I love books about the south and books about writing.  It took me a while to get to this one on my reading list, but it was worth it. You need to put Kathryn Stockett's The  Help on your reading list.

The novel is about the dichotomies of rich/poor, black/white, and male/female. It's about the invisible lines we as a society draw about what should and shouldn't be. The novel is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1962s. It chronicles the goings on of a group of society friends and the shadow society of their maids and household help.

As I was reading it, I was drawing parallels to the social commentary in To Kill a Mockingbird, and old English major habits die hard. I had two or three thesis ideas before I finished.

Her characters are funny at times, redeeming, trapped by circumstance and propriety, and a few are just mean because they can be.

"Change begins with a whisper."

Put this one on your holiday list, or better yet, buy a copy for a friend.