Faith, Folklore, and Friends

It has been big news--the announcement that a new Harper Lee book, Go Set A Watchman , will be released this summer.  There has been quite a stir from people who think Ms. Lee is being taken advantage of.  I wasn't there, so I won't comment on that, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to the book. I have read To Kill A Mockingbird several times, including the last time just a few weeks ago.  It never gets old, and I find new treasures every time I read it.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book: It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.   Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.  Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s...

We have head a lot about To Kill A Mockingbird this year. It is fifty years old now, which is something to be celebrated. I had it on my ‘to read’ list for this year, so when Amy at HopeistheWord.com issued a challenge to read the book in August, I knew it was the perfect time. To Kill a Mockingbird was relatively young when I read it the first time. An assignment in high school lit class; something that had to be done, where the only goal was to get to the end. I enjoyed it then. Now that I’m a little more mature and understand life somewhat better than I did then, I feasted on this fabulous book. TKAM was set in the thirties, but it could have easily have been decades later, since change came slowly then. Harper Lee made it so real, I can imagine the Radleys and the single ladies living in the neighborhood I grew up in. I can easily understand why the book is eternally young, even after it’s fiftieth birthday. The book is full of words that have been quoted extensively. I...