Can't Stop Reading Listening

I am reading the most fantastic book right now. FANTASTIC. I can't put it down. And technically I'm not even reading it, because I have been listening to it on my iPod. I downloaded it for my road trip to Texas and haven't finished it yet, so I walk around the house listening to it with the iPod in my pocket and headphones on while my oven beeps and my cake burns and my children scream for me and the phone rings off the hook. It's that good.

It's called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. WONDERFUL. And the recording is phenomenal. It is so good, in fact, that I often forget that I'm listening to an audio book instead of watching it on TV, or, more realistically, living it. I find myself inadvertently slipping into a Southern drawl. I keep accidentally calling my children, "Chile!" (like child without the 'd') or saying "Ooooo Lordy!" out of the blue. I am craving corn bread and fried chicken like a drunk craves bourbon. Like an old Chevy craves gas. Like a.... Well, her similes are way better than mine, but you get the idea.

I can't really tell you about it; the plot is hard to explain. But it is essentially the stories of black domestic help in the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi...with a twist. Funny, clever, touching, thoughtful, and extremely well written.

Read it. Ya'll.