From the Bookshelf of 2025 Reading Challenge…

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Start date: December 1, 2024

Finish date: December 31, 2024

Discussion: October 2025 Group Read

Why we're reading this: December 2024 Group Read
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October 2025 Group Read

Weyward: Mid-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 3 posts · 32 views

last updated Oct 03, 2025 01:03AM

Weyward: Pre-Reading Discussion
By Winter , Group Reads · 7 posts · 31 views

last updated Oct 02, 2025 08:30AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 24, 2008 Suvi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, _north-america, 1940-1969, the-south

If a book is written from a child's point of view, I tend to skip it. That was the reason why I was putting this off, even though I was interested in the topic and liked the fact that it was set in the South in the 1930s. I also wanted to see why this is considered as one of the greatest American novels of all time. Well, I did see where people were coming from and why this is such a loved story, especially in the United States. It had this charming and nostalgic atmosphere, which made me want t If a book is written from a child's point of view, I tend to skip it. That was the reason why I was putting this off, even though I was interested in the topic and liked the fact that it was set in the South in the 1930s. I also wanted to see why this is considered as one of the greatest American novels of all time. Well, I did see where people were coming from and why this is such a loved story, especially in the United States. It had this charming and nostalgic atmosphere, which made me want to go back in time when I was a carefree child. Had I read this during the summer, I would have had a glass of lemonade in my hand while sitting on the garden swing in a warm breeze of wind.

Lee knows how to evoke the sweet childhood alongside the serious undertone of the trial and racial issues. It soon becomes clear that the prejudice and mean-spiritedness towards certain groups of people is incomprehensible to children, which I personally think shows that it is completely unnecessary and ridiculous. In the story one of the teachers abhors Hitler's actions, but at the same time says that it was about time someone taught the Negroes a lesson because they didn't stay in their proper place anymore. What a load of crappy hypocrisy, Ms. Whatever-her-name-was. I would also say (based on the book and my own experiences) that racism is a completely learned behaviour. Children repeat what they hear at home, they don't even necessarily know the meaning of the words they're spitting out, let alone why it is wrong to say such things.

However, had I read this earlier in life it would have probably worked a lot better for me. I'd say that this would serve its purpose in schools' compulsory reading lists. Adolescents at a certain stage in their lives would take out a lot from this. I understand why people love this so much, but at the same time I can't consider it as nothing more than one of many canonical classics. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath for example is in my opinion many ways far superior, whereas Lee falls short in both her writing and characterizations (mostly with the children). ...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: everyone-loved-it-except-me, young-adult, classic, pulitzer-winner, 1001-books, coming-of-age

from NPR poll of best Young Adult fiction.

A classic that I somehow never read, until now.

This book is at the top of so many lists, beloved by so many, said to be the One Book you should read before you die, acclaimed as an American Literary Masterpiece, and on and on .... And boy was I disappointed. Honestly, I'm afraid to even say that. I just, I'm out of step with every other reader in the country, I guess.

It wasn't bad, exactly. It just wasn't amazing.

ETA: No, I don't understand how it was ...more

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