Bob’s Comments (group member since Jun 22, 2011)

Bob’s comments from the Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) group.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of our 4th Quarter 2025 Moderator Runs Amok reads. Remember, only discuss your non-spoiler Mockingbird thoughts in this thread.

A Cry of Angels existed in our Buddy Read folder. It does not have a non-spoiler discussion thread. The below link will take you to a Spoiler thread. Please do not compare your thoughts about To Kill a Mockingbird in this thread.

Angels Spoiler Thread
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Please, only discuss thoughts about Mockingbird in the below threads. Please do not compare your thoughts about A Cry of Angels.

Mockingbird Spoiler Thread
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Mockingbird NO Spoiler Thread
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

First Edition Cover



Jeff Fields

Information/Thoughts/Notes - A Cry of Angels
-Published May 1974
-Published January 1, 1974, by Scribner
-Published by Brown Thrasher Books affiliated with the University of Georgia Press, which specializes in an array of works that emphasize the rich cultural and historical narratives of the American South
-Never a bestseller, I could find no numbers
-My internet searches show no awards
-No movie made
-The story takes place in 1950's Northeast Georgia during when much of the civil rights efforts started. 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.
- At the time of writing and publication most of the Civil Rights laws of the 1960's had been passed.
-Did the lack newsworthy public interest in societal race relations (mid-1970's) have an effect on sales?
-Jim Crow Laws were still in effect, but change is on the horizon.
-This story is told from the viewpoint of a youth, who have direct contact and observations of racial interactions.
-The two characters in Angel are male, one white, one black, both orphans, both are poor.

First Edition Cover



Harper Lee

Information/Thoughts/Notes - To Kill a Mockingbird
-Published July 1960
-Published by J. B. Lippincott Company, in 1978 it was acquired by Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.
-Immediate best seller, selling 40+ million to date
-In 1961 it won a Pulitzer Prize 
-The story takes place in the 1933, Macomb Alabama before much of the civil rights efforts started.
-The books setting 1930's, Jim Crow Laws would be the accepted norm. A big focus of the book illustrates this disparity.
-Civil rights movement was peaking in the early 1960s, a time when racial tensions were accelerating, was the popularity of the novel helped by this tension?
-Did the movie, help Mockingbird's continuing popularity?
-Kim Stanley was the uncredited narrator in the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). As the narrator, Stanley is the voice of Jean Louise Finch ("Scout") as an adult. Having seen the movie her voice is captivating.
-Do people who have seen the movie hear her voice while reading?
-Does Stanley's voice subconsciously affect a person's liking it?
-The story is told from the viewpoint of a youth.
-The youth involved were affluent, children of a lawyer.
-The children of the story were independent and willful.
-Except for domestic help the children had no daily direct contact with blacks.
-The children's knowledge of race relations was learned by observing adults.
-Did Harpers connection to Truman Capote help sales? Was the connection widely known?

Why does one book reach greatness while another fails?

For the fourth quarter, Mod Runs Amok. I am going to be selfish and seek answers, ideas, and thoughts to a question that has bothered me for years. Why do some books achieve greatness and others fall into obscurity? I have selected two books to compare. Both books bear certain similarities. Southern authors wrote both. Each book was the author's first and only publication. Both stories take place in the Deep South and feature civil rights and social justice issues between blacks and whites. Both stories are coming-of-age themed and told from the viewpoint of young adolescents. A majority of our group will be aware of one of these books, and thousands of you have read it. For a larger majority of the group, the second book will be an unknown.

The books to be compared are To Kill a Mockingbird and A Cry of Angels
This thread will contain spoilers about both books. Comparing and contrasting them is necessary. This thread is the best place for spoiler discussion.

I deeply admire both books. For me, both are 5-star reads. I found the writing in Mockingbird to be more somber than that of Angels, which I feel is more lighthearted and humorous. Both books delve into race relations at the time of their storyline. Mockingbird shows the inequities and short comings of the judicial system, during the Jim Crow era. While Angels does not cast or create doubt about the rightness or wrongness of the mores and laws of the time. Just how regular people black and white, live with them.

The Goodreads rating percentages prove that both books liked and appreciated by readers. The ratings are seriously one-sided in favor of Mockingbird, 6,700,000+, compared to Angel, at 213.
Mockingbird - 51% of ratings were 5-Star
----------- 80% combined 4 & 5 Stars
Angels - 54% of ratings were 5-Star
------- 89% combined 4 & 5 Stars
This shows that both books are deeply admired by their readers but provides no insight as to why one flourished and one floundered.

