The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I think this book needs a resistant reader. If you don't resist it, it's easy to get caught up in the feel good messages (look at women coming together to fight racism! look at how bad things were just fifty years ago! how far we've come!), and forget the very real questions of race and class that still haunt this country. The book also seems to reinforce a lot of heteronormative standards. The story was incredibly compelling, in part because Stockett builds in so many mysteries (what happened to Constantine? what's up with Celia?) and questions. Many elements of this book (the pie, Celia, the toilets on Hilly's front yard, the Senator's son) seemed way over the top, but it is definitely a thought-provoking read.