tennis game on Saturday. Tired and content and...frustrated." -Miss Skeeter, page 419

"We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

That last statement pretty much sums up the message of the book for me. This should be a "must read" for everyone. Despite the bad things that happen it was pure joy from beginning to end.