To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

“Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.”

Narrator Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

It’s a lyrical work that never fails to sound a chord deep within most of its readers.  We each find ourselves meeting the tale that it tells from our own well of history and experience. And if you are a Southerner - you might hear something more — something deep and searching, familiar and innate.

My first experience with To Kill A Mockingbird was watching the movie as a little girl.  I loved Scout.  I trembled at the thought of the Radley house.  And my young mind grappled inadequately with the courtroom scene and the issues that were unforgettably dealt with there.

But later when I read the book To Kill A Mockingbird as an adult - I found a new and profound respect and appreciation for the quality of word crafting that makes up this work. It is the kind of writing that makes you feel - and it’s nearly impossible to read it without the tense jangling of your nerves or the warm stroking of emotion.

Published in 1960, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and translated into more than 40 languages with sales of over 40 million copies - To Kill A Mockingbird has a solid place in American classic literature and is on countless required reading lists across North America.

Narrated by 6-year-old Scout Finch, the novel’s storyline weaves through themes of racial prejudice, relationships in an old Southern family, societal views of class and poverty in 1930s Alabama and even just the day to day growing pains of children in a small town where they are often labeled by family histories.

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

As the novel progresses, we follow the world of Scout and her family but also the growing obsession that Scout, her brother, Jem & their young neighbor Dill have for a mysterious recluse neighbor, Boo Radley.  

When Scout’s father steps up to represent Tom Robinson, a black man accused of beating and raping a young white women -  we walk through the rocky and multifaceted territory of prejudice, hate, ignorance and fear but with Harper Lee’s skillful writing, we are also able to witness courage and strength of character. 

"Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong … They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee - born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926 - wrote about a world that she knew and people that were familiar.  Her work reveals a South that she deeply loves and yet recognizes in its raw, flawed & damaging prejudices.

Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird in a cold-water NY flat, submitted it to a publisher in 1957 and then spent 2 and a half years in revisions - but upon publication, it received almost immediate acclaim.

The characters in the novel are well-developed and memorable.  As we read - Scout and her brother, Jem somehow feel familiar to us through their struggles, triumphs, lessons and fears.  Atticus Finch - a moral compass of the novel - is a father and a man to be loved and admired —  and has become a famous figure in literature for his strong character and innate kindness.  The Finch family housekeeper, Calpurnia, brings a gentle but firm guidance to Scout and Jem’s motherless lives as she teaches them consideration of others and basic manners.  The innocent playfulness of young Dill - based on Harper Lee’s lifelong friend, Truman Capote - and the other various neighbors who surround them are richly drawn and worth a savor as you read.  This important work manages to skillfully portray both the soft gentility of small town Southern life and the meanness of spirit that dirt-poor poverty can create when unaccompanied by education.

This book is a classic for a reason.  There is plenty of time – start reading!

The Jane Austen Tea Society has happily returned to a study of a Southern classic - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee with a Winter Book Breakfast & Discussion to take place on Saturday the 22nd of January at 10am.

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." 

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

“There was not one lord in the neighborhood; no — not even a baronet.  There was not one family among their acquaintance who had reared and supported a boy accidentally found at their door — not one young man whose origin was unknown.  Her father had no ward, and the squire of the parish no children.

But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her.  Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.”

Of Catherine Morland, our would-be heroine

Northanger Abbey

As Jane Austen characters go, Catherine Morland has never been a favorite of mine.

Granted, she was an avid reader — a trait close to my heart — but also a dreamer who found herself confusing reality with the lurid gothic novels that were her obsession. 

Catherine was from modest means, one of ten children born to a country parson. She was normally “pleasing” in appearance and only pronounced “pretty” when she was absolutely at her best.

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the character of her father and mother, her own person and disposition, were all equally against her.”

Northanger Abbey – Chapter 1

However - below Catherine’s unremarkable exterior beat a heart that dreamed wildly of dark brooding mysteries, untamed heroes and dungeons filled with… well, she wasn’t quite sure, having been soundly brought up as a clergyman’s daughter.

