From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee

Discussion: 2016 Challenge prompts

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 41 topics — 2,931 comments total

2016 Challenge prompts

A book with a protagonist who has your occupation...
By Danah · 8 posts · 184 views

last updated Jan 27, 2017 08:22AM

The first book you see in a bookstore
By Juanita · 64 posts · 492 views

last updated Dec 29, 2016 04:24PM

showing 10 of 61 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Nov 16, 2016 Megan rated it it was ok

Shelves: finished-2016

What a disappointment after reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Grown-up Scout discovers that racism is alive and well in Maycomb, even from certain people you never would have expected, but to be honest, Scout herself is not a fan of equal rights for all races. Le sigh.

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2015 Bradley added it · review of another edition

Shelves: year-2015

I'm so torn over this book. I can't give it a starred review. Part of me wants to give it 5 stars because it's Harper Lee and Harper Lee is as brilliant as ever. Another part of me wishes that this book would have never seen the light of day, never been published because I feel it destroys my all time favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Go Set A Watchman starts out lovely, filled with the emotions of seeing an old friend and the sadness of hearing that the ones you adored have gone away. The b I'm so torn over this book. I can't give it a starred review. Part of me wants to give it 5 stars because it's Harper Lee and Harper Lee is as brilliant as ever. Another part of me wishes that this book would have never seen the light of day, never been published because I feel it destroys my all time favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird.

Go Set A Watchman starts out lovely, filled with the emotions of seeing an old friend and the sadness of hearing that the ones you adored have gone away. The book has Scout, now going by her proper name of Jean Louise, visiting Maycomb on vacation. Scout lives in NYC but is dating a guy named Henry. Henry is someone that supposedly grew up with Scout but he's never mentioned in Mockingbird. This book is weird because the reader knows of the events in Mockingbird and yet Watchman makes it seem, sometimes, that those events happened to a different Scout. If Scout had meet Henry in NYC and was bringing him for a visit would make better since than expecting me to believe that Henry grew up across the street from the Finches and was such a beloved family friend he now works with the great Atticus Finch. With all that happens in Mockingbird we'd have seen or heard about Henry Clinton. But I digress.

Scout has returned to find Maycomb trying to adjust to the Supreme Court decision of Brown v Board Of Education and the burgeoning civil rights movement. Minor spoiler alert but Jem has been dead for two years and Dill lives somewhere overseas. Aunt Alexandria now lives with Atticus in a new house. The house that Scout grew up in has been torn down and replaced by an ice cream shop owned by a Cunningham. Harper Lee never says which Cunningham but I'm hoping that it's Walter.

So, yeah, the first seven chapters are great but a little weird. Then chapter 8 comes and the legacy of Atticus Finch is destroyed. Like Scout says at the end of Chapter 8, "The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she could point and say with expert knowledge, "He is a gentleman, in his heart he is a gentleman," had betrayed her, publicly, grossly, and shamelessly.

Atticus Finch has been my literary hero for many years. He's a character I look up to and have tried to live by the standards he set forth in Mockingbird. Until now, Harper Lee has published very little. I never imagined that they're would be a revisit to Maycomb so I had to envision how Atticus would be as the years went by. Atticus Finch was so noble to Tom, so passionate in his defense of all people I assumed that Atticus would be for civil rights, would have been a member of the NAACP, would have been a supporter of the Freedom Rides, would have used his legal skills to help advance equality. The Atticus Finch in my head is so much better than the Atticus on paper, the Atticus of Watchman.

After chapter 8 I felt I was in a bizzaro Mockingbird. Atticus Finch is a former member of the KKK. He reads racist literature. He's an opponent of civil rights and believes that Brown v Board Of Education was wrong. To make it worse, when Scout goes to visit Calpurnia, her former maid/mother figure treats her like a stranger. All of the beloved characters of Mockingbird have been cast in unflattering light.

I wish this book had the same story but different characters because Watchman is brilliant and the timing is impeccable. Harper Lee had a crystal ball that told her the country would still be talking about race relations (Ferguson), the odd pride that Southerners have (the Confederate Flag debate) and the power of the Supreme Court to set law (marriage equality).

The narrative is great and it's a great conversation starter. The hope is that this book will start a much-needed discussion. But I don't know if people will be able to look past the glaring personality change that Atticus exhibits. I barely can. It's not fair to Harper Lee or Go Set A Watchman but To Kill A Mockingbird is a bona fide American classic and Watchman will be judged using Mockingbird as the standard. ...more

Like · see review

Nov 04, 2016 Gina rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, book-group, sequels

With so much controversy about its publication, low expectation, and knowing that it wasn't going to come close to the perfection of To Kill a Mockingbird, I actually liked this book. It is worth reading, and grown-up Scout does not disappoint. ...more

Like · see review

Jul 10, 2015 Emilie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-reading-challenge

I've always felt like 'To kill a mocking bird' made me grow. 'Go set a watchman' made me mature.

2015 READING CHALLENGE: A book published this year ...more

Like · see review