The Help by Kathryn Stockett

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.

Amy's Review:

This was a great book.  I am surprised that she got rejected by 45 publishers before it got published.  I found myself cheering the maids and skeeter on.  I must say that each time I eat chocolate pie I will think of this book! I didn't like Hilly one bit.  I am not fond of that type of person.  I am a firm believer in what goes around comes around and I found myself hoping throughout the book that she would get what was coming to her.  I don't want to spoil the book for anyone so I won't say if she did or if she didn't but I sure got a big laugh out of what happened to her! My favorite character in the book was Minnie.  It is said in the book that she can't keep her mouth shut but she can cook.  Which is why she doesn't keep a job very long.  I am glad that she stood up to Hilly.  As I said earlier I really didn't like Hilly.  She was a good mom to her kids but a nasty employer.  I also like that Minnie found an employer that she could stick with regardless of her mouth.  I loved the ending but again won't give it away.  I by no means think that the book was based on a true story but it is a good fiction book that gives you some insight into what it was like back then.  I recommended this book to my mom on the phone last night and I would recommend it to others.  It was a good book and falls in my top five list!