Need new suggestions...

Hi BFabers!

I need to download some books onto my kobo for my next little vacay and wanted some suggestions...I am almost finished "Water for Elephants" and just read Madeleine Wickham's "The Wedding Girl" after having gone through the heavy "Jane Eyre," "Sarah's Key" and "Book of Negros."

What should I read next???

xoxo RFab

The Help...the Movie

A little disappointed that I couldn't see this movie with any of my fellow B-Fabers, I dragged my bro and Rob to see The Help in theatres last night. It started at 8:20 and we didn't get out until just past 11 (yikes - long movie!!!)

Besides the fact that it was long, I thought it had both some bad and some good points. It is definitely worth seeing. I will start with the bad to get that out of the way:

-I was trying to watch it in the perspective of someone who didn't just finish reading the book and found this a little impossible. The movie moves very fast between characters in the beginning, leaving the non-reading viewers a little confused.

-Many of my favourite parts in the novel were absent from the movie, making it a little more difficult to really get into some relationships (even though the movie was over 2 hours long!)

-We never meet Stuarts family, or get his reaction to Skeeter driving the truck with attached plow,

-Skeeter's dad is almost non-present in the movie,

-Charlotte's struggle with cancer is not super prominent in the movie,

-Mae Mobley never uses Aibileen's special bathroom,

-we never see Celia's bed-ridden struggles creeping around in empty rooms upstairs longing for a baby,

-the only "racial problem" we see/hear about in the film is the shooting of the black man by a KKK member, but no other beatings or other aggressive behaviour

-and most importantly - there's no crazy naked man harassing Minny and Celia in her backyard!!! (A chance for Celia to save Minny and form a new bond)

-a few things were changed or forgotten obviously to help the filming move along, so maybe we can discuss those at the next BFab???!

Great stuff:

-the "terrible-awful" is most definitely a highlight of the movie (although my bro said if he heard the word "pie" one more time in the movie he was gonna leave...as in, too much about it!)

-the acting was excellent, with Minny (Octavia Spencer) stealing the show. Just the expression in her eyes was enough in some scenes...she was awesome!

-Hilly was a well-played bitch (Bryce Dallas Howard). It was easy to hate her from the beginning and the interactions between her and her little minions remind us just how young these ladies were!

-Skeeter and Aibileen had amazing chemistry as well...so all-in-all, loved the characters.

-loved all the church scenes, the singing, the sense of community

-Hilly's mom...OMG, she was a hoot! A little younger looking than I pictured her in the book, but really well played.

Looking forward to hearing everyone else's opinions on the film version of the book in September, or feel free to post here!

xoxo R-Fab

The Help

So I just finished reading Kathryn Stockett's first novel, and our July BFAB selection The Help and have to admit that it grew on me. I wasn't completely into it at first, but as the characters progressed, I found myself more involved in the story and wanting to know more. I know, you're thinking, isn't that the way with all novels of this type? Not for me - there have been so many that have me gripped from the get-go, just not this one.

I love Aibileen's character the most, in the same way I loved Mrs. Huxtable growing up and wanted her to be my mom. Minny and Skeeter's mom both made me laugh the most though. Here are some of my fave highlights from the book:

Chap 7 - When Mae Mobley goes "tee-tee" for the first time and answers "tee-tee" too all of Aibee's questons: "What did baby girl do today?"..."Tee-tee." What they gonna write in history about this day?"..."Tee-tee." "What does Miss Hilly smell like?"..."Tee-tee!"

Chap 9 - When Miss Skeeter's mom starts thinking Skeeter's a lesbian because she hasn't found a man to marry her yet...at 23!!!

Chap 11 - Tongue kissing will make you blind!

Chap 23 - I loved Aibee's special secret stories she told Mae Mobley...but my fave was the one with "Martian Luther King" who was discriminated against for being "green!!!"

Chap 24 - The dirty naked man in Miss Celia's backyard offering them some of his "pecker pie"!!!

Chap 26 - Miss Hilly's own mom sayng that she would be known as "the lady who ate two slices of Minny's shit!" In this chapter, I start loving Miss Celia too, since she writes a cheque out to "two-slice Hilly" after Minny shares her horrible story about the special pie she made!

Stockett does a great job of making you freak out to learn just what Minny did to Miss Hilly as well as what the true story is behind the relationship between Constantine and Skeeter's mom, and then Lullabelle too. At this point, all you're thinking is...what did they do to each other???

I was happy to have so much travel time yesterday from Ottawa to Hamilton by train and then from Hamilton to Marietta, Georgia by van on the way to Florida! I was able to really get into the story, jot down my fave parts and share them with you! Tonight, in our hotel room already at 8pm, I turned on the TV to TLC and lo and behold, it's a wedding-type show marathon, with a special feature on the motion-picture of...THE HELP!

Can't wait to see it on the big screen and how the characters are depicted...I am picturing Rachael McAdams as Regina in Mean Girls as the perfect Miss Hilly!!! But who can pull off Miss Celia...? When are we getting our tickets ladies?

xoxo RFab