"John Adams" - A Little Past the Halfway Mark

How is everyone doing with Mr. Adams? Anyone bogged down? Wondering how you'll ever finish it at all, let alone by the end of November? Whatever you do, don't worry over it. To reiterate, the idea behind this endeavor was to enlarge our sphere of reading and share the results with others in the family. Since we did not plan to suggest a book for December, you can of course continue reading Adams to your heart's content.

For those of you who are into the book far enough to have formed some opinions and ideas, have you learned something about that time period you didn't know before? Has anything in particular impressed you about John and Abigail or other significant participants in our country's beginning days?

If you find 750+ pages a bit overwhelming, consider checking to see if your library has an abridged version on CD or MP3. Mine did and I didn't feel like I missed anything significant.

Good luck and most of all, enjoy!

Bringing Mockingbird to A Close

True confession time: I just finished listening to the unabridged version of Mockingbird this morning. For me, the audible experience was quite compelling, giving Scout's voice a more authentic tone than I might have experienced by reading it. Did anyone else who listened to it vs. read it have a similar experience? If yes, what were your impressions?

I also had a chance to watch the movie on DVD. While I didn't find a skimming of "Cliff Notes" that helpful, its highlighting of the differences between the written vs. filmed versions was informative.

When preparing to launch our first book a few weeks ago, I came across a book club study guide for Mockingbird that included questions to enhance the reading experience. Two of the more than a dozen questions that caught my attention were:

1. What elements of the book did you find humorous, memorable or inspiring? Are there any characters whose actions or beliefs impressed or surprised you? Did any events lead you to revisit childhood memories or see them in a new light?


2. Scout ages two years, from six to eight, over the course of Lee's novel, which is narrated from her perspective as an adult. Did you find the account her narrator provides believable? Were there incidents or observations in the book that seemed unusually 'knowing' for such a young child? What event in Scout's story do you feel truly captures her personality?

Please respond to either or both questions. It has been suggested that in the future questions such as this be posted during the month to help focus the reading experience; we will do that going forward.

Miscellaneous Questions

Welcome to the blog!! We are excited to be starting this endeavor with all of you!

To start off, we wanted to get some feedback from you, our readers, on what you've been reading and what you enjoy. Our hope is that this will allow us to get to know each other a little bit better.

So...tell us about the last book you read and loved. And tell us why you loved it.

What book are you reading right this minute? (Besides "To Kill a Mockingbird".)

What book are you looking forward to reading? Where did you hear about it?

Again, welcome everybody and happy reading!