I loved this book,it was a fast read. The individual characters were interesting and perhaps realistic.
I think some people still do treat people the way the southern women did,and attitudes may not have changed as much as I would like them too.

"The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings." ~Kate Chopin; The Awakening

All I could think about as I was reading this book is this author sure is brave. A white woman writing a book about black maids and prejudice in the heart of Mississippi just seemed risky to me. How can a white person possibly relate to what a black person experienced in the sixties? And yet Kathryn Stockett pulls it off beautifully.

The Help is definitely a character driven book. All the principal characters are richly illustrated and memorable. The book follows two black maids, Aibileen and Minny who have worked their whole lives serving white families. There are ups and downs to the job but in many ways the women are treated like slaves. It is also about a white woman named Skeeter, who loves to write and seems to be the only white person that notices the injustices the black maids face on a daily basis. Miss Hilly, is the antihero and is just a terrible person. I have to imagine that the actresses in Hollywood will be clamoring for that part as she is the most sinister villain in recent history. Who knew that a housewife could be so conniving?

Skeeter works with Aibileen, Minny, and other maids to document the life of a black maid in Mississippi. The stories they share are dangerous and ultimately could be life threatening if they are discovered to be the source. There is a sense of dread that builds and builds throughout the book. The book is full of mysteries that slowly unravel and I found it hard to put down. I was surprised that I enjoyed this book so much since nearly all the characters are women and for the most part the men are all terrible or just in the background. I am not the target audience but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book.

I was born in the mid-seventies and grew up for the most part in the Kansas City area and I just haven't witnessed prejudice first hand. I can't believe this story took place just a decade before my birth. I recognize that this book is fiction and I may be naive but I am sure that many real events took place that were a lot worse than some of the things that took place in this book. The author does a great job of weaving in actual civil liberty events that were occurring as the fictional story progresses. It is hard for me to fathom such hatred and ignorance. I recognize that prejudice exists today, especially in certain pockets of the country, but the fact that we have an African-American president shows that we have come a long way as a society in the last 50 years. Hopefully things continue to improve.

Kathryn Stockett has created a story in The Help with an updated reflection upon a time in our nation when there was a divisive chasm between the races. A time when Americans, especially the "gentile Southerner", felt superior to their fellow black citizens. A time when our generation can now only hang their heads in shame for what an earlier generation did, said, felt and acted upon fellow black Americans.

Stockett's fiction creatively twists the story so that the reader can only ponder along with the story's characters if this story is indeed fiction or not. Her ability to tickle our psyche is genius.

The characters are fresh and easily identifiable while the language puts the reader right in the room with the characters. Her ability to put the reader into the character's mind in each chapter is equally intelligent as we become the thoughts of the character very readily. She enables this transference without the use of quotations of the character and uses the language of the character in their musings. (Such as when a character is thinking: I gone take that breakfast to her. Not: I'm going to take that breakfast to her.

Nice read, somewhat compelling with the reader wanting to discover the outcome of the book Skeeter submits for publication, what the locals reactions will be, will there be repercussions with the contributors and what will Skeeter's life path become.

Read it, read it. Great book.

This book seems to accurately tell the story of a time in our history that is very painful to all of us.

Kathryn Stockett is the kind of writer that makes writing seem effortless. She includes the sort of details that make you feel like you're in the room with her; from the blissful coolness of an air conditioner on a scorching summer day, to the feeling of isolation when you ask questions no one wants to answer.

This book was absolutely riveting and moving. A beautifully-told story that reminds you that making a difference can be about both the big things and the small things that you do.

The Help unravels the sensitive relationship between domestic help and their employers. Although it deals with the pre-segrated South in the mid-1960's, the same issues apply today. It is truly moving to see the symbiotic relationship between 'the employer and their help', as well as 'the help and their employer'. It makes you realize that people are people, no matter their class, race, culture or color. Their family is most important to them and they do what they can to nurture their family and provide for them. In my business travels around the world, this has held true in every country. As an employer, you are best served to communicate clearly, express gratitude sincerely, and be empathetic to your employees situation, to create a mutually rewarding working relationship. The Help wakes our minds to these concepts.

