<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<GoodreadsResponse>
	<Request>
		<authentication>false</authentication>
		    <method><![CDATA[]]></method>
	</Request>
	<review>
  <id>74676685</id>
    <user>
    <id>795024</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Erik]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Greenville, SC]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/795024-erik]]></link>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1204764237p3/795024.jpg]]></image_url>
  </user>
    <book>
  <id type="integer">4667024</id>
  <isbn>0399155341</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780399155345</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">4741</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[The Help]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255571691m/4667024.jpg</image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4667024.The_Help</link>
  <average_rating>4.51</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>13495</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.<br/><br/> 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.<br/><br/> 	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.<br/><br/> 	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 to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.<br/><br/> 	Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.<br/><br/> In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, <em>The Help</em> is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.]]>
  </description>
<authors>
    <author>
    <id>1943477</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Kathryn Stockett]]></name>
    <image_url><![CDATA[http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1233458107p5/1943477.jpg]]></image_url>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1943477.Kathryn_Stockett]]></link>
    <average_rating>4.51</average_rating>
    <ratings_count>13800</ratings_count>
    <text_reviews_count>4890</text_reviews_count>
  </author>
  </authors></book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
    
      <shelf name="read" />
    
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Thu Nov 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Oct 15 18:38:21 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Nov 21 15:47:28 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Although well-written with a handful of interesting (though stereotypical) characters, I think I would have rather read some firsthand accounts of the help this novel was portraying. Personally, I don't care much for books about writers (I know, right?) and a large part of the plot here is about a book being written. Granted, this fictional book is a major vehicle of the plot, but I would have enjoyed the novel more if the writer character and that part of the story hadn't been a part of it. I didn't come away feeling as enlightened as I'd hoped, but then again I am a jaded, grumpy reader who is easily disappointed if a book doesn't meet his expectations.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74676685]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74676685]]></link>
</review>

</GoodreadsResponse>