Audio book of the Week - The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Read by Jenna Larnia. Bahni Turpin, Octavie Spencer, and Cassandra Campell

From Goodreads.com:
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

This book was GREAT!!!  I liked the way that each chapter was told from the viewpoint from a certain character.  I grew up in this time and I remember some of the attitudes that were prevalent at this time.  I remember some of my family members using not so great language toward other races.  Back then it wasn't thought of as being a bad thing.  Reading (listening in this case)  this book coming from the point of view of today I cringed at some of the attitudes and was downright disgusted by others. We have come along way but still have quite a bit to go. 

I liked the way that this audio had different voices for the chapters.  This gave each chapter a unique voice  and I think that it was easier to relate to the three main characters. 

This book ran the gamut of emotions and did several things that I don't usually do  when I listen (or read) a book.  I both laughed out loud in several parts and cried by eyes out in others. 

This is a must read but definately for older readers because of the issues it addresses.

I have not seen the movie and will probably wait till it comes out on DVD but I would highly recommend that you read the book first.  I hear that movie does not take away from the book but the book is well worth the time. 

This book was taken from my personal library of audio books.