Merry Wanderer of the Night + to kill a mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird: Week Two

I am currently about fifty pages from the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. Yesterday I mentioned that I was planning on watching the movie for the actual fiftieth anniversary, but since I wasn't finished with the book I decided to wait. Today is a rainy day and I have nothing to do, so I think it's the perfect time to actually finish up this book. I've been reading Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields at the same time. I'm not very far into this biography about the extremely private Harper Lee, but I feel like the book is full of information that makes the book even more interesting.

I recently learned that Harper Lee was childhood friends with Truman Capote, but I had no idea that he was that base for the character Dill. I also didn't know that Harper Lee's father was a lawyer and in some ways he is like Atticus in the book. Some of the similarities between her life and the book you could guess, but it's interesting to read an account of them and see how things might have come together. Shields put together this book without interviewing Harper Lee, which made it extremely challenging and I'm amazed by how well he did. He used old interviews and accounts from people who knew or know Harper Lee to create the story. It's a great biography and reads like a novel.

I'm also following the To Kill A Mockingbird Anniversary Facebook Fan Page and found this article by Tom Brokaw about his first experience with To Kill a Mockingbird. It's really interesting to read an account by someone who was there for the release of the book and it made me think about things I hadn't really considered before. Check out this article if you're interested! There are several other posts on the Facebook fan page that are also great for different ideas about the book. Also, be sure to check out Capricious Reader's post about To Kill a Mockingbird as well.

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To Kill a Mockingbird: Week Two + to kill a mockingbird