Procure Scout, Atticus, And Boo: A Celebration Of Fifty Years Of To Kill A Mockingbird Scripted By Mary McDonagh Murphy Distributed As Softcover
read and studied to kill a mockingbird, I loved reading about how this book touched so many people and the overwhelming impact on their lives whether it be the first time they read about racism or learned to think about things in someone else's perspective or they just fell in love with the characters.
Anyone who loves to kill a mockingbird should read this book and again, see things from another person's perspective This is for sure the only time I have ever opted for astar "liked it", while admittedly I cried nearlytime every chapter.
However, that's a testament to TKAM, not necessarily to this book, Experience TKAM for the first time again will never happen but this book was a fun vicarious approximation, Hats off, Murphy. so this book wasn't really all that great, i didn't even finish it because it was due back at the library and i didn't think it was worth renewing, basically what it made me realize is that i don't really care why other people love "to kill mockingbird, " all i really care about is why i love it, and while it was kind of interesting to hear from the people who actually knew harper lee, in the end i found the book a bit repetitive and dare i say slightly boring.
If you don't already love To Kill a Mockingbird, you probably wouldn't pick up this book anyway, But if To Kill a Mockingbird is your book, and it is mine, then this tribute is a great read.
The contributors include a mix of authors, artists, thinkers, celebrities, and residents of Monroeville, Alabama, The book is nicely edited in that it shuffles these various perspectives so that if we read it in order, we move easily among these insights and emerge with a satisfying blend of ways to consider To Kill a Mockingbird.
My favorite sections were those from Wally Lamb, Richard Russo, and Roseanne Cash, but I'm big fans of their work and lives anyway.
On the other hand, anything involving Oprah Winfrey pretty much gags me as she tries to either take credit for most of the world's goodness or juxtapose herself with it so that it cannot be considered without her.
The words of Alice Finch Lee and Mary Tucker provide glimpses into the world of To Kill a Mockingbird that few could supply, and I'm glad Mary McDonagh Murphy brought those contributions into public view.
I met Mary McDonagh Murphy last weekend at the National Council of Teachers of English convention, and she was charming, generous, and warm.
Those qualities apply to her book as well, When I was growing up, we received a book every quarter from Reader's Digest Condensed Books, For those of you too young to remember these treasures, a Readers Digest Condensed Book contained abridged versions ofrecent releases and bestsellers.
When I was aboutyears old, in third grade, I picked up one of these volumes that contained sitelinkTo Kill a Mockingbird.
That story grabbed me and taught me about race, justice, and acceptance, I saw the world completely through Scout's eyes, Being the same age as her, I could easily identify with her, When I grew up an reread the book, I found that I had missed a lot of the little lessons in the story, but I did pick up on the big ones.
When my daughter was old enough, I bought her a copy and she loved it just as much as I did,
I really wanted a copy of sitelinkScout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird when I first saw it in the bookstore a few months ago.
Fortunately, I found a copy under my Christmas tree along with ath Anniversary hardcover edition of sitelinkTo Kill a Mockingbird in a slipcase.
sitelinkScout, Atticus, and Boo turned out to be a treasure, I loved reading the interviews with people, famous and not, who had been touched by Harper Lee's classic, I was really surprised by the number of interviewees who had read it as early in their lives
as I had, I also was surprised by how many people had used it in their classrooms and/or had been exposed to it first as a high school reading assignment.
Unfortunately, neither I nor my children have been exposed to it in a classroom setting, It's a shame, because I think it's a book every American should read,
The wonderful thing about sitelinkScout, Atticus, and Boo was reading how sitelinkTo Kill a Mockingbird touched and inspired others just as much as it touched and inspired me.
It was like sitting down with a group of friends and swapping stories about what may be the most beloved book in America.
Ok so first off I only read this bc my mother gave me a copy as a gift and therefore I basically have to
Secondly, this is such a strange book bc it feels like it's almost not meant to be read.
It's a companion to a documentary and the firstpages effectively synthesizes the thesis of the film which is: book good while extensively quoting the people who were intervewed.
And then the next section is the text of all the interviews conducted in full, so it's VERY repetitive, and probably was not intended to be read in one sitting or, being more cynical, read at all.
Still, I did read it, and I did find a lot of the commentary from various authors and contemporaries of Lee quite interesting, so.
I first encountered this book when I was in Monroeville, Alabama, in Julyfor the town's celebration of TKAM'sth anniversary.
I was attending a lecture at the local community college, and this book was at my table, I flipped through it and immediately read the interviews by Anna Quindlen and Oprah Winfrey, The idea seemed interestinglots of interesting people's responses to TKAMplus a little history on the novel as well,
For my birthday in September, I received this book, I didn't read it at first, and then I turned it into a bedtime read, A few pages each night before sleep, But it wasn't all that riveting, and I don't think that was the author's intention, I like the history section a lot more than all the interviews, After a while, a lot of them start to sound the same, "She only wrote one book" opinions are divided into two camps: those who are glad Harper Lee said everything she needed to say in one book and those who wish she had written more.
But I didn't need to hear that in every interview,
Plus, McDonagh Murphy weaves some of the best quotes from the interviews into her history at the start of the book.
It gets even more repetitive that way,
If you want insight into Harper Lee, read her sister Alice's interview, If you want the inside scoop on the movie, read the first two interviews by Mary Badham and Boaty Boatwright, As for the rest of theinterviews, just read three or four, That will more than cover the range of responses and opinions,
Finally, I realize this is a "celebration" of TKAM, but it would have been interesting to have had at least one person interviewed who did not really care for the book.
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