Staff Reviews & Reader’s Guides
Recent Reviews:
Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto
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A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
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American Gods
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This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection by Carol Burnett
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Losing Julia
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The Help by Kathryn Stockett
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A story of women in the South...
The Help By Kathryn Stockett There is a loooooong waiting list for this bestseller, and has been for months. Stockett’s first novel focuses on a group of women in Jackson, Mississippi at the start of the civil rights era. Skeeter is a white woman of privilege who returns to town after college and is somewhat lost, she feels out of place with her old fashioned, married friends. She lives at home with her parents, her mother tries to marry her off at every turn. She gets to know Aibileen, a black maid working for one of her friends, and soon has her eyes opened to a whole different Jackson. Soon enough Skeeter has convinced Aibileen and some of her friends to share their stories about being black, and a maid, in Jackson. I liked, but didn’t love, The Help. The theme of universal humanity breaking through barriers is one that pops up in story after story. I felt at times there was nothing particularly original about this book. Some problems seem just a little too easy to fix, some characters are entirely one dimensional, and the ending left me feeling less than satisfied. That being said, The Help will surely be a crowd pleaser and would make a logical choice for book groups. I predict its made into a movie very soon.
