The Help by Kathryn Stockett

[crysania4]

This weekend I finished The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was a book I discovered through the 50bookchallenge community and it's one I'm so glad that I read.

The book takes place in the early 1960s and tells the story of a white woman (Eugenia Phelan, aka Skeeter) and two black women (Aibileen and Minny) who are maids for the rich white families of Jackson, MS. Skeeter, a budding writer, takes an interest in the maids' stories about their work for these white families and begins, in secret, to get together with not just Aibileen and Minny, but other maids as well to tell their stories. It is a really really fantastic read. I was sucked into it from the very first page and couldn't get the story out of my mind.

I highly recommend it to everyone!

1. Allen, Sarah Addison: Garden Spells
2. Angelou, Maya: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
3. Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid’s Tale
4. Auel, Jean M.: The Clan of the Cave Bear
5. Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
6. Bailey, Gwen: Hell on 4 Paws: How Britain’s Leading Pet Behaviorist Met Her Match
7. Beckoff, Marc: The Emotional Lives of Animals
8. Bentley, Toni: Winter Season: A Dancer’s Journal
9. Berlioz, Hector: Evenings with the Orchestra
10. Blume, Judy: Summer Sisters
11. Bowen, Asta: Wolf: The Journey Home
12. Bradley, Janice: Dogs Bite But Balloons and Slippers are More Dangerous
13. Bradley, Marion Zimmer: The Mists of Avalon
14. Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
15. Burnett, Francis Hodgson: The Secret Garden
16. Cainkar, Louise: Homeland Insecurity: The Arab American and Muslim American Experience After 9/11
17. Cameron, W. Bruce: A Dog's Purpose
18. Clark, Don: Someone Gay: Memoirs
19. Cleeves, Ann: Raven Black
20. Clement-Davies, David: The Sight
21. Conroy, Frank: Body & Soul
22. Cox, Michael: The Meaning of Night: A Confession
23. Delise, Karen: Fatal Dog Attacks
24. Derr, Mark: Dog’s Best Friend: Annals of the Dog-Human Relationship
25. du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
26. du Maurier, Daphne: The House on the Strand
27. Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo
28. Duno, Steve: Last Dog on the Hill: The Extraordinary Life of Lou
29. Edwards, Kim: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
30. Ellison, Ralph: The Invisible Man
31. Foer, Jonathan Safron: Everything is Illuminated
32. Fortier, Anne: Juliet
33. Franklin, Ariana: Mistress of the Art of Death
34. Franzen, Jonathan: The Corrections
35. Gann, Kyle: No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage’s 4’33”
36. Glassman, Bruce: Giants of Art and Culture: Mikhail Baryshnikov
37. Glover, Jane: Mozart’s Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music
38. Gregory, Carter: My Angel Leonara
39. Guterson, David: Snow Falling on Cedars
40. Hearst, Dorothy: Secret of the Wolves [released August 2011]
41. Henderson, Melva: Libby’s Ashes
42. Herkness, Nancy: Music of the Night
43. Hill, Roger: Hunting Nature’s Fury: A Storm Chaser’s Obsession with Tornadoes, Hurricanes, and Other Natural Disasters
44. Hoffman, E.T.A.: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King
45. Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner
46. Howe, Katherine: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
47. Jacobs, Harriet: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
48. Jerome, Jerome J.: Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog…)
49. Kafka, Franz: Metamorphosis
50. Kay, Nancy: Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs To Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life
51. Kingsbury, H.D.: Variations on a Theme of Leroux
52. Kirland, Gelsey: Dancing on my Grave
53. L'Engle, Madeleine: The Small Rain
54. L'Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle in Time
55. Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
56. Lehman, Amber: Torn
57. Lewis, C.S.: The Chronicles of Narnia
58. Lint, Charles de: Moonheart
59. Lopez, Steve: The Soloist
60. Lowry, Lois: The Giver
61. Mai, Francois Martin: Diagnosing Genius: The Life and Death of Beethoven
62. McCaig, Donald: Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men: Searching Through Scotland for a Border Collie
63. McConnell, Patricia: Play Together, Stay Together
64. McDevitt, Leslie: Control Unleashed
65. McNamee, Thomas: The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone
66. Meeder, Kim: Blind Hope: An Unwanted Dog and the Woman She Rescued
67. Miller, Pat: Do-over Dogs
68. Morris, Edmund: Beethoven: The Universal Composer
69. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus: A Life in Letters (selected letters of Mozart)
70. Nease, Byron: Behind the Mask...No More
71. Orwell, GeorgeL 1984
72. Orwell, George: Animal Farm
73. Patersen, Katherine: The Bridge to Terabithia
74. Paulson, Gary: Winterdance
75. Perkins-Valdez, Dolen: Wench
76. Plath, Sylvia: The Bell Jar
77. Powers, Richard: The Time of Our Singing
78. Pullman, Phillip: The Golden Compass
79. Romano-Lax, Andromeda: The Spanish Bow
80. Schickele, Peter: The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach
81. Schine, Cathleen: The New Yorkers
82. Shaw, Ali: The Girl with the Glass Feet [Finished 12/13/10]
83. Shojai, Amy: The First Aid Companion for Dogs and Cats
84. Simak, Clifford: City
85. Spencer, Scott: Man in the Woods
86. Stafford, William: The Mozart Myths: A Critical Reassessment
87. Stewart, Paisley Swan: Chanson de L'Ange Book 1: The Bleeding Rose
88. Stockett, Kathryn: The Help [Finished 12/19/10]
89. Stone, George: A Legend of Wolf Song
90. Straub, Peter: Shadowland
91. Thomas, Abigail: A Three Dog Life
92. Thoreau, Henry David: Walden; Or, Life in the Woods
93. Thurston, Mary Elizabeth: The Lost History of the Canine Race
94. Totora, Daniel: Right Dog for You
95. Twain, Mark: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
96. Watkins, Glenn: The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth, and Memory
97. Wenger-Landis, Miriam: Girl in Motion
98. Winograd, Nathan: Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America
99. Wroblewski, David: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
100. Zelazny, Roger: A Night in the Lonesome October


I'm currently reading Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel which is not on this list.

Comments

[remix22.livejournal.com]

I adored this book. I'm so glad you liked it!
I listened to the audio book, but I definitely think this is one I need to own; I can see myself going back to read it later.

Oh, and I just noticed that you had "Rebecca" on yor list. I have this, and don't plan on reading it - do you want me to send it to you?

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Only if you want to! I can get it out of the library easily enough (which is what I do with most of these books!). I only buy the books that I can't find there. LOL

[remix22.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not doing any good on my bookshelf! It should only cost me a couple of dollars to send it media mail :) I'll try to get it out to you within the next couple of days!

[crysania4.livejournal.com]

Sure no rush! Thank you! I hope it's a book I enjoy reading. A lot of people told me I should check it out and it sounds interesting. So we'll see!

[hippie-geisha.livejournal.com]

"The Help" is a great book! I think my mom's book club is going to read it.

A girl I work with loaned it to me, which kind of surprised me, because that book seemed kind of deep for her to be reading.....

....that was mean...;)