From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Start date: December 1, 2024

Finish date: December 31, 2024

Discussion: August 2025 Group Read

Why we're reading this: December 2024 Group Read
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August 2025 Group Read

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Mid-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 6 posts · 45 views

last updated Sep 01, 2025 06:43AM

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Reviews by 2025 Reading Challengers
By Winter , Group Reads · 6 posts · 40 views

last updated Aug 25, 2025 09:24PM

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What Members Thought

Jun 24, 2008 Suvi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, _north-america, 1940-1969, deep-south

If a book is written from a child's point of view, I tend to skip it. That was the reason why I was putting this off, even though I was interested in the topic and liked the fact that it was set in the South in the 1930s. I also wanted to see why this is considered as one of the greatest American novels of all time. Well, I did see where people were coming from and why this is such a loved story, especially in the United States. It had this charming and nostalgic atmosphere, which made me want t If a book is written from a child's point of view, I tend to skip it. That was the reason why I was putting this off, even though I was interested in the topic and liked the fact that it was set in the South in the 1930s. I also wanted to see why this is considered as one of the greatest American novels of all time. Well, I did see where people were coming from and why this is such a loved story, especially in the United States. It had this charming and nostalgic atmosphere, which made me want to go back in time when I was a carefree child. Had I read this during the summer, I would have had a glass of lemonade in my hand while sitting on the garden swing in a warm breeze of wind.

Lee knows how to evoke the sweet childhood alongside the serious undertone of the trial and racial issues. It soon becomes clear that the prejudice and mean-spiritedness towards certain groups of people is incomprehensible to children, which I personally think shows that it is completely unnecessary and ridiculous. In the story one of the teachers abhors Hitler's actions, but at the same time says that it was about time someone taught the Negroes a lesson because they didn't stay in their proper place anymore. What a load of crappy hypocrisy, Ms. Whatever-her-name-was. I would also say (based on the book and my own experiences) that racism is a completely learned behaviour. Children repeat what they hear at home, they don't even necessarily know the meaning of the words they're spitting out, let alone why it is wrong to say such things.

However, had I read this earlier in life it would have probably worked a lot better for me. I'd say that this would serve its purpose in schools' compulsory reading lists. Adolescents at a certain stage in their lives would take out a lot from this. I understand why people love this so much, but at the same time I can't consider it as nothing more than one of many canonical classics. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath for example is in my opinion many ways far superior, whereas Lee falls short in both her writing and characterizations (mostly with the children). ...more

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May 25, 2007 Najila rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Another great book. This book, I feel, you can read at any age. And more than once. I've read it about three or four times myself in a span of 10 years of course. It's books like this that remind us what kind of society this country was built on and the remnants that are still all around us. ...more

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