book review to kill a mockingbird new york times

The New York Times

The learning network | 50 years of ‘to kill a mockingbird’.

50 Years of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

As Julie Bosman reports ,

All summer “To Kill a Mockingbird” will be relived through at least 50 events around the country, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of a book that became a cultural touchstone and an enduring staple of high-school reading programs.

Celebratory events are scheduled to run through September 22, 2010.

The timing of the “Mockingbird” festivities may make it difficult for many English teachers to participate in them with their classes. But no matter when your students read about Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, Scout, Jem and Boo Radley, here are some resources. It’s our small way of honoring Harper Lee and her contribution to American literature.

How do you teach “Mockingbird”? Do you plan to mark the anniversary? Please share your teaching ideas with us and our readers.

Times Resources on Harper Lee and Her Novel

One-Taxi Town Original Times review of “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960).
Harper Lee, Gregarious for a Day Article on the reclusive Harper Lee making a public appearance in 2006 to honor high school students who wrote essays about “Mockingbird.”
A Biography of Harper Lee, Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Review of the first book-length biography of Ms. Lee, which suggests that she found much of the inspiration for her work in the town where she grew up and chronicles her friendship with Truman Capote.
Good Scout Garrison Keillor’s review of the Harper Lee biography.

Times Resources on Adaptations and the Novel’s Enduring Power

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Overview for the film adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” from 1962, starring Gregory Peck, including the trailer and the original Times review.
In the Arms of Memory Article on the actress Sissy Spacek’s take on her favorite film, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” from the “Watching Movies With …” series. Includes several clips from the film .
Moments of Heroism and Hope in ‘Mockingbird’ Review of a 1991 stage version by playwright Christopher Sergel.
To Attack a Lawyer in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird': An Iconoclast Takes Aim at a Hero Article about a lawyer’s criticisms of Atticus Finch’s flaws as an attorney.
Long Lives the Mockingbird Column on the real Alabama courthouse used as a setting in “Mockingbird” and how the South has dealt with segregation in the days since the novel was published.
City Room: For Theater Troupe Without a Home, All the World’s a Stage Blog post on a site-specific production of “Mockingbird” in a historic courthouse – the only known such production outside of Alabama.
Quiet, Please; Chicago is Reading. The Same Book at the Same Time. Article about a 2001 citywide reading program in Chicago, in which all adults were urged to read “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
To Killjoy ‘Mockingbird’ “Idea of the Day” blog post on one critic who writes, ““It’s time to stop pretending that ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature.”

Times Resources on Real-Life Cases Similar to Tom Robinson’s

Only the Accused Were Innocent 1994 review of the book “Stories of Scottsboro,” on the Scottsboro Trial of the 1930’s, in which nine black defendants were tried for raping two white women, who had made up the charges.
The Echoes of an Execution Reverberate Loud and Clear 2010 article on a documentary on the case of Willie McGee, whose execution – after conviction for raping a white woman – was broadcast live on the radio in 1951.
Rape Conviction of Alabama Man Overturned Over Fairness of Trial 1980 article on the overturning of a 1978 case in which a black man was convicted of raping three white women in Alabama.
The Central Park Jogger; An Old Case in a Different New York 2002 article looking back on the 1989 case of the “Central Park jogger,” in which four men of color were found guilty of raping a white woman. (Their conviction was later overturned in light of DNA evidence.)
Issue of Racism Erupts in Simpson Trial Article about race issues arising during the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial, in which Mr. Simpson, who is black, was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife and her friend, both white. In 1997, a civil jury required Mr. Simpson to pay compensatory damages to the two families .

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Books | Column: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was just named…

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Books | column: ‘to kill a mockingbird’ was just named the best book from the last 125 years. what does that mean.

Harper Lee's 1960 novel "To Kill A Mockingbird."

Following an entirely unscientific process, readers of the New York Times Book Review have chosen “To Kill a Mockingbird” as the “best book of the last 125 years.”

As for the ultimate choice of the Harper Lee classic, we should be unsurprised, as it was previously the selection of the PBS Great American Read from 2018. Earlier, I handicapped it as the favorite at my Biblioracle Recommends newsletter.

That comment about the process being unscientific is not a criticism of the Times Book Review. There is no scientific process that would yield a definitive answer to the question of the best book of the last 125 years because, thankfully, there is no universal, codifiable method for the effect of literature on readers. There are too many books. We are too diverse as people.

book review to kill a mockingbird new york times

My picks in the poll were “Charlotte’s Web,” “Catch-22” and Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” books which affected me profoundly at the time I read them, and which have shaped my perception of the world since.

Long may we disagree!

This is what makes it endlessly fascinating to read and discuss literature. A self-selected group of 200,000 or so readers choosing the best book from a list of 25 finalists previously culled from the same general readership is plenty thorough enough to draw some interesting conclusions from the results.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a novel that makes an immediate emotional impact on its readers while also being about important social issue. It is a novel that for its time is progressive on race, and a number of the reader comments shared by the Times Book Review suggest that some readers feel a kind of warm nostalgia over the book’s awakening them to the problem of racial prejudice.

Based on the simple demographic odds, we can guess a majority of participants in the Times survey are white readers somewhere within a decade of my age (51).

Our voices, the white, the middle aged and older, are always the most amplified through these processes. It is a mistake, however, to confuse the majority with a universal default.

One of the most enthralling aspects of art and literature is that it is very much not fixed in place at the time of its creation, and the response and interpretation of a work will change over time, and depending on who is doing the interpreting.

This is the reason why I can simultaneously respect the collective judgment of the readers of the Times Book Review, and be a longtime fan of the Disrupt Texts organization, started by four women (Tricia Ebarvia, Lorena Germán, Kimberly Parker, and Julia Torres) who are asking us to look at these canonical books through fresh eyes.

For example, writing about “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the Disrupt Texts website, Germán notes that in a book about race, Black characters are marginalized, spoken for or about, rather than given voices and agency. Their absence from the story is meaningful. This is not an argument that Harper Lee should have done something differently, but that when we read the book we can have a deeper appreciation of the full meaning of the text by recognizing its limits.

None of this is about eliminating “To Kill a Mockingbird” from the curriculum or censoring any text. This is the opposite of the goal of Disrupt Texts. Seeing a work of literature through a fresh set of eyes who can show you things you otherwise might not notice is a gift, not something to be shunned.

John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”

Twitter @biblioracle

Book recommendations from the Biblioracle

John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.

1. “The Overstory” by Richard Powers

2. “Washington Black” by Esi Edugyan

3. “Let the Great World Spin” by Colum McCann

4. “Dear Edward” by Ann Napolitano

5. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

— Maria B., Raleigh, North Carolina

I recommend this book to at least one reader a year, so I may as well kick things off early: Kathleen Rooney’s “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk” is a compelling journey of one woman’s life and the history she lived through.

1. “The Family” by Naomi Krupitsky

2. “The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story” by Darrin Strauss

3. “The Santa Suit” by Mary Kay Andrews

4. “When Ghosts Come Home” by Wiley Cash

5. “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles

— Amy G., Eagle, Colorado

“Such a Fun Age” by Kiley Reid will be an engaging read for Amy.

1. “Luster” by Raven Leilani

2. “Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam

3. “The Searcher” by Tana French

4. “The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave

5. “The Maidens” by Alex Michaelides

— Linda T., Chicago

Lauren Groff’s “Fates and Furies” has the kind of compelling drama that I think will appeal to Linda.

Get a reading from the Biblioracle

Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to [email protected] .

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Read the very first reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird .

Sixty-three years ago today, a young Alabama writer by the name of Nelle Harper Lee published her debut novel: a Southern Gothic-adjacent bildungsroman about racial injustice and familial love in the American South.

In the months leading up to publication, Lee’s editors at Lippincott were keen to manage expectations, telling the author that her novel would probably sell only a few thousand copies.

Things, as we now know, played out a little differently.

Indisputably one of the best-loved American stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an Oscar-winning film starring Gregory Peck, and consistently been voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. It has also become one of the country’s most frequently challenged and banned books .

To mark this publication anniversary, here’s a look back at the very first reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird .

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.

“In her first novel, Harper Lee writes with gentle affection, rich humor, and deep understanding of small-town family life in Alabama … Macomb has its share of eccentrics and evil-doers but Miss Lee has not tried to satisfy the current lust for morbid, grotesque tales of Southern depravity … The dialogue of Miss Lee’s refreshingly varied characters is a constant delight in its authenticity and swift revelation of personality. The events connecting the Finches with the Ewell-Robinson lawsuit develop quietly and logically, unifying the plot and dramatizing the author’s level-headed plea for interracial understanding … it is no disparagement of Miss Lee’s winning book to say that it could be the basis of an excellent film.”

–The New York Times Book Review , July 10, 1960

“All the magic and truth that might seem deceptive or exaggerated in a factual account of a small town unfold beautifully in a new first novel called To Kill a Mockingbird . At a time when so many machine-tooled novels are simply documentaries disguised behind a few fictional changes, it is pleasing to recommend a book that shows what a novelist can accomplish with quite familiar situations … To Kill A Mockingbird opens the chrysalis of childhood quietly and dramatically … Miss Lee’s characters are people to cherish in this winning first novel by a fresh writer with something significant to say, south and north.”

– The New York Times , July 13, 1960

“Clearly, Scout Finch is no ordinary five-year-old girl—and not only because she amuses herself by reading the financial columns of the Mobile Register , but because her nine-year-old brother Jem allows her to tag along when he and Dill Harris try to make Boo Radley come out.

Boo is the Radley son who has not shown his face outside the creaky old family house for 30 years and more, probably because he has ‘shy ways,’ but possibly—an explanation the children much prefer—because his relatives have chained him to his bed. Dill has the notion that Boo might be lured out if a trail of lemon drops were made to lead away from his doorstep. Scout and Jem try a midnight invasion instead, and this stirs up so much commotion that Jem loses his pants skittering back under the fence.

Scout and her brother live in Maycomb, Alabama, where every family that amounts to anything has a streak—a peculiar streak, or a morbid streak, or one involving a little ladylike tippling at Lydia Pinkham bottles filled with gin. The Finch family streak is a good deal more serious—it is an overpowering disposition toward sanity. This is the flaw that makes Jem interrupt the boasting of a lineage-proud dowager to ask ‘Is this the Cousin Joshua who was locked up for so long?’ And it is what compels Lawyer Atticus Finch, the children’s father, to defend a Negro who is charged with raping a white woman. The rape trial, Jem’s helling, and even Boo Radley are deeply involved in the irregular and very effective education of Scout Finch. By the time she ends her first-person account at the age of nine, she has learned that people must be judged, but only slowly and thoughtfully.

Author Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers. The novel is an account of an awakening to good and evil, and a faint catechistic flavor may have been inevitable. But it is faint indeed; novelist Lee’s prose has an edge that cuts through cant, and she teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life. (A notable one: ‘Naming people after Confederate generals makes slow steady drinkers.’) All in all, Scout Finch is fiction’s most appealing child since Carson McCullers’ Frankie got left behind at the wedding.”

– TIME , August 1, 1960

“Almost all the elements of the ‘southern’ novel are to be found somewhere or other in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, but they seem to wear a look of innocence, an aura of freshness, as if we were encountering them for the very first time … there are memorable moments in this story, some vivid and candid portraits in black and white, a gentle, persuasive humor, and a glowing goodness in the central figures. There is a timelessness about them and Miss Lee’s novel leaves one feeling that they will prevail in the difficult and painful adjustments the South must inevitably make. At least one has hope, and is grateful for it.”

–The Los Angeles Times , August 7, 1960

“Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is sugar-water served with humor … It is frankly and completely impossible, being told in the first person by a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult. Miss Lee has, to be sure, made an attempt to confine the information in the text to what Scout would actually know, but it is no more than a casual gesture toward plausibility … A variety of adults, mostly eccentric in Scout’s judgment, and a continual bubble of incident make To Kill A Mockingbird pleasant, undemanding reading.”

–The Atlantic , August, 1960

“…a wonderfully absorbing story … [it] will come under some fire in the Deep South … The fact is simply that she has written a wonderfully absorbing story, unencumbered by either of the gimmicks—the bedroom or bestiality—which are supposed to be the only things that sell fiction today.”

–The Mobile Press-Register , 1960

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'To Kill a Mockingbird' Tops NYT Readers' Best List

Here's The New York Times' original 1960 review of To Kill a Mockingbird

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Fifty-five years after the release of her classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird , it was announced today that Harper Lee will share another work with the world. Go Set a Watchman , which is essentially a sequel to Lee's much-loved first offering, will be released on July 14.

But before it won a Pulitzer Prize and staked a claim on middle school reading lists everywhere, To Kill a Mockingbird was just another book being reviewed by The New York Times . In the July 13, 1960 paper , reviewer Herbert Mitgang dubs Mockingbird "a winning first novel by a fresh writer with something significant to say."