But we all know that immense, vivid and unknown worlds open up when you lift the cover of a book.  And if you happen to admire the novels of Ann Radcliffe as Catherine did, you could easily believe that the Abbey that you are visiting might just hold the mysterious “horrors” that haunt your daydreams.

The Jane Austen works Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice were in process and amidst revisions when Jane Austen completed a book that she initially entitled Susan. Written in 1798 – 1799 and revised for the press in 1803, Miss Austen sold this work for £10 to a bookseller in Bath. He allowed Susan to languish on his shelves until 1816 when Jane’s brother Henry purchased it back into their control, with the bookseller woefully unaware that the writer of this novel now had four popular novels released and much admired.

Jane Austen crafted revisions and changed the book title to Catherine after the heroine was renamed.  But after her death in July of 1817, Jane’s brother posthumously published the work later in the year with the title Northanger Abbey as the first two of a four-volume set, which also included Persuasion.

There is a comic lightness to Northanger Abbey but also a serious undercurrent of what may happen when life is lived without realistic awareness and evaluation.  There can be a danger in believing that life is the same as fiction or even in the simple act of believing everything that you hear without first exercising a balanced discernment regarding the speaker or subject.

The Jane Austen Tea Society has happily returned to a study of one of Jane Austen lesser- read works - our beloved Regency author’s works  - Northanger Abbey with an Autumn Book Breakfast & Discussion to take place on Saturday the 23rd of October at 10am.

There is plenty of time – start reading!

“A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. Store it with ideas, teach it the pleasure of thinking; and the temptations of the world without, will be counteracted by the gratifications derived from the world within.”

Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

Favorite Books of 2020

There were many factors that made 2020 a big reading year for me and I found myself delving into many various genres, which I loved.  Since I share each book that I am reading on social media - I have been asked many times to talk about my favorite reads — so here we go!

Strong Storyline, Character & Plot:

The Chief Inspector Gamache Series - Louise Penny

After a strong recommendation by my smart sister, Carol, I began with the first book in the Gamache series - Still Life - in July of 2019 and very quickly put them into a reading priority, finishing the first 15 books by March of 2020.  The character development in Louise Penny’s books is the strongest that I have experienced in a series since I fell in love with the Harry Potters years ago.  Most of the now 16 books are primarily set in a small Canadian village in Quebec’s Eastern Townships called Three Pines and the overriding hero of all of the books is the Chief Inspector of Homicide for the Sûreté du Quebec, Armand Gamache. Among the many appealing characters that Louise Penny has created for this series, Gamache is the cream of the crop.  He is someone so kind and dependable, so loving and respectable — that you find yourself reading each book - in some ways - just to know him better.  But there is so much more to these books. They have a sense of place that is very pleasing (you seriously want to live in Three Pines and eat at the Bistro!) with well-written & interesting storylines that make you want to sink deeply into your armchair with a big cup of tea and no plans for the evening…. or the month.

The Giver Of Stars - Jojo Moyes

As a longtime book lover - there was so much about this novel that appealed to me.  The writing is wonderfully crafted and draws you into the lives of several women living in Kentucky during the American Depression who devoted themselves to delivering library books to people in the remote, poverty-stricken hills surrounding their small town. Based on a true story, it has the threads of friendship, strength of purpose and love of literature running all the way through it.  And the women are delivering books on horseback — what’s not to like about that?

