Book Review: The Help

Sitting around today in an awful ice storm...  Newbie is home from work and baby girl and I have been pretty much bummin' all day.  I did get a Jillian workout in, but cannot see myself making it to the gym.  I am going to have to get there tomorrow afternoon no matter what!  It has been 8 days since I have last run.  Now, I am just being lazy.  

But it cannot be helped!  I am still recouping from my whirlwind Disney trip and I just could not put down my Kindle!  I finished "The Help" last night and am in the midst of "The Long Run."  Both too good to put down.  

The Help
There is something about this time period that just gets me.  Ok, let me just be honest.  I really like historical fiction.  The whole premise of learning about other time and place and then I have dreams about what I would do if faced with the situation.  (Ever read "Finishing Becca?"  It is a teen novel.  One of my favorites!)  I feel jipped that I never get to make big decisions like what side I would be on in the Revolutionary War, Civil War and the Civil Rights movement.  I have been raised with that as a part of the history of my nation, but it is just history.  I have been raised to know what is right and wrong based on what has already happened.  But I wonder what I would have done being raised during that time period.  This book fed right into that daydream for me.

This is set in 1962- 1964 in Mississippi.  The Civil Rights Movement is in full swing and I would love to think that I would have been a strong Northern girl who knew it was wrong.  (Unfortunately, my family is actually related to James Oglethorpe.  Founder of Savannah and he did some great things and some not so great things- one of which was to be the first to bring slaves over from Africa.  Seeing his name in history books growing up always made me cringe...)  Or like Miss Skeeter in this book and a Southern girl who tried to change things, even if she did not originally set out to do that. 

I felt like I was right there in each of these characters lives.  So much so I wanted to start talking like them as I read it!  The author did a great job making you understand the characters, their upbringings and why they did what they did.  I am usually very good at predicting what will happen next in a novel, movie or tv show, but this book kept me guessing.  The illusion to "THE AWFUL THING" had my mind wildly guessing until I actually read what it was.  I was sooo not thinking that!

"The Help" left me longing for a different time and last night I had dreams of being Miss Skeeter and the maids.  I have heard pretty good things from others about this book, but it can be a little hard to get into at the beginning.  (I think this is where my sister struggled.  I started on the plane to Florida and got to the can't put it down stage on the way back after not picking it up all week.)

I highly recommend this book!  If you have a Kindle, I think I can loan you my Kindle book for 14 days.  Let me know if you want it!

So readers:

1.  Have you read The Help?  What did you think?

2.  Favorite historical fiction novel?  Favorite time period to read about?

3.  Are you enjoying my red Valentines blog??
4.  Please send me some get off your lazy booty motivation!