Go Set a Watchman - I'm reading. Are you?

Yesterday was a great day. Around midday, my mail carrier dropped off what I've been looking forward to receiving for months.

I was able to get some reading in before bed last night, and I'm looking for more today.


Are you reading Go Set a Watchman, or are you planning to?

Do the classics get better as we age?

One of my favorite classes in high was (not surprisingly I'm sure) my freshman English class. With Mrs. Reardon I experienced for the first time Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Lady or the Tiger, The Lottery, The Odyssey and countless other important works of literature. One of them, To Kill a Mockingbird, quickly turned into a favorite of mine. In fact, I revisited it again in college and wrote my undergraduate thesis on its critical response. 

Near the end of our time in Mrs. Reardon's class she mentioned that she and a fellow teacher had recently discussed whether or not To Kill a Mockingbird was wasted on high school freshmen. Were we really capable of digesting all of the complicated themes and grown-up world ideas as 14 year-olds? Of course we thought we were, and we told her so.

Since that first reading more than 20 years ago, I've read the book several more times, and Mrs. Reardon was right. With more life experience, the book means more to me each time I read it.

Fast forward to last week. With my American Literature class at the homeschool co-op where I teach once a week, we began discussion of Willa Cather's My Antonia. Cather is one of my favorites too. I find her prose lovely. It really makes me want to visit Nebraska and see those rolling prairies for myself (one day).

If you're not familiar with My Antonia, the basics with regard to the point I'm making involve a narrator named Jim looking back on his time growing up on his grandparents' rural Nebraska farm, particularly around a special friend he made, Antonia, who was the oldest daughter of Bohemian immigrants on a nearby farm. There is some question of whether Jim falls in love with Antonia (it makes for good class discussion).

But, years later, Jim is a successful New York City attorney, and his job requires some travel across the country. On one trip out west he arranges to visit his hometown. He's heard bits and pieces from Antonia and about her over the years, but it's been decades since they've seen each other. He borrows a horse and buggy and drives out to the farm where she lives with her now-husband and nearly a dozen children. Antonia is surprised and happy to see him. Jim relishes their time together catching up and meeting her children.

Jim is struck by how time and hard work on the farm have changed her appearance, though her personality has remained very much the same. After their visit, Jim returns back to his life in New York City and his wife.

During our class discussion last week, I had a Mrs. Reardon moment when I almost let slip out of my mouth, "Read this book again right after you've been to your 20th high school reunion!" I thought better of it, both because as homeschoolers they may not ever attend a high school reunion and also because they might have had the same indignant reaction my classmates and I did.

I imagine that, like To Kill a Mockingbird, My Antonia would have not had such a profound effect on me in high school. 

Rereading

The other day on Twitter I came across an article published in the Mail called "Reading a book really is better the second time round - and can even offer mental health benefits." I completely agree! I've reread several things in the past several years for the second time, and found those stories to be much more wonderful the second time around.

Here are a few of my favorite rereads:

Lord of the Flies (blog post coming soon on this one) by William Golding
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Pride and Prejudice (OK, anything Jane Austen)
The Color Purple (turning 30 this year, by the way) by Alice Walker
A Wrinkle in Time (my most recent reread) by Madeleine L'Engle
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Diary of Anne Frank
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

What are your favorite rereads?

Celebrating 50 Years

Last night, I attended Decatur Library's program, "Celebrating Mockingbird," with friend and recent transplant to the South, Lori. The panelists were Southern literary professor Tom McHaney, high school English teacher and Monroeville native Cathy Powers, and actor Tom Key, who has played the role of Atticus Finch on stage. McHaney and Powers had an interesting dialogue about the power of To Kill a Mockinbird and its impact on readers over the last 50 years. Powers was able to speak specifically to Author Harper Lee's wish to remain unbothered by reporters and others who love the book. When asked how Monroeville citizens felt about the book's publication, she said everyone was excited about it except those who showed up in the book. As discussion wrapped up, Key did a monologue of Atticus Finch's closing arguments in the trial of Tom Robinson, which was fantastic.The auditorium at the library was nearly full, and parking was hard to come by. It's nice to know I'm not the only one holding this novel in such high regard, and that after 50 years, To Kill a Mockingbird can still draw a crowd.

Some Current Events

You get a break from London posts today, as I've found several news stories of interest, with three upcoming events if you live in Atlanta or Alabama. Here goes:

• Toni Morrison has been honored in France by induction into the Legion of Honor, and called "one of the greatest novelists of her time." You can read the story in USA Today online here.
• The Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery will perform the musical, Peter Pan, from November 19-December 24. Click here to buy tickets.
• The University of Alabama has a quidditch tournament scheduled for this Sunday, November 14 on their Tuscaloosa campus. Here's the story. Be sure to watch the YouTube video at the bottom of the page. It's funny.
• Tomorrow night at the public library in Decatur, Georgia, is an event to celebrate To Kill a Mockingbird's 50th anniversary. I'm going and I can hardly wait!

Celebrating 50 Years of Greatness: To Kill a Mockingbird

I know I keep talking about my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Fifty years of greatness, and I'm celebrating all year. I think this will be my last post on the topic (at least for now), so if you're ready to be reading about something else, hang tight.

