2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This is the thread for the discussion on the book The Help.
~Please if you plan to include spoilers, make sure to mark it as such so that you will not give anything away to everyone else.

Hello all! Since I was the one who nominated this book, I have sort of been assigned as the leader of the discussion. I'm brand new to this site so bear with me! I can't wait to get started.

you will do great Melissa!!! Thanks for taking on this role! :)

Thanks Nikki. I've been wanting to get more involved with this site, so there's no time like the present!

That is very true. It looks like most of us either have read it or are planning to read it so hopefully there will some good discussion...

I already bought it few months ago and now I´ll finally have time to read it! :)

Johanna, I've been the same way. It's just sitting there waiting for me. I'm excited to get started after the holidays!

I'm just about done, and I can tell you the book is worth every word of praise it has been given. The tone, the story, the characters, the suspense … riveting. I'd love to discuss this book!

Yay! Thank you Genevieve. Great to hear from someone who's in the middle of it. Now I'm even more excited! When we get further into January when everyone has had time to dig in, feel free to bring up specific topics that you'd like to discuss.

This is a book I've been meaning to read for some time that somehow keeps getting bumped in the pile (okay, one of the piles), so you can count me in on this one... now to go and find it... (Will probably only start it in January though, just too busy right now).

I caved in and watched the movie first so I can't wait to read the book. Finally! :D

Adriana wrote: "I caved in and watched the movie first so I can't wait to read the book. Finally! :D"

I try really hard to make sure that I read the book first, but it can be sooooooo tempting. Did you enjoy the movie? You'll have to tell us if the movie is close to the book.

Yes! Me and my mom watched it together. It was so good! There's a moment I hope we read about that will just make you laugh out loud.

I almost rented it but I was being "strong" so that I could try to read it first. lol I don't know how well I will hold out.

Well it's only a week away. Be strong! You can make it (:

I have read the book and saw the movie. Of course, the book is better. I love books about the South and the 60s were such an interesting time with changing values. I was so engrossed in this story that I would often sit and think about the characters even after I put the book down. Enjoy.

Thanks Jeannine! I'm so looking forward to it. I have an 11 year old daughter - do you think the movie would be appropriate for her to watch?

I would think so. i watched with my 14 year old. She couldn't believe African Americans were really treated like that. It opened her eyes to discrimination. The Help was one of my favorite books of 2011.

I'll read it with you. It's not on my reading list yet, but I'll change it for the group read. Would love to see what other people think about it :).

I haven't been to see watch the movie either but it only came out in Germany a few weeks ago, and we sort of have an explosion of good movies in the cinemas during winter, so I couldn't find someone to go with me yet although I must have been to the cinema more often than in all the months since march together ;).

Where in Germany are you? I used to live in Butzbach and went to School in Gießen.

I live in Dresden for now ... will finish my studies in january and look for a job anywhere after that, so I probably won't be in Saxony for much longer ... I've only been to Gießen once, to see the Mathematikum. Very cool. (And very off-topic but what the heck^^).

Yeah, I know. But hey. Maybe there will be a Germany reference somewhere in The Help and we can say we were on topic. (ha!)

So....has anyone gotten an early start on reading this yet? I have and so far, it is WONDERFUL! Can't believe it has taken me so long to finally read this thing.

Just wondering how we were going to do this discussion. Are we breaking the book up into sections and discussing one per week or...? I am two chapters in and enjoying it so far.

I have no idea. I haven´t started it yet, I need to read one short book first because my boyfriend´s mom wants to borrow it. :) But it is short so I´ll probably finish it tomorrow, at least the day after and then get to start Help.

oh thank God this is one I can actually get my hands on- cant always take part in group reads - im going to get in in Tesco tomorrow!It does sound really good. I've stayed away from the film but it got really good reviews.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle the discussion? I know everyone will be on different reading schedules, so it's hard to know where everyone will be. I'd love to break it down by chapters (maybe a few at a time) and discuss from there. Or we can just pick subjects at random and discuss. What do you think?

Melissa, you are welcome to start another thread just for spoilers, and leave this one as a "spoiler free" one, if that helps!

Thanks! I've started a new thread per Nikki's advice if anyone wants to come over!

I will change the title of this one to say Spoiler FREE just so no one gets confused!!

I will finally start reading this book either today or tomorrow as I finished my very first book of the year! So excited! :)

This book is so good, I'm glad I picked it up at the library!

Krystal, I'm glad you're enjoying it. So am I! I was very pleasantly surprised. I've avoided reading it for a long time because of all the hype, but I now see that the hype was well-deserved.

I have 6 chapters left to read and then I will finally look into the spoiler topic! I would love to keep reading and finish today, but I think my eyes won´t stay open long enough.

There's definitely some good discussion in the spoiler topic. I finished the other day myself and finally got to go in there lol!

It really is quite terrible seeing that there´s a lot of posts that I just can´t go and read yet :)

Hopefully with the new format starting next month, this will not be an issue. I wish we would have done it that way from the beginning but I guess we live and learn. Thanks for bearing with us.

Just finished the book last night...loved it.

If you finished it, feel free to go into the discussion thread that has spoilers in it for more in depth talk about the book :)

Thank you.

I am new to the group but have read The Help. Where do I find the discussion thread that has spoilers in it for more in depth talk? I would really enjoy talking with others about this wonderful book!

Open the "Group Reads" section and you´ll find more than 3 topics there. It will only show three on the main page, the rest can be seen like this.

If you look at the Group reads folder, you will see it shows 3 of 4 topics, click on that and it will show you the other topics in the folder (which in this case includes the one you are looking for).

Welcome to the group! Have fun, happy reading, jump in wherever you feel like! :)