Through recorded cassette tapes, Hannah reveals to her friend Clay the 13 reasons why she committed suicide.  Suspenseful and heartbreaking; I had a hard time putting it down.  The alternating narration between Clay’s life and Hannah’s voice on the tapes keeps the story moving quickly.

The one feeling I was left with overall though, was that suicide is a glamorous way to go.  In the end, Hannah is able to explain her reasons for killing herself, make her enemies feel bad for hurting her, and bid farewell to her grief-stricken almost boyfriend.  It’s the ultimate, “They’ll miss me when I’m gone” fantasy come true.  If I had a child reading this book, I would definitely want them to explore this topic from other points of view.

Dorrit is 50 years old, self employed, unmarried and childless.  Her society has labeled her as “dispensable.”  Dorrit and others like her are required to submit their bodies to physical and psychological experiments, drug tests and even organ donations.  When their usefulness as experimental subjects has passed, the final donation is scheduled and the dispensables are euthanized.

Dorrit is resigned to living out her remaining days in the luxurious facility which houses the dispensables.  Although she misses her independence, privacy, the outdoors, and her beloved dog, she begins to make new friends, works on her writing and tries not to think about the future.  Then she falls in love with Johannes, and everything changes.  Although society claims Dorrit and Johannes are dispensable, the couple now have everything to live for.

This book is haunting.  It describes a society that is horrifying both for its brutal definition of “usefulness” and for its similarity to our own.  Abortion on demand, mercy killing, rationed or unaffordable health care and slurs against persons with disabilities are ordinary occurrences.  How much longer before we take the next step and begin writing our own definition of “dispensable persons?”

I could not put this book down.  My children and home were horribly neglected as I devoured this fantastic novel.  Skeeter is a 22 year old white girl, living at home in Mississippi in the 1960’s.  She wants to be a writer, but doesn’t know how to make that dream come true.  Aibileen and Minny are black maids, working for Skeeter’s friends.  They too have dreams of something more, but are trapped by the society in which they live.  The 3 women come together in an amazing way to claim their dreams and stand up for what’s right.

This is a must-read book and would be perfect for a group of friends or a book group to read together.  It begs to be discussed, savored and enjoyed with other women.  And although the book alone was fantastic, the addition of an author’s note at the end makes it even better.  Stockett reveals some personal childhood experiences and how they led to the writing of her book.  It makes the rest of the book that much more meaningful.

This is one of those delightful books that seems to be about a lot of unrelated incidents, and then at the end, the author ties them all together so neatly, you spend the next day marveling at the way it all came together.

Some of my favorite features of the book:  authentic, middle school friendships; a realistic, yet loving mother-daughter relationship; beautiful references to A Wrinkle in Time; adults who don’t always get it right, but generally try to help kids; and did I mention the beautiful way the end all comes together?

A definite recommendation for middle school readers, both guys and girls.

Another outstanding book by Dallas, told entirely through letters that Alice, a young farmwife in Iowa, writes to her sister.  Alice’s husband joined the Union army, and Alice is left to run the family farm, with the help of her disapproving mother-in-law.  Alice is young, irresponsible and unaware of the brutality of war.  When Alice is accused of murder and the whole town seems to turn against her, Alice learns who and what is truly important.

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