The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...a post about the groundbreaking and much-talked about book, The Help.  Here I go-I'll try not to disappoint.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's.  Aibileen Clark is a black maid there.  Her speciality is taking care of white children, and she is taking care of her 17th  child, a child ignored by her mother.  Aibileen is dutiful in reminding the little girl everyday how special she is, but she knows that she can't stop the girl from turning out just like her mother and believing that black people are beneath her.  Aibileen also can't shake the feeling that something needs to be done about the racial injustices in Jackson.      

Minny Jackson is the best cook around.  However she is very mouthy and has trouble keeping a job as a maid.  She is fired from the job she has been working at for five years because she has done something awful to her employers daughter, Hilly Holbrook, top lady in Jackson.  Soon Minny is working for a mysterious newcomer who doesn't know the rules of Jackson.  While juggling her job, Minny is also finding out that you don't mess with Hilly.

Skeeter Phelan has just graduated from college.  She's smart and ambitious, but all her mother cares about is a wedding ring.  Skeeter is best friends with Aibileen's employer and Hilly.  After sending a letter to a New York City publishing company, Skeeter gets an idea.  This idea is incredibly dangerous, but she is determined to follow through on it.  Soon Minny and Aibileen are part of it too.  The three of them, plus a handful of other maids, are writing a book.  This book is going to be about what it's like to work as a black maid in Jackson.  But when the white women in Jackson find out-especially Hilly-the three of them may have bit off more then they can chew.

This book was a great experience for me.  It combined a great story with an engaging plot with a lot of learning.  I liked it a lot--it was the kind of the book I could re-read--and I think that a lot of people would agree with me.
The Help was truly a melting pot of genres.  It has historical fiction, realistic fiction, information about civil rights and mystery(though perhaps not fantasy). If you like those things, go for it!  Even if you don't like them, I recommend reading this book.   I know that I am better off having read it.  I hope that you will be too.

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass

Today we are doing a review of the book, Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall.  This was a surprisingly deep novel about one girl's life, in which she has made some mistakes, told through what she has bought at her hometown mall. 

16 year old Tessa is in gym class when a dodgeball accident sends her into the hospital.  Soon she is at "heaven" which strangely is just like her hometown mall where both of her parents work.  The "mall manager" gives her a bag of the most important things she has ever bought there, and Tessa is off on a reminiscent journey where she explores her not-so-savory past, reflects on the choices she has made, and ultimately must answer one question. 

This book was surprising to me.  What I thought I knew about it before I read it belied its deep writing and truth about the life of Tessa, which seemed almost too real.  I sympathized for Tessa when she felt confused and lost, I wanted to be there with her when dealing with her looks-obsessed mother.  Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall led me on a reading frenzy for Wendy Mass, who didn't dissapoint with the rest of her books.  (You may remember her book A Mango Shaped Space from March 2011 post, Different Points Of View.) 

I would recommend this book to either gender.  Someone who would love it would be likely to be a fiction reader, not opposed to sadness.  However if another genre lover were to try it I'm sure it would still be good!  It's just that kind of book.

Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer-Hesser

I recently read a book called Kissing Doorknobs, recommended to me by someone who "knew I'd love it."  Well, I did!  At first glance, Kissing Doorknobs looks like a quick, easy read.  After all it's thin and small.  But in no way is Kissing Doorknobs easy.  It deals with tough issues and it is deep.  You'll want to spend hours reading it and thinking.  Not only was it wonderfully realistic, but it also had funny and unique writing mixed in with a serious topic almost unknown in the world of fiction- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (or OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted thoughts or feelings or behaviors that make them driven to do something.  Carrying out this action makes people afflicted with OCD feel better--but it doesn't last.
             Kissing Doorknobs is told through the eyes of 14 year old Tara, who has been afflicted with OCD her whole life.  She was able to keep it below the surface until at 11 years old, she hears the phrase "Step on a crack, break your mothers back".  Suddenly Tara is counting sidewalk cracks wherever she goes.  If she messes up, she has to start all the way over again.  Soon Tara's strange behaviors multiply.  They begin to wreck havok on her relationships with family and friends.  She doesn't understand why she does the things that she does, only that she needs to to feel better.  Tara is confused and alone.  But then she meets someone who might have an answer to her problems.
              Kissing Doorknobs is a down to earth story.  Terry Spencer-Hesser doesn't guild OCD and she doesn't make Tara's struggles anything but what they would have been to her, which is frightening, confusing and all too real.  How does Terry Spencer-Hesser write with such passion and conviction about OCD? The book is based on her on struggles as a young adult.
             I would recommend Kissing Doorknobs to all ages.  It also doesn't matter your genre of choice because this book has a bit for every genre.  I would especially recommend this book to someone who is interested in OCD and/or struggles with it or knows someone who does.
            But when you read this book, don't read it as a break from the trials of everyday life just because it's realistic fiction.  This book will have you wondering things and asking questions you've never thought about before.  

True(...Sort Of) by Katherine Hannigan

This is a great book that I read recently.  It deals with some tough issues but was also a delightfully carefree story.  It was written by Katherine Hannigan, the author of another great book, Ida B

Delaware Pattison has always been a trouble maker (In some people's opinion) but lately she's taken a turn for the worse.  The always smiley child is tired of being yelled at for well-meaning things.  She starts fighting and the smile is replaced by a smirk.  Then she meets Ferris Boyd, the girl who doesn't talk and can't be touched.  There is a definite aura of mystery around this girl, but Delly and Ferris quickly develop a strange friendship.  It isn't long before Delly discovers the man in the green Impala who is Ferris's father, and Delly realizes that her friend who cannot be touched has been abused.