I wasn't sure what to expect from "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I had heard about it in passing prior to reading it. I had heard people talking about the fact that a white woman had written a book mainly from the perspective of the black women who worked in the upper-middle class homes of white women in Jackson, MS. As a white woman (raised in Minnesota), I was nervous to confront my own feelings of discomfort with the issues raised in the book.

All this said, after about chapter two, I was completely absorbed and transplanted to the 60s in Jackson, MS. I really loved how Stockett placed herself into the character of Skeeter, the young recent college graduate who naively stumbled into this project of telling the stories of the domestic workers who surrounded her life, but who had previously been so one-dimensional to her.

This book has stayed with me in the weeks following reading it. I am really glad that I read it and highly recommend it to you.

This novel does a wonderful job of capturing the relationships between white and black women in the Jim Crow era South. We see the combination of hardship, discrimination, affection and hypocricy that characterized life and race relations in that time and location. Perhaps best of all,the three main characters come to life through remarkably strong and original voices that gain the readers' empathy. This is one fo the best novels I've read in months.

This is a compelling and very readable book about life in Jackson, Mississippi, at the dawn of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Or, more accurately, it is about life in the waning days of the Jim Crow South, a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, after the reaction had set in but before the real change had taken root. The book transports the reader into a world governed by rigid social (and racial) rules, both written and unwritten. I thought the book succeeded brilliantly both in conveying the mood of a particular place and time, and also in drawing the reader into an engaging and suspenseful plot. I really had a building sense of dread as I read along, and I thought the book had one of the best endings of any book I've read in years -- never an easy feat to pull off. Sure, the characters tend to be one-dimensional (pretty easy to tell who's wearing the white hats and the black hats, as it were), but I still found them interesting and believable. Let me put it this way: I stayed up til 3 in the morning to finish it -- that pretty much says it all. Kudos to the author on her first novel.

I listened to this book on audio. The quality of the narration (it uses several narrators, so each of the main characters has a distinctive voice), and of the book itself, combined to make it the best of the many audiobooks I have listened to over the years. From the first chapter, I was hooked. This was one of those stories you disappear into for a while, and come out of on the other side a little bit changed.

The story of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi is full of tragedy and heartbreak, and this book is no exception. But there is such a message of hope here, that people can talk to each other, and things can change. As the book follows Scooter's journey from naive blindness, to a fuller understanding of the often harsh and terrifying reality of the maids' lives, we are taken along on her journey. The author really made me think about how hard it would be to go against my entire upbringing and change my views, if it meant losing family approval, friendship, and love, and finding out things I'd rather not know about my own family history. I also appreciated the complexity of most of the characters; they did not seem stereotyped either by race or by "character type." There were horrible, selfish white employers, but also compassionate and fair ones. Nor were the black characters saints or fearless crusaders, but real people with different personalities, who gained strength and hope through their work on Scooter's project.

A few of the characters could have been more developed: we saw glimpses of the strength and courage of the "white-trash" woman, but I wanted to see her learn and change so she could find happiness. Scooter herself was much less interesting than the other two main characters. But these are quibbles, in an overwhelmingly positive review. Great characters, great plot, and most of all, a completely engrossing story. One I will be listening to again.

One of the best books I have read in a long time. I did not want it to end.

Kathryn Stockett did an amazing job creating a journey of laughter and tears. For a few days I was flying in the lives of the extraordinary women in this book. As a black woman I found it hurtful at times and then I would turn the page and completely relate to the sassiness of Minny. This book is on my top five reads. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome!!!

I read this book on a whim since it was on the Bestseller list. I knew absolutely nothing about it and hadn't read any reviews. I fell in love with it from the first chapter. I loved the language of the book and how she told the story. I joined the plot and felt a part of the story, I laughed and cried with the maid's tales. Coming from someone who has never enjoyed the classic eccentricity of African American fiction (such as Toni Morrison, etc.), this book could bridge that gap between genres. It was heart-touching and truthful. I never wanted it to end. You'll find yourself cheering for Skeeter and all of the maids who contributed to Help. This is a must read!

