A detour from my reading list....

What I have noticed so far with my book club for one is that I have been doing waaaay too much reading to keep to just 1 book a month. Since I can't buy new books and I don't want to skip ahead in my reading because then I would finish all 12 in the next few months, I have been frequenting my public library for books to tide me over until I start next months' selection. On one of my weekly visits I was surprised to see a book I have been meaning to read for months on the shelf. If you are a library-goer then you will know how frustrating it is to get popular books because the request lists are often hundreds of people long! Usually I would get frustrated and just buy it.....or at the very least wait for the book to come out in paperback to save a few bucks. That of course was before I committed to not buy books at all, so obviously I was super-excited to find the bestselling novel "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett just sitting there on the shelf waiting to be borrowed! One minor catch......this 444 page novel was in the fast read section; 1 week loan, no renewals and $1/ day fines for late returns. Not sure if I could do it but decided to give it a try anyway and as it turns out I am so glad I did because I couldn't put it down. 

I finished it just in the nick of time (with a little help from my sneaky trick: even if a book is due today, if you return it before the library opens tomorrow, they will never know). 

The book takes place in Mississippi and focusses on the relationships between white and black women in the early 1960's. We are introduced to three very different but equally unforgettable women and as their stories unfold they change the way they view one another and begin to realize that they are more alike than different. One of the best quotes in the book, is one that even 50 years later humanity can still learn from, "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought". This book is officially added to the list of my favorite books of all time.....

not bad for an impulse detour from my 2011 reading list.