Something new for me, a book review!

Still having a hard time with the whole sleeping thing. It's almost like I can't turn my thinking off once I get into bed. I was on the couch for a while, then tried to sleep back in bed, then just got up to start my day. You would think that lack of sleep would catch up with you and you'd fall down somewhere and just suck up what you've been missing. I'm still waiting for this to happen. I also don't want to hear that it's an age thing, so if that's your answer, keep it to yourself. 

I started class online this week, so the reading I've been doing will change a little. However, I'm hoping to stay up with it so as not to keep me from the good books on my list. I'll be reading the ever-popular United Methodist Book of Discipline and this other book that explains what I'm reading so it's like a double dose. I pray I won't be sharing much of this class with you, as I wouldn't want to bore you out of your minds or cause you to stop reading the blog. So instead, today, I will write a short book review on my latest completion. 

The Help is a novel by Kathryn Stockett that was pointed out to me by a woman in my Sunday school class. They seem to have a book list that has nothing to do with church, which is a little odd and yet refreshing for me. This 451-page book is set during the early 1960s, which appeals to me, as that's when I was born. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, and it's about the relationship between white women and their black maids. These maids have raised white children, cooked and cleaned for bridge games and know more than they let on about what was going on in their town. It's a time in our country of civil rights and unrest, when Kennedy was shot and King marched. Things were changing, and the last place to let them change was Jackson, Mississippi. The Help is about relationships and how intertwined our lives become with each other, how love and strength can win out over hate and fear. It's about the lines we abide by and the ones we don't. This is Stockett's first novel, and I really think she hit it out of the park. She was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, and gives the characters a dialect that is real and hearable. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, a must read.