Monday, February 24, 2025

To Kill A Mocking Bird

Title: To Kill A Mockingbird

Author: Harper Lee

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Historical Fiction, Classics, Young Adult

Source: Kindle Unlimited

My Review:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is not a book I would typically read. However, it was our book club pick for this month, so I had to read it.

"Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill."

My husband told me I was going to hate it and be offended. He was wrong. I didn't hate it, and I wasn't offended.

"As for me, I knew nothing except what I gathered from Time magazine and reading everything I could lay hands on at home, but as I inched sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something. Out of what I knew not, yet I did not believe that twelve years of unrelieved boredom was exactly what the state had in mind for me."

I loved Scout. She is precocious and wise (at times) beyond her years. Had the story been told from anyone else's perspective, I probably wouldn't have liked it, but she saved the story for me.

"Hey, Boo."

She was only speaking how she was taught to speak and you can't fault a child for that. The story was well-written, flowed smoothly, and had a climactic ending. I am glad I read it.

Content notes: cursing, use of the N word, 

★★★★/5

Synopsis (Amazon):  

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable coming-of-age tale in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage iniquities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father — a crusading local lawyer — risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

9 comments:

  1. Love this book. Happy Monday my friend.
    rsrue.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love Scout, too! I first had to read this book in high school, but it was one of my favs even then. It's a truly wonderful classic imo. :D

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is so beautiful. And Atticus! And Jem. What a cast of characters.

    And of course IMO it is one of the best book-to-movie films ever. I can't imagine a better Atticus Finch than Gregory Peck; and all the rest of the cast is exceptional as well. Even the children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Melanie, it sounds like I might need to watch the movie! I haven't seen it.

      Delete
  4. You must also watch the movie. This is a case where the book AND the movie are both phenomenal. The first time I read TKaM was the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I was at my grandparents' house and messing around in the basement where my uncle's books and cds and stuff were. I found the book on a shelf and started reading. Quite a bit of time went by and Grandma realized I had been awfully quiet so she came down and asked what I was doing. I showed her the book and she about had a heart attack and thought my mom was going to be mad that I was reading it so young. I finished it that afternoon and Mom wasn't mad at all. It remains one of my all-time favorite books. I was furious when Harper Lee passed, and suddenly the manuscript for the sequel "appeared". But even then I could not resist buying a copy of Go Set a Watchman. I have never read it though, because I can't stand the thought of Atticus becoming someone else entirely. He was my hero and I don't want to really find out he's just as terrible as everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sarah, I totally get it! I wanted to see where Scout ends up and I have questions, but we can't ruin Atticus!! I will see if I can find the movie!

      Delete