3. Is this book as good as the first one?

[Carol]

3. Her first question asks how this book compares to the first. Now she asks if this book is as good as the first one?

[Cindy]

Not as good, but "To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of the greatest books ever written, so maybe it's not fair to expect Harper Lee to produce a masterpiece twice.

[Barb]

Nope. Not even close, but I'm glad she wrote it, and I'm glad I read it.

[Carol]

She was asked to write the first book after she had written the second book. See later comment of mine. Barb, I feel you have a stronger difference than I do in this area. My spread isn't so big....

[Chelsea]

First one was way better! Good thing she had a great editor that didn't let her publish Watchman first. It would have been a bust.

[Robin]

i enjoyed to kill a mockingbird more than go set a watchman but it was cool to see the characters years later and how they progressed as they grew older.

[M.E.]

It can be hard to write a second book when the first is a best seller and award winning story. I think it would be hard to pick up the strings from the first book especially when it was done years later. If it had been written right afterwards it would have been easier to pick up the story without using all the backstory. The author uses backstory to fill in the gaps and that doesn't always work.

[Carol]

I'm tremendously impressed by the comments you all have made. I appreciate your thoughts.

Robin - nice to have you among us. Wish some of our other folks were here with us.

[Chelsea]

I just realized that GSAW won the Goodreads 2015 awards. I wonder how many people actually read it back in 2015 when they voted or just picked it because they knew To Kill a Mockingbird was awesome.

[Cindy]

Could be, Chelsea. But I think it's better than we think it is! In comparison to "TKAM" it isn't much, but it's better than lots of stuff I've read.