From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Start date: April 15, 2016

Finish date: May 15, 2016

Why we're reading this: We read this in February 2015 as a Group Read, but we only had 50 Members at the time! One of the more po…more
[close] We read this in February 2015 as a Group Read, but we only had 50 Members at the time! One of the more popular Classics that we have reconsider for a Re-read!

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Dec 06, 2007 Chrissie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hf, usa, race, favorites, southern, philo-psychol, classics

I never reread books - well here is the exception. THIS book was well worth a second reading. This is a book that CAN be read twice and I guess even more times. I loved the book when I read it a little short of 50 years ago, and I loved it this time too. For different reasons. Last time I read it when I was about 11 or 12, when everybody was reading it. This time it was refreshing to attack it from a completely different angle, without hearing all the fuss from others. There is a new book about I never reread books - well here is the exception. THIS book was well worth a second reading. This is a book that CAN be read twice and I guess even more times. I loved the book when I read it a little short of 50 years ago, and I loved it this time too. For different reasons. Last time I read it when I was about 11 or 12, when everybody was reading it. This time it was refreshing to attack it from a completely different angle, without hearing all the fuss from others. There is a new book about TKAM and the the author, Harper Lee. It shows that much of this novel is autobiographical. That Dill could be based on Capote! I will have to read this book: !Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird. I need to know more about Harper Lee!!!

Last time I read TKAM there was so much talk about racial issues, and I read it then, even as a child, with this as the main focus. It IS an excellent glimpse of the South in the mid-thirties. It so well depicts how life unfurled itself then and there.

This time around what struck me was the love between the different characters. Love in all its different aspects and ways. Love between a father and his children, love between brother and sister, love between a young "tomboy", Scout, and and her friend Dill. And there is more. Their is love and understanding between the people living in the small town of Alabama. Maybe one can not classify it as romantic love, but all of these "loves" are so beautiful to see and watch. Such love is down-to-earth and real and honest and without any pretense. The author says on the back of my splotched and ripped and yellowed copy that she saw this as a love story. I read this note at the end and understood it immediately. This time around, this is exactly what I got out of the book.

I adored the prose. the sentences that erupted from the characters' mouths, the dialogue, the ideas expressed. I personally fell in love with Atticus, the father of Scout. What a father. He had alot to teach me to, still even in my old age..... He and his children were continually reminding each other that "it is not yet time to worry." I love that statement b/c it does not deny that horrible things are going on but we are not yet at the point where we must fall apart and collapse. In all its honesty it calms you down. You can tell yourself to just cool it! This will be my new motto!!! And I love Scout and Jem and Dill........ and Boo!

Another thing - the title and how the story plays out are so very important. I will not talk about these things here b/c that would be a spoiler. You have to read the book first. Or you have to read it again, as I had to. After you have read the book, several of us at the Group Comfort Reads have discussed the book and what it meant to us. Here is a link to that thread: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/3... . Many of the things I want to talk about here are voiced there. I wrote a couple of rather lengthy bits. See meassages 82, 86 and 89 if you are curious.

REALLY DO READ THIS BOOK AGAIN, and for heavens sake if you have never read it, get it NOW!

P.S. It is so strange that I totally love this book - it is pure fiction. Or maybe I love it because I can feel that what the author says is based on true events. Probably I feel this b/c it is partially autobiographical. ...more

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Sep 30, 2007 Herschel Stratego rated it it was amazing

this novel reinforced my "life is neat, even when it's not" philosophy. read it if you're about to kill yourself! you'll change your mind...order a pizza and put laundry detergent into someone's gas tank. ...more

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Mar 19, 2007 james rated it really liked it

Mar 22, 2007 AZ BOOKS rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club-reads

Jul 25, 2007 Kate Thompson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Aug 13, 2007 Meg rated it really liked it

Aug 18, 2007 Melissa rated it it was amazing

Sep 17, 2007 Douglas Beagley rated it really liked it

Oct 19, 2007 Ken rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nov 29, 2007 Hanne G rated it it was amazing

Dec 04, 2007 Isabel Navarro rated it really liked it

Dec 27, 2007 ★ K ★ [In a slump but still here!] rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-fiction, studied-at-school, favourite-covers, owned, young-adult, classics, historical-fiction, fiction, 2006-or-earlier, 2024-rereads