Meeting: October 22, 2015

We met at Annie's to socialize and discuss To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Annie provided delicious food and a cozy meeting environment. Annie, Christe, Jo, Judy, Julie, Linda, and Nanc attended. As usual, we socialized for a long time, including some taking a tour of Annie's little Scamp Trailer.

I forgot to take a photo from Annie's before it got dark, so I'm substituting this photo that I took down near Annie's a couple of years ago.

Annie and Judy reported that Sissy Spacek was the perfect narrator for Scout, and did a great job with all the other voices should anyone want to listen to the audio book in the future. It would seem that everyone enjoyed the nostalgic element in To Kill a Mockingbird and the way it depicted every day life of the era. Some of us remembered the creepy house in our neighborhood and using our imagination as we played so many hours outdoors. It's sad how different kids' lives are these days as technology has replaced imagination to some degree, and parental fears have limited outdoor exploits.

To Kill a Mockingbird had many layers.  The book eloquently depicted the injustices of life in the 1930's in the deep south.  It was a coming of age book that dealt with innocence and loss of innocence.  It dealt with racism, injustice, prejudice, and intolerance, while balancing it with courage, acceptance, hope, and the love between a father and his children.

After Scout's rocky first day of school, she and Atticus had a discussion:

“First of all,“ he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—"

“Sir?” 

“—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” 

Atticus said I had learned many things today, and Miss Caroline had learned several things herself.  She had learned not to hand something to a Cunningham, for one thing, but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part.  We could not expect her to learn all Maycomb’s ways in one day, and we could not hold her responsible when she knew no better.

Scout recounts Atticus' advice when she was confused about something that Jem told her:

“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts."

Miss Maudie explained to Scout why Atticus said it was a sin to kill a mockingbird.

“Your father’s right,” she said. “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 why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

After Jem had torn up Mrs. Dubose’s camellias because she had bad mouthed Atticus for defending Tom Robinson, Atticus sent Jem to speak to Mrs. Dubose, and then had a conversation with Scout.

“Atticus, you must be wrong….” 

“how’s that?” 

“Well, most folks seem to think they’re right and you’re wrong…” 

“They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience."

After Mrs. Dubose died, Atticus talks to Jem about her.

“I wanted you to see something about her — I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.  You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

This was a statement by Judge Taylor during Tom Robinson's trial that we should probably think about as we embark on the presidential election in this next year:

“People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for.”

If nothing else, this novel should be viewed positively for its role in raising public awareness of racial discrimination.

November meeting:

Movie : To Kill a Mockingbird

Location: Jo Smith's

Date: Thursday, November 19, 2015

Time: 6:30pm

Upcoming meetings:

December 2015: Holiday gathering
January 2016: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr at Judy Lee's
February 2016: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson at Christe Gillespie's

Books we've read so far:

January 2014 - Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
February 2014 - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
March 2014 - Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
April 2014 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
May 2014 - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
June 2014 - Breaking Free by Marilyn Sewell
July 2014 - The Orphan Train by Kristina Baker Kline
August 2014 - The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
September 2014 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
October 2014 - The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
November 2014 - The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
December 2014 - No book.  Holiday gathering.
January 2015 - No book.  Watched The Book Thief
February 2015 - The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
March 2015 - Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
April 2015 - The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
May 2015 - The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
June 2015 - The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
July 2015 - Still Alice by Lisa Genova
August 2015 - The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

September 2015 - Ruby by Cynthia Bond

October 2015 - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee