Kathryn Stockett Adventure

     My friend Tina and I began our blogs at about the same time a few years ago.  She reads a lot more than I can ever get accomplished plus she always has her finger on the pulse of hot new books, authors and literary events happening around our great state.  A couple of weeks ago she informed me that Kathryn Stockett was coming to a town quite close to us and we decided we had to go.  We have girls around the same age and we worked some magic to leave them with dads for the whole Sunday afternoon.  Football season is over anyway.  She pulled up in front of my church and we hightailed it out of there like we were Thelma and Louise, in a minivan.   Luckily we were heading for tamer entertainment; an author reading!!

     In fact the audience was filled with mostly white women, with a heaping handful of men,  and a smaller handful of women of color.  I point this out because I've often wondered how the black community views this book and its characters.  Stockett spoke to a full house and we were truly  mesmerized.  She is petite, graceful and fully at ease with herself and the book she wrote.  I loved how she spoke-she didn't give the usual author talk of how many rejection notices she received or advice-she just talked to us like we were all sitting around her kitchen table with her, like we were old friends.  She seemed amazed by the success of The Help but was happy it had been well-received, not because she wanted her book to be popular, but because it got people talking about race and that's big for a small Southern woman.

     Even though she said she wasn't Skeeter in the book it seemed she, like Skeeter, was willing to push against her upbringing to really think about what it was like for generations of black women who worked for her family.  During the Q and A session she answered several  race related questions and her families feelings about the book.  I think after listening to her sweet drawl I might be a little in author love.  She was friendly, low-key and so very, very funny that I couldn't even take notes-I was just so happy to be there! 
Thank you Tina for sweeping me off to this event!
  *** That and I got a fantastic bargain on a sweet pair of trouser jeans from Ann Taylor about 20 minutes later.
 It was just a really great day.***

If you ever have the chance to hear her speak I highly recommend you take the opportunity and she has a full list on her website of speaking engagements from now until Fall.  If you have not read The Help yet please pick it up at the library or buy it.  After hearing her speak I want to read it again!