To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
#63 in my book challenge for the year was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Learn from my experience: do not re-read your high-school copy. Read an unmarked copy as an adult, and see how your experience of the book is different (or the same) from what you remember. My initial feeling as I read the book was that it was good, but obvious, and that’s why it’s taught in high school. At the end and after discussion, though, I did find the book had more depth than I’d seen at first. It’s overtly about race, but less obviously about class, gender, and the unpleasant, all-too-human tendencies most people harbor under the surface. It’s an indictment of public school education, and of conventional parenting. Its characters change and grow. This book was well worth revisiting, especially after re-reading In Cold Blood.