To Kill a Mockingbird

#11.

I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Only one more book to go! Everyone told me this was a good one to read. For some reason, this book never came up in any of my English classes in high school or college. I remember most of the books I read, and I have also read a ton of books outside of class. But I definitely don't recall this one.

I really liked it. I think it gives a really good perspective of what I imagine it was like in the South during the 1930s and the racial injustices that were happening. This is a time period and area that I’m not familiar with at all, so it makes it even more interesting. Although I did find myself getting angry at various points. A lot of the themes still resonate today. I thought the reference to Hitler and Jewish people was interesting to include in a book about African Americans in the South. But it’s all the same prejudice.

It’s unbelievable that people still continue to try to ban this book, especially since it uses the word nigger and talks about rape. People may not like it, but children shouldn't be sheltered, but educated.

On a lighter note before I get too riled up, it was nice to read another classic that took place in my own country. There are too many European classics...

Last one to go—The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger!

1.        Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

2.        Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

3.        A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

4.        Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

5.        Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

6.        Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

7.        Animal Farm by George Orwell

8.        The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexendre Dumas

9.        To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

10.    The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger