Sunday, September 13, 2009

Sunday Salon: The Help

The Sunday Salon.com

Whoops, had some crazy posting issues, but now I'm ready to Sunday Salon.

I am staring at my new copy of Lorrie Moore's new novel A Gate at the Stairs, which I'm dying to dive into. But I have been restraining myself, because I have another book to read for my book group first, Kathryn Stockett's The Help.

So far I'm enjoying The Help immensely. It is a story set during the early part of the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson, Mississippi, about the black maids who raised the white children of their employers, but who weren't trusted with the family silver. Stockett's characters are nuanced and appealing, and her reproduction of the African American vernacular feels authentic without being stilted or otherwise annoying.

I'm very interested to discuss this with my book group. Whenever we read something historical like this, it's nice to try to find background material to bring to group to deepen the discussion. So I'll probably do a little research on the Civil Rights Movement, an era in this country's history that I would like to know more about anyway.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good background reading?

10 comments:

Little Miss Nomad said...

Meta.

Gentle Reader said...

Little Miss Nomad--lol! Oops, I posted prematurely. Here's the actual salon post :)

litlove said...

I'm looking forward to reading this book when it comes out in paperback over here. As for background reading, I'm afraid I don't know much, but I very much enjoyed Rachel Cohen's non-fiction book, A Chance Meeting, which tells the stories of friendships between American artists from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. There was lots of history included, in a very accessible and lively way, and I certainly learnt a lot (quite easy when I knew nothing to begin with!).

Bybee said...

no suggestions for background reading, just a comment about how I'm jealous of your reading stack right now.

Lesley said...

I am going to be suggesting The Help to my book club, once it becomes available in paperback. I've heard such great things about it! Glad to know you're enjoying it. I'm sure there are plenty of good books for your research, although I'm not aware of any specific titles offhand. Hope you have a great book club discussion.

Gentle Reader said...

litlove--Ooh, I'll definitely put Rachel Cohen's book on my list--sounds fascinating!

Bybee--I'm really happy with that stack, actually! I'm a happy reader at the moment :)

Lesley--I'm continuing to really enjoy The Help. I like to wait until things are out in paperback, too, but we couldn't seem to wait on this one :)

Ti said...

I won a copy of this book but am thinking about suggesting it for my book club's reading list. We choose for the year though and I'm not sure I can wait until January to suggest it.

Molly said...

The Help still remains my favorite book read in 2009.

I found your lovely blog by way of Matt's recommendation. I look forward to following your posts in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Gentle Reader said...

Ti--I'm still really enjoying this book--stayed up far too late last night reading it! I think it's a good book group selection, but you may not want to wait that long :)

Molly--welcome! Glad you found me :) I'll have to thank Matt. I'm really finding The Help fascinating, it will probably be in my top books of this year, too.

Abbee said...

I have a great background book for you. "The Promised Land" by Nicholas Lemann. It traces the migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities (like Chicago, New York and Detroit) after the Reconstruction period. This is pre-civil rights. Nicholas Lemann is a journalist. After reading "the Promised Land", I became a big fan of his. His work in the "New Yorker" all the time. This is a fascinating and well researched book; it almost reads like fiction. I saw it as the link between the era of slavery and the Civil Rights movement.