Summer Days and Time with Harper Lee

It is nearly bedtime. The dog has given up for the day; DH is listening to music because he is bored. I told him every piece of furniture in this house could use a dust rag, a load of his jeans are in the dryer, and the bathtub has a ring. He failed to get the point.

It has been over two weeks since I posted a thought, memory, or feeling on my blog. If I don’t do something tonight, I fear I might never return. My blog is feeling like a shoreline seen from an unmoored and free floating boat, the land is dimmer and soon will be out of sight. This has been one taxing and crazy summer. Rain, rain, rain…then high heat moving in making the humidity feel like the air is choking us. Even the dog would not go out…she hid out in the bathroom to avoid the sunny windows and sliding doors. Now this week the rain has returned, alternating a few hours each day of rain with a few hours of sun to be repeated the next day.

Add the weather to family needs and issues, most worrisome, and the national news which is demoralizing and depressing and it is hard to have much enthusiasm for these summer days. I refuse to record our problems here because they can’t hold a candle to those of others. I’m still looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, just have lost sight of the rainbow lately! I think if I could get some good sleep I could re-center myself once more.

Even my reading has been sparse. But this week I did get my copy of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. There is a lot of negative publicity about the book that I refuse to read. Overall I liked the book, although it isn’t what I call a light reading. I will share the spare review I wrote for Goodreads below, and then I will call it a night. As our dear Scarlett said, tomorrow is another day!

The book has some paragraphs that are vague or confusing; it has some pages that sound preachy. Still, the book with its imperfections is a greater read than many I have picked up for reading! Having read To Kill a Mockingbird was a great backstory for this book and helps this book read stronger I think, even though this story was written first. A great editor, numerous revisions, and a lot of work tightened TKAM up, and the same effort would have worked on this story.

The reader needs to remember not only the time of the book's setting, but also the time in which it was written. Many attitudes in the book are still floating around today and could use more examination decades later. The book is about bigotry and racism and narrow-mindedness, but it is also about growth, tolerance, and giving people room to make mistakes of all kinds. Scout is no longer a cute little kid; now she is young adult, stretching and reaching...and yes, a little overbearing at times.

I think the book is a great companion piece to the original...and I still like Atticus Finch--a lot!