The Help

Stars: 4.5/5
Author: Kathryn Stockett
Subjects: domestic help, racial tensions, Jim Crow Laws, African American Women, white women, gender roles, writing, publishing, small town, civil rights
ISBN: 978-0425245132
Copyright Year: 2011
Other Comments: The Help was a fantastic book.  I would have given it a perfect 5/5 stars had it not been for some situations that seemed slightly unbelievable.  The Help is about three women, two of which are black women who work as domestic maids and nannies.  The other young lady is a white woman writer.  Eventually all of them come together to do something no one has done before - write about what its like to serve as the help for white families.  During the civil rights movements and the Jim Crow Laws, this was a dangerous idea for all of them.  However, against all odds, they manage to write the book and publish it.  They then begin to watch as the town around them starts to change.  The Help is widely popular right now and a movie has just been produced based on the book.  I would suggest reading the book first and then seeing the movie.  Both are excellent works!

Kindred

Stars: 4.5/5
Author: Octavia Butler
Subjects: African American women, slaveholders, time travel, slavery, slaves, Los Angeles, southern states, science fiction
ISBN: 0807083690
Copyright Year: 2003
Other Comments: Kindred is an excellent science fiction novel about a young African American woman named Dana.  We are first introduced to Dana in the late 1970s in Los Angeles.  It isn't long, however, before Dana is sucked into the antebellum south during the 1800s.  She goes back in time to save her white male relative, Rufus, from drowning.  This pattern repeats with Rufus getting older and older and Dana getting sucked back in time to save him, only leaving to return to her own time when her own life is threatened.  Each subsequent return becomes more and more dangerous and finally she is forced to extreme measures to save her own life.  This book portrays slavery in all its horror - from the abusive and murdering tactics of slave drivers; to the abusive relationships white males inflicted on white women and African American women; to the destruction of the white and black family; to the unbearable conditions and suffering of the African American slaves.  Octavia Butler makes it clear that the past cannot escape us and also points out how important it is to learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes.  This book was entertaining, horrifying, thrilling, disturbing, uncomfortable, and important.  I would recommend this book to those who enjoy science fiction novels or who have a hard time reading slave narratives.