This book is intense and deep but it was a really touching and sweet story, made so by the little details added by Katherine Hannigan that made the story so special.  An example of this is Novello, the boy who "hates" Delly but really loves her.  He is a hilarious character and broke the ice a little.  Another detail like that is Galveston, Delly's older sister who is Delly's rival.  Their little fights are funny and perfectly channel what it's like to have an older sibling.

This was a very worthwhile read, and I urge you to try it.  I would recommend it to someone who isn't afraid to think about tough stuff, and someone who is in touch with their inner child! I hope you try it!

Remarkable

Hi everyone!  After my LONG absence from the blogging scene (and I hope I haven't scared away any followers) I've decided on a new approach to blogging: I'm going to feature short blog posts for every book I read that I've deemed awesome enough to be showcased here.  This is the first book for this year that makes the cut- Remarkable, by Lizzy K. Foley.

Remarkable is about a town named Remarkable where everything is-yep, you guessed it!-remarkable.  Everything except Jane.  In a place where everyone is special in some way, Jane is the odd one out--she's the only person at her elementary school, where every day she sees the gifted school out the window.  The gifted school is where all the special children go (or, in other words, everyone) and every day she wishes she went there too.

In Remarkable, the new bell tower is about to open and everyone is excited.  But Jane's grandfather knows that the bells must never ring, and he'll do anything he can to prevent them from playing.

One of the many things about this book that impressed me was how the author juggled an incredible range of topics without making anything in the book seem ridiculous.  The story goes from pirates to sea monsters to fortune telling pizza makers.  I'd never read anything like that.  Another thing were the realistic characters-it must have been something in the writing, because I swear I could picture Jane right next to me.

Overall this book gets nothing but praise from me.  I would recommend it to readers looking for a new type of book or in the process of recovering from a more serious book and would like a lighter read.  Also as a mostly realistic fiction reader I'm sure realistic fiction readers would enjoy this too.

I hope you decide to give Remarkable a try!  I loved it and I hope you do too.  Comment to let me know if you like it!  Also, to find out more about the author go to her website, www.lizzykfoley.com.

5 Books I Read This Summer

Hi everyone!  Sorry about my absence this summer.  I was away for all of July and half of August.  But now I have a little list for you...five books I read this summer for the first time! I hope you enjoy hearing a short review of the books, and maybe consider checking out a few.  I thought they were great!

1. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia. 
This book (set in summer of 1968) starts off with main character Delphine trying to calm down her two little sisters while on their first plane ride ever, heading to Oakland, California to visit their mother.  But when they finally meet her, their mother Cecile is nothing like they expected.  This book is a great read, educational and entertaining. 

2. Skellig by David Almond.
This is a beautiful story of friendship and hope.  Main character Michael has just moved to a new place, but his baby sister is still sick and his parents are more distraught than ever.  Then one day he steps into the forbidden garage and discovers...Skelllig.  What is Skellig?  This book is a magical if slightly creepy tale that I found quite heartfelt.

3. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.
This is a great book about a poor family in england.  The book is told through main character Cassandra's journals where she writes about everything from her dislike of being poor to her descent into love.  This was an unexpected read for me, as I am not really a very romantic reader and this book is very romantic.  However it is also witty and real. 

4. The Wanderer by Sharon Creech.
This book is set in an unusual spot-on a sailboat on the Atlantic!  It's told through the sea-logs of Sophie, the adopted girl who feels the call of the sea and gets herself a spot as the only girl on board, and her cousin Cody, the joker who struggles to redeem his relationship with his father.  They are sailing to see Grandpa Bompie, but how does Sophie know all his stories despite never meeting him?   This is a sweet story with some mystery floating around in the background.

5.Something Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson.
This book's main character Jake has never had a little sister before, and he's not sure how much he likes it.  But when he meets a new friend Stella, things get a lot more interesting.  But then there is a tragic accident that shatters his world, and he has to rely on the people who love him to get him back on his feet.  This story is touching and really shows how important friends are.

Well, those are five of the new books I read this summer! I enjoyed them all and I hope you do too!

Love At First Sight!

  The cover was what immediantly pulled me in.  On the front, a single word, "Deadly," jumps at you.  Next to it, the chilling sentence, "How do you catch an invisible killer?"  When I saw that cover, I knew that I would not be able to resist reading this book.

   "Deadly" may sound like a vampire book, the kind of thing you shouldn't read before bed, but in reality it is a historical fiction novel, specifically about the discovery of Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary).  Written in diary form and narrarated by sixteen-year-old Prudence Gawelski, this book perfectly combines science and story.  This is a good book to read if you'd like to learn something, but want to get a good novel out of it too.

    Prudence Gawelski is a budding young scientist/doctor in a time (1906-1907) when women definitely didn't pursue that kind of profession.  She works as an assistant in a labratory attempting to discover more about Typhoid Mary and how she is able to carry Typhoid and spread it, but not catch it herself.  However, amidst stories about research and encounters with Mary Mallon herself, the author, Julie Chibbaro, still manages to squeeze in a crush on the main research official and trials having to do with Prudence's father's missing in action status.

I thought that this was an amazing book.  It was artfully informational while still providing a story.  I thought I knew at least a little about Typhoid Mary, but this book showed me how wrong I was.  I would recommend it to readers above ten, because some of the scientific happenings in the book might be confusing to young readers.  Once again, I loved this book, and I hope you do too!