There were a lot of lovely books in 2009, and here are three of my favorites :

– The help by Kathryn Stockett
Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a young girl who has just finished her degree  and returned to her small, conservative town of Jackson, Mississippi. Unlike other girls her age, she does not subscribe to the then (1960s) racist views, and is not searching for a husband (although her mother would wish her quickly married and settled into domesticity). Looking to get become a writer and getting published, she is given advice to write about her true feelings, and decides to write about the segregation between the blacks and the whites in her small town. The stories she writes are of the help, black women who have served families for generations.

This was a wonderful book. Stockett manages to write about a touchy subject very convincingly, and sketches out her characters beautifully. Set in the South, the book’s story is narrated via 3 main characters – Skeeter, Abileen Clark – Skeeter’s friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s maid, and Minny Jackson, Abileen’s friend, also a maid, who often gets fired for talking back to her employers. I loved the detail in the book, and also the way Stockett managed to converse in different voices (as Skeeter, Abileen, Minny) without losing authenticity.

– Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
A retelling of the Mahabharat from a woman’s point of view. This is a very interesting take on an otherwise traditional story, because although there are women in the Mahabharat/Ramayana, their role is secondary, and mostly as honor/child bearers. There are some women who do get their way, but they are generally “evil”, for example Kaikeyi in the Ramayana. There literally are no strong women, who wield any influence, or can even do as they think. There is Kunti in the Mahabharat, who bears children as an unmarried virgin, but, yeah, what a mistake, she has to give them up, and can never acknowledge Karna as her own. You hear of educated women in traditional texts, but for all their education, very few do little more than birth sons. So among a pantheon of men, hearing what a woman thinks (and speaks) is refreshing to read.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Divakaruni fleshes out Draupadi’s character quite nicely, right from her birth from fire, until the Great War, where she is blessed with the “sight”. And told from Draupadi’s point of view, there are subtle nuances to the story which would never get told otherwise. Yes, it is true that Divakaruni embellishes certain aspects of the story, such as Draupadi’s views on men having more than one wife, or even her feelings with regards to Karuna, but that “embellishment” to me, just made it more interesting.

– Everyone is beautiful by Katherine Center
Lanie Coates, a young mom of three children is moving from Houston, Texas to Cambridge Boston so that her musician husband Peter can go to graduate school. The novel starts off with the family arriving at their new apartment, where Peter is immediately engrossed in his new life while Lanie flounders around sans a support system and friends, in keeping her kids occupied and fed, and herself sane and showered. At the park one day, she meets a young woman her own age, who unwittingly insults Lanie’s appearance by asking her when she is due (Lanie is not pregnant). That incident serves as a catalyst in Lanie’s life as she realizes how much she has neglected herself, and decides to do something about it . . .

I loved this book, just as I loved “I don’t know how she does it” by Allison Pearson. It describes very well the life of a young, stay-at-home Mom, and the pressure and the consuming demands of parenting. I also really liked Center’s sense of humor and her very amusing, and easy-to-identify-with parenting tales as Lanie deals with the questions of her three boisterous kids. This novel also has a positive spin on it, so it has a nice, feel-good ending.