Set in the 1930s in a fictional Alabama town, the book centers on the trial of a black rape suspect being defended by a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who is also the father of the book's 9-year-old protagonist, Scout. Mitgang includes one of the book's most poignant exchanges, in which Scout questions Atticus about his souring reputation in their small community, to illustrate Lee's deft portrayal of "the opening of the eyes of Southern childhood to the dreary facts of Negro-white injustices." The novel "opens the chrysalis of childhood quietly and dramatically," he writes. "Miss Lee's original characters are people to cherish." Read the full review at The New York Times .

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After Dispute, ‘Mockingbird’ Blends Novel’s Spirit and Sorkin’s Voice Onstage

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By Michael Paulson and Alexandra Alter

Dec. 7, 2018

Nine months ago, the estate of Harper Lee sued a theater producer , alleging that a planned stage adaptation of her beloved novel, “ To Kill a Mockingbird ,” was unacceptably different from the book.

Next week, that play will open on Broadway, without many of the elements that concerned the estate, but with dramatic changes — a new narrative structure, black characters who express anger and frustration, and a running tension between civility and confrontation — that could make the story resonant for contemporary audiences.

Atticus Finch, the genteel white Alabama lawyer who agrees to defend a black defendant in a rape case, grabs a racist by the hair and threatens to break his arm. Calpurnia, the Finch family cook, questions why prison guards shoot so many times when that defendant tries to flee. And Tom Robinson, the man on trial, gives voice to the racial inequity that has always been at the heart of the story, saying to Atticus in a new jailhouse scene, “I was guilty as soon as I was accused.”

The play’s fidelity to the 1960 novel has been a matter of public controversy since the Lee estate sued in March. Shortly before she died , the novelist had authorized a leading contemporary screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, to write the adaptation, but after her death a draft script alarmed the lawyer who represents the estate.

Following some initial fireworks — the producer, Scott Rudin, not only countersued but also offered to stage the script in a courthouse so a judge could decide — the case was quietly settled. But the dispute served as a reminder of the challenges inherent in adapting a cherished work — in this case, one that has sold tens of millions of copies.

“It has a unique role in American literature, so any person trying to adapt it is going to have their hands full,” said Joseph Crespino, a professor of American history at Emory University and the author of “Atticus Finch: The Biography.” “Whatever you do, you’re going to disappoint some people.”

Because the case was privately settled, with neither side describing the terms, and Mr. Rudin has declined to release a script, only now that the play is in previews is it possible to assess how the lawsuit — and the questions it raised about how the book’s generations of die-hard fans might view a contemporary stage adaptation — affected the play’s development. (The play could be further tweaked before it opens Thursday).

The story now being told at the Shubert Theater, starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, will be fully familiar to fans of the novel: It features the same major characters and the same main plot twists. But in ways that are both subtle and significant, the adaptation reflects changes in storytelling and society in the nearly 60 years since the book was published.

The biggest changes from the book are structural — the play uses the trial as a narrative scaffolding from which everything else hangs — but there are also shifts in thematic emphasis. In the play, other characters question Atticus’s insistence on seeing goodness in his racist neighbors (“Being polite is no way to win a war,” counters Atticus’s son, Jem), and introduces an impatient yearning for social change expressed by both Atticus and Calpurnia.

With litigation threatening the future of the production, each side made concessions, according to public remarks by the writer, Aaron Sorkin, as well as comparisons of the words now being spoken onstage with quotations from the draft script cited by the estate in a letter detailing their objections.

The production dropped depictions of Atticus drinking alcohol, keeping a gun in his house and using the name of God disrespectfully; now, as the estate wanted, he is a clean-living hero throughout, who is described in the play’s opening moments as the “most honest and decent person in Maycomb.”

And some of the specific language and plot deviations that the estate objected to were removed. For example, a once-contemplated new character — a black physician testifying at the rape trial — was dropped before the show got to Broadway. The estate had complained that the character “introduces numerous highly charged political issues into the trial.”

But the production prevailed in its insistence that the two main African-American characters — Calpurnia and Tom — have more opportunities to speak up, particularly about racial injustice and often with considerable emotion or anger, than they do in the novel.

And the production preserved the influence of Mr. Sorkin, who unlike most writers, is a pop culture figure in his own right, a distinctly contemporary writer with a penchant for rapid-fire dialogue.

The estate’s representative, Tonja B. Carter, had contended that some of the proposed new dialogue made Atticus sound “more like an edgy sitcom dad in the 21st century than the iconic Atticus of the novel.”

Some of the lines she criticized are gone, but many remain, and there are plenty of recognizably Sorkinesque touches — characters talking while walking; soaring emotional speeches by secondary characters; zingers that are witty and pointed.

In a March letter to Mr. Rudin, Ms. Carter, who declined to be interviewed for this story, objected to about 80 elements in the script; she later dropped some of those objections. Overall, it now appears, based on two visits to the show in previews, that about 40 percent of those elements are gone.

Mr. Rudin declined to make Mr. Sorkin available for an interview. In statements by email, Mr. Rudin said many of the estate’s concerns were with an early draft of the play, and “a vast number” were inaccurate.

He said that the current production reflects “exactly the play we want to present” and that no artistic compromises were made as a result of the litigation. “A small handful of issues were simply not important to us, and out of deference to the estate’s wishes, we agreed to them,” he said.

This project — with a capitalization cost of up to $7.5 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission — had some particular risk factors from the start: Lee died shortly after agreeing to allow Mr. Sorkin to write the adaptation, leaving her legacy in the hands of Ms. Carter, who had already created controversy with her role in the publication of “Go Set a Watchman,” an early draft of “Mockingbird,” while Lee was in declining health.

On top of that, the production had to tread carefully in its treatment of the novel’s main themes about a child’s awakening to the realities of injustice, violence and bigotry — while at the same time attempting to stage a decades-old work that has outdated views on race and is shot through with racial slurs.

In an essay for New York Magazine, Mr. Sorkin described at first being appalled by the suggestion that the production would agree to any changes pressed by the estate, and recalled telling Mr. Rudin, “The play can’t be written by a team of lawyers.” But after being told that the play was in jeopardy, he agreed to make changes — for example, dropping scenes in which Atticus drank and cursed — in exchange for keeping the enhanced roles for Tom and Calpurnia.

“The curious part of me wished we’d gone to court so I could hear a federal judge decide what imaginary people would and wouldn’t do,” he wrote. “Instead, we were able to settle without damage to the play other than the unwanted publicity.”

Whether or not the publicity was unwanted, the dispute does not appear to have affected consumer appetite. The play has been selling out in previews, and last week grossed an impressive $1.3 million.

Follow Michael Paulson on Twitter: @MichaelPaulson . Follow Alexandra Alter on Twitter: @xanalter .

Read TIME’s Original Review of <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i>

Read TIME’s Original Review of To Kill a Mockingbird

M ore than half a century has passed since TIME reviewed Harper Lee’s first and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird — but this summer TIME may have a second opportunity to review this celebrated and reclusive author’s work, when the publishing house Harper releases her recently discovered second novel, Go Set a Watchman . The publisher announced on Tuesday that the novel — which was actually written before Mockingbird — will be available on July 14.

TIME’s first review of To Kill a Mockingbird appeared in an Aug. 1, 1960 edition of the magazine, under the headline, “About Life & Little Girls.” While the reviewer doesn’t hold back on the praise, perhaps no one at the time could have anticipated the sensation the book would become.

Here is TIME’s original review, in full:

Clearly, Scout Finch is no ordinary five-year-old girl—and not only because she amuses herself by reading the financial columns of the Mobile Register , but because her nine-year-old brother Jem allows her to tag along when he and Dill Harris try to make Boo Radley come out. Boo is the Radley son who has not shown his face outside the creaky old family house for 30 years and more, probably because he has “shy ways,” but possibly —an explanation the children much prefer—because his relatives have chained him to his bed. Dill has the notion that Boo might be lured out if a trail of lemon drops were made to lead away from his doorstep. Scout and Jem try a midnight invasion instead, and this stirs up so much commotion that Jem loses his pants skittering back under the fence. Scout and her brother live in Maycomb, Alabama, where every family that amounts to anything has a streak—a peculiar streak, or a morbid streak, or one involving a little ladylike tippling at Lydia Pinkham bottles filled with gin. The Finch family streak is a good deal more serious —it is an overpowering disposition toward sanity. This is the flaw that makes Jem interrupt the boasting of a lineage-proud dowager to ask “Is this the Cousin Joshua who was locked up for so long?” And it is what compels Lawyer Atticus Finch, the children’s father, to defend a Negro who is charged with raping a white woman. The rape trial, Jem’s helling, and even Boo Radley are deeply involved in the irregular and very effective education of Scout Finch. By the time she ends her first-person account at the age of nine, she has learned that people must be judged, but only slowly and thoughtfully. Author Lee, 34, an Alabaman, has written her first novel with all of the tactile brilliance and none of the preciosity generally supposed to be standard swamp-warfare issue for Southern writers. The novel is an account of an awakening to good and evil, and a faint catechistic flavor may have been inevitable. But it is faint indeed; Novelist Lee‘s prose has an edge that cuts through cant, and she teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life. (A notable one: “Naming people after Confederate generals makes slow steady drinkers.”) All in all, Scout Finch is fiction’s most appealing child since Carson McCullers’ Frankie got left behind at the wedding.

See the page as it originally appeared, here in the TIME Vault

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To Kill A Mockingbird Broadway Reviews

Reviews of To Kill A Mockingbird on Broadway. See what all the critics had to say and see all the ratings for To Kill A Mockingbird including the New York Times and More...

Critics' Reviews

'To Kill a Mockingbird': Theater Review

Perhaps the most notable achievement of this thoughtful adaptation, and Bartlett Sher's meticulously calibrated Broadway production, is that it takes Harper Lee's 1960 novel - a modern American classic that pretty much all of us know either from studying it in high school or watching the outstanding 1962 film version - and makes us hang on every word as if experiencing the story for the first time.

'To Kill A Mockingbird' review: Aaron Sorkin delivers with new play

In any event, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' (which also sports a period score penned by Tony winner Adam Guettel and played live on organ and guitar) proves to be an engrossing, provocative and uniformly well-acted adaptation - and a fitting addition to a shifting Broadway landscape where an increasing number of plays (including 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' 'The Ferryman' and 'Network') are gaining the muscularity to stand alongside musicals in prestige and box office power.

‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Broadway Review: Aaron Sorkin, Jeff Daniels Deliver An Atticus For Our Times

Perhaps Sorkin and Sher felt the play needed Bob's extra villainy to justify Atticus' eventual out-of-character breakdown, the moment when the play's questioning of the book's '60s-vintage liberal ideal comes most fully into focus. If so, they should have trusted their material and Daniels' convincing performance. By the time Atticus comes to question his own moral code, and Sorkin has us contemplating the limits of tolerance and the boundaries of forgiveness, this Mockingbird has already landed its punches.

Review: A Broadway ‘Mockingbird,’ Elegiac and Effective

These are two worthy ideas, if contradictory. In light of racial injustice, accommodation seems to be a white luxury; in light of accommodation, justice seems hopelessly naïve. Perhaps what this beautiful, elegiac version of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' most movingly asks is: Can we ever have both?

BWW Review: Jeff Daniels is Atticus Finch in Aaron Sorkin and Bartlett Sher's Exquisite Adaptation of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Without knowing any better, one might easily mistake the new stage adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-winning 1960 novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird' for a revival of a classic Golden Age Broadway drama. So earnest in tone and full of plainspoken poetics is Aaron Sorkin's thoroughly engaging text. So old-school honest are the performances given by director Bartlett Sher's 24-member cast, beautifully framed with an eye toward rural artistry by designers Miriam Buether (sets), Ann Roth (costumes) and Jennifer Tipton (lights).

To Kill a Mockingbird

If Sorkin's adaptation lacks the subtlety and plain-spokenness of Lee's novel, it has moments of old-fashioned power-the playwright knows how to set up a court scene-and others of surprising tenderness, as when he briefly takes the fatherless Dill under his wing. ('You have no business being kind, but there you are,' he tells the boy.) As perhaps befits material that has been a high-school mainstay for decades, this To Kill a Mockingbird has many teachable moments, perhaps a few too many. But it does-and I mean this as a compliment-a very decent job.

Review: In 'To Kill a Mockingbird' on Broadway, the words of Harper Lee but the voice of Aaron Sorkin

Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' will gratefully always be with us. This is Sorkin's version and, for all the distortions and limitations, it finds ways through Atticus' character to speak directly to our troubled times about the inseparability of race and justice in America. I look forward to future productions from female and African American perspectives that can match this level of theatrical excellence, but they too will be incomplete.

Broadway Review: ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Against all odds, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher have succeeded in crafting a stage-worthy adaptation of Harper Lee's classic American novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' The ever-likable Daniels, whose casting was genius, gives a strong and searching performance as Atticus Finch, the small-town Southern lawyer who epitomizes the ideal human qualities of goodness, tolerance and decency. Celia Keenan-Bolger, best remembered for 'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' but grown up now, is smart, funny, and entirely convincing as Scout, Atticus's precocious 6-year-old daughter and the narrator of the story. The rest of the large and very fine cast perform their parts with all their hearts, under Sher's impeccably fine-tuned direction.

To Kill a Mockingbird review – Aaron Sorkin spellbinds Broadway

It's here that Sorkin has most directly intervened, expanding the roles of Tom Robinson (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Atticus's black housekeeper, Calpurnia (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), so that the white voices aren't the only ones heard. These moves can't really disguise a story about a white savior who sees more and knows more than the people around him. (White saviors - lawyers, newsmen, a president - are big with Sorkin.) The gestures toward the present day - mostly reminders that racism stems from feelings of inequality and economic insecurity - aren't especially necessary or helpful.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' on Broadway: Harper Lee's story is dragged into the present by Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin's genuinely radical and thoroughly gripping new Broadway adaptation of this iconic novel - which opened Thursday night at the Shubert Theatre with Jeff Daniels in the starring role - has no truck with the heroic image of Atticus, his wide-eyed daughter Scout and the famous Finch briefcase, a stand-in for the slow march toward justice, all striding together into a new American dawn. No siree. Sorkin has written a 'Mockingbird' that fits this riven American moment. And the director, Bartlett Sher, has felt little need to assuage with sentimentality.

Aaron Sorkin modernizes, Sorkin-izes To Kill a Mockingbird: EW review

The answer to that question, after seeing the lush new production at New York's historic Shubert Theater, feels like an impressed, qualified yes. While Lee's vivid snapshot of the Great Depression-era Deep South is its own valuable time capsule, the shifting sands of race and justice in America (and all the things that haven't changed, depressingly, in the more than eight decades since) is well served by at least some new perspective. And the Emmy- and Oscar-winning Sorkin - ratatat duke of dialogue, reigning king of the walk-and-talk - does feel like a smart choice to drag it all into the 21st century.

'To Kill a Mockingbird' review: More legal thriller than coming-of-age story

What's missing from Aaron Sorkin's new adaptation is the novel's vividly described community, or the sense that the story is just as much about Scout's coming of age as it is about the crusade by Atticus, her father. Sorkin (the writer behind 'The West Wing' and 'The Social Network,' among others) has made his play a John Grisham-esque legal thriller revolving around a charismatic man. Atticus may now show hints of trouble and doubt, but he's still the moral lighthouse guiding Maycomb, Alabama.

Theater Review: Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird Adaptation Walks the Walk

Bartlett Sher and his designers have created a shifting, breathing, gorgeously orchestrated world, and while the top-billed Jeff Daniels is indeed lighting up the stage as the story's iconic lawyer, every member of the ensemble shines alongside him. As a company, under Sher's careful and majestic direction, they are incandescent.

Aaron Sorkin’s Radical Remake of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’

Daniels' Atticus is folksy and ruffled, without Peck's idealistic though hardened eye. He keeps his head down. He doesn't want to confront anything. Daniels plays him as a man in eternal retreat, even if he is confronting racism in its most dangerous form. Daniels' Atticus is there and also absent, while everyone around him wants him to look up, be present, take a more obvious stand.

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Broadway Review: Aaron Sorkin Revisits Harper Lee’s Classic

Where Sorkin succeeds is in getting us to rethink an American classic without any fussiness or archness. Director Bartlett Sher, who's best known for his Tony-winning work on big musicals like 'South Pacific' and 'My Fair Lady,' strikes the right balance between the epic and the intimate. And he smartly mimics the breakneck pace of Sorkin's film and TV projects, cramming Lee's large and sprawling story in a production that runs just over two and a half hours but seem to just fly by. Despite its infelicities, this 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is crackerjack entertainment.

‘Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a New Play by Aaron Sorkin’ and ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ Reviews: Perils and Perks of Reworking Classics

Christopher Sergel's workmanlike 1991 stage adaptation of 'Mockingbird,' a regional-theater staple that I saw done three years ago by Florida's Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, is both truer to the book and far more dramatically effective. Moreover, that company's small-scale staging, sensitively directed by Thomas Ouellette, was superior in every way to Bartlett Sher's overblown, over-designed Broadway version, which is devoid of credible local color (hardly anybody on stage acts or sounds as if they've ever traveled much farther south than Cleveland). Mr. Daniels, a fine actor whom I suspect has been disserved by his director, paints Atticus with the coarsest of brushes, though the sad truth is that save for Adam Guettel's homespun incidental music and a handful of strong performances, most notably by Mr. Akinnagbe and Dakin Matthews, who plays the judge, nothing about this 'Mockingbird' is any good at all. Shame on Harper Lee's estate for letting it happen.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - review

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those books that almost everyone reads at some point in their lives. Whether you've been forced to read it at school, or you've had a look because everyone's been urging you to, most people have their own personal experience of reading Mockingbird.

The book is about Atticus Finch, who appears as an unconventional hero and role model due to his morality rather than his physical capabilities. The theme of morals is apparent throughout the whole novel, especially in relation to religion and perception of sin. Take Mrs Dubose, a recovering morphine addict: she vows that she'll die beholden to nothing and nobody. She's pursuing her own dream of being a free human being because she knows deep down that it's right.

To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on that gut instinct of right and wrong, and distinguishes it from just following the law. Even the titular quote: "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" is in itself an allegory for this message. Being in itself a generic message, the idea of 'doing what's right' obviously has a different meaning depending on when and where you're reading the book. If you take 1960, when the book was written, America was in a state of ethical development as social inequality was - very - gradually being overcome. Women's rights and black rights movements were beginning to emerge and some campaigned through violence. Would Atticus Finch condone this?

In the 1930s, when the book was set, America was in the midst of the Great Depression. This was a time when economic difficulties meant that the American Dream was receding further and further away. We could consider that Atticus Finch felt that his own dream of an equal, morally decent society was also heading in the wrong direction.

Without denying the constancy of the moral message, and the pure ingenuity of the book, it's still open to debate whether, as with all classics, schoolchildren should be forced to read the novel and go over it page-by-page. The beauty of literature and the reason why I love it so much is that a writer must eventually relinquish the meaning of his or her book. Therefore everyone who reads it can take something out of it which no one has before. I find that a beautiful notion myself, but it seems that looking for these life lessons has become a less and less popular exercise as the years have gone by. Let it not be forgotten that a true piece of literature, like To Kill a Mockingbird, is meaningful in every period and that today, Atticus Finch's message should be heard in the midst of all the global conflicts that we hear of on the news every night.

To think that children are suffering across the world because of a tyrannical regime or an unfair justice system is a depressing notion, and I think a modern Atticus Finch would agree. I don't think he would be comfortable knowing that innocent lives were suffering because of inequality. Atticus would now be defending issues that Harper Lee did not consider when writing the book, such as gay and lesbian rights, because what is at the heart of his character is an acceptance of who people are. That is a moral standpoint that you can hold whoever you are or wherever you are born. Atticus Finch is not xenophobic or homophobic. He's not racist or sexist. He's human and he sees everyone else in the same way. Who knows? Maybe Atticus Finch would even be an animal rights supporter.

Should it be analysed, taught in schools and pulled to pieces? I can't say, but what I will say is I'm not against anyone reading for the sake of reading. I've read many a book which I've enjoyed, put down and never thought about since. But I honestly feel that Mockingbird is a book which should be read, be it in school or in adult life (or both), without complete and utter absorption. It's a book with so many layers of meaning that you can get so much out of it. I for one know that To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that really has changed my life and that every time I go back over it, I find something new that I assimilate into my own code of ethics. Going over it, whilst being an arduous task, was in the long run worth all the time it took, and plenty more besides.

I would really advise picking up a copy of Harper Lee's magnificent novel and giving it a try. Because whatever happens, it will never stop being a good book, and it will never stop inspiring good people.

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

GENERAL FICTION

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by Harper Lee

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A LITTLE LIFE

by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015

The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

Yanagihara ( The People in the Trees , 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.

Pub Date: March 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8

Page Count: 720

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015

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by Hanya Yanagihara

PERSPECTIVES

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen ) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS AND SEYMOUR

by J.D. Salinger

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To Kill a Mockingbird review — Rafe Spall is stunning in new take on classic

Rafe Spall brings a restless, folksy intensity to the central role of Atticus Finch

★★★★☆ Hats off to Aaron Sorkin. While the official title may be Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird , this captivating drama is very much Sorkin’s take on a story that has become embedded in the consciousness of generations of readers. And in the central role of the Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch, Rafe Spall gives a stunning portrayal of a man whose old-school principles of decorum and civility may not be enough to tackle the poison lurking in his home town.

The poetry of Lee’s novel still finds a way into this complex, intertwined narrative. (Miriam Buether’s ever-shifting, multi-functional set evokes the 1930s as eloquently as the dialogue.) What Sorkin and Bartlett Sher, the director, have done, though, is shift the focus to the crucial

Review of To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Jeff Daniels, on Broadway

A regrettably sour note has hung over this new Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Shubert Theatre , when the theatrical rights for an adaptation of Harper Lee 's historic novel were assigned to it by Lee and subsequently her estate (who then challenged the version produced by playwright and television writer Aaron Sorkin that led to litigation that was settled in court).

But the producer Scott Rudin in turn threatened other planned productions of a previous long-established version with litigation to stop them. These included a UK national tour based on its last London production at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park in 2013 that had been announced months earlier, and was summarily cancelled on the eve of its opening; and American regional stock and amateur productions that were similarly affected (but offered the rights by Rudin to re-rehearse and present his new version).

Of course a producer wants to both protect and maximise his own investment in a property he's acquired, but it all got very messy as the other companies had all secured the rights in the previous version in good faith, and were innocent parties to a dispute between a David-and-Goliath battle of now rival versions.

Given that the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel it is based on is about ensuring justice is done, there was a certain dramatic irony in the perceived injustices that resulted (heartbroken child actors were reported to have written to Rudin when the production they'd rehearsed was cancelled).

Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning story revolves around an intensely moral lawyer Atticus Finch who takes on the defence of a black man falsely accused of raping a young white woman in rural 1930s racially divided Alabama. Sorkin -- who famously scripted " The West Wing " -- is certainly good at illuminating the behind-the-scenes machinations of the legal process here, both official and unofficial, including a quiet home visit from the presiding judge and a less quiet attempt by the woman's father to attack Finch (and also to take part in an attempted lynching of his client).

Sorkin and his director Bartlett Sher stage it primarily as a scorching courtroom drama, folding it seamlessly with scenes from Finch's home life as his two worlds collide.

Given the rise of white nationalism in Trump's America, a lot of this feels very current. But it also makes for gripping, seriously absorbing theatre. A top-flight Broadway cast, led by the grave but sympathetic Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch, also features solid support from Celia Keenan-Bolger and Will Pullen as his children, Gideon Glick as their best friend Dill, LaTanya Richardson Jackson as housemaid and confidant Calpurnia, Gbenga Akinnagbe as the defendant Tom Robertson and Frederick Weller as the victim's father.

Two live musicians, seated on either side of designer Miriam Buether's atmospherically detailed stage, play Adam Guettel's alternately folksy and ominous score, to underscore and frame the action.

Now carrying an advance ticket sale of over $20million, To Kill a Mockingbird is slaying Broadway -- and looks like it could be around for a long stay, not the usual 12-16 weeks that most plays get.

(Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Originally published on Jan 25, 2022 19:46

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To kill a mockingbird, common sense media reviewers.

Classic novel examines American racism and justice.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Author Harper Lee offers a snapshot of small-town

Atticus Finch tells Scout, "You never really under

Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout's father, courageousl

A drunk breaks a kid's arm. A man is killed with a

Frequent use of "damn," one "bastard," and one "so

Mr. Raymond drinks Coke (though others think it's

Mrs. Dubose is secretly addicted to morphine. A ma

Educational Value

Author Harper Lee offers a snapshot of small-town life in Alabama during the 1930s, including views about race and some information about events taking place in Europe leading up to world War II. Readers will also learn about 1930s gender roles, education, and divisions created by economic status.

Positive Messages

Atticus Finch tells Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view -- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Positive Role Models

Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout's father, courageously defends Tom Robinson in a town where racial prejudice is firmly entrenched. He risks not only public disapproval but also his own safety to make sure Tom receives as fair a trial as possible. He imparts many lessons to his children verbally, but his actions speak loudest, teaching them empathy, and to judge people by their actions rather than by the color of their skin.

