Kathryn Stockett

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bite back. Her friend Minny has certainly never held her tongue, or held on to a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leaver her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town--to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.

(back cover)

The Help

In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.

Katherine Yang

Problematic and slightly short-sighted, but… enjoyable!

Audrey Lord

The Help: Deluxed Edition

Colette Miller

Very interesting novel. Makes you realize the wide chasm we have left behind and the wide chasm we still have yet to fill. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Jeannette Ordas

When I wasn't reading this book, I was wondering when my next chance to read this would be. Last night I couldn't sleep, so I read the last half of the book in one late-night gulp. Compelling and well written. Surprising because after the first page and a glance at the reviews at the back of the book I wondered where the hell I got a recommendation from. Glad I kept reading.

Arturo Hernández

As a lot of people, I saw the movie based on this book first. My first thought was “I don’t need to read it”, however now that I’ve finished the last chapter I’m happy to say that is was worth it.

I love the rawness of the narration, the way Kathryn introduces and develops each character makes you really fall in love and worry about each of them.

I’m fabled about the social injustice this book reflects on and the fact that this book is set on a time decades from now, but the issues it narrates still echo in modern society.

“The help” is now part of my list of favorite books.

Fran Lewis

Okay. Wow. I flipped through this so fast. So amazing. I have nothing more to say.

Caroll-Ann

** spoiler alert **
           I knew that I‘m going to like this book since I remembered loving the movie when I watched it a few years ago. But as always the book is so much better than the movie. 

This book is so important and honestly I still can‘t believe that the world really was like this just a few centuries ago. It makes me think about all the things that were wrong and still are wrong in our world. 

Society can be so ugly but that doesn‘t mean everyone in that society is and this book just highlights how important it is to give a voice to all the wrongs going on in the world. We already made such a hude progress BUT we are nowhere near done and that‘s what I thought about while reading this book, I felt the same when I watched the movie back then. 

I recommend everyone to read this book and think about it.

Kelly Johnson

Loved it. Paints a beautiful verbal picture of life during racial segregation and the civil rights movement.

Irene Alegre

This book was ok. It was an easy, quite fast read and enjoyable. Although at some point maybe even too easy to read, The Help is a good 'women's novel' with likeable characters and a beautiful sense of companionship, love and sisterhood. It is not complex and probably will not take you too far, but as a break from harder reads it's a good choice.

annie

** spoiler alert **
           I enjoyed The Help very much. I could not put it down, it always left me wanting to read more. I love the characters, except for the men. The men in The Help are depicted terribly, they are straight out rude and unlikable. I was wary of giving it 5 stars only because the end is completely unethical and unbelievable, given the situation **SPOILER** (Aibileen getting the Ms. Murna job). Going back to the men aspect, it seems as though Kathryn Stockett hates men! But the writing and intriguing storyline makes up for it. Overall, I loved the book! It was absolutely wonderful and only had 2 flaws in my opinion.

Ale ♡

3.5 stars.

La verdad, me gustó, pero hay ciertos puntos que los sentí... ¿Incómodos? Todavía no termino de digerirlo. Lloré como bastarda maldita y bueno, me quedo con las cosas positivas. Debo de admitir que The Help me generó ciertas dudas (en cuanto a contexto histórico, claro), y me informé bastante (aunque, claro, sé que me faltan muchas cosas sobre el tema por aprender; no diré que soy una experta) para saciar cierta curiosidad.

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.

Cheri Fuller

I went back and forth between 4 and 5 stars and decided to round it on up to 5. Yes, there were some plot points that I thought were just too obviously tossed in to advance certain arcs but beside that, I couldn't stop listening to it and thought about it when I wasn't listening. I haven't been so engaged in a story in a long time. 

I highly recommend it. And now I'm going to watch the movie.

Meredith Boster

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! IT was so good! I've read it before and I watched the movie with my younger sister the other day and that's what inspired me to read it again. It is so good!! I didn't want to finish it :( I felt sad. But it was soooOoO GOOD.

