The Help

If you haven't read it, then I can tell you there's no time to waste! Go on, get yourself a copy and start reading now. It will have you laughing and it will have you crying. And to me, that's what a good story is all about: emotions you can't contain, whether you're on the tube, waiting for the water to boil or queueing at the bank.

It's a story about courage which will inspire you!

'The sun is bright by my eyes is open. I stand at the bus stop like I been doing for forty-old years. In thirty minutes, my whole life's...done. Maybe I ought to keep writing, not just for the paper but something else. about all the people I know and the things I seen and done. Maybe I ain't too old to start over, I think I laugh and cry at the same time at this. Cause just last night  I thought I was finished with everything new.'





It will tell you a thing or two about friendship:

'I ain't appologising to no drunk. I never apologised to my daddy and I sure ain't apologising to her.'
(...)
'I tell you, that Celia must be worst one you ever had to tend to.'
'They all bad. But she the worst of all.'
'Ain't they? You remember that time Miss Walters make you pay for the crystal glass you broke? Ten dollars out of you pay? Then you find out them glasses only cost three dollars a piece down at Carter's?'
'Mm-hmm.'
'Oh, and you remember that crazy Mr Charlie, the one who always call you nigger to your face like he think it's funny. And his wife, the one who make you eat lunch outside, even in the middle of January? Even when it snowed that time?'
'Make me cold just thinking about it.'
(...)
'What about that Miss Roberta? Way she make you sit at the kitchen table while she try out her new hair dye solution on you?'
(...)
'Took me three weeks and twenty five dollars to get my hair black again.;
'Miss Celia though' she says. 'Way she treat you? How much she paying you to put up with Mister Johnny and the cooking lesson? Must be less than all of them.'
' You know she paying me double.' 
'Oh, that's right. Well, anyway, with all her friends coming over, specting you to clean up after them all the time.'
(...)
'I think you done made your point, Aibeleen.'

 It will tell you a thing or two about self-esteem:

' You is kind. You is smart. You is important.'

It will show where a Mother's love really is:

'Don't let him cheapen you.' 
I look back at her, eye her suspiciously, even though she is so frail under the wool blanket. Sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my Mother.
(...) She narrows her eyes out at the winter land.
'Frankly, I don't care much for Stuart. He doesn't know how lucky he was to have you.'

It will make you think twice about letting a guy get away with being rude:

'Isn't that what you women from Ole Miss major in? Professional husband hunting?'
(...)
'I'm sorry but were you dropped on your head as an infant?
(...)
'Jesus, I've never met a woman with such long arms.' he says.
'Well, I've never met anybody with such a drinking problem.'

It will remind you that there are no real lines and that we are all just people.

'I watch Lou Anne slip away in the parking lot thinking. There is so much you don't know about a person. I wonder if I could've made her days a little bit easier, if I'd tried. If I'd treated her a little nicer. Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.'

The Help - Kathryn Stockett