The Help

What an amazing book! I wasn't even half way through the book and I was already giving it 5 stars!

This book is about Mississippi in the 1960's where a white woman Skeeter Phelan decides she wants to write a book about the black maids and the families they take care of. I mention black and white because in the 60's and in the south you just couldn't escape that. This book was full of emotion, truth, struggles, sadness and happiness, EVERYTHING!

The book was so much more than depicting racial tensions. The book was about friendships, women and their struggles, families, love, respect, and power. In the end you walk away feeling more appreciative of the people who take care of families like maids, nannies, and any domestic help. To know that they are helping to raise children that are not their own while sacrificing raising their own children or to know that they are constantly worried about doing the right/wrong thing because so much is not really up to them yet so powerful in their level of influence...

My review will never do this book any justice. I recommend it to everyone. I had this in audio-book form and instantly felt that I should be reading it instead. I had my son and my nieces listening to it as well. They enjoyed the book too! I wasn't born in the 60's but know what it could have been like because often times I've experienced racism and some of what Skeeter went through with her friends. My son doesn't even have a clue. I think its important to live as equals but I think it's equally important to always remember what it was like.

Dang, loved, loved, loved this book!