Violence & Scariness

A drunk breaks a kid's arm. A man is killed with a knife. Atticus and his children face down a lynch mob in the middle of the night. Town gossip includes a story about a man stabbing a family member with scissors. A rabid dog is shot in the street. The trial at the center of the story involves a man accused of raping and beating a woman. A prisoner is shot trying to escape.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent use of "damn," one "bastard," and one "son-of-a-bitch." The "N" word and "('N'-word)-lover" is used liberally by some residents of Maycomb as if it's perfectly commonplace, and by others as a weapon.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Mr. Raymond drinks Coke (though others think it's liquor) and gives some to Dill. Jem eats a Tootsie Roll.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Mrs. Dubose is secretly addicted to morphine. A man named Dolphus Raymond is believed to be the town drunk, because he drinks something hidden in a paper bag, but it turns out to be a bottle of Coca-Cola. Bob Ewell is said to spend his relief checks on green whiskey, letting his children go hungry. Scout smells stale whiskey on a man's breath.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Harper Lee 's 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird addresses the terrible impact of racism in America through a little girl's point of view. The story takes place in Depression-era Alabama, in the fictional town of Maycomb, which Lee patterned after her own hometown of Monroeville. The narrator, 6-year-old Scout Finch, and her brother Jem and their friend Dill play children's games, but they also have a clear view of the adults in their world. Their youth and innocence contrasts with the prejudice, cruelty, and poverty they often observe. There's some threatened and real violence in this Pulitzer Prize winner: A man breaks a child's arm; a rabid dog is shot and killed; there is a stabbing death; the children and their father, Atticus Finch, confront a lynch mob; and the court case at the center of the novel involves a Black man who's been accused of raping and beating a white woman. Some of this violence is whiskey-fueled, as well. Profanity includes "damn," "bastard," and "son-of-a-bitch." The "N" word and "('N'-word)-lover" is used liberally by some residents of Maycomb as if it's perfectly commonplace, and by others as a weapon. The children in the novel learn powerful lessons about the impact of poverty and prejudice, and the importance of empathy, and so will those who read this classic. The 1962 film version starring Gregory Peck is one of those rare films that truly does justice to the original book. The audiobook read by Sissy Spacek is also note-perfect.

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Community reviews.

Parents say (27)
Kids say (167)

Based on 27 parent reviews

So many levels to enjoy this book

What's the story.

Growing up in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, Scout Finch -- the narrator of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD -- and her brother, Jem, are being raised by their widowed father, Atticus. Some interesting characters live on their street, both seen and unseen. Dill Harris comes to stay with Scout and Jem's next-door neighbor Rachel Haverford every summer, and the three children develop a close friendship. Elderly Mrs. Dubose shouts insults at the neighbors from her porch. Miss Maudie offers the children friendly advice and baked goods. The young Finches are scared of the Radleys' house, as creepy stories are circulated about Mr. Radley and his sons, especially Arthur, also known as Boo. The children enjoy re-enacting make-believe versions of the stories they've heard about Boo. Scout goes through some growing pains in the story, as her first day of school goes poorly and Jem becomes less willing to play with his little sister. Atticus encourages his daughter to exhibit empathy and patience with others, and he warns both his children that tough times may be coming to their little family; they may hear things that upset them, and he wants them to keep cool. The children learn that Atticus, an attorney, has taken the case of a Black man who has been accused of raping and beating a White woman. The events that unfold surrounding the trial and its aftermath teach the children a lot about their father's inner strength and wisdom, and the effects of racism and poverty on their community.

Is It Any Good?

Told through the eyes of a child, Harper Lee's magnum opus may seem to take a simplistic point of view, but Scout's world is rich and complex. And the author doesn't stint when it comes to the realities Black people face in a racist society -- and the pressures that poverty puts on the Maycomb community. All of that said, Lee's story is about a White family and is told from a White perspective. The reader learns much about the history of the Finch family and very little about Tom Robinson's life other than what's revealed through Scout and her father. This is a beautifully written book, with important lessons to teach, but readers should also be encouraged to read great writing by Black Americans, such as Richard Wright and Toni Morrison .

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the prejudice exhibited by some characters in To Kill a Mockingbird . Could this story take place today? How have American attitudes about race changed since the 1930s? How have they remained the same?

This story is told through the eyes of a little girl. What does the author achieve by making Scout the narrator? How does this affect the way the story unfolds?

What does Boo Radley represent in the story? Why do you think the children enjoy re-creating stories they've heard about him?

Book Details

Author : Harper Lee
Genre : Literary Fiction
Topics : Activism , Brothers and Sisters , Friendship , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Time Warner Books
Publication date : July 11, 1960
Publisher's recommended age(s) : 11 - 18
Number of pages : 281
Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated : August 11, 2020

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‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ wrestles with the past while seeking its place in the present

If written today, the work couldn’t be produced. it’s actually only because of its deep-rooted place in american culture that it’s worth doing, as aaron sorkin’s new adaptation attempts to articulate..

Atticus Finch (Richard Thomas, center) ponders the next question for the plaintiff Mayella Ewell (Arianna Gayle Stucki, left) in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” now playing at the Nederlander Theatre.

Julieta Cervantes

Atticus Finch, a beloved character in Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” most famously played by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film of the same name, has for over half a century been considered a paragon of virtue.

But should he, in today’s parlance, be canceled?

Playwright Aaron Sorkin’s new adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” — now playing in an impeccably produced national tour replete with an extraordinary ensemble cast led by Richard Thomas as Atticus — toys with that question.

The answer: Yes and no.

In the bigger picture, we should also wonder if that is really the right question to ask.

In Sorkin’s take on the story of a white lawyer who agrees to defend a Black man accused of raping a white woman in the Jim Crow South, Atticus remains the embodiment of civility, working hard to see the very best in everyone.

But that kindness also seems a willful, almost absurd blindness to the depth of racial hatred his “friends and neighbors” harbor. Even his own kids sometimes have doubts about his gradualist, even accommodationist, views. He’s a good man, and a naïve one. He may well be part of the problem, even though he is so effective at articulating it: “We can’t go on like this,” he pleads in his closing argument. “We have to heal this wound or we will never stop bleeding.”

That double-sided quality to Atticus is not the only challenge involved with producing this play in contemporary times. Sorkin, to keep even within the core universe of the original (and the Lee estate sued him over relatively small liberties before resolving the matter), can’t write his way out of the fundamental issue that will forever make it problematic.

A Southern white lawyer Atticus Finch (Richard Thomas) defends Tom Robinson (Yaegel T. Welch), a Black man accused of raping a white girl in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”|

It’s not just the very frequent use of the “n” word — that’s a whole other dispute that is fully essayable. In the end, this was and is a story centering on a trial of an unjustly accused Black man, and the hero is the white savior lawyer, all told through the innocent view of his daughter’s coming of age and discovering prejudice and injustice. The entire conceit is a giant pat on the back for waking up to evil in the world.

In the meantime, the Black characters, the victims of the evil, are both aesthetically as well as socially subservient. Sorkin does significantly up the involvement of Atticus’s housekeeper Calpurnia to give some voice, in this case a sardonic one, but wow is it a liberal fantasy view of domestic servant relations.

To be clear. I love this show. Simultaneously, I wonder if perhaps I shouldn’t.

If written today, the work couldn’t be produced. It’s actually only because of its deep-rooted place in American culture that it’s worth doing, but requires some form of critical distance to avoid both irrelevance and offense.

Exactly “some” form of critical distance is definitely here, in both the writing and direction. But it remains an authorized distance, with a commercially savvy sheen.

With that limitation in mind, it should also be said that if you are looking for pure theatrical craft, you can’t do better than what’s on stage.

Sorkin, always so skillful with a courtroom drama (where he started with “A Few Good Men”), begins directly with the trial and flashes back, emphasizing the memory aspect of the work but from a closer distance in time. He also spreads the narration out among the young characters to avoid too monotonous a voice.

The production, directed by Bartlett Sher, is beautiful visually and inventively graceful in how characters move through and around the wall-less scenery designed by Miriam Beuther. Adam Guettel provides a winsome score that perfectly expresses the sad — but not TOO sad! — tone.

Atticus (Richard Thomas) has a heart-to-heart with his daughter Scout (Melanie Moore) on the front porch of their home in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”|

And then there’s the acting, which is so compelling and moving that it pulls you deeply into the tale no matter how much careful resistance you want to maintain. Thomas, who has been American wholesomeness personified since his days as TV’s John-Boy Walton, doesn’t hesitate to let us see the negative dimension of that very quality. The kid characters Scout (Melanie Moore), Jem (Justin Mark) and Dill (Steven Lee Johnson) are all played by adults who use wonderfully specific physicality to indicate youthfulness but recognize that their language is too knowing to be age-appropriate and don’t force it. It all comes across with complete authenticity.

As Calpurnia, Jacqueline Williams, a familiar face to Chicago audiences, rolls her eyes and controls her words in a way that comes off as both comic and complex. As the defendant Tom Robinson — the victim of what is in the end a tragic story — Yaegel T. Welch is the essence of human nobility and ultimately far more aware than Atticus himself.

As the unabashed racist Bob Ewell, Joey Collins expertly connects humiliation and vitriol. And as his daughter Mayella, Arianna Gayle Stucki explodes from a whisper into a racist rant so explosively that it generates (uncomfortable) applause for its performative excellence.

The sad part about all this is of course what it says about America today, because a decade ago it might have been different. Today, The Ewells of the country are ascendant in power.

Maybe the best we can wish for is that the flawed Atticus Finches will once again drive the national narrative.

That would be problematic and wrong. And an improvement.

The best books set in all 50 states

Posted: March 13, 2024 | Last updated: March 13, 2024

<p>Published in 1972, <a href="https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read/bless-me-ultima"><em>Bless Me, Ultima</em></a> is Rudolfo Anaya’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, often hailed as a leading example of Chicano literature. The book is set in rural New Mexico of the 1940s and tells the story of a boy who makes his way through the challenging American landscape of World War II, guided by a <em>curandera</em> (spiritual healer).</p> <p>Anaya himself was raised in a rural New Mexico community, with a <em>vaquero</em> (cowboy) father, and under the strong influences of both the Catholic church and spiritual healers.</p>

When traveling on holiday in the United States, you might be tempted to send the folks at home a postcard. But why not give them a book about the place instead? A good novel or true story set in a particular state can capture the locale, people, climate of the times, and social forces at play better than anything else. So whether it is a classic like To Kill a Mockingbird or a celebrated modern debut such as On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, here are the 50 books for 50 states that should be on your list of must-reads.

<p>While writer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harper-Lee">Harper Lee</a> didn’t have voluminous output, she secured her place in American literary history with this Pulitzer-winning classic on race and family set in Maycomb, Alabama. <em>To Kill a Mockingbird </em>follows lawyer Atticus Finch, as seen through the eyes of daughter Scout, as he defends a Black man accused of sexual assault on a white woman in the racially charged South during the Great Depression.</p> <p>The book’s ongoing relevance is measured by the number of recent <a href="https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/to-kill-a-mockingbird/#:~:text=After%20a%20mother%20complained%20to,teaching%20it%2C%20without%20following%20policy.">attempts to ban it</a> in U.S. schools (some successful), often because of its use of racial epithets.</p>

Alabama: To Kill a Mockingbird

While writer Harper Lee didn’t have voluminous output, she secured her place in American literary history with this Pulitzer-winning classic on race and family set in Maycomb, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird follows lawyer Atticus Finch, as seen through the eyes of daughter Scout, as he defends a Black man accused of sexual assault on a white woman in the racially charged South during the Great Depression.

The book’s ongoing relevance is measured by the number of recent attempts to ban it in U.S. schools (some successful), often because of its use of racial epithets.

<p>The bestselling book written by Jon Krakauer is based on the true-life mystery of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1845.Into_the_Wild">Christopher Johnson McCandless</a>, the scion of a well-heeled family who hitchhiked to the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. After bestowing $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoning his car and possessions, and chucking his old identity, McCandless was found dead and decomposing some months later by moose hunters. </p> <p>The 1996 book was turned into the 2007 film <em>Into the Wild,</em> directed by Sean Penn, and starring Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener. The Alaskan scenery also, of course, has a starring role.</p>

Alaska: Into the Wild

The bestselling book written by Jon Krakauer is based on the true-life mystery of Christopher Johnson McCandless , the scion of a well-heeled family who hitchhiked to the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley in Alaska. After bestowing $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoning his car and possessions, and chucking his old identity, McCandless was found dead and decomposing some months later by moose hunters.

The 1996 book was turned into the 2007 film Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn, and starring Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener. The Alaskan scenery also, of course, has a starring role.

