Book Reviews

Since I have been on bedrest, I have been doing a lot of reading.  Mrs. Ryan Anne (my fifth grade teacher) lent me The Help by Kathryn Stockett to read.  It was much better than any assigned reading that I got when I was in Anne's class many years ago.  For one thing, I didn't have to have certain sections read by certain times and I didn't have to write a report on it when I was finished.  It probably took me three or four days to read the 451 page book and during that time I really wasn't able to think of anything other than the book.  I attempted to just read it at night before I went to sleep, but that quickly turned into me reading during any free time at all.  Poor Dave hardly heard from me for three days.

The story takes place in the early 1960s in Mississippi and is told by three different characters; Skeeter- a young white woman who has returned home after graduating from college, Aibileen-a black maid who has raised 17 white children and recently lost her son to senseless violence, and Minny-another black maid who is fat and sassy and tends to lose jobs because she can't seem to keep her mouth shut.  I truly feel in love with many of character and truly loathed others.  I laughed out loud and cried (tears of joy and sadness) throughout the entire book.  I was so disappointed when the book was over-I really didn't want it to end.

I would recommend this book to anyone-especially someone who grew up or lived in the South.

After I finished The Help, I felt lost and didn't know what to do and desperately wanted to dive into another book to fill the void that I was experiencing.  Luckily, my dear friend Tracie had brought a few books over for me to read.  I started reading Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson.  Dave and I love James Patterson books and one of us is usually reading one at any given time.  Sundays at Tiffany's isn't the typical James Patterson book.  It is a romance novel and is about a girl, Jane, and her imaginary friend, Michael.  Jane grew up in a privileged home and as a child, her only friend was her imaginary friend.  When Jane turns nine, Michael has to go and Jane is heart broken.  Fast forward 20 years, and Jane and Michael are reunited!  It was such a touching story and I really enjoyed reading it.  In typical James Patterson fashion, the chapters were short and it was a very quick read.

While reading the book, I often thought of my childhood imaginary friend, Jonathan.  Unfortunately, Jonathan didn't leave me to go "friend" another child-my father ran him over with the car on our way to the beach.  I am now able to look back on that time in my life and laugh, but at the time I was traumatized.  It was my own imagination that killed Jonathan.  We had stopped at a rest stop on the way to the beach and as backing out to leave and get back on the road, I began to scream and cry.  It took some time for my family to figure out what happened, but I was finally able to tell them what had happened.  I'm sure Freud would have had a time trying to figure out what goes on in my head.