I might have mentioned that I recently read The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The first time I’d ever heard about The Help was when I saw a preview for the movie. When I realized that the movie was based on a book, I just knew I had to read it. Now.

{photo credit}

On Amazon, The Help is described as –

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.

What made me love this book so much? 

Growing up in Tennessee, anything Southern is near and dear to me. And the stigma that is left on our Southern states {of being racist, simple-minded, unwilling to change} is something I like exploring. I love the idea of people, who grew up among hate and disdain, realizing that’s not how life should be. That people take a stand against what is wrong, and take steps to stop it. Even if they are small steps.

I read this book in four days. I haven’t read a book that fast since Julia was born. I just couldn’t put it down. And I figured, if I liked the book that much, maybe y’all might to. So, I’m hosting a giveaway for a copy of The Help.

Here’s how you enter:

1. Leave a comment, letting me know how you first heard about The Help.

2. Facebook or Tweet it (then leave me a comment letting me know you did).

3. Refer a friend who leaves a comment.

The giveaway ends on Friday, August 5 at 11:59pm CST.

This giveaway is for US residents only – sorry to all my UK friends.

Visit Jill at Diaper Diaries for more Things I Love Thursday.

This giveaway is not associated with or funded by Kathryn Stockett and is just my way of spreading around a really good book.