from thenewdorkreviewofbooks.com
Aibileen Clark is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bite back. Her friend Minny Jackson has certainly never held or tongue, or held on to a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter Phelan has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town--to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.

Like The Secret Life of Bees, I didn't expect to like this. I don't usually like historical fiction. I'm sorry. I know I'm a terrible person for it, but still.

I love the narration, especially Aibileen's. It has such a wonderful, natural, dialect-y feel to it. It's very realistic and authentic-sounding.

The protagonists are amazing and the antagonists perfectly awful - just like they should be. Read it. Read it. Read it. You can tell I'm not in an analysis mood today... heh heh heh.
Read More
from bookswithoutanypictures.wordpress.com
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina - a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

I did not expect to like this book. So I was completely floored when I loved it. Lily Owens was such a wonderful, believable, lovable character. It's been such a while since I read this that I don't remember much to give you a proper analysis, but I do know that you MUST READ IT. NOW.
Read More
from thepracticebrew.wordpress.com
Here, in one volume: Marjane Satrapi's bestselling, internationally acclaimed memoir-in-comic-strips.

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming - both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Wow. Just... wow. I loved the comic art. It was so simple, yet endearing, capturing the essence of the character in a few lines. Witty observations and dialogue peppered the book, making it at some points light, but at some points deadly serious.

So it's been kind of a while since I read it, but I remember it was really, really good. Just read it, okay?
Read More
Next PostNewer Posts Previous PostOlder Posts Home