I, too, had a alot of trouble with the dialect. The white ladies would have spoken with an accent similiar to their maids but that's not reflected in the book.
I think it's unfair to highlight the bad situations and not say more about the good relationships. I grew up in Tenn in the 50s. My parents and their friends were from the deep south: Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi. Yes, we had 'help' as did our neighbors. But not one of them was mistreated. In fact, the ladies who employed the maids actually took an interest in their well being: a warm coat, enough food, the kids had shoes. And it wasn't done in a 'charity' way. It was just an employer looking out for an employee. All us white kids were expected to show courtesy and answer 'Yes Ma'am' to our maids.
I also had a huge problem with that pie. It could and should have been handled in a more genteel manner. I hate it when an author resorts to 'shock' to boost sales.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that Yankees had their own maids and, in some cases, were even worse to their help: Irish & Jews were particularly considered lower than the low and these people were never considered a part of the family.
Please read this book 'with a grain of salt.' Yes, segregation and prejudice were reprehensible. Our Southern culture desperately needed to be changed and thank goodness it was. But please don't think that all Southern women acted like those in Jackson - it's just not true.

I absolutely loved this story. The way each chapter is written from a different character's point of view made falling in love with these people so easy. Stockett painted such an amazing picture I could absolutely feel the sweltering summer heat and then that first cool blast of relief from the gaudy window air conditioner.

I sometimes get bored or dread trudging through when so many details are described in stories if the characters really have no depth to them but I couldn't get enough of this book. Even the seemingly unimportant details...they just made me love this story more. I never wanted it to end.

I can't wait for the movie and I'm sure it won't be too long before I'm reading this book again.

I remember the day in American History when I learned what American settlers did to the Native Americans, the sick I felt in my stomach. I remember the day that an 8th-grade Beth, Danica, and Linden recorded a documentary / play about Dachau for the History Day competition, how it really hit me what the Nazis did to the Jews, the homosexuals, the gypsies, the list goes on.

But understanding slavery, the Antebellum South, black struggles in the 20th century, civil rights 60s, even the racism still strong in my lifetime, it did not happen in a flash like those other times. We still sugar coat it. But white people have pretended for years that we were better than black people because of our skin color. That one obvious difference made our ancestors feel like black people were not as smart, carried diseases, were not real humans. White people today still use that pigmentation as an excuse for prejudice.

This saddens me to the point of tears. If you choose to hate someone because their skin color is different from yours, you might as well hate someone who's eye color is different from yours. The difference is about as significant.

All that to say that The Help is an excellent book. I felt the pain of the house help and hated the arrogant, simple-minded, racist white women. It's honest, heart-breaking, and inspiring.

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This book places you in a completely different time and provides a perspective that many people don't often consider. It was very easy to read, and I loved the characters from which the story was being told. I found myself wishing I could meet them in person and spend time with them. I am amazed and inspired by their courage and confidence despite the times. I highly recommend this one!

I read this book as I read all books - in bed just before I go to sleep. Usually I devote ½ to 1 hour to such reading. This book? Migod - I went `overtime' - and when I turned out the light, thinking about it kept me awake.

I'm 78 - I remember the 60's and the things we read about in the paper - the horrors of violence and the irrationality of separate facilities, the black children approaching the white school - their faces blank as catcalls & insults were screamed by the crowd; the whites with faces so distorted with hate that they look like caricatures. The assassinations, the random cruelty and murders - they were only a quick step away from Hitler's treatment of the Jews.

I'm a damn Yankee - born & bred but I have known these women who populate this book. We all do. Today, in the schools, they're known as the `mean girls' - and when they graduate into home making & motherhood they're known as `queen bees'. In the South of the 50's and 60's, their behavior had darker implications. They drew a curtain of gentility over the ugliness of racial relations.

