The Help in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Dec 30, 2010 Jaime rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2010, historical-1950-1980

This book is every bit as good as everyone says it is. It’s been a while since I’ve zipped through a book so quickly (just a few days, over Christmas). Who knows how accurate it is — accuracy isn’t the point. If I wanted 100% accuracy, I’d read non-fiction. What’s important is that we’re given an intriguing story from three distinct points of view. There’s more to this book than a look at race relations in 1960s Mississippi. It’s also about class separation, relationships between parents and chi ...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Jillian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: must-reads

I loved this book. I wanted to make sure I read it before watching the movie, and I'm so glad I did.
I really connected with Skeeter, the white girl who decides to put everyone's stories together. We both have similar problems with men (she's tall, I'm heavy) and trying to live up to our mothers' expectations. We both want to do something that matters, but don't exactly know how. Skeeter decides to write a book, I'm....still searching for that something.
Aibilene's strength is heart-warming and he I loved this book. I wanted to make sure I read it before watching the movie, and I'm so glad I did.
I really connected with Skeeter, the white girl who decides to put everyone's stories together. We both have similar problems with men (she's tall, I'm heavy) and trying to live up to our mothers' expectations. We both want to do something that matters, but don't exactly know how. Skeeter decides to write a book, I'm....still searching for that something.
Aibilene's strength is heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time. I cheered every time she taught the little girl she was raising to stand up for herself and for others - and can only hope that little Mae Mobley won't turn out like her mother.
Minny was fantastic. She started out as the comic relief character but soon turned into something much more - her development throughout the story, and her relationship with Celia Foote was wonderful.

Halfway through the book, I started questioning what my role in the book would have been if I'd been my age in the South during the 60s. Would I have been Hilly, the bitchy, malicious, status-quo-is-God woman who makes absolutely sure nothing will ever change? Would I have been Skeeter, the one who is willing to risk everything - her relationship with her family, her boyfriend, even her safety and her life - to tell the stories of the maids and nannies? Or would I have been somewhere in between, the Lou Anns who are kind to their help but don't want to shake things up?
The current gay rights movement has often been compared to the civil rights movement, so I look at my beliefs and actions in the present to help me find where I would have been in the past - and I can take comfort in the fact that I would never be a Hilly, or even an Elizabeth (a shallow follower who doesn't know what's going on). And I think of myself as more outspoken than Lou Ann - I've had full-on arguments with people who are mean-spirited and ignorant; I don't just bite my tongue. But I have yet to do anything really risky.
Books like The Help make you ask yourself these questions - it's easy to say "YES! I would risk everything, even my life, to make a difference!" but never do anything to back it up. It can give you something to aspire to, to speak out against oppression and injustice. And if it gives you that nudge, that feeling in your stomach that maybe you're closer to being Hilly than you'd like to admit, then it has served its purpose. ...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Dana Berglund rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-for-grown-ups

I read a scathing review by Meredith, and see the validity of her arguments. With a nod to them, I still must say I liked this book a lot. It was very engaging, and the drama kept me hooked the whole time. I also appreciated Stockett's notes at the end, in which she acknowledges how presumptuous it is of her to write from a black woman's perspective. I suggest reading that if you are deciding whether or not to continue reading the book, based on having narrators who have experiences that the aut ...more

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