All About Me in 28 Days (Day 23)

Today is a fun post for me!  It is my youngest son’s 13th birthday today and the day that I officially have 2 teenagers living with me.    Yay, me.  Kind of.  I think.

Sigh.

Also, Lynsey has given us a wonderful assignment today.  We are sharing our favorite books.  Oh, I just love books!  I have hundreds of favorites, but one that has really engaged me most recently was loaned to me by my friend, Margaret.

It is The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  As much as I truly appreciate a book that I can completely and utterly lose myself

Check out this title and more at www.amazon.com

in, I found myself enchanted by the voice of this uniquely Southern author.  Some folks try to capture the dialect, the verbiage, and the cadence of the Deep South, but few have done it nearly so well.

The novel is set in 1960s Missisippi, a time rife with racial tensions and ordinary people who find themselves caught up in the changing times.  Stockett brings new life to characters, avoiding cliche’ and overt sentimentality.  She also could have easily been caught up in attempting to “pick sides” on the issues presented.  She didn’t.  She allowed the reader to make up his or her own mind–truly a gift to us.

All that to say, I laughed and I cried during this one.  When Margaret loaned me the book she said, “I was sorry when the book was over.  I didn’t want to say goodbye to those characters.  I wanted them with me.”

Dang!  She nailed it!