I love getting ARCs like this. It’s a gem. Really. I don’t know how you all will be able to wait until February to read it. I’m glad I don’t have to.
The Help is told by three different narrators. One, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, is an educated white woman whose parents own and run a cotton plantation and has returned home from college to find the maid who raised her gone. The other two narrators, Aibileen and Minny, are black women who work as maids for white families. It’s 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi and race relations are volatile. Miss Skeeter wants to be a writer and she wants to write something more meaningful than the Ladies’ League newsletter and the housekeeping column for the local paper. With encouragement from a New York publisher, Miss Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny embark on a journey – to tell the stories of the black women working as maids in white households.
This is just a wonderful, touching book. All of the adjectives I know are insufficient. The writing is impeccable. Much of the book, at least that told by the maids, is grammatically incorrect, but easy to understand. That is no small feat. Also, I loved all of the characters, but particularly Aibileen who raised seventeen children in her lifetime, only one of them biologically hers; sixteen of them white. Aibileen who leaves each family just as the children start to distinguish between black and white. These narrators are brave and kind. They are human and struggling with unique problems. The plot is not at all predictable or old. This is a book that warms and touches and provokes.
This is one of my favorite lines, and it sums up the book nicely:
“Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.
Put this one on your wish lists now and watch for it in February. I’m already missing the characters and wishing there was more of their stories. I hope Stockett considers writing a sequel. I know I’d buy it.
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett 
Other Reviews:
At Home with Books
Belle of the Books
Booking Mama
Devourer of Books
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?
Library Queue
A Novel Menagerie
So Many Precious Books, So Little Time
You’ve GOTTA read this!
Buy The Help
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This one is in my TBR pile and now I can’t wait to read it. I’m so excited that it’s that good. Thanks for the review.
This is a new one for me, but it sounds wonderful! It’s headed for the TBR list right now. :)
I usually have so many books I want to read that were published years ago – I’m trying to catch up. SO it is fun to have a book I can remember to watch for! Thanks for the heads up/
Sounds good. I am adding to my list of books to look for next year.
You’re right….after reading your review, how on earth am I going to wait till Feb to read this? It sounds wonderful and I jotted down the name/author so I’ll remember to look for it when it’s released. :)
It just occurred to me that February is Black History and heritage Month. This arrival would be timely for the observance. I have just finished a book that explores interracial gay relationship, and this one on laborer/employer would be a fine choice for the continuation of the subject. I…can’t…wait!
Maybe I’ll try to get in touch with the author and see if she can’t send me an ARC. It sounds wonderful!
This sounds awesome! I just added it to my TBR.
This was already on my radar. And now I’m positively envious! How’d you get this particular ARC?
Trish – I think I saw it advertised in ShelfAwareness and requested it from the publisher.
I hadn’t heard about this one, I will definitely add it to my wish list :)
I just seen your comment at Alyce’s At Home With Books this morning. How the book was not on my radar I have no idea. :) I have not read it yet but thanks to all the great reviews I am hoping to pick it up today!
I come to read your review and see that many of my other favorite bloggers have read this too. WOW!