The Sweet Escape

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My review on goodreads.com

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Synopsis courtesy kathrynstockett.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 a slow start for me, but once it got going, it was hard to put down. I was almost late for work one morning, because I had started reading and couldn’t stop. I literally sat down 4 hours ago to finish it, because I just couldn’t stand not knowing what happened anymore.

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On Writing by Stephen King My goodreads review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I picked up this book on a whim from Amazon, while searching for some books on Writing. It comes pretty highly recommended from those who have read it. I have to admit I really only read 1/3 of it but I will read the rest.

The first third is basically King’s autobiography– events in his life that have made him who he is. I enjoyed the first ten pages but I am a ‘get tot the point’ kind of girl, so I skipped to the second part, which was most enjoyable.

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Thanks to my awesome betareader-friend-person who isn’t afraid to say ‘is that supposed to be there?‘, and my awesome cheerleader- friend-person, another chapter has been completed. I have no idea how many chapters are left and that might be a problem. Story planning isn’t my thing. I tell it until it’s done being told. Perhaps more organization on the next one?

I am, annoyingly, highly critical of myself. I always think it’s boring, I always think it needs more, I always find a typo, or think I should have said something else or something better or omitted a word or added a scene. It’s nerve wracking. Why do I keep doing this, again? Oh. Because I want to improve.

I’m off to read Stephen King, On Writing, who says ‘if you’re a bad writer, there’s no hope of becoming a good one and if you’re a good writer, and want to become great, fuggedaboutit.’

I’m not sure if I believe that… I’ve also read that writing is easy, anyone can do it. It’s editing and revising that creates the story. Interesting juxtapositions. To me, anyway.

O/T I have a fly in my bedroom and it’s driving me INSANE!