JOIN US!

J. Kaye of J. Kaye's Book Blog is hosting the 100+ Books Reading Challenge. Here are the rules:

1. You can join anytime as long as you don’t start reading your books prior to 2009.

2. This challenge is for 2009 only. The last day to have all your books read is December 31, 2009.

3. You can join anytime between now and December 31, 2009.

4. All books count: children’s, YA, adults, fiction, non-fiction, how-tos, etc.

No blog? No problem! Just join the Yahoo Group.

Interested? Then what are you waiting for? Sign up here!

Books I've Read

I started late in the Challenge so I'm just going to list the books I have read since the beginning of the year. I've posted links to some of the reviews I've done since I've only started blogging this April.

January, 2009
1. One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
3. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

February, 2009
4. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
5. High Five by Janet Evanovich
6. Lean Mean Thirteen by Jane Evanovich
7. The Secret Life of the Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
8. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

March, 2009
9. To the Nines by Janet Evanovich
10. A History Buff's Guide to World War II by Thomas R. Flagel

April, 2009
11. A Dark History: The Kings and Queens of Europe by Brenda Ralph Lewis
12. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
13. Little Bee by Chris Cleave
14. A Lion in the White House by Aida D.Donald
15. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
16. Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
17.The Rose of Sebastopol by Katherine McMahon
18.World War I by H. P. Willmott

May, 2009
19. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
20. Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
21. Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
22. 36 Hour Day by Nancy L. Mace, M.A. and Peter V. Rabins, M.D., M.P.H.
23. The Help by Kathyrn Stockett
24. The Novel Writer's Toolkit by Bob Mayer
25. Writing the Short Story by Jack M. Bickham
26. Your First Novel by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb
27. How to Write a Short Story by John Vorwald and Ethan Wolff

June, 2009
28. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (audio CD version)
29. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
30. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
31. City of Thieves by David Benioff
32. April and Oliver by Tess Callahan
33. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith
34. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

July, 2009
35. A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi
36. Get into Graduate School from Kaplan Publishing
37. A Dark History: The Popes by Brenda Ralph Lewis
38. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

August, 2009
39. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
40. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
41. After Dark by Haruki Murakami

September, 2009
42. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
43. Fire in the Blood by Irene Nemirovsky
44. Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
45 World War II by H.P. Wilmott and et al.
46. Fiction Gallery from Gotham Writer's Workshop
48. Something Blue by Emily Giffin
49. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
50.Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich

October, 2009
51. First Snow on Fuji by Yasunari Kawabata
52. Time to Write by Kelly L. Stone
53. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
54. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
55. Dracula by Bram Stoker

November, 2009
56. Fatal by Michael Palmer

December, 2009
57. Sisters by Hulton Getty

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Help by Kathyrn Stockett


Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Publishing Date: February 2009
ISBN-13: 9780399155345
Pages: 464
Rating: 5 out of 5

Synopsis: Meet three women from Jackson, Mississippi: Skeeter, Aibilene, and Minnie. They lived in the turbulent times of the civil rights movement during the 1960’s. It was a time of change, a time of fear, and time of new opportunities. Despite the whole country was transforming its laws for equality, Mississippi still clung to its segregation laws.

Although Skeeter, Aibilene, and Minnie came from different backgrounds, their desire for change united them. They decided to write a book that will voice their experiences and their pain. Yet the book could cause them grave consequences that will affect the rest of their lives.

Review: If you want to read a book that will make you think for days, this is it. I became so engrossed in it when I started reading that I actually finished the first half of it in one day. It was that good.

The characters are unforgettable, even the minor characters. One of them is Hilly Holbrook who I love to hate. I admire Skeeter, who decides to stand up in what she believes in even though it hurt her relationships with her friends. Then there’s Aibilene, a black maid who takes care of the infant Mae Mobley with so much love because the mother refuses to pay attention to her. Another pair of characters that provided the comedy relief is Minnie and Celia. They are hilarious! I could not help but root for Celia, the underdog; and I am in awe of Minnie who despite her belief not to get into “white people’s business”, decides to help Celia.

I think Kathyrn Stockett does a wonderful job of telling the characters own stories in their voices. She tells the story so well without being stereotypical. This book is enjoyable to read from the beginning to the end. It’s very hard to put down.

Recommendation: Truly an excellent story! If you like to read about the South, or even if you don’t, get this book. It’s keeper.

No comments:

Post a Comment