My Summer Read: The Help

 I think by now everyone has seen the movie adaptation of the book,"The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.This Summer, though I decided to tackle reading all 400 some odd pages of the book.  When I first picked this book up, I thought, "oh, shoot this thing is thick! It's gonna take me awhile to get through this thing!"I let the book sit for awhile, before I was able to find some space to pick it up and read nightly and often sometimes in the morning at breakfast.I didn't know anyone who had actually read the entire book.

I just knew I had to tackle this, because everyone knows the book is always better than the movie, right?

So this book takes place in the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi. Enough said. The south was known particularly for it's racism during the civil rights movement, Mississippi in particular.The movie went with the main character Aibileen, a black maid who worked for Elizabeth a woman who was racist as well.I'd like to share with you what I liked about the book...

(WARNING: Their maybe a few spoiler alerts ahead for those of you who haven't read the book!):

I liked that the author wrote from different characters perspectives. I am so attracted to authors that write like this. Terry McMillan is one of my favorite authors because she tells the entire story by writing from different perspectives. "The Help" switched back and forth between Skeeter, Minnie and Aibileen to tell the story. The movie just sort of told the story through the eyes of Aibileen and incorporated the other characters into the story.It sheds a light on peoples backwards perspectives in the 1960's which sadly today is some folks same way of thinking. Their is definitely a historical factor to both the movie and the book. The mentioning of civil rights activist Medgar Evers murder and JFK's assassination being noted in the book, does give you a very solid time period and gives you a marker as to what times these were.

Back then talking ill of your employer, sharing stories with others and discrepancies with their employers wasn't just a threat to their lively hood, their job, but a threat to their life and their families.

I love these books that have a certain historical factor to them because it makes me thankful for the life I live now, but also seeing how far we have come and how far we have to go.I actually found the copy that I ended up reading at a local thrift store (hint: some thrift stores have some pretty current reads for sometimes less than a $1.). I often just pick up books at the thrift store, at different book sales and place them in our library. Then when I have time, or am looking for a good book to read, I don't have to go out to the store and get one.That is unless I'm wanting something that was just released.Thanks for reading!-Nicole Alicia