Well, summer is fast fading and I have been negligent in giving you my summer reading list. It's still hitting 90 at my house though, so there is yet time to hit the beach or stretch out in the hammock under the shade tree and lose yourself in some good prose.

Normally I recommend a Buckeye book, and I will get around to one of these, but I have just finished one of the most amazing books I have read in many a year. It's worth sharing with all of you. They say if you want to learn to write, read good writing. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is all that and then some.

Stockett's prose sings, her story grabs and races, and her printed words deftly paint images like the brush of Monet or the pen da Vinci. Her story is fiction, but the American history it tells is true, and the message it will leave you with is real and triumphant. I picked this book up thinking it would make me a better writer, but instead put it down a better person.

The book has been a NY Times bestseller since March, and has now sold 1.7 million copies. What makes it truly amazing is that it's Stockett's first novel! And unbelievably, 45 literary agents rejected it, before G. P. Putnam and Sons picked it up to publish... a fact I will no doubt draw comfort in when I get my very own first rejection letter! (How would you want to be one of the 45 agents who left those 1.7 million copies laying on the table in their reject boxes!)

What is the book about? Well, this is one of those stories that works even better when you don't know the story. So, take my word, just pick up a copy and enjoy. You will be rewarded.