Once Upon A River - Diane Setterfield

I very much enjoyed the atmospheric quality of this book.  The writing was lyrical, highly creative and a pleasingly effective vehicle to carry the story.  I find that when I read a book, my enjoyment is often carried by whether or not I like any of the characters.  In this novel there were some wonderfully-drawn people that you looked forward to the story touching as their stories and the overall tale wove on.  This novel was like the winding and building of a river and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Deeply Crafted & With A Memorable Writing Voice

Ava’s Man - Rick Bragg

I read this book years ago, but reread it in 2020 as part of a book club choice.  It reads like a novel but in truth is a colorful portrait of Rick Bragg’s hard-living, largely uneducated moonshiner grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, who supported his wife and eight children during the Great Depression by working as roofer, bootlegger, carpenter, general laborer & skilled fisherman who could catch catfish (and even squirrels) with his hand.  Ava’s Man is a book that will make you hungry for cornbread and pinto beans; for catfish and hush puppies and darkly sweet iced tea. You will begin to remember hot, dusty summers and the shock of cold creek water as it closed over your head.  If you are a Southerner , it is easy to find yourself in the well-crafted writing of any of Rick’s works, but Ava’s Man is especially fertile and ripe for remembering your own family history - wherever your origin.  If you subscribe to the popular magazine Southern Living, then most likely you - like me - have yanked the latest issue straight from the mailbox and opened up to the last page to read Rick Bragg’s column, Southern Journal. Anyone born anywhere due south of Maryland will understand Rick’s flavorful, sometimes sobering and always humorous references to life in the South — and if you weren’t born in the South, you will definitely garner a new understanding of the people of the region.

My Reading Life - Pat Conroy

One of my favorite things to do is read — so I especially love to link arms with another avid reader and hear their thoughts, suggestions and particular loves when it comes to books. As a matter of fact - if I see anyone at a coffeeshop or on a park bench with a book — it’s all that I can do not to stop and ask them what they are reading…  But there are two books that I have read that make me realize that I am a dismal lightweight in the Bookworm Hall of Fame.  One of these books is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (I especially cherish the audio version and have it on my iPhone) and the other is My Reading Life by Pat Conroy.  This must-read gives Pat’s thoughts on his most-beloved books, cites references to his well-developed reading habits and scatters his incredible anecdotes along the way. There is something in Pat Conroy’s writing that sounds a deep common chord in me — language that is nearly tactile & vividly sensory. It has the ability to both bring me to tears in one minute and then have me laughing out loud in the next. Every visit that I made to Charleston while Pat Conroy was alive, found me peering about in restaurants or while browsing in Charleston bookstores - hoping to see him.  I wanted so desperately to meet him…. and in this book, I feel a bit as though I have.

Themes That Beckon Us To Be Better People

We Were The Lucky Ones - Georgia Hunter

This novel was inspired by the true story of the author’s Jewish grandfather and of his family’s experiences during World War II.  Opening before Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, this work does an excellent job of putting us within a place, culture and time and then taking us on a breathless journey with this extended family.  Through them we gain a better understanding of what Jewish people encountered and suffered during the Holocaust - whether it involved enforced labor in Nazi factories, hiding in people’s homes, hunger, hardship or exile.  And because it is such a well-written book, our emotions and sympathies are drawn in as we follow the expertly-drawn characters. While reading this book, I didn’t realize that it was based on a true story - so was amazed to find that out at the end of the story.  I think that made it even more important a read to me.

Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

Another eye-opening work based on real life events, Lisa Wingate’s novel delves into the lives of children who were separated from their birth parents and placed out for adoption for profit. The author relays the story through the experiences of two primary characters - one living in the late 1930s in Memphis and the other in present day South Carolina. The story is based on the infamous director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, Georgia Tann, who kidnapped and sold children from poverty to wealthy families around the country.  There were moments in the books when I literally held my breath.

Some of these books I purchased and some I picked up curbside at our local library - but I want to use this moment to encourage you to buy from your small local bookstore — it will help them and you will enjoy your reading (and reader supply) purchases!  

Here in Nashville we have Parnassus Books- https://www.parnassusbooks.net.  They have been very proactive in helping us to shop and remain safe during the pandemic.  But I also love to support Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble.  It’s so important to have brick & mortar stores that we can always walk into to hold the books in our hands and ask for recommendations.

Happy Reading in 2021!!!