Some people have criticized the author for using dialect for the black women but not for the white, however - it would have been difficult to determine who was speaking - and after all - dialect marked one of the great divides between whites and blacks at the time.

Despite the serious subject of the book, there's plenty of humor in it and the interactions of the characters- black on black, white on white and mixing the two leads to some interesting and funny situations.

This book is EFFIN BRILLIANT!


Much too long - but not the author's fault- the editors should have done their job! But as far as the story, the writing and the characters- B R I L L I A N T!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a mother of two with one on the way....and let's just say, the dishes could wait, laundry could pile up and I had to Tivo my favorite shows! I COULD NOT put this book down. I fell in love with Minny and Aibileen! The fictional lives of these 2 brave women were truly mesmerizng. You will laugh, cry, and even get a little angry at some parts. Katheryn Stockett paints a vivid picture and truly puts you right in the heart of Mississippi during a time when everything was truly black or white, while adding enough color to paint a rainbow! I look forward to her next novel, like a slice of caramel cake! "Which, is something I had never even heard of til reading this amazing book...then had to rush out and buy the ingredients to make my own,lol!"

The book is great and it arrived it great condition, too. The price was the lowest I had seen anywhere.

One of the top books i have ever read!! I want to read a sequel--our book club had great discussion! and any other books Kathryn writes.Jackson mississippi 1962 beginning of the civil rights movement--some very brave women.

Before I purchased this book, everything I'd heard about it - which, granted, was very little - made me believe the author was African-American. Unfortunately, I found out that was not the case just prior to reading it. The mention of that fact - the book written about the lives of black maids from the point of view of a white author - got me turned up noses, rolled eyes, and pursed lips. I pride myself on not settling with initial feelings that I have that are racist, biased, or prejudiced. However, I found myself thinking thoughts such as, "How is a white woman gone write about life from the point of view of a black woman?" Mind you, I still haven't cracked it open yet.
Finally, I began reading and what I found most difficult was getting a rhythm. I have read books that are written in dialect, so to speak, such as Zora Neale Hurston's work and usually have to read them aloud until I find the rhythm of the writing. But this was different. I found myself thinking, "See? She don't even know how to write the way we talk." My authority on the matter is self-ordained. Never mind I didn't grow up in Mississippi in the 60's and never was a maid - I have decided I am an authority on writing the way we speak, also ignoring the fact that I am not a best selling author yet.
As I go further into the story I am very much engaged. I want to know what the Terrible Awful was and am guessing why Miss Celia has a rust colored stain on her rug. I am pulling for Skeeter and feeling sorry for Stuart. And I feel like this is more of the author's story than her perspective of life from the point of view of a black maid.
But in the end I think, "Why is this book just now being released?" I am not asking a question about the author's timing in writing the book nor the time it took to be published and released. I feel like this should have been released in 1965. Then I would appreciate it better. But right now it just makes me angry. As so much of what I hear about Mississippi does.
Anyway, I felt a little more connected to the author in the section where she shares her story in her own words. She is from Mississippi and lived in New York for several years and now lives in Atlanta. She may complain about Mississippi but you better not complain about it in front of her - especially if you aren't from there. That's real and brings me down off my high horse.
As far as the story - as I said, it was engaging. I want to know more about what happens to each character - I'm not content with the ending where you have an idea of where each person is heading. I want to know the history of Hilly and Elizabeth - two women I feel sorry for (although if I said that in Book Club I would get the strangest looks, dead silence, and then they'd move on to the next question). I felt that it ended a little more optimistic than I would expect to be feasible for some of the characters. There were stories that I felt could have been expanded - but the book is over 400 pages so I guess some things had to go.
I don't know if I will specifically suggest you read it. I hear it's going to be a movie. The movie may be better than the book.

This was an eye opener...not just because it was something most of us never even thought about, but because it finally gave a three dimensional, real person profile of the disgusting racism in this country during and before the period I was growing up. It doesn't get any better than this.

This is the most incredible novel! I couldn't put it down. This is the author's first novel - such a talented writer and such an inspiring piece of fiction.

I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time. I just COULD NOT put this down, held it in one hand while I cooked supper with the other. Pretty difficult since it was hardcover!

Set in the south in the 60's, it covers a lot of ground with civil rights, women's place in the southern social climate and human beings who know what 's right and wrong. It was funny, sad, and just so captivating. I was truly sad when this book ended.

I never watch a movie if it's based on a book I've read but I've heard this one is coming out soon. I might actually see the movie to see if they portray the characters and events the same with I imagined them.

You will not be disappointed by this book!

I loved this book soooo much. I didn't want it to end! I also just read "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom, which was wonderful. It has some similarities to "The Help" with a little extra suspense and romance. And I'm not affiliated with the publisher or author--just an avid reader!

I purchased this book for my entertainment, and it was a pretty good read in fact I was sad that it ended,I recieved this book in such a timely manner that I was surprised at how quickly I got the book, the company that I got it from has a great review from me, and I will purchase more books from them.

Richly detailed characters that sweep one into the moment. Very enteraining. I laughed and I cried. Very good read.

THE HELP
Kathryn Stockett

THE HELP, a New York Times bestseller by Kathryn Stockett, is a novel depicting the personal relationship between black maids and the white families, especially the women, who employ them. The story is set in a fictional section of Jackson, Mississippi, from 1962 to 1964. It tells a story of what it was like being a black maid in the Civil Rights era in Jackson, Mississippi, as seen through the eyes of two black maids and one liberal white woman, uniquely three first person narrators.

Three women, seemingly as different from one another as can be, come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk and change their lives and the lives of others in a way neither of them has imagined. In the midst of the Civil Rights era, race relations in Mississippi are already dangerous. And Miss Skeeter, a young white woman--twenty-three years old and a recent graduate of Ole Miss, with ambitions of becoming a writer--elicits the help of two black maids.

Upon graduating, Miss Skeeter returns to her family home where she resumes living with her very proper but callous mother and her very kind and gentle father. Her older brother is away in law school at LSU in New Orleans. She is disappointed when she discovers Constantine, the maid who raised her and taught her kindness and self-respect, has been replaced by another black maid. Her mother had fired her after twenty-nine years, but no one will tell her why. "It was a colored thing," her mother responds when asked for an explanation. Neither will anyone tell her how to contact Constantine.

With personal problems of her own and her mother clamoring for her to get married and start a family as have her two friends and former college roommates--but she doesn't even have a boyfriend--she takes a job at the local newspaper, writing a column on housekeeping. But knowing nothing of this subject, she befriends her friend Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen, who helps her write her column. And as always, one thing leads to another. At the suggestion of a woman publisher in New York to write about something she is passionate about, she chooses this subject and embarks upon the writing project that brings her closer to Aibileen and Aibileen's friend Minny.

Minny is a great cook, but she often gets into trouble with her white employers because of her mouth. The only reason she hasn't been fired by Miss Walter, the mother of another of Miss Skeeter's friends, Miss Hilly, she says is because Miss Walter "be deaf as a doe-nob" . . . until Miss Hilly accuses her of theft and fires Minny herself so that she can now place her mother in a home.

Over a period of time they and other black maids meet in secret and write a book entitled simply HELP, which reveals secrets that heretofore have been sacred. But injustices have caused these maids and Miss Skeeter to put themselves at great risk. All names are changed to protect their identities, and the author is Anonymous. Because of the demands for change in race relations in the South, Blacks are suffering even more abuses: hangings, murders, beatings. The men are being fired. Black maids who have been entrusted with the care, nurturing, and raising of white children are being sent to prison on such bogus charges as stealing the silverware.

