Great Book: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Recently I was catching up with my friend Tara and she told me "I can't wait to get home and read. I'm reading a really great book." Instantly I had book envy (I'm such a nerd) and asked her what she was reading. It was The Help by Kathryn Stockett and Tara was right, it's so good.

The novel features two black housekeepers, Aibileen and Minny, who work for white families in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early '60s. The story takes off when a privileged white woman named Skeeter Phelan returns home from college. Skeeter wants to write a book about black maids's experience working for white families. And she questions why black woman can't use the family bathroom and yet are trusted to raise that same family's children.

Apparently Tara and I aren't the only ones that love this book, recently Michelle Norris of All Things Considered interviewed Stockett. Here's how she opened the interview: We're going to spend some time now talking about a book I can't seem to escape. For months, women have called or emailed me or approached me in the frozen food aisle - no kidding - saying that they needed to talk about a novel called "The Help." It seems to be a conversation starter, compelling white women to seek out conversations with black women about race and privilege.

Stockett, the first-time author,  is from Mississippi and grew up with a black maid or "domestic". The woman's name was Demetrie. She had a separate bathroom that to this day, Stockett has never entered. It creeps me out to think how recently black woman were treated this way. We have a black president, but still a long way to go for equality.

In that interview Stockett claims her family treated Demetrie like a "queen" which I find hard to believe considering "[we] expected her to use a separate bathroom, [and] to use separate utensils." Regardless, the two black woman characters she created are realistic and lovable heroines that I find myself thinking throughout the day. And I don't want it to end. What will I read next? 

Suggestions needed, please post your favorite books.