Sukey's favorite
Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, when the civil rights movement was gathering momentum and the backlash was bloody, seems an odd place for a privileged white girla recent Ole Miss grad and editor of the Junior League newsletterto start a secret book project collecting the stories, good and bad, of what it's really like for the black women who work for white families, intimates but always inferiors. "Skeeter" Pheelan does just that with the determined help of the help, Aibileen and Minny, two very different African American women who have spent their lives caring for their employers and raising their children. The Help, Kathryn Stockett's poignant, powerful debut novel, follows their intertwined efforts. Though it deals with very serious problemssegregation, intolerance, inhumanityit's above all a wonderful story, hopeful and humorous, wonderfully told, with characters you won't want to leave. And, it's a fabulous example of how a brilliant ensemble audio performance can make "wonderful" even better. Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer and Cassandra Campbell's pitch-perfect narration captures the time and place, the accents of each character, as well as their sorrow, anger, frustration, hate, humiliation and genuine love with an authenticity that's hard to match. You'll laugh and cry as these three women work together, learn to go beyond their own preconceptions, learn to trust and truly overcome.