Category Archives: Bibliophile Friday

Bibliophile Friday: Book Review, The Help

“I should never call myself a book lover any more than a people lover.  
It all depends what’s inside them.” -Philip Larkin

Two Basic Rules for Bibliophile Friday:  Read a book.  Write about it.

You can write as little as two words (Thumbs up! or Thumbs down!), you can write a short blurb, or you can go all out and give a summary and review. It all depends on how you’re feeling and how much time you have.  Add your blog link and thoughts in the comments.
Books suggestions or reviews are welcome for both kids’ and grown-ups’ books.
Keep it clean.  Be honest.

Bibliophile Friday is the 4th Friday of every month, so get reading!

My book selectionThe Help, by Kathryn Stocket
Recommendation:  Wise, poignant, gut-wrenching.  Go get this book.

Summary:
Ms. Stockett writes about the fictional Skeeter Phelan, a young college graduate in Mississippi who’s grappling with the pervasive racial issues in her 1960’s town.  As Ms. Stockett tells the story of the black women who serve as domestic help in white Southern homes, she articulates much of it through her protagonist, as Skeeter struggles against the racism she’s grown up not noticing.


My thoughts:
Not so long after the time Ms. Stockett writes about, I was born in the south.  I moved around quite a bit, and military kids don’t have the deep hometown roots of other southern kids, but I completely understand the context about which she writes.  Although this is a fictional story, it rings true.  I’m certain that there are plenty of women who can recognize themselves or their family members on both sides of this story.

There were several things that disturbed me about this book, other than the obvious fact that there’s something in the human composition that allows us, time and time again, to sort ourselves into classes.  It’s the boy who’s too dark, the girl with two moms, the kid who’s mom doesn’t quite grasp our language, the boy who doesn’t excel on the football field, the girl with the wrong shoes.  We still sort one another, all of the time.   One of the things I kept bumping up against as I read this story was that it’s set just a stone’s throw back in time.  This isn’t a book about 1890 for goodness sakes.  Our parents remember these days.  I struggled with that, with the idea that it took us such a long time to work through our racial issues.  But my discomfort didn’t stop there.  I liked this book if only because it forced me to stop and think through so many things.  If we were still so off in the 1960’s, what remains today?  How do we continue to sort ourselves?  And why? 

What are you reading?  Add your link in the comments & share your thoughts.  I’d love to hear them.

Bibliophile Friday: Call for Book Reviews

 “It can be argued that no writer had a clearer insight than Shakespeare, and he managed to achieve this in a world without refrigeration, Darwin, Freud, Bill Gates, emails, television or the mobile phone.” 
-Sir John Mortimer
photo credit: Horia Varlan

I love to read and despite the fact that there is no time to do so, I find some.  I sneak it in here, and there and occasionally, I ignore everything around me when I cannot pull myself out of a story.

I want to hear what you’re reading, too.  The 4th Friday of every month I’ll post a book review.  Will you join me?  There are Two Basic Rules for Bibliophile Friday:  Read a book.  Write about it.
You review doesn’t have to be lengthy or esoteric.  It can be as simple as “I loved it,” or “Don’t waste your time.”  You can write a short blurb, or you can go all out and give a summary and review. It all depends on how you’re feeling and how much time you have that week.  
Reviews are welcome for both kids’ and grown-ups’ books.  Keep it clean.  Be honest.
I’ll add a Mr. Linky at the end of each Bibliophile Friday, so you can link to your own review.

Will you help me get the word out? 

Bibliophile Friday is next Friday, so get reading!


Bibliophile Friday: Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

“It can be argued that no writer had a clearer insight than Shakespeare, and he managed to achieve this in a world without refrigeration, Darwin, Freud, Bill Gates, emails, television or the mobile phone.” 
-Sir John Mortimer
Two Basic Rules for Bibliophile Friday:  Read a book.  Write about it.
You can write as little as two words (Thumbs up! or Thumbs down!), you can write a short blurb, or you can go all out and give a summary and review. It all depends on how you’re feeling and how much time you have.  Add your blog to Mr. Linky, below, and please leave a comment after you link.
Books suggestions or reviews are welcome for both kids’ and grown-ups’ books.
Keep it clean.  Be honest.
Bibliophile Friday is the 4th Friday of every month, so get reading!

My book selection:  Little Bee, by Chris Cleave
Recommendation:  Harumph.  It’s intriguing, it begs you to keep reading, and then it leaves you alone at the end, unsatisfied.
Summary:
Little Bee is the pseudonym of a 16-year old orphan from Nigeria who has witnessed brutality of the highest order.  As we learn her story, it’s impossible to really imagine ourselves there; it’s more than disheartening to think that these things really happen.   Through a strange set of circumstances, Little Bee ends up in England clutching the business card of Andrew, one-half of a British couple who’d taken an ill-fated vacation to Nigeria.  Little Bee’s life intertwines with Andrew’s and his wife Sarah’s and the story expands and deepens with each turn of the page.  Eventually, Sarah, a publisher, accompanies Little Bee back to Nigeria in hopes of exposing the horrors taking place there.  It doesn’t end well.

My thoughts:
After such an intense story, I expected, and still long for, a more intense ending.  Cleave wrapped this one up a little too conveniently for me after dragging me through such agony with Little Bee.  It’s heart-wrenching, I’ll give him that.  I’m often drawn to books with difficult themes but this one left me feeling a bit bereft at the end.  I wanted more.

How about you?  What are you reading?