A lot of the discussion revolved around each of our backgrounds and viewpoints of civil rights. Most of us grew up on the either the West Coast, Up North, or abroad and did not deal with the prejudice that others were exposed to in the South. Linda Shoultz (previously Clemments) has joined our club as a welcome addition and shared how when she moved to the South, she did not understand the racism and said that the way she was treated was as if they were trying to make her a racist. Others, like Alison, was exposed to people who were raised with racist parents and had a difficult time overcoming their prejudices, despite their desire to change. On Kathryn Stockett's website she has a list of Reader Groups questions. One of them was:
"Do you think that had Aibileen stayed working for Miss Elizabeth, that Mae Mobley would have grown up to be racist like her mother? Do you think racism is inherent, or taught?"
What do you think?
We loved each of the three main characters in the book and felt that out of all of them, Aibileen showed the most grace and appeared to be a believer. We loved how she wrote down her prayers. We thought that Skeeter changed the most and wondered what might have caused her to change. Minny was a spirited woman who had been through a lot.
There were many things that were brought up and I can't remember or include them all. It was a very emotional book and definitely worth reading.
One of the things that was brought up in the group was that they are making a movie out of the book to come out this Summer. Check out the IMDb website for details: "The Help" (Movie). Dallas Bryce Howard (Ron Howard's daughter) will be playing Hilly and will also star Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters and Cicely Tyson as Constantine.
For those of you who have not read the book, here a summary:
Storyline
Set in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter (Stone) is a southern society girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends' lives -- and a small Mississippi town -- upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen (Davis), Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up -- to the dismay of her friends in the tight-knit black community. Despite Skeeter's life-long friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their collaboration and soon more women come forward to tell their stories -- and as it turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become unwittingly -- and unwillingly -- caught up in the changing times.Next month we will be reading "Winterflight" by Joseph Bayly. We will meet on the 3rd Saturday at NOON which will be March 19th. It is not easy to find, but there are a few copies floating around. Here is a summary of that book:
In a frightening vision of the immediate future (and an anti-abortion parable originally published in 1981), Bayly introduces Jonathan and Grace Stanton, whose six-year-old son has mild hemophilia, a treatable condition. But the advent of gene testing some 20 years earlier prevents genetic abnormalities through U.S. government-sanctioned abortions. Conditions that manifest themselves after the birth of a child are a virtual death sentence; the child is taken to a body bank to be kept alive, for years if needed, until all usable parts have been harvested for others. There are no happy endings here, and Christians are willing participants in this brave new world. Highly emotional and barbarously realistic, given the potential of current medical advances, Bayly's future forces Christians to make a choice to follow the latest medical intervention blindly or open their eyes and fight for the moral choice.
For April, we will be reading "Prayers for Sale" by Sandra Dallas. Again, we will meet on the 3rd Saturday, which will be April 16th.
Happy Reading!
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