Yesterday my husband and I travelled from Edinburgh to upstate New York to spend a week with his family. Upon picking up our rental car and driving the hour and a half to our final destination I managed to navigate the vast expanses of satellite radio to find the Diane Rehm show was doing a 50 year anniversary special on one of my all-time favorite books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. If interested, you can listen to the program on their website, here. It has been about six months since I’ve been in the States and there could have been no better or more fitting program to listen to as I made the slow adjustment back. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greatest works of American fiction and has sold over 30 million copies since its publication in 1960. Its themes are both distinctly American and universal making it a book that strikes at the very core of who we are as human beings. Scout’s precocious nature and questioning of the injustice she cannot comprehend as a child have caused countless readers to examine their own prejudices and assumptions. Atticus Fitch, the great literary embodiment of integrity, makes us all want to be more just and courageous and kind. Although I’ve read this book multiple times before it is on my list of must-reads this summer – it is its 50th birthday afterall! A wonderful read-aloud, this is a book that must be shared and discussed. Follow up your reading with a viewing of the classic movie adaptation starring Gregory Peck, playing what, in my opinion, was his greatest role. What do you like best about To Kill a Mockingbird?
