I’m always a little skeptical about phenomenon books.  I wonder if they’re really worth the read or if people are just pretending to love it because everyone else in the world says they love it.  So I’m always so excited when I find a bestseller to be worthy of the title.  

The Help is another one of my audiobook adventures and I’m so glad that’s the route I chose.  This story will be amazing whether you read it or listen to it.  But listening to it brought it to life.  The narrators on the recording are all fantastic.  Of course now that they’re filming the movie, I wonder if hearing new voices will throw me off….I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

The point is that The Help is a refreshing new summer read.  The story sucks you in automatically and it has all the elements of romance, catty female relationships, touching female relationships, and badass maids, all set amongst the race-torn world of the south in the early sixties.  I thought that Ms. Stockett did a wonderful job of writing each character so thoughtfully and weaving the most unexpected of relationships.  Each chapter is told in first-person by one of the three main characters, which personalizes the story to everyone.  

I think the last best-seller I read and was totally blown away by was Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  Before that it was The Lovely Bones.  I guess I’ve learned my lesson.  There is usually a good reason why a book stays on top of the list for months.