<p><a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/barbara-kingsolver/bean-trees/">This 1987 novel</a> has been described as “a lovely, funny, touching and humane debut, reminiscent of the work of Hilma Wolitzer and Francine Prose.” <em>The Bean Trees </em>follows Taylor Greer as she hits the road to escape her rural Kentucky roots, picking up a three-year-old Native American girl named Turtle along the way. </p> <p>She finally ends up in Tucson, Arizona, and works in a tire-repair shop while she interacts with a colorful assortment of characters, including sanctuary workers, refugees, other former Kentuckians, social workers and spinsters, as she tries to find herself and get her 1955 Volkswagen roadworthy. Award-winning author <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B000APW2FQ/about">Barbara Kingsolver</a> herself grew up in rural Kentucky and spent two decades living in Tucson before moving to Virginia.</p>

Arizona: The Bean Trees

This 1987 novel has been described as “a lovely, funny, touching and humane debut, reminiscent of the work of Hilma Wolitzer and Francine Prose.” The Bean Trees follows Taylor Greer as she hits the road to escape her rural Kentucky roots, picking up a three-year-old Native American girl named Turtle along the way.

She finally ends up in Tucson, Arizona, and works in a tire-repair shop while she interacts with a colorful assortment of characters, including sanctuary workers, refugees, other former Kentuckians, social workers and spinsters, as she tries to find herself and get her 1955 Volkswagen roadworthy. Award-winning author Barbara Kingsolver herself grew up in rural Kentucky and spent two decades living in Tucson before moving to Virginia.

<p>Published in 1969, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/I-Know-Why-the-Caged-Bird-Sings"><em>I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings</em></a> recounts the life—from ages three to 16—of celebrated African-American writer Maya Angelou. At the beginning, Maya and her brother, Bailey, are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother, after the breakup of their parents’ marriage. There the author must cope with prejudice, and the pain of abandonment. </p> <p>Of the touching tale, <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Know-Why-Caged-Bird-Sings/dp/0345514408">writer James Baldwin</a> says, “<em>I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings</em> liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”</p>

Arkansas: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Published in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings recounts the life—from ages three to 16—of celebrated African-American writer Maya Angelou. At the beginning, Maya and her brother, Bailey, are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother, after the breakup of their parents’ marriage. There the author must cope with prejudice, and the pain of abandonment.

Of the touching tale, writer James Baldwin says, “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”

<p>Raymond Chandler’s novels featuring hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe capture the gritty underside of living in the City of Angels. In 1953’s <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/26047/the-long-goodbye-by-raymond-chandler/9780394757681"><em>The Long Goodbye</em></a><em>, </em>Chandler expresses a lot of venom for the 1950s lifestyle of the entitled wealthy in Hollywood, who believed the rules just didn’t apply to them. </p> <p>Marlowe deals with a rising body count, oily villains and glamorous dames using his gruff charm, hard fists, and hard drinking. He also loves to crack wise. <a href="https://www.bookey.app/quote-book/the-long-goodbye">For example</a>, “A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back.” </p>

California: The Long Goodbye

Raymond Chandler’s novels featuring hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe capture the gritty underside of living in the City of Angels. In 1953’s The Long Goodbye , Chandler expresses a lot of venom for the 1950s lifestyle of the entitled wealthy in Hollywood, who believed the rules just didn’t apply to them.

Marlowe deals with a rising body count, oily villains and glamorous dames using his gruff charm, hard fists, and hard drinking. He also loves to crack wise. For example , “A dead man is the best fall guy in the world. He never talks back.”

<p><em>The Shining </em>is horror-meister Stephen King at his best, with the story set in the isolated Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack Torrance is the new winter caretaker for the resort. He stays there with his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny. As the parents deal with their crumbling lives, their clairvoyant son senses the evil residing in the hotel. Much drama ensues.</p> <p><a href="https://stephenking.com/works/novel/shining.html">King recalls staying in the prototype for the resort,</a> the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park: “That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire-hose. . . . I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”</p>

Colorado: The Shining

The Shining is horror-meister Stephen King at his best, with the story set in the isolated Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack Torrance is the new winter caretaker for the resort. He stays there with his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny. As the parents deal with their crumbling lives, their clairvoyant son senses the evil residing in the hotel. Much drama ensues.

King recalls staying in the prototype for the resort, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park: “That night I dreamed of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire-hose. . . . I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in the chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind.”

<p>This <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/600633/on-earth-were-briefly-gorgeous-by-ocean-vuong/9780525562047">2019 debut novel</a> by American-Vietnamese writer <a href="https://www.oceanvuong.com/about">Ocean Vuong</a>, which made it onto the <em>New York Times </em>bestseller list, is the letter from a son, Little Dog, to his mother, who cannot read. Vuong was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Hartford, Connecticut in a working-class family of nail salon and factory laborers. </p> <p>Much of the novel is also set in Hartford, where the mother and son live in a tiny apartment in a rough section of town, with gunshots sometimes heard in the near distance.</p>

Connecticut: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

This 2019 debut novel by American-Vietnamese writer Ocean Vuong , which made it onto the New York Times bestseller list, is the letter from a son, Little Dog, to his mother, who cannot read. Vuong was born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Hartford, Connecticut in a working-class family of nail salon and factory laborers.

Much of the novel is also set in Hartford, where the mother and son live in a tiny apartment in a rough section of town, with gunshots sometimes heard in the near distance.

<p><a href="https://www.tripfiction.com/books/the-book-of-unknown-americans/">This 2014 novel</a> written by Cristina Henríquez shares the points of view of different immigrants from Mexico, Paraguay and Panama living in an apartment building in modern Delaware. Although they are mostly U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, they are often “treated like slaves, animals, and idiots because they are perceived as ‘wetbacks,’ ‘illegals,’ ‘lazy Mexicans,’ and other insulting stereotypes.” </p> <p>The main story is about the relationship between an outcast boy and a girl who is left brain-damaged and shunned because of an accident.</p>

Delaware: The Book of Unknown Americans

This 2014 novel written by Cristina Henríquez shares the points of view of different immigrants from Mexico, Paraguay and Panama living in an apartment building in modern Delaware. Although they are mostly U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, they are often “treated like slaves, animals, and idiots because they are perceived as ‘wetbacks,’ ‘illegals,’ ‘lazy Mexicans,’ and other insulting stereotypes.”

The main story is about the relationship between an outcast boy and a girl who is left brain-damaged and shunned because of an accident.

<p>Florida native and former journalist <a href="https://carlhiaasen.com/">Carl Hiaasen</a> uses wit and biting observations on life in the state, often taking aim at the entertainment behemoth Disney World in various guises. His 1986 <em>Tourist Season </em>is a mystery that <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/334705/tourist-season-by-carl-hiaasen/9780399587146"><em>GQ</em> calls</a> “one of the top 10 destination reads of all time.”</p> <p>The dark but funny story begins with a Shriners’ fez washed up on the shores of a Miami beach, followed by the discovery in a canal of a suitcase filled with the almost-legless body of the local chamber of commerce president. Locals try to keep the tourist-damaging discoveries under wraps while a reporter-turned-private investigator searches for the crocodile-bitten truth.</p>

Florida: Tourist Season

Florida native and former journalist Carl Hiaasen uses wit and biting observations on life in the state, often taking aim at the entertainment behemoth Disney World in various guises. His 1986 Tourist Season is a mystery that GQ calls “one of the top 10 destination reads of all time.”

The dark but funny story begins with a Shriners’ fez washed up on the shores of a Miami beach, followed by the discovery in a canal of a suitcase filled with the almost-legless body of the local chamber of commerce president. Locals try to keep the tourist-damaging discoveries under wraps while a reporter-turned-private investigator searches for the crocodile-bitten truth.

<p><a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/midnight-in-the-garden-of-good-and-evil-a-savannah-story-john-berendt/6698008">Based on a true story</a>, the book by John Berendt captures the gothic atmosphere, moss-dripping trees, historical squares, and colorful characters of Savannah, Georgia. The action revolves around the real case of Jim Williams, who was put on trial in 1981 for shooting to death his lover/employee Danny. Was it murder or self-defense? </p> <p>The cast of characters in <em>Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil </em>includes a redneck gigolo, a sharp-tongued Black drag queen, an aging and profane Southern belle, a recluse with a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in the city, and many others.</p>

Georgia: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Based on a true story , the book by John Berendt captures the gothic atmosphere, moss-dripping trees, historical squares, and colorful characters of Savannah, Georgia. The action revolves around the real case of Jim Williams, who was put on trial in 1981 for shooting to death his lover/employee Danny. Was it murder or self-defense?

The cast of characters in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil includes a redneck gigolo, a sharp-tongued Black drag queen, an aging and profane Southern belle, a recluse with a bottle of poison powerful enough to kill everyone in the city, and many others.

<p>The rom-com by writer Sarah Smith follows Nikki DiMarco, who quits her dream job to run a Filipino food truck with her mother on a Maui beach. Despite the idyllic location, trouble simmers when the local food scene turns out to be more competitive than imagined. The arrival of Callum James, a British food truck owner, turns the heat up and gives Tiva’s Filipina Kusina a run for her money.</p> <p>Given the nature of the literary form, one has to wonder if the rivalry between Nikki and Callum in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simmer-Down-Sarah-Smith/dp/1984805444"><em>Simmer Down</em></a> will turn into something else.</p>

Hawaii: Simmer Down

The rom-com by writer Sarah Smith follows Nikki DiMarco, who quits her dream job to run a Filipino food truck with her mother on a Maui beach. Despite the idyllic location, trouble simmers when the local food scene turns out to be more competitive than imagined. The arrival of Callum James, a British food truck owner, turns the heat up and gives Tiva’s Filipina Kusina a run for her money.

Given the nature of the literary form, one has to wonder if the rivalry between Nikki and Callum in Simmer Down will turn into something else.

<p>The title of this <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/222269/idaho-by-emily-ruskovich/">2017 debut novel</a>, written by Emily Ruskovich, tells you what you need to know about where it is set. The action takes place in the rugged mountains of northern Idaho, where Ruskovich herself grew up. The story is told from multiple perspectives, and looks at the lives of Ann and Wade (whose memory is failing), focusing on Ann’s attempts to find out about what really happened to her husband’s first wife and daughters. Hold onto your armchair. Shocks are in store.</p>

Idaho: Idaho

The title of this 2017 debut novel , written by Emily Ruskovich, tells you what you need to know about where it is set. The action takes place in the rugged mountains of northern Idaho, where Ruskovich herself grew up. The story is told from multiple perspectives, and looks at the lives of Ann and Wade (whose memory is failing), focusing on Ann’s attempts to find out about what really happened to her husband’s first wife and daughters. Hold onto your armchair. Shocks are in store.

<p>Writer Erik Larson deploys on-the-edge-of-your-seat storytelling techniques for his <a href="https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-devil-in-the-white-city-murder-magic-and-madness-at-the-fair-that-changed-america/">book</a> based on the true events of the 1893 World Fair in Chicago and the series of brutal murders that took place at the same time. Larson tells the story of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, architect of the “White City,” on which the fair was based; and Henry H. Holmes, a maniac who killed scores of Chicagoans lured to his torture-equipment-filled hotel for the fair.</p> <p>“By juxtaposing these widely disparate lives, the author exposes the dark side of a glittering era,” writes the National Book Foundation.</p>

Illinois: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Writer Erik Larson deploys on-the-edge-of-your-seat storytelling techniques for his book based on the true events of the 1893 World Fair in Chicago and the series of brutal murders that took place at the same time. Larson tells the story of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, architect of the “White City,” on which the fair was based; and Henry H. Holmes, a maniac who killed scores of Chicagoans lured to his torture-equipment-filled hotel for the fair.

“By juxtaposing these widely disparate lives, the author exposes the dark side of a glittering era,” writes the National Book Foundation.

<p>The 2013 novel by Karen Joy Fowler is about an ordinary Indiana family with three children—well, ordinary except that the youngest daughter is a chimpanzee. The premise is not quite as far-fetched as you may think; <em>We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves </em>is inspired by some real sources, including Winthrop and Luella Kellogg, Indiana University scientists who raised their baby son alongside a chimp for almost a year in the early 1930s.</p> <p>In the book, Dr. and Mrs. Cooke have a son called Lowell and two new daughters, Rosemary and Fern. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/karen-joy-fowlers-we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves/2013/05/28/6c45d214-c4a0-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html">Writes the </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/karen-joy-fowlers-we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves/2013/05/28/6c45d214-c4a0-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html"><em>Washington Post</em></a>: “Rosemary never stops talking; Fern never starts. But their parents have ‘promised to love them both exactly the same.’” </p>

Indiana: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

The 2013 novel by Karen Joy Fowler is about an ordinary Indiana family with three children—well, ordinary except that the youngest daughter is a chimpanzee. The premise is not quite as far-fetched as you may think; We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is inspired by some real sources, including Winthrop and Luella Kellogg, Indiana University scientists who raised their baby son alongside a chimp for almost a year in the early 1930s.

In the book, Dr. and Mrs. Cooke have a son called Lowell and two new daughters, Rosemary and Fern. Writes the Washington Post : “Rosemary never stops talking; Fern never starts. But their parents have ‘promised to love them both exactly the same.’”

