the help

Just go on out and get yourself The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  You've seen it in bookstores.  It has a yellow cover with three birds on the front.  It's been a best seller for forever, so you're probably not going to have problems finding it near the front of any bookstore.

I read a review of it a long time ago, but didn't pick it up until I read Christy's recommendation.  It's the story of three women living in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi.  Skeeter has just graduated from college and is living back home on her family's farm, desperate for a job writing books.  She pitches her idea, to interview black maids about working for white women, to Harper & Row.  And so the book chronicles their stories and Skeeter's struggles to get her book published.

About a third of the way through the book, I couldn't stand it any longer and had to read the end.  (I only do this with books I really truly care about, and I can't remember doing it but one or two other times.)  I slowed down reading it after then, partially because I already knew the ending, but also because I wanted it to last.  At that point when I peaked, I was dying to know the outcome, but I didn't want to get there, because I loved these women's stories.  I cared about them.  How often does that happen to anyone?

So just do yourself a favor and go get it, and then let me know what you think.