Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Best Seller
Several people have informed me that when they went to purchase the book, The Help there were hardly any books left on the shelf.
Brenda Riley, got the last book at a store near her home. She reported that she has already read 100 pages of the book.
I went to Borders yesterday and they were restocking the shelves.
Come on ladies visit this site, sign in and post your comments.
Brenda Riley, got the last book at a store near her home. She reported that she has already read 100 pages of the book.
I went to Borders yesterday and they were restocking the shelves.
Come on ladies visit this site, sign in and post your comments.
Congratulations!
Thanks, Michele Jones for being the first person to send in your request via email to become a member of the Special Blend Book Club.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Discussion Questions for: The Help
Discussion Questions: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
1. Who was your favorite character? Why?
2. Hilly is terribly cruel to many people in the book. What motivated Hilly in her various roles?
Skeeter’s mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed yet somewhat sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter— and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet the ultimatum she gives to Constantine is untenable and most of her interaction with Skeeter is negative. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why?
3. How much of a person’s character would you say is shaped by the times in which they live? What other factors shape people? Can people’s ideas evolve? How?
4. Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married, and that it’s not until he literally gets up and walks away that the engagement falls apart?
5. Do you think that Mae Mobley will grow up to be racist like her mother, given what she’s learned from Aibileen?
6. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. What are characteristics that define Aibileen?
7. Do you think there are still vestiges of racism in relationships where people of color work for people who are white?
8. What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Why did her mother buy Hilly the pie at the auction?
9. What character types are shown with each main character – Hilly, Elizabeth, Skeeter, Aibileen, Minny? How would these character types behave today?
10. Explore the hypocrisy in working to help starving children in Africa, while not helping blacks across town. Why did people do this in our history? Does it still happen today?
11. In the section at the end of the book called "Too Little, Too Late," the issue of different perspectives between white employers and black help is addressed. It’s common that white employers say "we were all family," but whether that view would be fully shared by the help is questioned. In general, how wide is the gap between these perspectives?
12. The Help has been a very successful best selling book. If the author had been black, how would the book have been received? Would it still have been a best seller?
2. Hilly is terribly cruel to many people in the book. What motivated Hilly in her various roles?
Skeeter’s mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed yet somewhat sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter— and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet the ultimatum she gives to Constantine is untenable and most of her interaction with Skeeter is negative. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why?
3. How much of a person’s character would you say is shaped by the times in which they live? What other factors shape people? Can people’s ideas evolve? How?
4. Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married, and that it’s not until he literally gets up and walks away that the engagement falls apart?
5. Do you think that Mae Mobley will grow up to be racist like her mother, given what she’s learned from Aibileen?
6. The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. What are characteristics that define Aibileen?
7. Do you think there are still vestiges of racism in relationships where people of color work for people who are white?
8. What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Why did her mother buy Hilly the pie at the auction?
9. What character types are shown with each main character – Hilly, Elizabeth, Skeeter, Aibileen, Minny? How would these character types behave today?
10. Explore the hypocrisy in working to help starving children in Africa, while not helping blacks across town. Why did people do this in our history? Does it still happen today?
11. In the section at the end of the book called "Too Little, Too Late," the issue of different perspectives between white employers and black help is addressed. It’s common that white employers say "we were all family," but whether that view would be fully shared by the help is questioned. In general, how wide is the gap between these perspectives?
12. The Help has been a very successful best selling book. If the author had been black, how would the book have been received? Would it still have been a best seller?
Welcome to The Special Blend Book Club!
If your busy like I am, you hardly have any time for yourself. Every once in a while you get to do something you enjoy. One of my favorite pastimes is reading for enjoyment. So, I decided to start a summer reading book club.
This months book will be: The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The price is $16.00. If you have a book card for Borders or Barnes and Nobles the book is 10% off the $16.00 book price. If you order online and have a book card the book is $9.60 from Borders.
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
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.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
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.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
*Please send your reply ASAP. We will begin reading this book beginning next Tuesday. Looking forward to your participation! I am so excited about this summer reading club.
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