NOTE: Each book will have its own book thread open in the Current Reads Folder. Please do not make book comparison comments in these threads. If you are commenting only on a single book, please comment in that books thread. Please, when commenting on or comparing the differences as to why you think one book fared better than the other, use this thread. Spoilers are to be expected.

The Invisible Girl by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is our October 2025 Short Story/Novella Read.

This discussion will open on October 1

Beware Short Story Discussions will have Spoilers

I didn't get this one into my reading schedule this month—a shame, since Gaskell is a favorite author. Instead, I started reading a short story collection by Phillip K. Dick, called Piper in the Woods: A Collection of Science Fiction. I had no intention of reading it straight through but got hooked and couldn't stop. It contains 11 stories, nine of which are terrific, and the other two are also enjoyable. When finished, I was so enamored with the eleven stories that I went in search of a few more, for a total of thirteen this month. P.K. Dick was a truly gifted science fiction writer. I will try to read Lois the Witch in the next week or two.

Welcome, Micah.

I read, The Boys from Brazil, my first book by Ira Levin earlier this year and enjoyed it enough to try another.

These are the books I read for this year's Travel the World One Continent at a Time

Africa - *The Constant Gardener
Asia - The Women
Australia - Picnic at Hanging Rock
Europe - *Lonely Road
North America - *Of Mice and Men-also a reread
South America - *The Boys from Brazil
Antarctica - *Endurance: An Epic of Polar Adventure

*Books I Own

*Cutting for Stone is the book I plan to read for The Future Classic Challenge, which is also set in Africa.

Regret by Kate Chopin is our
September 2025 Short Story/Novella Read.

This discussion will open on September 1

Beware Short Story Discussions will have Spoilers

Welcome, Hailey. Tess is a great story, I hope you enjoy

Syd, welcome to the group.

Kimberly wrote: "I nominate The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth.

First published in 1812.

277 pages."

I second

Welcome, Mary Ann.

When I saw The Blind Owl nominated here, I figured to generate another number and replace it on the short story poll. Sorry, I did not react quick enough.

The first six months of 2025 are gone. It doesn't seem possible for it to have passed so fast. But, here we are, starting the second half of the year. I'm sure it will fly by just as fast. Aging really does seem to speed up the passage of time. I'm having the best reading year I have ever had. Annually I set my reading goal at 52 books per year. I figure I'm doing great reading one book per week. Over the last 5-7 years my average has been in the low to mid-sixties. God, granted me the love of reading not the ability to read fast. Fifty-two books per year seems a fair honest goal for me. The good news is I have achieved my goal of reading 52 books in the first half of 2025. Dare I try for 104?

Now for the status of my Buffet. Like a pig at the trough, I have been devouring my selections. To date, I have finished 11 of the 17 challenges. One surprising accomplishment is completing the A-Z Title challenge. This is the second time I have ever completed this challenge. The key to completion this year is the amazing number of short stories I've read to date. Ten of my twenty-six letters came from short story titles.

Another highlight is the Short Story Challenge. To date, I have read 124 short stories. While 61 of those came from The Stories of John Cheever, I'm not going to let that diminish the accomplishment.

What I ponder the most is an accomplishment/failure. Last December I created most of my challenges with the plan of reducing my in-house TBR. From this TBR I used 68 books in various challenge positions. To date. I have read 26 of the 68 titles. The failure comes from my also keeping a record of impulse books I have read this year, 16 to date. None of these 16 books were thought of or planned last December, all had to be secured this year. I'm not sure if I am happy to have only gained a net 10-book reduction to my TBR.

Status of unfinished challenges.
Challenge #1 - New & Old TBR. With just 2 left, I should be completed in a couple of months. I DNF'd book number 11
Challenge #11 - Future Classics, not started book, is selected
Challenge #12 - Fiction/Non-Fiction, 50% complete 3/6 books left
Challenge #13 - Old and New Linked Categories, 1/6 books left
Challenge #14 - Bestselling Novels in the United States, not started
Challenge #17 - A-Z Author, 18/26 This is the only challenge I don't think I will finish.

This year I have been a recluse practically a hermit. Shamefully, my group participation this year has been terrible. I apologize. I can't promise I'll do better. I just wanted you all to know I am aware I have been remiss in my duties. So far, a great year reading, a poor year moderating, and something to ponder during the year's second half.

I sincerely hope that all the members participating in this year's Buffet are having a good time.

Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell is our August 2025 Short Story/Novella Read.

This discussion will open on August 1

Beware Short Story Discussions will have Spoilers

Welcome, Vi.