RSSMarch – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
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…
Terrie
Mar 04, 2010 @ 00:20:18
So who has the book so far? I feel totally behind since Jen Holway has already FINISHED it… ha ha I am waiting for my book still. Anyone else have thoughts so far? too bad we don’t have the *SPOILER ALERT* feature that they use on IMDB… hmmmmmm
Heidi Mitchell
Mar 04, 2010 @ 13:33:15
I’m on a waiting list for it. I’m going to check out some other libraries. Hopefully I can get it soon. I heard it was really good.
Heather
Mar 04, 2010 @ 18:50:43
{administrator note: This is Jen Holway’s comment about this month’s read. I just moved it from her page over here so that we can all enjoy, Thanks}
So I just finished The Help, and was totally crying by the end! Awesome book, I love the detailed insight into different personalities. What an interesting time period and place to examine. Definitely has me thinking more about a lot of things.
Jen
Heather
Mar 06, 2010 @ 22:56:35
I am about halfway done……I am anxious to see how everything wraps up. Other than Jen {who is a superstar fast reader, and Aimee who already read this} who else has started and where is everyone at? Can’t wait to discuss so many parts of this book…..ahhhhh I really am loving it.
Nicole
Mar 07, 2010 @ 13:26:12
I looked it up and want to read it. It sounds like a really good book. I looked it up at the Salt Lake County Library system because that’s where I still have a library card and there are over 600 people that are holding that book. So, chances are, I won’t get that book to read this month. I’m already trying to place a hold on the April book though so that I can read along with everyone else.
Rebecca HARRIS Webb
Mar 07, 2010 @ 23:54:02
I finished it at the end of last month so I could get it back to the library and the person I probably snatched it from when the library system crashed and they lost all their reserved info. I was anxious the whole time. It was great, celebrating each little victory. I won’t say more until more people are done.
Heidi Mitchell
Mar 09, 2010 @ 13:02:48
I finally got my book last night. If it’s good I’ll be done in about a week. So, I’m hoping I like it. I started reading it and so far I’m good with it.
Heather
Mar 10, 2010 @ 20:01:06
I finished on Monday. I can’t wait to talk about it with everyone. If Rob decides not to read it I can lend my copy out.
let me know if you want it, Utah people.
Heidi Mitchell
Mar 15, 2010 @ 08:18:24
I just finished today at work. It was alot better than I thought it would be. It really makes you think about how things used to be and how far we’ve come since then.
Terrie
Mar 17, 2010 @ 00:03:03
Ok so here is what I thought of the book. (I am assuming you will read this after finishing the book so if not you might catch spoilers) Some of this will just be random thoughts. I am not submitting it to be graded.
I really liked how the story was told from 3 different points of view. I found that it really pushed me to read the book because when it would leave off from one person’s narration I would want to hurry and get back to that person’s section to find out what happens for them next, but for the chapters in between, of course I enjoyed what I was reading at the time even though I was anticipating other parts and by the time I got back to the person I was originally anticipating, i would already be anticipating another characters’s story. (if that makes sense)
I really think the story overall is a good one. It does bring to light the life of people who lived in the times of segregation even though I never lived through any of that and mostly I grew up around white people
It is strange to see how differently things are now just 50 years later. I liked how the messages that you take from the story are just absorbed by reading about the character’s lives. Anyway I enjoyed reading it, thumbs up!
This book had a lot of funny parts and like Rebecca said in her post, it was fun to see all of the little victories were made throughout the book. I liked the sneaky things that people did, like the toilets in the yard and of course the book, and even the pie (GROSSSSSS)
I didn’t like that naked guy part of the story….
I think that I would have preferred things to end up differently between Skeeter and Stewart but I guess not everything can have a happy ending. I guess I think that if they were going to end up apart they shouldn’t have gotten back together after the visit to his parent’s house, oh well.
It’s sad about Minny’s husband >:/ I think she did the right thing in the end.
Hilly is a mean lady.
Some of those names are weird Hilly, Mae Mobely, Skeeter (even though that one is a nickname, but even her real name Eugenia is kind of different.) Sugar….
I really like how Aibeleen was with Mae Mobely.
I never saw a black person that looked like a white person and you couldn’t even tell (Like Constantine’s daughter) have any of you? (off topic) But when I was little and I used to watch the Cosby show I thought that Denise was white and wondered how that happened when her parents and siblings weren’t ha ha.
How did she know Elaine Stein was Jewish automatically just by her name? How can you tell what all the Jewish names are? Also it was funny when she said Merry Christmas and she didn’t say I don’t celebrate it or whatever, she just said “We call it Hanukkah”
Yay for Skeeter and Aibeleen and Minny in the end!!!
The End.
Rebecca
Mar 18, 2010 @ 12:14:27
Sugar isn’t an uncommon name in teh AA community.
Stein is a Jewish name.
Skeeter’s happy ending involves NOT ending up with the guy who would have stiffled her in her professional career and her quest to better understand herself and fulfill her life (this is what i’m guessing the author was getting at). She’ll find a forward-thinker in NY (my projection).
I wonder how many issues this woman has with her mother. I read something she wrote at the end of the book and I thought she dropped a few hints that Elizabeth may be an exaggeration of her own mom.
AnnMarie Harris
Mar 20, 2010 @ 14:57:27
Wow Terrie that is quite the review. I agree with you one so much, the different point of views reminded me of a story I read in high school. I love when there are woven together to make one big story. I liked the naked guy part hahah just kidding but others in the group might have enjoyed it secretly (You know who you are
) and the names were different but i kept saying to Larry they were going to be baby names for us!!
Overall good read, different from my usual fantasy made up world books i love. It makes you think and feel sympathetic to people during that time. I’m grateful i was born now and that I wasn’t living in the south then…is that a racist comment?
Can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks.
Rebecca
Mar 29, 2010 @ 01:21:02
Wow, Heidi, you finished fast.
Heather
Mar 29, 2010 @ 19:44:18
I really enjoyed this book. When I finished, I wanted to interview my grandma and ask her what her feelings were about the whole civil rights movement, and segregation in the south, but I also wonder what it was like here in Utah.
I guessed completly wrong about Celia’s “ailment” I thought for sure her husband was beating her, and she was trying to cover it up. I was really wrong.
I loved everything about Aibeleen, how kind she was to Mae Mobely, how wise she was with any advice she had for Minny.
I am heart sick for Skeeter, for not wanting to fall in love with Stuart and then falling in love with him and then having him leave, come back, and leave again. But I AM happy that she was brave and willing to not just accept the standard that was the norm.
laughed at the poo pie part. hated the neeked man in the back yard part.
HATED the lies Hilly was so willing to perpetuate.
loved that Elaine Stein was willing to give Skeeter a chance to write this book that may or may not sell, or appeal to anyone.
I wanted the story to continue on, thats always a sign of a good read.