Good book alert

I’m reading Kathryn Stockett’s The Help right now, and you should be, too. It reminds me a bit of To Kill a Mockingbird, not just because of its southern setting, but because it so effortlessly conjures its atmosphere for the reader. I’m only a few chapters in, and I can feel like what it was like to live in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Even if I don’t really know, I feel like I know, and that comes from skillful writing. The book has three voices, and they all feel authentic. Stockett, like Harper Lee, grew up in the south and she’s just writing what she knows. The old adage was right. This is a great book.

I’m nervous for the film adaptation, but since it’s being directed by Stockett’s childhood friend (her own Capote, perhaps?), I’m hoping it’ll do the book justice.