<p>Worth buying for the title alone, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/10538"><em>The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid</em></a> tells the story of popular writer Bill Bryson growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s. Apparently Bryson liked to run around his house and neighborhood as a superhero, dressed in a towel/cape and old football shirt with a lightning bolt, ready to fly into action and defeat villains.</p> <p>The book evokes a happier time in a loving but eccentric family, when cigarettes, DDT and even nuclear fallout were considered not bad for you—and perhaps even good.</p>

Iowa: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

Worth buying for the title alone, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid tells the story of popular writer Bill Bryson growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s. Apparently Bryson liked to run around his house and neighborhood as a superhero, dressed in a towel/cape and old football shirt with a lightning bolt, ready to fly into action and defeat villains.

The book evokes a happier time in a loving but eccentric family, when cigarettes, DDT and even nuclear fallout were considered not bad for you—and perhaps even good.

<p>Instead of <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</em>, you might want to read a darker story set in Kansas: <em>In Cold Blood</em>. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/In-Cold-Blood-novel-by-Capote">celebrated nonfiction novel</a> by Truman Capote, published in 1966, tells the true story of murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. Using fictional storytelling techniques, the author recounts in dramatic form the killing of the family by two drifters, who are subsequently captured, tried and executed. The book helped catapult Capote to literary stardom.</p>

Kansas: In Cold Blood

Instead of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , you might want to read a darker story set in Kansas: In Cold Blood . The celebrated nonfiction novel by Truman Capote, published in 1966, tells the true story of murder of the Clutter family in Kansas. Using fictional storytelling techniques, the author recounts in dramatic form the killing of the family by two drifters, who are subsequently captured, tried and executed. The book helped catapult Capote to literary stardom.

<p>Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Beloved-novel-by-Morrison" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Beloved</em></a>, examines slavery and its traumatic aftermath. Set in rural Ohio after the Civil War, the novel chronicles the life of Sethe, a black woman who escaped from slavery. Sethe’s house in Ohio is haunted by the ghost of her baby, whose tombstone is marked with a single word: <em>Beloved</em>. Through a series of flashbacks, the reader follows Sethe from her time as a slave on a plantation called Sweet Home in Kentucky to her escape and the event that caused the death of her daughter.</p><p>First published: 1987</p>

Kentucky: Beloved

Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel takes place in the aftermath of the Civil War. While the main protagonist, Sethe, is abandoned by her sons and lives with her youngest daughter in Cincinnati, she is haunted by memories of when she was enslaved in Sweet Home, Kentucky.

The novel is based on the true story of Margaret Garner , who escaped with her family from slavery in the Bluegrass State to Ohio, in 1856. When arrested by U.S. marshals, Garner killed one of her daughters rather than letting her return to enslavement.

<p>After growing up on the Texas–Louisiana coast, <a href="https://www.jamesleeburke.com/about-jlb/">James Lee Burke</a> sets his most-famous novels in the bayous of Louisiana, featuring the haunted detective and sometimes alcoholic Dave Robicheaux, and his frequent collaborator in crime fighting, the beignet-loving Clete Purcell. </p> <p>While the level of Burke’s writing always transcended the crime fiction genre, his 2007 novel <a href="https://www.jamesleeburke.com/books/the-tin-roof-blowdown/"><em>The Tin Roof Blowdown</em></a> kicks it up a notch, containing one of the most vivid depictions anywhere of the Big Easy trying to survive the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, amid the floods, looting and power blackouts.</p>

Louisiana: The Tin Roof Blowdown

After growing up on the Texas–Louisiana coast, James Lee Burke sets his most-famous novels in the bayous of Louisiana, featuring the haunted detective and sometimes alcoholic Dave Robicheaux, and his frequent collaborator in crime fighting, the beignet-loving Clete Purcell.

While the level of Burke’s writing always transcended the crime fiction genre, his 2007 novel The Tin Roof Blowdown kicks it up a notch, containing one of the most vivid depictions anywhere of the Big Easy trying to survive the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, amid the floods, looting and power blackouts.

<p>The 2001 novel by Richard Russo won a <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/richard-russo">Pulitzer Prize</a> for its depiction of blue-collar life in the small Maine town of Empire Falls. <a href="https://www.pw.org/content/an_open_door_a_profile_of_richard_russo">Russo</a>, who has lived in the state with his family since the 1990s, tells the story of Miles Roby, who has slung burgers at the Empire Grill for about two decades, giving up his self-respect, marriage and future in the process.</p>

Maine: Empire Falls

The 2001 novel by Richard Russo won a Pulitzer Prize for its depiction of blue-collar life in the small Maine town of Empire Falls. Russo , who has lived in the state with his family since the 1990s, tells the story of Miles Roby, who has slung burgers at the Empire Grill for about two decades, giving up his self-respect, marriage and future in the process.

<p>With <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/james-a-michener/chesapeake/">about 100 characters</a> and spanning <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12661.Chesapeake?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=286cq5GlJd&rank=1">400 years</a>, <a href="https://lithub.com/here-are-the-biggest-fiction-bestsellers-of-the-last-100-years/6/">1978’s most popular book</a> probably wouldn’t be described as easy reading. The story follows the family of Edmund Steed as they inhabit their beloved Eastern Shore through settlement, the Revolutionary War and into modern America.</p>

Maryland: Chesapeake

The 1978 blockbuster by James Michener is a sweeping saga that covers about 400 years of history centered around Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The book includes the stories of Quakers and pirates, slaves and abolitionists. The journey starts in the early 1600s, when young Edmund Steed strives to escape religious persecution making the harrowing voyage across the ocean to the shores of the New World.

<p>Written by Lily King, who grew up in Massachusetts, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45289222"><em>Writers & Lovers</em></a> follows Casey Peabody after she arrives in the state, in 1997, in the wake of her mother’s death and a failed love affair. The former child prodigy is now a waitress in a Harvard Square restaurant and lives in a tiny apartment above a garage, where she works on a novel that’s been underway for six years. Peabody works hard to balance the conflicting demands of work and life.</p>

Massachusetts: Writers & Lovers

Written by Lily King, who grew up in Massachusetts, Writers & Lovers follows Casey Peabody after she arrives in the state, in 1997, in the wake of her mother’s death and a failed love affair. The former child prodigy is now a waitress in a Harvard Square restaurant and lives in a tiny apartment above a garage, where she works on a novel that’s been underway for six years. Peabody works hard to balance the conflicting demands of work and life.

<p>The <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/emily-henry/beach-read/">romantic novel by Emily Henry</a> tells the story of two writers of distinctly different genres of literature. They come together living as neighbors in North Bear Shores, a fictional location based on the Michigan towns of Holland and Saugatuck. Henry, who went to college in Michigan, has the two authors—January Andrews and Augustus Everett—accept the challenge of trying to write in the style of each other’s specialty: romance novels and “bleak literary fiction.” As they take a walk in each other’s shoes, a slow-burn romance arises.</p>

Michigan: Beach Read

The romantic novel by Emily Henry tells the story of two writers of distinctly different genres of literature. They come together living as neighbors in North Bear Shores, a fictional location based on the Michigan towns of Holland and Saugatuck. Henry, who went to college in Michigan, has the two authors—January Andrews and Augustus Everett—accept the challenge of trying to write in the style of each other’s specialty: romance novels and “bleak literary fiction.” As they take a walk in each other’s shoes, a slow-burn romance arises.

Minnesota: In the Lake of the Woods

Known as the “Walleye Capital of the World,” Lake of the Woods offers tens of thousands of miles of shoreline and waters dotted with islands. In Tim O’Brien’s 1994 novel , protagonists John and Kathy Wade stay in a cottage here following John’s disastrous campaign for the U.S. Senate, which he lost in a landslide.

Within days of their arrival, Kathy goes missing in the pristine wilderness. Was foul play involved? Or perhaps Kathy was scared off by her husband’s violence—he took part in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.

<p>The majority of William Faulkner’s novels were set in his native state of Mississippi. In <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Sound-and-the-Fury-novel-by-Faulkner"><em>The Sound and the Fury</em></a><em>, </em>three of the book’s four sections take place in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, in the early part of the 1900s. </p> <p>While Faulkner’s complicated, experimental style documenting the decline of the Compson family received a lukewarm reception when the book was first published in 1929, <em>The Sound and the Fury </em>went on to be acknowledged as one of the great novels of the 20th century.</p>

Mississippi: The Sound and the Fury

The majority of William Faulkner’s novels were set in his native state of Mississippi. In The Sound and the Fury , three of the book’s four sections take place in fictional Yoknapatawpha County, in the early part of the 1900s.

While Faulkner’s complicated, experimental style documenting the decline of the Compson family received a lukewarm reception when the book was first published in 1929, The Sound and the Fury went on to be acknowledged as one of the great novels of the 20th century.

<p>Named one of the <a href="https://gillian-flynn.com/">most influential books of the decade</a>, Gillian Flynn’s 2012 <a href="https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/2801/gone-girl"><em>Gone Girl </em></a>covers the strained marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne. After losing his job as a journalist, Nick returns broke to his hometown of North Carthage, Missouri. </p> <p>He opens a bar using some money from his wife, who resents her new life. When the couple celebrates their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing and the police are left trying to find the truth in conflicting stories. </p>

Missouri: Gone Girl

Named one of the most influential books of the decade , Gillian Flynn’s 2012 Gone Girl covers the strained marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne. After losing his job as a journalist, Nick returns broke to his hometown of North Carthage, Missouri.

He opens a bar using some money from his wife, who resents her new life. When the couple celebrates their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing and the police are left trying to find the truth in conflicting stories.

<p>In <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/500667.html"><em>A River Runs Through It</em></a><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/500667.html">,</a> author Norman Maclean shows his skill at lyrical description in the book’s opening: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen.”</p> <p>The 1976 novella by the Montana native offers memorable descriptions of life along Montana's Big Blackfoot River, combining fishing with matters of the heart.</p>

Montana: A River Runs Through It And Other Stories

In A River Runs Through It , author Norman Maclean shows his skill at lyrical description in the book’s opening: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen.”

The 1976 novella by the Montana native offers memorable descriptions of life along Montana's Big Blackfoot River, combining fishing with matters of the heart.

<p>The exciting <a href="https://www.harpercollins.ca/9780064401760/night-of-the-twisters/">young adult novel</a> published in 1984 takes place in the summer in tornado-prone Grand Island, Nebraska. When yet another tornado watch is issued, 12-year-old Dan Hatch and his best friend, Arthur, don't really pay much attention. Soon they are caught in blasting winds and the blaring of sirens, and they scramble to make it to an emergency shelter, knowing their ordeal is just beginning.</p> <p><em>Night of the Twisters, </em>written by Ivy Ruckman, won various literary awards and was loosely adapted in a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117179/">1996 made-for-TV movie</a>.</p>

Nebraska: Night of the Twisters

The exciting young adult novel published in 1984 takes place in the summer in tornado-prone Grand Island, Nebraska. When yet another tornado watch is issued, 12-year-old Dan Hatch and his best friend, Arthur, don't really pay much attention. Soon they are caught in blasting winds and the blaring of sirens, and they scramble to make it to an emergency shelter, knowing their ordeal is just beginning.

Night of the Twisters, written by Ivy Ruckman, won various literary awards and was loosely adapted in a 1996 made-for-TV movie.

<p>Also made into a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036244/">1943 film with Henry Fonda</a>, <em>The Ox-Bow Incident </em>provides a wrenching depiction of frontier life in the American West, under the threat of mob violence. The <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/The_Ox_Bow_Incident.html?id=wCTd1Z9sTq4C&redir_esc=y">book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark</a> was first published in 1940 and focuses on the lynching of three innocent men in Nevada, in the spring of 1885, providing an engaging meditation on vigilante justice.</p>

Nevada: The Ox-Bow Incident

Also made into a 1943 film with Henry Fonda, The Ox-Bow Incident provides a wrenching depiction of frontier life in the American West, under the threat of mob violence. The book by Walter Van Tilburg Clark was first published in 1940 and focuses on the lynching of three innocent men in Nevada, in the spring of 1885, providing an engaging meditation on vigilante justice.

<p>John Irving wears his pride of place in the book’s title: <em>The Hotel New Hampshire. </em>According to a <em>Time </em><a href="https://john-irving.com/the-hotel-new-hampshire/">magazine review</a>, “[The novel] is a startlingly original family saga that combines macabre humor with Dickensian sentiment and outrage at cruelty, dogmatism and injustice.”</p> <p>Irving himself was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11768">his 1981 novel </a>he uses black humor to depict an eccentric local family, the Berrys, who become pet-bear owners, befriend Freud (an animal trainer and vaudevillian; not the psychotherapist), and turn an abandoned girls’ school into the Hotel New Hampshire.</p>

New Hampshire: The Hotel New Hampshire

John Irving wears his pride of place in the book’s title: The Hotel New Hampshire. According to a Time magazine review, “[The novel] is a startlingly original family saga that combines macabre humor with Dickensian sentiment and outrage at cruelty, dogmatism and injustice.”

Irving himself was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, and in his 1981 novel he uses black humor to depict an eccentric local family, the Berrys, who become pet-bear owners, befriend Freud (an animal trainer and vaudevillian; not the psychotherapist), and turn an abandoned girls’ school into the Hotel New Hampshire.

<p>Judy Blume’s 1970 <a href="https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/features/book/are-you-there-god-its-me-margaret">coming-of-age novel</a> follows 11-year-old Margaret Simon as she moves with her Christian mother and Jewish father from New York to the suburbs of New Jersey.</p> <p><a href="https://judyblume.com/judy-blume-books/middle-books/middle-margaret/">Writes Blume</a>: “For the first time since I’d started writing, I let go and this story came pouring out. I felt as if I’d always known Margaret. When I was in sixth grade, I longed to develop physically like my classmates. I tried doing exercises, resorted to stuffing my bra, and lied about getting my period. And like Margaret, I had a very personal relationship with God that had little to do with organized religion.”</p>

New Jersey: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Judy Blume’s 1970 coming-of-age novel follows 11-year-old Margaret Simon as she moves with her Christian mother and Jewish father from New York to the suburbs of New Jersey.

Writes Blume : “For the first time since I’d started writing, I let go and this story came pouring out. I felt as if I’d always known Margaret. When I was in sixth grade, I longed to develop physically like my classmates. I tried doing exercises, resorted to stuffing my bra, and lied about getting my period. And like Margaret, I had a very personal relationship with God that had little to do with organized religion.”

New Mexico: Bless Me, Ultima

Published in 1972, Bless Me, Ultima is Rudolfo Anaya’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, often hailed as a leading example of Chicano literature. The book is set in rural New Mexico of the 1940s and tells the story of a boy who makes his way through the challenging American landscape of World War II, guided by a curandera (spiritual healer).

Anaya himself was raised in a rural New Mexico community, with a vaquero (cowboy) father, and under the strong influences of both the Catholic church and spiritual healers.

<p>Mark Helprin’s 1983 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12967"><em>Winter’s Tale</em></a> embraces magic realism to present a New York City of enhanced beauty and criminality. Against the backdrop of a city alive with light and energy, Irish burglar Peter Lake goes to rob a mansion on the Upper West Side only to find a young girl, Beverly Penn, who is dying and sleeps outside in the winter cold to reduce her fever. Because of his love for her, Lake is driven to try to stop time and bring back the dead.</p>

New York: Winter’s Tale

Mark Helprin’s 1983 Winter’s Tale embraces magic realism to present a New York City of enhanced beauty and criminality. Against the backdrop of a city alive with light and energy, Irish burglar Peter Lake goes to rob a mansion on the Upper West Side only to find a young girl, Beverly Penn, who is dying and sleeps outside in the winter cold to reduce her fever. Because of his love for her, Lake is driven to try to stop time and bring back the dead.

<p>Also released as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9411972/">a 2022 film</a>, <em>Where the Crawdads Sing, </em>by Delia Owens, is set in the marshlands off the North Carolina coast, and serves as both a murder mystery and coming-of-age tale. The chapters alternate between Kya (starting when she is a six-year-old girl) and the sheriff investigating the murder of Chase Andrews, whose body was found in a marsh.</p> <p>The <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/where-crawdads-sing">New York Journal of Books</a> warns that this is a riveting read: “Readers should set aside daily tasks, turn off cell phones, forget about laundry and possibly even eating once they start this story.”</p>

North Carolina: Where the Crawdads Sing

Also released as a 2022 film, Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens, is set in the marshlands off the North Carolina coast, and serves as both a murder mystery and coming-of-age tale. The chapters alternate between Kya (starting when she is a six-year-old girl) and the sheriff investigating the murder of Chase Andrews, whose body was found in a marsh.

The New York Journal of Books warns that this is a riveting read: “Readers should set aside daily tasks, turn off cell phones, forget about laundry and possibly even eating once they start this story.”

<p>Winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction, <em>The Round House, </em>by Louise Erdrich, takes place in an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It follows a boy whose mother has been the victim of a terrible crime. </p> <p>Of Erdrich’s body of work based around the North Dakota town of Argus, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/louise-erdrichs-the-round-house-proves-a-moving-novel-about-youth-maturity-and-family/2012/10/02/26e19cd2-0676-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html">the </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/louise-erdrichs-the-round-house-proves-a-moving-novel-about-youth-maturity-and-family/2012/10/02/26e19cd2-0676-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html"><em>Washington Post </em></a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/louise-erdrichs-the-round-house-proves-a-moving-novel-about-youth-maturity-and-family/2012/10/02/26e19cd2-0676-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_story.html">says</a>, “Few writers have done as much to help modern readers consider the position of Native Americans within a national culture that has denigrated, ignored and romanticized them. And yet her books never feel like a whip for right-thinking people to lash themselves with for the ill treatment of Indians.”</p>

North Dakota: The Round House

Winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction, The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, takes place in an Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It follows a boy whose mother has been the victim of a terrible crime.

Of Erdrich’s body of work based around the North Dakota town of Argus, the Washington Post says, “Few writers have done as much to help modern readers consider the position of Native Americans within a national culture that has denigrated, ignored and romanticized them. And yet her books never feel like a whip for right-thinking people to lash themselves with for the ill treatment of Indians.”

<p>Curtis Sittenfeld’s 2016 novel <em>Eligible </em>is a <a href="https://curtissittenfeld.com/books/eligible/">modern retelling of </a><a href="https://curtissittenfeld.com/books/eligible/"><em>Pride and Prejudice</em></a><em>. </em>The experimental take on Jane Austen’s classic involves different members of the Bennet family. Liz, a magazine writer, and Jane, a yoga teacher, leave New York for their old Cincinnati Tudor home after their father has a health scare. Younger sisters Kitty and Lydia are too occupied with CrossFit workouts and paleo diets to get a job.</p> <p>Mr. Bennett has one end in mind: to marry off his daughters, especially Jane, who is approaching 40. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome doctor and reality TV dating show contestant…</p>

Ohio: Eligible

Curtis Sittenfeld’s 2016 novel Eligible is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice . The experimental take on Jane Austen’s classic involves different members of the Bennet family. Liz, a magazine writer, and Jane, a yoga teacher, leave New York for their old Cincinnati Tudor home after their father has a health scare. Younger sisters Kitty and Lydia are too occupied with CrossFit workouts and paleo diets to get a job.

Mr. Bennett has one end in mind: to marry off his daughters, especially Jane, who is approaching 40. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome doctor and reality TV dating show contestant…

<p>In <a href="https://www.davidgrann.com/book/killers-of-the-flower-moon/"><em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em></a><em>, </em>writer David Grann looks at the real-life crimes committed against the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. In the 1920s the tribe members were the richest people per capita in the world, because of the oil reserves under their feet. But they began to be killed off one by one under mysterious circumstances, causing the newly formed FBI to investigate and exposing a chilling conspiracy.</p>

Oklahoma: Killers of the Flower Moon

In Killers of the Flower Moon , writer David Grann looks at the real-life crimes committed against the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. In the 1920s the tribe members were the richest people per capita in the world, because of the oil reserves under their feet. But they began to be killed off one by one under mysterious circumstances, causing the newly formed FBI to investigate and exposing a chilling conspiracy.

<p>The action of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/332613">Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel</a> takes place in the Oregon State mental hospital, ruled over by tyrannical Nurse Ratched. Her domination is threatened by the arrival of McMurphy, a trickster who opposes her despite the threats of sedation and electric shock therapy.</p> <p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ken-Kesey">The 1975 film of the same name</a>, starring Jack Nicholson, won Academy Awards for best picture, director, lead actor, lead actress, and screenplay. Kesey was educated at the University of Oregon.</p>

Oregon: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The action of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel takes place in the Oregon State mental hospital, ruled over by tyrannical Nurse Ratched. Her domination is threatened by the arrival of McMurphy, a trickster who opposes her despite the threats of sedation and electric shock therapy.

The 1975 film of the same name , starring Jack Nicholson, won Academy Awards for best picture, director, lead actor, lead actress, and screenplay. Kesey was educated at the University of Oregon.

<p>In her <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/lovely-bones">2002 debut novel</a>, Alice Sebold explores the terror and trauma of the murder of a young girl in chilling, straightforward fashion, drawing on her own experience being sexually assaulted as an 18-year-old freshman. Seybold also uses her experience growing up in suburban Philadelphia in <em>The Lovely Bones </em>setting.</p> <p><a href="https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/lovely-bones/analysis/setting#:~:text=The%20Lovely%20Bones%20is%20set,the%20experience%20for%20this%20novel.">Says Sebold</a>: “Who would have thought that the place I most despised growing up—where I felt like the weirdest freak and the biggest loser—would turn out to be a gift to me”</p>

Pennsylvania: The Lovely Bones

In her 2002 debut novel , Alice Sebold explores the terror and trauma of the murder of a young girl in chilling, straightforward fashion, drawing on her own experience being sexually assaulted as an 18-year-old freshman. Seybold also uses her experience growing up in suburban Philadelphia in The Lovely Bones setting.

Says Sebold: “Who would have thought that the place I most despised growing up—where I felt like the weirdest freak and the biggest loser—would turn out to be a gift to me”

<p>Jodi Picoult describes her 2004 book: “<a href="https://www.jodipicoult.com/my-sisters-keeper.html#more"><em>My Sister’s Keeper</em></a> examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another?” </p> <p>Taking place in the fictional town of Upper Darby, Rhode Island, the novel focuses on 13-year-old Anna, who seeks medical emancipation from her parents after she's pressured to donate her kidney to her dying sister Kate, who suffers from leukemia. The book was turned into <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078588/">a 2009 film</a>, starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin.</p>

Rhode Island: My Sister’s Keeper

Jodi Picoult describes her 2004 book: “ My Sister’s Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another?”

Taking place in the fictional town of Upper Darby, Rhode Island, the novel focuses on 13-year-old Anna, who seeks medical emancipation from her parents after she's pressured to donate her kidney to her dying sister Kate, who suffers from leukemia. The book was turned into a 2009 film, starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin and Alec Baldwin.

<p>Sue Monk Kidd <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18079776">blends fact and fiction</a> in her tale of Sarah and Angelina Grimke, two sisters from Charleston, South Carolina, who completely devote themselves to abolishing slavery and fighting for women's rights in the 19th century. The story is based on the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, with Kidd using her literary gifts to go beyond what is on record and fleshing out the interior lives of characters.</p> <p><em>The Invention of Wings </em><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/296241/the-invention-of-wings-by-sue-monk-kidd/9780143121701">earned effusive praise</a> upon its release in 2014: “Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world.”</p>

South Carolina: The Invention of Wings

Sue Monk Kidd blends fact and fiction in her tale of Sarah and Angelina Grimke, two sisters from Charleston, South Carolina, who completely devote themselves to abolishing slavery and fighting for women's rights in the 19th century. The story is based on the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, with Kidd using her literary gifts to go beyond what is on record and fleshing out the interior lives of characters.

The Invention of Wings earned effusive praise upon its release in 2014: “Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world.”

<p>The 1983 <a href="https://prairieedge.com/all-products/out-of-print-book-in-the-spirit-of-crazy-horse/">book by Peter Matthiessen</a> relates the story, set in South Dakota, of Leonard Peltier and “the FBI’s war on the American Indian Movement.” It covers what happened at Pine Ridge, providing a portrait of a violent era ranging from the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover through to the FBI shootout in 1975. The controversial political content led to the book being withdrawn from circulation for a while because of lawsuits.</p>

South Dakota: In the Spirit of Crazy Horse

The 1983 book by Peter Matthiessen relates the story, set in South Dakota, of Leonard Peltier and “the FBI’s war on the American Indian Movement.” It covers what happened at Pine Ridge, providing a portrait of a violent era ranging from the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover through to the FBI shootout in 1975. The controversial political content led to the book being withdrawn from circulation for a while because of lawsuits.

<p>Tennessee and the legend of Elvis Presley and Graceland are forever entwined. <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-guralnick/last-train-to-memphis/9780316206778/?lens=little-brown#:~:text=Last%20Train%20to%20Memphis%20takes,%2C%20professional%20associates%2C%20and%20friends."><em>Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley</em></a> by Peter Guralnick digs beneath the myth to get at the real musician and person. The writer draws on a decade of research and hundreds of interviews to give a compelling portrait of the man as well as the era and culture he left his mark on.</p> <p>“Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others,” writes Bob Dylan in a testimonial.</p>

Tennessee: Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley

Tennessee and the legend of Elvis Presley and Graceland are forever entwined. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick digs beneath the myth to get at the real musician and person. The writer draws on a decade of research and hundreds of interviews to give a compelling portrait of the man as well as the era and culture he left his mark on.

“Elvis steps from the pages. You can feel him breathe. This book cancels out all others,” writes Bob Dylan in a testimonial.

<p>This is <a href="https://www.cormacmccarthy.com/works/all-the-pretty-horses/">the first novel</a> in Cormac McCarthy's “Border Trilogy,” and focuses on the 16-year-old cowboy John Grady Cole who must leave the ranch after his grandfather dies and his mother sells the property. Cole convinces his friend Lacey Rawlins to ride with him to Mexico, to find a more traditional way of life than enjoyed in fast-changing Texas. Along the way, they run into Jimmy Blevins, “a dangerous young boy on a magnificent horse.” Adventures are had. </p> <p>The 1992 novel was turned into a <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/all-the-pretty-horses-2000">film released in 2000</a>, starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Lucas Black. </p>

Texas: All the Pretty Horses

This is the first novel in Cormac McCarthy's “Border Trilogy,” and focuses on the 16-year-old cowboy John Grady Cole who must leave the ranch after his grandfather dies and his mother sells the property. Cole convinces his friend Lacey Rawlins to ride with him to Mexico, to find a more traditional way of life than enjoyed in fast-changing Texas. Along the way, they run into Jimmy Blevins, “a dangerous young boy on a magnificent horse.” Adventures are had.

The 1992 novel was turned into a film released in 2000 , starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Lucas Black.

<p>The <a href="https://meadowparty.com/blog/2016/01/20/the-executioners-song/">true-story book</a> may be Norman Mailer’s greatest work, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1980 (even though it is not a work of fiction). Mailer used taped interviews with relatives, friends, lawyers, and law enforcement officials to reconstruct the crime and fate of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who sought his own execution in Utah. </p> <p>Gilmore had robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. He fought for the right to die in a system designed to put off execution as long as possible.</p>

Utah: The Executioner’s Song

The true-story book may be Norman Mailer’s greatest work, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1980 (even though it is not a work of fiction). Mailer used taped interviews with relatives, friends, lawyers, and law enforcement officials to reconstruct the crime and fate of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who sought his own execution in Utah.

Gilmore had robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. He fought for the right to die in a system designed to put off execution as long as possible.

<p>In her <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/131191">1953 memoir</a>, Shirley Jackson puts a warm spotlight on her family life in rural Vermont, where cars and furnaces break down, a bully awaits on the corner, and husbands are blissfully oblivious to all the work done by their wives. </p> <p>Jackson settled in North Bennington, Vermont, in 1945, and lived there until her death in 1965. She is best known for her 1948 <em>New Yorker </em>short story, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Lottery">“The Lottery,”</a> in which a small-town lottery winner is stoned to death for her ‘luck.’</p>

Vermont: Life Among the Savages

In her 1953 memoir , Shirley Jackson puts a warm spotlight on her family life in rural Vermont, where cars and furnaces break down, a bully awaits on the corner, and husbands are blissfully oblivious to all the work done by their wives.

Jackson settled in North Bennington, Vermont, in 1945, and lived there until her death in 1965. She is best known for her 1948 New Yorker short story, “The Lottery,” in which a small-town lottery winner is stoned to death for her ‘luck.’

<p>When traveling on holiday in the United States, you might be tempted to send the folks at home a postcard. But why not give them a book about the place instead? A good novel or true story set in a particular state can capture the locale, people, climate of the times, and social forces at play better than anything else. So whether it is a classic like <em>To Kill a Mockingbird </em>or a celebrated modern debut such as <em>On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, </em>here are the 50 books for 50 states that should be on your list of must-reads.</p>

Virginia: Razorblade Tears

S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears captures the tensions between races in Virginia, and between the conservative elements in the state and the LGBTQ+ community. The 2021 novel follows a Black and a white father, both with a checkered criminal past, who must work together to bring to justice the murderers of their two sons. The young men were married to each other and living in Richmond, and had been rejected by their now regretful dads.

<p>The novel written by David Guterson takes place in 1954, set on San Piedro, a fictional island off the coast of the state of Washington. <em>Snow Falling on Cedars </em>helps to examine <a href="https://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Reading%20the%20Region/Aggressive%20Regionalism/Commentary/16.html">the treatment of people of Japanese descent</a> in the Pacific Northwest, following World War II. </p> <p>The 1994 book opens with the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a struggling commercial fisherman who is accused of killing another fisherman over a land dispute. The trial must work its way through even though all the players have their visions clouded by their own particular beliefs.</p>

Washington: Snow Falling on Cedars

The novel written by David Guterson takes place in 1954, set on San Piedro, a fictional island off the coast of the state of Washington. Snow Falling on Cedars helps to examine the treatment of people of Japanese descent in the Pacific Northwest, following World War II.

The 1994 book opens with the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a struggling commercial fisherman who is accused of killing another fisherman over a land dispute. The trial must work its way through even though all the players have their visions clouded by their own particular beliefs.

<p><em>The Glass Castle </em>is Jeannette Walls’ 2005 memoir of life in a unique but dysfunctional family. The parents take the four children all over the country, trying to avoid financial debts. To escape the dad’s alcoholism, the mother takes the kids to their paternal grandparents’ home in <a href="https://www.shortform.com/blog/the-glass-castle-welch/">Welch, West Virginia</a>, driving there in a used car that continually breaks down and can’t go faster than 20 mph. </p> <p>The book spent <a href="https://bookstr.com/article/the-glass-castle-hits-no-1-on-usa-today-bestseller-list/">261 weeks</a> on the <em>New York Times </em>bestseller list.</p>

West Virginia: The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle is Jeannette Walls’ 2005 memoir of life in a unique but dysfunctional family. The parents take the four children all over the country, trying to avoid financial debts. To escape the dad’s alcoholism, the mother takes the kids to their paternal grandparents’ home in Welch, West Virginia , driving there in a used car that continually breaks down and can’t go faster than 20 mph.

The book spent 261 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

<p><em>American Gods</em>—Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel and subsequent TV series—tells about gods living on Earth who draw their power from people’s faith in them. As the old gods waned, new ones replaced them, reflecting popular aspects of U.S. culture, including a preoccupation with celebrities and recreational drugs. Gaiman’s life in Wisconsin shows its influence in his work. For example, the state’s otherworldly <a href="https://www.wpr.org/how-wisconsin-carousel-inspired-american-gods">House on the Rock carousel</a> helped to inspire his magical thinking.</p>

Wisconsin: American Gods

American Gods —Neil Gaiman’s 2001 novel and subsequent TV series—tells about gods living on Earth who draw their power from people’s faith in them. As the old gods waned, new ones replaced them, reflecting popular aspects of U.S. culture, including a preoccupation with celebrities and recreational drugs. Gaiman’s life in Wisconsin shows its influence in his work. For example, the state’s otherworldly House on the Rock carousel helped to inspire his magical thinking.

<p>Annie Proulx’s collection of Wyoming stories includes her crowning achievement, “Brokeback Mountain”—set on a fictional mountain in the state. The 1997 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Annie-Proulx#ref1282075">short story</a> tells the tale of two ranch hands, Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, who spend a summer tending sheep on a mountain while their friendship evolves into a sexual relationship. The romance becomes complicated by the attitudes of the times and their subsequent marriages to two women. </p> <p>“Brokeback Mountain” was developed into <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388795/">a critically acclaimed film</a> in 2005, directed by Ang Lee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams.</p>

Wyoming: Close Range

Annie Proulx’s collection of Wyoming stories includes her crowning achievement, “Brokeback Mountain”—set on a fictional mountain in the state. The 1997 short story tells the tale of two ranch hands, Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, who spend a summer tending sheep on a mountain while their friendship evolves into a sexual relationship. The romance becomes complicated by the attitudes of the times and their subsequent marriages to two women.

“Brokeback Mountain” was developed into a critically acclaimed film in 2005, directed by Ang Lee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams.

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Lots of People Love 'To Kill a Mockingbird ...
305 pp. St. Martin's Press. $26.99. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a book for which a great many people harbor reverence and nostalgia. I am not one of those people. Jean Louise "Scout ...
How 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Changed Their Lives
Feb. 19, 2016. Harper Lee's " To Kill a Mockingbird " has transported generations of readers to small-town Alabama in the 1930s and confronted them with a sobering tale of racial inequality ...
Readers Pick the Best Book of the Past 125 Years
Dracula by Bram Stoker. "Grabbing the dark corners of one's imagination for 125 years.". Eleanor Najjar, San Francisco, Calif. Cookbook. The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer. "It may be ...
Review: A Broadway 'Mockingbird,' Elegiac and Effective
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times. NYT Critic's Pick. ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" still had to be the story of the widower lawyer Atticus Finch (Mr. Daniels) bravely standing up to racism in ...
Harper Lee: Her Life and Work
Books. Harper Lee: Her Life and Work. By JOHN WILLIAMS and TAMARA BESTFEB. 19, 2016. Harper Lee, the beloved author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," died on Friday in her hometown of Monroeville ...
'Mockingbird' Reviews From 1960
A New York Times book review of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Herbert Mitgang in 1960. The New York Times. Michiko Kakutani's review of Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman" comes to us 55 years (in one case, to the day) after The Times offered its opinions of Ms. Lee's iconic debut, "To Kill a Mockingbird.". Exactly 55 years ago, Frank.
Letters to the Editor
'To Kill a Mockingbird' ... The New York Times Book Review, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018. The email address is [email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We ...
50 Years of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
As Julie Bosman reports, All summer "To Kill a Mockingbird" will be relived through at least 50 events around the country, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of a book that became a cultural touchstone and an enduring staple of high-school reading programs. Celebratory events are scheduled to run through September 22, 2010.
Column: 'To Kill a Mockingbird' was just named the best book from the
Following an entirely unscientific process, readers of the New York Times Book Review have chosen "To Kill a Mockingbird" as the "best book of the last 125 years." As for the ultimate ...
Read the very first reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird
-The New York Times Book Review, July 10, 1960 "All the magic and truth that might seem deceptive or exaggerated in a factual account of a small town unfold beautifully in a new first novel called To Kill a Mockingbird. At a time when so many machine-tooled novels are simply documentaries disguised behind a few fictional changes, it is ...
'To Kill a Mockingbird' Tops NYT Readers' Best List
Responses began pouring in from all 50 states and 67 countries. In November, we presented a list of the 25 most-nominated books (one per author) for a vote. After tallying more than 200,000 ballots, the winner, by a narrow margin, is …. Read Full Article ». Related Topics: New York Times , book reviews , Top 10 Lists , To Kill a Mockingbird.
Here's The New York Times' original 1960 review of To Kill a
In the July 13, 1960 paper, reviewer Herbert Mitgang dubs Mockingbird "a winning first novel by a fresh writer with something significant to say." Set in the 1930s in a fictional Alabama town, the ...
After Dispute, 'Mockingbird' Blends Novel's ...
Atticus Finch, the genteel white Alabama lawyer who agrees to defend a black defendant in a rape case, grabs a racist by the hair and threatens to break his arm. Calpurnia, the Finch family cook ...
Read TIME's Original Review of To Kill a Mockingbird
The publisher announced on Tuesday that the novel — which was actually written before Mockingbird — will be available on July 14. TIME's first review of To Kill a Mockingbird appeared in an ...
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Broadway Reviews
Without knowing any better, one might easily mistake the new stage adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer-winning 1960 novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird' for a revival of a classic Golden Age Broadway ...
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on that gut instinct of right and wrong, and distinguishes it from just following the law. Even the titular quote: "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ...
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the ...
To Kill a Mockingbird review
And in the central role of the Alabama lawyer Atticus Finch, Rafe Spall gives a stunning portrayal of a man whose old-school principles of decorum and civility may not be enough to tackle the ...
Review of To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Jeff Daniels, on Broadway
A regrettably sour note has hung over this new Broadway adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Shubert Theatre, when the theatrical rights for an adaptation of Harper Lee's historic novel were assigned to it by Lee and subsequently her estate (who then challenged the version produced by playwright and television writer Aaron Sorkin that led to litigation that was settled in court).
To Kill A Mockingbird
Aaron Sorkin Kills a Mockingbird, and Kelly Slater's Perfect Wave. The screenwriter and playwright on adapting a 1960 classic for the 2018 Broadway stage. And a lifelong surfer wonders whether ...
To Kill a Mockingbird Book Review
Kids say (167) age 12+. Based on 27 parent reviews. TxDad Parent of 9, 14 and 15-year-old. May 3, 2022. age 12+. An important book and one that shows the problems that plagued America. A child should be old enough to comprehend quite a few things before reading this book, or watching the movie.
'To Kill a Mockingbird' review: story wrestles ...
Atticus Finch, a beloved character in Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird," most famously played by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film of the same name, has for over half a century been ...
The best books set in all 50 states
To Kill a Mockingbird follows lawyer Atticus Finch, ... According to a Time magazine review, " ... The book spent 261 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.