The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I was really impressed with this book and I really enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's writing style. I'm not going to lie: I usually judge whether a book's worth reading by the first few pages, and this one didn't have me pulled in as much as I'd like at the beginning. However, I'd had it recommended to me by one of my sisters-in-law, so I decided I'd give it a chance. I'm glad I did. A few more chapters in, and I was hooked.

The characters were beautifully shaped and had such different voices! It was wonderful. It was also fabulous how, near the end of the book, as the characters got closer to each other and more united in their purpose, their voices (while still distinguishable) started to blend together. INCREDIBLY written.

I will admit that there were portions of the book that I was uncomfortable with (particularly chapters 24 and 25), mostly due to the graphic nature of the things she was describing. I'm not particularly opposed to the points she was making, or even to the scenes she was illustrating/portraying. More that she spent too much time focusing on and describing things that were distasteful and didn't need as much time and focus spent on them. However, except for the aforementioned chapters and a few other snippets in the book, she handled the material very tastefully.

I didn't look at the author's picture until I was more than halfway through the book, and I found myself wondering what race she was. I was surprised to find out that she was white. She did a fantastic job handling the risky turf of "writing in the voice of a black person," as she calls it.

Sexualizing kids: No child left behind — and fighting back

This article in the Deseret News is intense and there are a plethora of things that I could comment on. But the one quote that got my ire up more than any other was the following:

"Aubrey, the University of Missouri professor who teaches classes to future advertisers, tries to help them see the effect certain images can have on youths. She says some students have a cynical outlook, thinking certain decisions marketers make are purely business, that they shouldn't have to think about ethics."

Hello! In case you didn't know, there is no separation from ethics in any situation, least of all business. Actions are actions, whether they are done in a professional or personal setting, and they should be governed by good ethics. How are you going to sleep at night, if you decide to teach little girls that they are nothing more than a sex object to be used for someone else's gratification, when in reality they are beautiful, intelligent, wonderful, and talented?

I say the same thing that I said during the whole scandal with Clinton and Monica Lewinsky:  Ethics and morals are all-encompassing. You can't just pretend they don't apply when you want to do something that goes against what they proscribe.