Swati Raisinghani

Hannah Sween

Amanda Rocha

People should read The Help because it is real. Though it is a work of fiction, it is based on true events. The story is about African Americans working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early 1960s. Kathryn was born in 1969 in Jackson and grew up in a household with a black housekeeper. The story was based on her experiences growing up and it was just adjusted to occur in the 1960s in the midst of the civil rights movement. A beautifully written but painful story steeped in American history. It tells the story of black household workers in the South in the early 1960s—domestic helpers who take great risks by sharing stories about what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes. Their tales not only reveal the great sense of empowerment that comes from sharing and having your voice heard, but also remind us of the greatness of the real women who do this work today under sometimes terrible conditions. It is a novel about empowered, heroic women taking a stand for human rights during the civil rights era. It was also adapted into a movie in 2011.

Ellie Long

Robin M Cabana

It took me awhile to read this book, but after awhile I was eager to find out how the story would turn out for the three narrators. I like the distinct voices and views each of them brings to this story and the way Stockett has captured the era, the culture, and the stories of the black women who worked for white women, who for the most part, treated them terribly. It's also very funny, from Minnie's terrible thing to great little observations - like Skeeter wondering if hairspray will spout out if she presses down on the overdone hairdo of a woman sitting next to her. I also liked Skeeter's reaction to hearing Bob Dylan on the radio for the first time - she said it was like listening to the future. And I like that the ending looked bright for Minnie, Aibileen and Skeeter - they deserved it!

The Help is the phenomenal international bestseller (that inspired the Oscar nominated film) by Kathryn Stockett.Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver . . . There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...'The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable' The Sunday Times'A big, warm girlfriend of a book' The Times'Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. It's direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment' Daily ExpressKathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. The Help is her first novel.

Aminookirerza 

This book is very powerful, it makes us think about women condition ine the 20th century USA and particularly their positions in the society. It also allow to reflect on racism and the difference that color made at that time. The struggles of the characters in everyday life are very touching and realistic and we can indentify with some of those. Dont worry, this book isn't an historical book, it's fictive and sometimes fun , I really recommend it

Jenni Pertuset

This was a convincing and compelling read. The characters were fully formed, the writing evoked voices that sounded true and right, and the story transported me. Definitely the best fiction I've read in a couple of years.

Elizabeth

Fantastic! The only reason it took me so long is that school got in my way and I forgot I was reading it.

Melody Izard

Craig and I listened to this audio book on our trip to North Georgia for my birthday. Every time we had to make the trek from the cabin into town we’d pop in a disc. The story was mesmerizing and the readers did an excellent job with their characters. Craig grew up in Jackson during the 60s and enjoyed all the personal references to people and places that he remembered. He found a couple of errors in her reporting (she mentioned an elementary school where Minny’s son attended – it was the elementary Craig attended and was all white in the 60s; she mentioned someone humming “Love Me Do” a Beatles’ song that was not released in America until 1964 – and the year in the book was 1962 – which was the year the song came out – but only the savviest Americans would have heard about it since it was only available in the UK; she mentioned the “Jewish Country Club” which in fact was not the Jackson Jewish country club – because it was the one his parents belonged to). However, despite the factual scrutiny that Craig gave the story (and there were many tiny, Jackson in the 60s details that she DID get right) we both enjoyed this novel which was a coming of age story of a white, young, aspiring writer and a black, middle-aged maid who was never given the possibility of perusing her dreams. Highly recommend it.

Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver. Some lines will never be crossed. Aibileen is a black maid: smart, regal, and raising her seventeenth white child. Yet something shifted inside Aibileen the day her own son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi. But even her extraordinary cooking won't protect Minny from the consequences of her tongue. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter returns home with a degree and a head full of hope, but her mother will not be happy until there's a ring on her finger. Seeking solace with Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone. But why will no one tell her where? Seemingly as different as can be, Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny's lives converge over a clandestine project that will not only put them all at risk but also change the town of Jackson for ever. But why? And for what? The Help is a deeply moving, timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we won't. Itis about how women, whether mothers or daughters, the help or the boss, relate to each other - and that terrible feeling that those who look after your children may understand them, even love them, better than you . . .

Lila Harrison

there's only one thing to say, one gif to use when it comes to this book:

The Help

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