The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I think I first saw this in Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS. It's set in Jackson in the early 60s, and goes between the points of views of housekeepers and the women for whom they work. I thought it was well written for a first novel. It's now being made into a movie. It is detailed and a real eye-opener for someone who doesn't remember that time in the South firsthand. There's a moment in the book where I felt about one of the maids like I did about an Iraqi young woman in a book I read earlier this year: they can't escape their lives. I can't imagine how you deal with that sort of suffocating culture. The book doesn't just detail the bad side of things it also shows the good (or just better?) relationships, all on the verge of the Civil Rights movement.