The Help

My week-plus dearth of posts can be blamed on the fact that I was spending every waking minute trying to finish The Help in time for my book club meeting. Okay, not actually every waking minute, which is probably why I still came up 100 pages short by the time of our meeting. This had nothing to do with the book, though, just poor planning on my part.

The book itself was quite good, and it sparked one of the longer, more interesting conversations that my book club as had yet. The consensus was that everyone liked the book, but the more we discussed it, the more criticisms emerged- things like characters who should have been fleshed out more, voices that didn't ring true, and a few plot devices that seem like they were just randomly thrown in with no final payoff. And since I finally finished them, I can say that those last hundred pages seemed a little inconsequential, like the author just tried for a neat and tidy throwaway ending.

Despite those complaints, I still liked the book as a whole. It's vividly written and well paced, making it easy to get wrapped up in the story. It seems perfectly suited for the movie that it's being turned into. I'd recommend it, at least to the five or so people left who haven't read it already.

(And thanks again to Lara for lending me the book!)