Today I'm coming at you with a book review. Since I have a lot of time on the train in the mornings and evenings, I've been able to read a fair amount of books this summer. Fair amount being 10! The most recent book I finished was The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
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"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
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.
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.
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.
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."
This was by far the best book I read all summer. It was so captivating. But it was also extremely emotional. There were times where I found myself smiling one minute, tearing the next, and laughing to myself while drying my tears. Kathryn Stockett's writing is on point and true to the time. This book was very near and dear to my heart. Although I did not grow up in the south with a live in maid, I did grow up with an African American woman taking care of me while my parents were away working. I call her Nana, and she is one of the most important people in my life. I love her like I love my parents. She did, however, grow up during the time period in which this book takes place, and I found myself feeling some of the pain she experienced from segregation during those times.
I don't want to be super sappy here, but if there's a book you were going to read this year, this has got to be the one. And! The movie is coming out August 10th, so before you see the movie, read the book!
Anywho! I'm going out to dinner tonight with some friends for Restaurant Week, where NYC restaurants participate with pre-fix menus sampling some of their best dishes at an affordable price. I'll catch you later with a re-cap!
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