2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Harper Lee's book, To Kill a Mockingbird.


***Please remember to mark spoilers.***

Participants:
Karina, Alissa, ?Cassandra, Amy, Rachel, Jodi, Cristal, Heidi, Leslie, Scott, Nadia, Kathryn

Suggested break down of reading so that you can check in and let us know how you're going. The following breakdown is purely a suggestion and is therefore not set in stone.

Rather than putting dates for each section I've done it so that it takes into account that not everybody will necessarily have the book at the same time.

Week 1: 84 pages
Week 2: 84 pages
Week 3: 84 pages
Week 4: 84 pages

I have this on hold at the library, but with the renewed interest in Harper Lee it might take a while. I'll probably end up buying a used copy somewhere.

I read parts of this book in high school, but I'm ashamed to admit that I only skimmed for assignments. I loved the play production we went to see, and I'm looking forward to giving it a proper treatment this time around.

This is my all time favorite book. Just finished it for the 5th or 6th time. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. I will say it is a book everyone should have on their bookshelf.

I'll have to wait some time to re-unite with my old copy of the book, but should get to it within the next 2 weeks, I think!

That's awesome! I hope you'll come back and discuss with us. :)

I'm excited to finally read this! Somehow it was never assigned in school for me, but I've had it on my shelf forever. Looking forward to discussing it with you all.

Sorry everyone, but I'm going to have to pass on this Buddy Read due to schedule conflicts, but I am reading and participating in The Shining Buddy Read. Sorry! Work schedule has prevented me from tackling both of these titles in one month. See you on The Shining Forum!

Noah that's fine. Very understandable.

No worries, Noah!

I was worried I wouldn't be able to get this from the library in time, but I was able to find a cheap copy at my used book store yesterday. I'll start reading soon.

Has anyone started yet?

I'm going to start as soon as I finish Bell Jar hopefully this weekend

I'll get to it soonish, too!

plan on starting this tomorrow.

I'm about 30% through so far. One thing I learned from this book is there was a military unit from a county in Alabama (part of the confederacy) that was part of the Union army during the Civil War. Apparently the residents of this county didn't agree with the confederacy.

Finished the book it's was really good and makes one take a hard look the injustices that existed in the Jim Crow days and still probably exist somewhat today. Initially the few chapters seemed to ramble about with childhood tales but later these early chapters wrapped well into the main story foreshadowing the later events. One interesting thing was how the towns adults could condemn nazi persecution of Jews but enabled similar injustices towards African Americans in their hometown.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Scott! And sorry you didn't really get much company for your read.

Perhaps we can keep the thread for June? (If I'm not the only one who's lagged behind but still intends to read the book?)

I think we should push this into June so more ppl can read it and we can have some discussion if others are interested

Scott wrote: "I think we should push this into June so more ppl can read it and we can have some discussion if others are interested"

Done

I just started reading this today! I kept meaning to get to it sooner, but things kept coming up and then I had library books to read and turn in as well.

When I was younger (high school) I didn't really like this book. That probably has a lot more to do with the fact that it was required reading than the actual book. Now the story pulled me right in and I can relate with the children more than I remember.

It is interesting about the one county seceding from the state because they didn't agree with the way Alabama sided in the war. I had no idea! Can you image what it must have been like to try to distance yourself from the Confederacy when it's all around your little county?

Southern troops fighting for the north was something I never knew about until reading this book. Or at least white troops. Apparently 10 of the 11 confederate states provided some troops.

Just realized that I never commented after I finished the book.

I really loved this book. It deals with such heavy topics of race and what its like to grow up in a racist town in a way that's serious and not too overwhelming. This is a great book for middle/high schoolers, and now I wish I'd read it more carefully when it was assigned in my first year of high school.

Not sure why we never read this in high school maybe it was banned back or something

It definitely has been banned several times over the years.

What do you think about the tension between the book's racial slurs and Atticus' non-racist (or at least less-racist) opinions?

Atticus was a flawless character. Maybe not realistic but he contrasted well with the other characters in the novel. He's sort of like the gold standard we can judge the other characters relative to him.