The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

This book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962-63. It is told from 3 voices: Aibileen and Minny, who are black maids working for elite Jackson families, and Skeeter Phelan, who is a young white woman who is not comfortable with her role within her elite family. Very early on in the book, Skeeter, while visiting her best friend and Aibileen's "white lady," asks Aibileen if she ever wants to change things. Being a highly inappropriate conversation between these two women in this time and place, Aibileen keeps her mouth shut. But not forever.

This book was wonderful. It was emotional and funny. Stockett is a no-nonsense author... she can introduce you to and acquaint you with a character in 3 sentences or less. What I might have liked best of all was that it did not have a neat pretty ending. Not an ugly ending either, but, like the Civil Rights movement itself (which is still a work in progress), the lives of the maids were not suddenly all perfect. But a few of them were on their way. It added such a sense of reality to these characters and the book as a whole that there were no cataclysmic changes in the characters or the reality of the world they lived in. It was just a story of one brick in the wall of change. A story that was brilliantly told, beautifully written, and funny to boot.

Some stuff I liked about some of the characters:
Skeeter: her awkwardness and her relationship with her mother, who would never die for fear that Skeeter may wear the wrong cut of pants without her mother around to correct her wardrobe. And her toilet prank.
Aibileen: her relationship with Mae Mobley. Taking a prompt from Aibileen, I've started telling my own daughters how smart, kind, and important they are on a more regular basis.
Minny: who couldn't love the Terrible, Awful thing she did? SO FUNNY! And I love the progression of her relationship with her new "white lady," Celia Foote.
Celia: her pink dress and her drunken debacle among all the high society ladies.