Another one down

As some of you may know, my mom is the children's librarian at the Brigham City Library. And, as some of you may know, I love to read. When I say I love to read, I mean I am voracious. I even enjoy reading some text books. So....... this comes as a great combination. I find myself an author who I like and then read all of the books they have written. I will list my top favorite authors.
-Stephen King
-Dean Koontz
-Jeffrey Deaver
-Patricia Cornwell
-Anne Rice
-Sara Paretski
-CS Lewis (the narnia collection)
-JRR Tolkien
-Janet Evanovich
-LA Meyer
-James Patterson

Those are the main ones that I own quite a few of and love to read and re-read over and over. The reason I own SO many books by just these few authors... I can't remember what I want when I get to the library (plus I can't remember to take them back and in SLC, the overdue fees are EXPENSIVE) and I hate to spend so much money on a book that I may or may not hate. I have the perfect solution... my mom reads all sorts of books and then passes them on to me! woohoo!

I just finished the latest book she gave me by a first time novelist named Kathryn Stockett named The Help. I loved it and couldn't put it down. It is about Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's and 3 different women's perspective, 2 black and 1 white, in the writing of a book about black women's perspective in working for white families.

I know that the '60's aren't so long ago, but that time and in the South is such a foreign concept to me that it was such fiction. My family came from the South, but my Grandma and Grandpa's first house had a dirt floor and the water came from a well. I do know about the rules that women lived by: don't wear pants, it's trashy not to wear shoes, always have your hair and makeup done, etc. But I don't think I come from stock who had "help".

After taking a few college classes where we had a diversity section and then participating in a debate about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Prison", it gave me a better perspective on the fear and the social pitfalls that writing this book in the book would have for all of the women involved. I am so glad things are changing. Slowly, but surely, things are changing for women AND for those who are not white.