A National Bestseller: The Help
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| The Book |
Kathryn Stockett
451 pages
"Three extraordinary women, are about to take one extraordinary step." This line, cited from the cover of the book, definitely invites you to join in the journey.
Skeeter, a recent college graduate, who wants to be a writer,
Abileen, a colored maid raising her seventeenth white baby,
Minny, a colored maid with a large temper.
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| The Movie |
This story takes place in the early 1960's during the height of the civil rights movement. All three main characters find home in Jackson, Mississippi.
The book is written from each character's point of view, alternating chapters. You follow a span of about two years with them. The reader will look into the white familys' homes that Abileen and Minny work for, the cotton farm Skeeter's family owns, and the town and fashions of the era. Each section is written with great detail and attention to historical events.
Be prepared to smile, laugh, and cry out, as you read this extraordinary look into one of the most unforgettable moments in American history.
This #1 New York Times Bestseller was recently made into a major motion picture. Look for a The Movie vs. The Book review in the near future!
To read see a list of current New York Times Bestsellers click here.
re: book review request by award-winning author
ReplyDeleteDear Off the Shelf:
I'm an award-winning author with a new YA book out this fall. Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about childhood being published by West Virginia University Press.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher's website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: "In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering--emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story "The Scratchboard Project" received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings