The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

Wow.

This book has been getting so many rave reviews since its publication in February, 2009.

I got a copy last spring, that's A YEAR AGO, for those of you who think I might be referring to spring of 2010... But I never read it. I kept meaning to, but there was so much hype about the book, and I'm not one to jump on a book's bandwagon (with the exception of Harry Potter - I was a HUGE fan from day one!)...

But this past weekend, I forgot to pack a book for the lake. I'd finished whatever it was I was reading before, and although I recently started Eat, Love, Pray (in anticipation of the upcoming movie), I left it home. So I was bookless.

But The Help was on the bookshelf upstairs so I thought it would be a great time to start it, grabbed it along with my suntan lotion and went out onto the dock.

Let me quote a couple of Amazon reviewers:

JK8 said: "This is the best book I have read in years! I can't recommend it enough!"
KMG55 said: "I was torn between not being able to put the book down and not wanting it to end. "
Elaine said: "I was so disappointed when it ended because I wanted to keep going, I wanted to know more about what happened to these women."
Reading Addict said: "...this was an amazing book. The book was very well written and very hard to put down."
nemo22657 said: "I don't rate many books as 5 stars but this book grabbed me from the beginning."

Now these are just five random quotes I picked out of the 2000+ reviews posted on Amazon.

Here's MY review: *****. Five stars! A GREAT book. LOVED it! Would recommend it to anyone interested in the civil rights movement in the US, anyone who likes to just get sucked into a time in our history we're too young to have experienced up close and personal...

I really liked it a lot and I'm so glad I read it!

If you want to read it, just let me know. I'd be happy to pass it along!