IGS Must-Read Selection: The Help

Set in the rural South of the 1960s, The Help is the poignant and wickedly humorous portrait of the intertwined lives of three women – women on both sides of the racial divide. Abilene and Minny are two black maids entrusted with the care of white babies – but not allowed to use the same bathroom as their employers -- and Skeeter is the young, white writer who collects the maids’ startling tales for publication.

The Help is overflowing with heart and history, and has bestseller written all over it. You’ll laugh and cry your way through it, and make plans to read it again. You’ll recommend it to all your friends because you want them to be in on the most talked about and best book of the year. We think you might cheer out loud as you read it (we did!). The characters are richly drawn, and the story is compulsively readable. Abilene, Minny and Skeeter are ordinary, but heroic women in a troubled time, and you’ll never forget them.

When the members of your book club wonder what to read next month, you can pitch this debut novel by Kathryn Stockett with total confidence.