"Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
SUCH AN AMAZING BOOK, guys! I'm glad I've finally read it.
Well, I'm sure that you all know this story, but, just in case, I'll give you a description from Goodreads:
Firstly, I want to point out the fact, that I haven't read such a Feel-Like-Home book in a loooong time. All those nature descriptions brought back my childhood memories of summers spent in my grandparents' village house. This warm and cosy feeling inside...aaarrrww. It felt like a time travel in my head, and it was magical!
About my copy of a book in a few words, it's:
-- in Russian
-- I've read a first half of a book in hardback, omnibus that includes the "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury, "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Sainger and, of course, "To Kill A Mockingsbird" by Harper Lee. And then I stopeed for a few month (finals in University made me), and after that "pause" I finished it on 2 e-readers (my sister's and mine). Yeah, it's really complicated :)
-- total page count: 421 (159 pages of a physical book and 269 pages on e-books :)). Well, it's important to me to know this, because I want to know my Total Pages Read in 2013 Count. [blame it on Goodreads :)]
-- got it from my mum's library (that's where all this awesome book buying came from...:))
I really enjoyed following Scout (Jean Louise, our narrator and protagonist), Jem (Jeremy, her older brother) and Dill (Charles, their best friend, that comes to Maycomb every summer) in their growing up and learning life lessons journey, because I think nothing is as charming as getting to know some stories through kids' eyes and from their point of view. It's sooo sweet, that I couldn't help myself and just smiled when Scout made her own conclusions, even when they were based on someone else's.
Well, I was so smily not all the time, though. This book is not all rainbows and unicorns. I had some troubles with racism in this book, and it's a huge part of it (which I'm sure you know about (or if you don't, I think you should know, just in case)]. I'm agains racism in any form and it's hard for me (yes, heart-breakingly hard) to read about it. Usually, I'm not reading books that include violence and insults because I'm tooo emotional about it. I empathise A LOT and could come close to a nervouse breakdown cliff [CONFESSION TIME]. Yeeeah...it's a problem, I know.
But I really wanted to finish this book, I loved the writing (I've also checked it in English, for having a full picture, as the saying goes). Sooo, I rallied and kept reading, taking those parts as historical detailes, that I can't change (well, fow now, since I can't travel in time) and understood that my worries won't help in this case.
This book coveres some of the major life topics such as importance of family, our place in the world, acting with respect to one another, living in times of the Great Depression and many others.
One of the main themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" is how to be humans in the first place, stop dividing people by skin colours (jeez, it's only melanin, guys!), stop putting ourselves above the other people, because we're all humans, we're the same (Well, almost all. There're still a bunch of terrible people, who's actions have no excuse...). And this books has some lines told by Atticus that made me think a lot about this subject:
“Atticus, he was real nice."
"Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."
and
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
We shouldn't forget that we are humans. Because more often you could see that wild animals are kinder than us.
Atticus is an amazing character! He's a dream father. Kind and caring, wise, a truth-seeker (which is important for a good lawyer, I think:)) He quickly became one of my
Top Favourite Secondary Characters (I'll make a list soon, The Broke and The Bookish (with their
Top Ten Tuesdays) are great inspirers!). I'd follow a man like him in real life with no regrets. Wish there were more Atticus'.
I'll finish my review with one his words about courage, because they sank deep into my head:
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what."
Guys, guys, GUYS! Please, read this book (if you haven't yet). I waited many years to finally got to it, and, honestly, no regrets! Because I think I understood it better than I could before, in younger age. This masterpiece deserves all the love and I hope you feel the same. Wish Harper Lee could write one more book like this...
Have a great reading, good start of studying and DFTBA!
P.S. If you wanna discuss this book, it'll be absolutely awesome!
P.S.P.S. I think I'll check the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" soon...(yeeeah, haven't read it yet).
* * * * * indeed.
I just want this book, Okay? Okay. (Wow! High five to Dr John).
I'm intrigued by the premise of this book and really like to know if I be creeped out by it. :)
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