But true to history, things do change for the better, in some cases at great cost to some of the characters, white and black. Though unique in its style--three first person narrators--this piece of historical fiction is alternately heartwarming, troubling, and at times downright hilarious. The attempt to capture the dialect of the South often challenges the reader's comprehension. In some cases it took me a few pages to decipher her meaning, but soon my eyes and ears adapted to the enunciations/ pronunciations intended. A few incidents were anachronistic, but the author explained her reasons for taking them out of their proper time and placing them in this setting. See the special section after her "Acknowledgements" at the end of the book, entitled "Too Little Too Late" and subtitled "Kathryn Stockett, In Her Own Words." In this section, near the end (page 450), she sums up the feelings that led her to this subject with a quote from "Grady's Gift," the Pulitzer Prize-winning article by Howell Raines:

"There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism."

So, confronted with this quandary, Kathryn Stockett passionately writes her first novel about the troubling times of segregation and integration in the 1960s. It is truly deserving of its bestseller status. I give it 4-3/4 stars because the author left me wondering why she offered no conclusion to the incident involving the naked white man. Surely, Miss Celia's protecting Minny, her black maid, clearly contributed to the theme of mutual love between many of the employees and their employers and the lengths they would go to protect each other; yet I still wanted to know how this situation was resolved.

Even though I enjoyed the book, and felt that the author had the best of intentions, I could not keep out of my mind the notion that the entire premise was hypocritical. If the same book had embraced that it was told from Skeeter's perspective, not that of the "help" at all, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

Anyone who has a heart cannot help but be moved by this book. Taking place in the 1960's South, the author manages to take on the voice of both Skeeter, a young white upper class woman, as well as the black maids that she writes about. As different as the women are, the author reminds us of their similarities as women.

When Skeeter begins a secret project to interview and write about the plight of the black maids, she is met by resistance from white women in her circle as well as the maids themselves, who fear that talking about their situation can cost them their jobs and worse. The reader gets the feeling that these women are actually people that we know.

Interestingly, the author is a product of the South and was raised by a black maid, Demetrie. The author indeed writes about what she knows and her one regret is not asking Demetrie what her life was like before she died. Hence...this wonderful book!

This is an excellent book. You do not have to be from the south to appreciate it. Yes, this did happen and it was how people were treated.

I loved this book. It was informational about the 1960s in the South. So well written from the perspectives of different people. I can't wait to lend it out to everyone I know.

Our book club chose this book based on Amazon customer reviews. It didn't disappoint. We have talked about it continuously and realte it to many of the other novels we read. I highly recommend it!

I want some very specific things out of the books I read. I want the story to outweigh the writing. I want to hear the voice of the writer or the characters so clearly that I feel the urge to read out loud. I want the book to be unafraid to have a moral, and I want to learn something. And if I don't feel as though reading it is work, that's all to the good.

The Help accomplishes all those things. I made the mistake of picking it up, midway through the book, after waking up at 2 a.m., and that was about it for my night's sleep (the last book that did that to me was the final Harry Potter). This is a great book club book; it's substantial but very readable, and your group will have lots to talk about. It's serious but compassionate and funny. All the characters are nuanced; even the villains have some good qualities. (Yes, early on Skeeter reflects on how Hilly has always been honest and always had her back. Things do go downhill after that, though.)

Now the quibbles: this book does rely on the tired formula of the righteous white person coming to the rescue of the noble African Americans. And I have to expect that white people will find it easier to love than black people. I can understand why it would seem presumptuous for a white woman to have written from the perspective, and in the dialect, of a black maid, but I'm glad that Kathryn Stockett dared to go there. This is an extremely enjoyable, enlightening, and, I think, respectful and loving book about a subject that we all should discuss.

I sort of liked the idea for this book, but it certainly wasn't riveting. The characters are one-dimensional, the plots are missing key pieces and it also ended rather abruptly and I felt like I didn't have as much closure as I might have liked.

The Help brought back to mind the time my mother and I went shopping at Fort Worth's Monnig's Department Store in the early '60s. I vividly remember drinking from the Colored water fountain and being disappointed that the water was the same old color as always. Mother explained what the sign really meant, and thus I was introduced to The Way Things Are.

Skeeter Phelen accepts her privileged status as just the way things are. Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi, she has no idea that her family's Negro maid might feel anything but gratitude for her employers. Even a degree from Ole Miss fails to educate her to the plight of Blacks in America. But returning home opens her eyes to the arrogance of her peers and the longsuffering of a group of black women she has always taken for granted. Two maids, Aibileen and Minny, courageously agree to tell their stories to Skeeter for inclusion in a written exposé that Skeeter hopes to submit to a New York publisher. Their collaboration breaks down the barriers between the classes, and convinces them all that they have more in common than they thought.

Kathryn Stockett writes her story in three distinct voices--Skeeter's, Aibileen's and Minny's. Her expert depiction of Southern dialect adds flare to an already gripping story. I even read parts aloud in order to savor the flavor of the South.

This book is an excellent read, one I will come back to again and again.

I was invited to join a book club in my community and the assigned book was "The Help." I was able to order a hard cover from Amazon for only $9.50 and since I ordered more books, the shipping was free! I need to be hooked on the first few pages or I cannot finish a book. "The Help" hooked me and kept my interest until the end. The author's dialogue between the characters was so authentic. I enjoyed getting to know each character, even Hilly. I do believe this is a woman's book and I would recommend it for a good read and for the insight it may provide on the way black women were treated as domestics back in the 50's and 60's.

I devoured this book. I had read the short teaser and saw how many people had given it 5 stars, and I knew that I had to read this book. I asked for the book for Christmas from my husband, and drooled until the day I opened it. It was a hard book to put down. The author really knows how to evoke reader emotion. Don't let this one get by you - it's a great read for anyone.

This book was truly wonderful. Set in 1960s Mississippi, it's the story of white society women and the black maids they employ. All sides of the relationship are explored, good and bad. In a lot of ways the domestics were just a small step above house slaves.

It's told in three different voices - Aibileen, an older maid; Minny, a hot-tempered maid who has trouble keeping quiet and Skeeter, a Junior Leaguer who doesn't fit in with her circle of high-society friends. This book had quite a bit of humor in it too; it was just fantastic all around.

What a wonderful story! So funny, so moving. Everyone in my book club loved it and it generated plenty of discussion.

One of the most thoughtful books since "To Kill a Mockingbird". Set in a small town in the Deep South this book explores the race relations of it's time. I found the book to be interesting, funny, and sad all at the same time. Each character is developed in a way to make you think. I truly enjoyed this book. A must read!

I would recommend this book. Very interesting historical fiction. It was eye opening to me. Quick read and one I did not want to put down.

I started this book and could not put it down. I was so invested in these characters. The first 2/3's of the book sucked you in and it was a pleasure to read. However, the last 1/3 of the book struck me as hurried and rushed. It was almost as though Ms. Sockett was passed her deadline and abruptly ended. So many questions needed to be answered and the after the set-up the questions that were answered were weak.

I recommend this book for the ending left me unfulfilled.

I grew up as a privileged white in Apartheid South Africa so this book resonated the beliefs of people with white skin over centuries in my country. The reviews abound, it didn't happen like that, dialect not authentic are missing the crucial message of the book. The saddest and greatest sin was depriving other humans of dignity because of the color of their skin - not always in big ways but in small tiny ones that, like insiduous cancer, crumbled away at their souls, their very beings. Take a bow Ms Stockett "The Help" is a courageous book.

After sitting on my shelf for months I picked up The Help last Saturday and couldn't put it down. What a wonderful read. As a new bride in the early 70's I lived in central Mississippi for a few months. Being from New England I did not understand nor could I condone some of the things that happened.I appreciated the insider's peak at a world filled with the antiquated traditions and stereotypes of the South.

This is a must read. For a not too often reader, I couldn't put this book down.
Very well written. Hope she writes some more books since this is her first one.

i agree this lady can write...and i cant believe this is her 1st book. a movie must be made out of this book. if you just want a good story to read read this book..she is very vivid and the audible book at [...] is great because they use a different voice to read for each character..simply A beautiful book. I hope this lady writes some more books..cause shes better than good shes GREAT!

Sometimes we forget about the slings and arrows suffered by maids of decades gone by. This book is a very good example of what their lives were like.