MOTHER DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."
                            John Green, The Fault In Our Stars


This summer my daughter and I decided we would form our own book club.  If you are a reader then you know that one of the great pleasures of life is sharing a good book with someone else.  So who better to share good books with than my daughter!  We decided to begin our book club with To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I chose To Kill A Mockingbird for many reasons.  One reason is that it is a fantastic book. While this is my opinion, it is one agreed to by many people.  It has won a Pulitzer Prize and been voted "the best novel of the century" by librarians across the country.  "In a 1991 survey, the Library of Congress asked readers which book most influenced their lives.  Only the Bible outranked To Kill A Mockingbird.  It has sold an estimated forty million copies or more and been translated into three dozen languages." (from The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills).

More importantly, To Kill A Mockingbird deals with difficult issues such as social inequality, racism,  moral education and the co-existence of good and evil.  These can be difficult issues to discuss but it has become clear from recent events in the news that these conversations are more important than ever.

If I needed any other reason to choose this book for our first Mother Daughter Book Club selection it is what I found when I opened my copy of To Kill A Mockingbird.  

This is the note that my best friend wrote in the flyleaf when she gave it to me as Birthday gift in 2002.  It reads " To my dearest twin on her birthday, 2002 - Because it's one of my favorite books.   Because you're one of my favorite people.  Because everyone should own at least one copy.  Because in your heart, you're a writer.  Because I hope Zoe will grow up like Scout.  Because I wish I was Scout all grown up.  Because more than ever, we need to read books that deal with difficult issues such as racism, but even more importantly, show the power of love.  Love, Gwennie"  There could not have been a better affirmation than this!

On a lighter note, it's a bit cloudy here this morning but we decided to meet on the deck with our books and breakfast.

Although storms and a billion percent humidity (I may be over exaggerating ever so slightly) are forecasted for our area later today it is still a beautiful morning with a beautiful view.

At this point there is only one other member of our book club and that is my furry daughter, Izzy.  She is not much of a reader so she spent her reading time keeping our deck safe from chipmunks and squirrels.

This morning we both read the first chapter.  We talked about who Jem, Scout and Dill remind us of and how antiquated it is that the boys in the gang Boo Radley was once a part of were charged with "using abusive and profane language in the presence and hearing of a female."  The idea that boys and men once censored their own speech while in the presence of a girl or woman is a concept completely foreign to a 13 year old girl in 2015!

This first of many morning discussions with my daughter was a delight.  I can hardly wait to see where the book and conversations will take us next!

Happy Reading!
Missy