Have You Read a Good Book Lately?

So, what do you like to read?  Are there certain genres that you stick with?  Certain authors that you can't get enough of? 

By far, the best book that I read in  years is "The Help" by Katherine Stockett-her debut novel.  This book grabbed me from the first page which is very unusual  for me- in fact, I can't remember the last time that happened.  I am also the type of reader that when the dialog becomes mundane or there is too much description, I skim the pages until I get to something worthwhile.  I didn't find myself doing that at all while reading this book.

"The Help"  is about the complicated and heart wrenching relationships between African-American maids  and the white families, especially the women, who employed them in pre-civil rights Mississippi.  The author grew up in Mississippi, and some of the characters are based upon people she knew.  Being a Northerner, I kept wondering throughout the book if it was still that way in Mississippi.  I can remember as recent as 1990 how aware I was prejudice, segregation, bigotry when I vacationed in Hilton Head, SC.  At that time, every restaurant that we patronized had only white servers, and all of the busboys were African American. The only exception was one small family restaurant that was owned by an African American family.  The only white worker was the hostess.  Fast forward to 2006 when we returned to vacation and that had changed.  Servers and busboys were both white and black as well as the hostesses.  This book definitely had me thinking and evaluating life as I knew it in the US as compared with life others were experienced to in the US.

 

Many of you have probably already read it--it has been on the NY Times bestseller list for 101 weeks!  What was your immpression of the book?