The Help

By: Kathryn Stockett

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, Cassandra Campbell

Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid, Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her 17th white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another.

This edition now includes the afterword "Too Little, Too Late—Kathryn Stockett in Her Own Words", as read by the author.

Bonus Audio: Hear an exclusive interview with Kathryn Stockett.

©2009 Kathryn Stockett, Cover Art: (c) 2011 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC (P)2009 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“The two principal maid characters...leap off the page in all their warm, three dimensional glory...[A] winning novel.” (The New York Times)

“This could be one of the most important pieces of fiction since To Kill a Mockingbird…If you read only one book...let this be it.” (NPR.org)

“A beautiful portrait of a fragmenting world.” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Fantastic!

Love, love, love this book. The actors who read this book added to it's deliciousness 10-fold. Fantastic listen!

The help

had the feel of a historical jewel that casted light on days gone by. I felt the characters had dept beyond the pages of a book.

Great Listen!

The story is amazing on so many levels. The author makes you love the good guy and hate the bad guy. You often find yourself wishing you could just reach in the book and tell a few people what you really think. Sometimes you cry and sometimes you laugh.

I read the book before I listened to it. Sometimes, like with movies made from books, the audio version isn't as exciting to listen to as it was reading. This is not the case with audio. I have to admit that the characters voices are just like they sounded in my head when I read the book. In a few chapters the narrators even did a better job than I did.

So all in all I have to say this is a great listen!!

Easy Listening for a Great Story

Any additional comments?

This was a great story and I found myself completely engaged from the very beginning.

Wonderful!

This was the best audiobook I've read. The narration was so skillfully done, you forget your listening to a book and begin to put yourself in the scenes. I felt like I could see and feel the characters. Excellent read with epic narration!

Insightful

Would you listen to The Help again? Why?

I might listen again in the future, but I think I got the jest of it the first time.

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene that stands out in my mind is one where an intruder had to be chased off the property.

Any additional comments?

This book offers insight into human personalities.

thoughtful!

I love the book, it was beautifully written and wonderfully red and the narrators were absolutely wonderful!

Just what I needed

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the description of the characters. I read this before watching the movie and had my mind made up on what the characters looked like and how they moved.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narrators did an amazing job bringing the characters to life, I felt as though I was sitting around a table listening to each one of them tell their stories.

If you could rename The Help, what would you call it?

If anything just Help, since that is what they came up with but I like the name.

Any additional comments?

Sad to finish it, definitely a good read, worth the money or a credit.

The Help

From the very start, this book had me hooked! I loved the rich characters that told the story in three perspectives of a time when our country was going through so much social change. The narration was excellent and I was so sad when this book was over. I highly recommend it!

Captivated

I was captivated by the story line and the southern drawl. I became emotionally involved in this book. What a great listen. Highly recommended