Two of my favorite southern magazines, Southern Living and Garden & Gun, have had articles about the novel this summer. You can read the full articles here and here.

I've also recently finished reading Mary McDonagh Murphy's Scout, Atticus and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird. It gives good context on the book and movie, with information about the time, political and social climate of the early 1960s. Then, the majority of the book is filled with short essays by notable people about how the book and/or movie affected them. Some of the essayists include Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brokaw, Rosanne Cash, Mark Childress, Diane McWhorter, James Patterson, Andrew Young, Richard Russo, Lee Smith and others. Good stuff.

Happy 50th anniversary, To Kill a Mockingbird!

Last week, To Kill a Mockingbird officially turned 50. I celebrated by wearing the T-shirt below for the first time that I purchased this spring in Monroeville. And I've bought a book (something I almost never do) to commemorate the occasion: Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird by Mary McDonagh Murphy, a book that calls TKM "our national novel."


I'm looking forward to reading it and when I do, I'll be sure to post my thoughts about it. That will have to wait for a bit because I've just started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, which both of my new book clubs have chosen to discuss in August (convenient, huh?). Stay tuned.

Monroeville: Literary Capital of Alabama and Home of To Kill a Mockingbird

It feels like I have been waiting forever to get the chance to visit Monroeville, Alabama, while the annual production of To Kill a Mockingbird is going on. Finally, finally I got my chance. Monroeville was our next stop after Columbus, Georgia, last week on the literary road trip. Monroeville has a population of about 6800 people, and it was declared in 1997 "The Literary Capital of Alabama." This was a good year for me to visit, as we arrived in town the day after author Harper Lee's 84th birthday, it was the 50th anniversary of the novel's publication, and the 20th anniversary of the play production. The town had rolled out the red carpet, so to speak, in celebration in and around the courthouse in the center of town.

Monument for Atticus Finch, "Lawyer, Hero" given by the Alabama State Bar Association.

Birdhouses in honor of the book's 50th year.

The set for the first act of the play on the lawn of the courthouse. The second act was inside the historic courtroom.

A mural of Scout, Jem and Dill and the tree in front of the Radley home. This is painted on the side of the jewelry store on the square across the street from the courthouse.

On our way back to the hotel, we passed the cite where Harper Lee's childhood home once stood, and it is now Mel's Dairy Dream.

Next door is the cite where the Faulk home stood. Truman Capote visited his relatives here many times as a child, and throughout his adult life. The house burned years ago, but some of the foundation remains, and a marker has been placed there to mark the spot. I wonder why there's no marker for Harper Lee at Mel's?

Here's where we ate dinner on the way to the play, Radley's Fountain Grille.

When the evening came, we attended the anniversary production of To Kill a Mockingbird, performed by actors who were local volunteers. You'd never know it though. They were fine actors, and made the book absolutely come to life in a magical way. Bob Ewell, the most despicable character in the novel was spot-on by a man who, for his day job, is a district attorney! All the other actors had a variety of other professions and lives outside the three weeks the perform To Kill a Mockingbird 20 times. Some of the cast members are in the two photos below.

The three children are standing together here.

And, Atticus Finch (in the cardigan) and Heck Tate (in the vest and hat).

Atlanta's OK Cafe

Next week I'll be off on a literary trip that I've been looking forward to for months. In preparation, I've been doing some reading (more to come later on that). This past weekend, I ate at a place in Atlanta that I love, OK Cafe. The restaurant is named for Maycomb's hangout in To Kill a Mockingbird. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the novel's publication in 2000, Harper Lee autographed this picture for Atlanta's OK Cafe that hangs in their lobby.

Movie: To Kill A Mockingbirrd

Yesterday my neighbor graciously agreed to attend a showing of the movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, with me at our local library. Though this is an adaptation of my favorite book, I had only seen the movie once before, which was right after my ninth grade English class finished reading the book. So, it's been a few years.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. A local English professor set the stage before the movie started with helpful information about differences between the book and the movie, and historical information about what was happening in the United States in and around 1960 when To Kill a Mockingbird was first published. For instance, Mrs. DuBose's morphine addiction doesn't appear in the movie. Gregory Peck was forever after associated with his Atticus Finch character. The novel tackles important social issues and falls into the category of the Southern Gothic novel genre (I'll likely be looking more into that). The novel also classifies as a bildungsroman for Scout, who grows from innocence to experience over the course of the novel (and movie).

The library had popcorn, water and soft drinks available, and gave out door prizes. My neighbor and I were disappointed to have not won one of the three copies of the novel they gave away or the pair of tickets to the play that will be performed in our county this fall. I'll probably be seeing the play anyway, even though I didn't win those tickets!

Two Books to Reread

I'm promoting and planning to participate in two reading programs over the next month or two. Join me!

The books selection for Forsyth Reads Together 2010 is my all-time favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To celebrate, there are several events in February. To learn more, visit the Forsyth County Library home page.

In addition, The National Endowment for the Arts' Big Read selection is Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta has several events planned to celebrate. Visit their web page for more.