I am reader because of To Kill a Mockingbird

Summer with my favorite book

It's vacation time and my first book club read of the summer is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  As I'm relaxing in the summer sun with my book in hand I pause for a moment and think back to my first TKAM experience when I was twelve years old. This is not my first reading rodeo with this book and like the grown up Scout Finch going back to the time that changed her life forever I want to go back and remember why I loved this novel so much and how it changed my life forever.

​I was in the seventh grade and one of the assigned novels given to us in our English class was To Kill a Mockingbird. I was already quite familiar with the book since I've seen the classic black and white movie starring one of Hollywood's brightest stars, Gregory Peck. I was so completely fascinated with the story and characters that I ran down to my local library and checked out Harper Lee's first and only published novel.  I still remember the smell of the old books as I searched the shelves carefully and finally found it without it's dust jacket. A light blue cover with a simple title on the side.  As I read the novel I was beyond excited that both the book and movie were almost one and the same.  A beautiful pairing!

What was it about the film that had me running to the library to grab a copy of Harper Lee's famous one and done novel? It was at the very start of the movie when Scout's lines drew me in, “It began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.”  At that time, as a young kid, I didn't give much thought about Atticus Finch, the trial or the racism that was to become so very eye opening and tragic. All I cared about was this mysterious Boo Radley who never left his house and the kids that were determined to get him to come out. Years later, not only do I hold dear the story of Boo Radley, Jem, Scout and Dill but also the heart wrenching parts of Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and the little town of Maycomb, Alabama that was forever changed.

"Thought you could kill my Snow-on-the-Mountain, did you? Next time you'll know how to do it right?, won't you? You'll pull it up by the roots, wont' you?" Mrs. Dubose to Jem Finch

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Enter Go Set a Watchman

When we started our book club ten years ago TKAM was one of the first novels we read that year. Ten years later we decided to read it again. We've had book friends come and go and sometimes you will get new members that have never read To Kill a Mockingbird not even in as an assignment in English class. With Harper Lee's controversial new release 'Go Set a Watchman' being introduced to the literary world I couldn't help but b-e-g my group to read both novels this summer.  Back to back and what a reading ride it will be!
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Here are some bookish ideas I am planning on to celebrate these novels: Classic Southern Recipes for  dinner (put these links on your Evite so your book friends can get ideas for dishes) as well as yummy recipe examples straight from the book on Leafs and Leaves... virtual book club and tea party. Southern flower arrangements for the table and little touches of TKAM throughout.

Check out our post on a To Kill a Mockingbird book club party

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This post was updated 1/2021