“The Help” has been a treasure trove of quotes. The story takes place in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.

Here’s an example:

“I feel that bitter seed growing inside a me, the one planted after Treelore died. I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain’t a color, disease ain’t the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming — and it come in ever white child’s life — when they start to think that colored folks ain’t as good as whites.”

Things have been a little slow here at Shelf Space the last few weeks, but let’s kick things into high gear again. Today I want everyone to share a quote from their most recently acquired book.

It can be a book you purchased, borrowed from a friend, checked out from the library or downloaded to an e-reader – whichever book most recently came into your possession.

Here’s my entry:

“So Jackson’s just one white neighborhood after the next  and more springing up down the road. But the colored part a town, we one big anthill, surrounded by state land that ain’t for sale. As our numbers grow bigger, we can’t spread out. Our part a town just gets thicker.”

~ “The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett

We’re a fan of the audiobook at my house for this very reason:

“It took people 10 years to figure out that while stuck in a morning commute, they could be listening to a book.”

~  Paul Hilts, Publishers Weekly

Hello, folks. Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My blog was affected by the angry hacker that screwed up the Messenger site, and although our mighty webmaster Todd has been working diligently to get everything back up and running, it’s a tedious, time-consuming process.

I want to give him a virtual “thanks” for all of his hard work this week. All of your favorite features will be back online soon at wcmessenger.com, so check back often!

Now on to the quote of the week …

I’m still reading “Outlander,” so I’m going to share a little jewel from chapter 7, “Davie Beaton’s Closet.” Claire has time-traveled from the mid-1940s to the 1740s. She was a field nurse in World War II, and in this scene, she is cleaning out the cabinets of Dr. Beaton, the previous doctor in residence at the castle, where Claire is now staying.

“The chest was the repository of the surgical side of Beaton’s practice. Within were a number of sinister-looking saws, knives, chisels, and other tools looking more suited to building construction than to use on delicate human tissues. The stench apparently derived from the fact that Davie Beaton had seen no particular benefit to cleaning his instruments between uses. I grimaced in distaste at the sight of the dark stains on some of the blades, and slammed shut the lid.”