Book 68 (2010) The Help **** by Kathryn Stockett

This is an excellent book about black maids and their white women bosses.   Most of it takes place in Jackson Mississippi in 1964.   Stockett captures the detail of this narrow and disgraceful universe in every sentence.   A deep racist attitude defines the US to this day (we have only to look at Katrina for proof).  

The story is told by several of the black maids and a young white women who wants to be a writer and decides to write their story.   Mississippi in 1964 is a dangerous place for anyone who dares even the slightest defiance of the white women's rules so the project must be carried out with great secrecy.   Even having a "high yellow" baby was not allowed as it blurred the boundaries of race.   The baby had to be put into an orphanage.  

Stockett's characters are wonderful and I was able to understand if not really feel the humiliation and fear of their daily lives.   I also felt some guilt and shame for being white and maybe not always being as enlightened as I should have been.  

I didn't put this book down.  

Other great books with US race theme:

Inheriting the Trade*** by Thomas DeWolf (non-fiction)
Slaves in the Family**** by Edward Ball (non-fiction)
Book of Negroes** by Laurence Hill

Book 16 (2010) The Book of Negroes ** by Lawrence Hill

Although this is a Canada Reads winner of 2009, I didn't give it my 3 or 4 Dunstars. I found it to be merely an interesting story, and especially appreciated the parts describing the Black Loyalists and the Sierra Leone colony. 
Hill admits the details are not necessarily historically accurate, so that is a bit disappointing, but otherwise it is thoroughly researched. His characters are very strong and one certainly have no doubt of the horrors of slavery and just being black among whites. He leaves the writer with no doubt that African slaves felt just like we would had it all happened to us.  The writing is good but I was conscious of it being too modern in idiom for a historical novel.

Other notable books on the subject of race, civil rights, and slavery:
Inheriting the Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf
Slaves in the Family by Edward Ball
The Help **** by Kathryn Stockett