The Help - Kathryn Stockett

It was hard for me to set this book down on my nightstand each night, and if I’m being completely honest, I was up until midnight last night finishing it because I lacked the will-power to leave the story for the next day. Less than 12 hours since I finished the novel, I have already passed it along to someone else.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a novel of stories written from three different points-of-view. Although this is her first book (it seems I’ve been picking up a lot of first-time authors lately…) I can already tell she is a character writer. There is something magical about a character writer; the way they can bring a character to life and give them voice is just so amazing to me. They lure me, hook, line and sinker, every time.

She writes from the perspective of two black maids waiting on white families in Mississippi in the early 1960s. A historical-fiction piece, Stockett weaves the beginnings of the Vietnam War, Kennedy’s assassination and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech in the plot of her stories giving reference for readers and a sense of reality to her fiction.

She also writes from the perspective of a young white woman rebelling against the societal norms she has grown up around. Skeeter, a nickname given to her as a child, longs to become a writer, but when she is told that she must come up with a controversial topic to write about, she decides to team-up with Aibileen and Minny, the two black maids, to create a collection of anecdotes describing what it is like to work for white women in the South. Though it took tragedy to convince them, other maids step forward to share their stories with Skeeter, as well, increasing the chances for the book’s success. Some of the testimonies are depressing, brutal, while others are fun and show a true bond between the maids and their white women. The plot continues in a predictable fashion, but I think the true beauty of this novel is that all three women come to the realization of who they are, not who they have been told they should be. They embrace freedom, realizing that all along they had been living in self-bondage. They are strong.

This book is being used as an ancillary to To Kill a Mockingbird for Honors Sophomore English at the high school I used to work for. Given the topic, mature themes are inevitable, but I don’t see how an Honors English Sophomore student could be derailed by the content. The novel is fabulous and, I think, perfectly complements To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel is honest, heart-felt and just a great read. I would, and have, highly recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing summer read.

-Harper

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President - Josh Lieb

Another recommendation, this one from a co-worker with great comedic taste. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President is written by Josh Lieb, one of the writers for The Daily Show featuring Jon Stewart. I was immediately enticed to purchase the novel based on that fact alone, but when I visited my favorite little bookstore (Barnes and Noble… who are we kidding?! Small book stores just don’t exist anymore. See You’ve Got Mail), I was perplexed by finding the novel hidden in the secluded children’s alcove of the store. Maybe it was presumptuous of me, but I was pretty sure anything written by someone who also writes for The Daily Show would portray a similar writing style and content as Jon Stewart, and honestly, naked Supreme Court Justices don’t belong in the children’s section of any store. Forgiving Barnes and Noble for their loss of sanity in placing this book in their partitioned, hazy yellow section, I purchased the book and toted it home.

We read the book on a road trip (we being me and the other three family members riding in the car). I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud so much from a book. I was relieved to be confined to a vehicle of people who HAVE to love me regardless of how ridiculous I looked, and not sitting on a patio outside some coffee/donut/burrito hut where people on the streets could assume I was a few crayons short of a crayon box.

Oliver Watson is a completely useless seventh grade boy who is stupid, lazy, and… a genius. While those in his family and at his school see him as a pathetic worm, he has secretly created a multitude of lucrative empires using a recovering alcoholic as his image. Oliver is the third richest person in the world but, regardless of his millions of dollars and faithful servants, he wants to be class president of his Omaha middle school. Stemming primarily from his desire to gain his father’s approval, Oliver will do anything to win the class presidency, even going so far as to start a war in Africa over a Star Wars action figure.

This novel was a light read. It was funny, entertaining, and made me want to read more after each pit stop. I find this book perfectly acceptable for young kids, although I would say junior high and up would benefit most from the humor. I loved it and I can’t wait to see what else Josh Lieb has in store for us in the future.

-Harper

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

I’ve never really taken the time to read books by Stephen King. I think it stems from the time my mom freaked out when my reading teacher wanted me to read The Firm in 7^th grade because it was the only thing she could find in my reading level. The ferocity of my hatred for the Accelerated Reader Program is another post all in itself. Regardless, I had only read a short article by him regarding violence on TV and film before picking up On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

This book was recommended to me by a few of the teachers at the school where I was student teaching. I was placed in an English classroom with a History degree, so, needless to say, no matter how much time I spent editing in the writing center at my college, I needed some help when it came to putting terms to the writing rules I follow naturally. This book surprised me. It offers anecdotes from King’s life, instances that shaped him into the writer he has become. Although the brief biographical section was not the focus of the book, reading it has cemented my decision to pick up the autobiography of Stephen King, if he ever writes one (I hope he does)!

The meat of the book is, as suggested by the title, on writing. He describes common faux pas in the literary world and reveals his bitter distaste for adverbs. Essentially, this volume is a pseudo-writing guide that is both short and to the point. He covers active vs. passive tense verbs, plot, theme, how to begin writing, and how to be proud of your written work. All interspersed with King’s wit, the book was a quick read and quite informative.

As I have mentioned in my “About Me” section of the page, I love reading non-fiction. I think part of the draw of this book was its similarities to The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past by John Lewis Gaddis. Gaddis is one of my favorite historical authors for a couple reasons:

1. His work is thorough and written in a way meant to illicit reader comprehension, unlike Peter Novick who personally made my junior year of college a miserable endeavor. I love books and would never dream of harming them in any way, but his books… I think I burned them. We had ourselves a regular little Fahrenheit 451 party.
2. He alludes to The Simpsons and Star Wars. You can’t get much better than that.

The Landscape of History was written to explain how history should be written by historians, what we call historiography. Likewise, King’s book On Writing, was written to explain how writers should write.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, although, I do pose one warning: he uses plenty of foul language. At the high school I worked at, it has been decided that this book will be the summer reading for sophomore Honors English. While the language is an issue to some parents, I am not a fan of censoring books or music. Instead, I think they should have ratings. Content-wise, I would give this a PG-13, though the “F-word” is used semi-frequently. I think the benefits of reading the book far outshines the fact that it contains foul language and I don’t think it would be as believable if King were required to censor himself. This is his experience with writing and should be told from his character.