Library Borrow Review – Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee #harperlee #gosetawatchman

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I got lost in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, so I had to check out Go Set A Watchman. Go Set A Watchman didn’t hit me as hard as To Kill A Mockingbird, but I loved learning what happened to Jean Louis Finch, since she was the star of the show.

She returns home, after living in New York City, seeing Maycomb, Alabama in a new light. Sure, she has gotten older, but she has been away from the small town life. She had left behind her brother, father, and Henry, who patiently waited for her to return, believing they would be wed.

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

Jean Louis has done a lot of growing up, but her return gives her many life lessons, showing her that things are not always as they appear to be. Her father has never tried to influence her, and he does not try now. She will become her own person.

Every man’s island, Jean Louise, every man’s watchman, is his conscience. There is no such thing as a collective conscious.

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee did not hit me as hard as To Kill A Mockingbird, but I found so many words of wisdom in the pages, that I found myself nodding my head and thinking, well said. I feel both books should be must reads in English and History classes, for all high schools, North, South, East, and West.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos
4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

From Harper Lee comes a landmark new novel set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—”Scout”—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can be guided only by one’s conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

Genre: Classics, Contemporary and Literary Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 14, 2015

ABOUT HARPER LEE

Harper Lee, known as Nelle, was born in the Alabama town of Monroeville, the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who served on the state legislature from 1926 to 1938. As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and enjoyed the friendship of her schoolmate and neighbor, the young Truman Capote.

After graduating from high school in Monroeville, Lee enrolled at the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944-45), and then pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama (1945-50), pledging the Chi Omega sorority. While there, she wrote for several student publications and spent a year as editor of the campus humor magazine, “Ramma-Jamma”. Though she did not complete the law degree, she studied for a summer in Oxford, England, before moving to New York in 1950, where she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC.

Lee continued as a reservation clerk until the late 50s, when she devoted herself to writing. She lived a frugal life, traveling between her cold-water-only apartment in New York to her family home in Alabama to care for her father.

Having written several long stories, Harper Lee located an agent in November 1956. The following month at the East 50th townhouse of her friends Michael Brown and Joy Williams Brown, she received a gift of a year’s wages with a note: “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.”

Within a year, she had a first draft. Working with J. B. Lippincott & Co. editor Tay Hohoff, she completed To Kill a Mockingbird in the summer of 1959. Published July 11, 1960, the novel was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It remains a bestseller with more than 30 million copies in print. In 1999, it was voted “Best Novel of the Century” in a poll by the Library .

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Zombalicious – The Infected by Perry Prete @PerryPreteBooks #Zombies

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

First off, I LOVE THE COVER! I have been indulging in my need for an apocalyptic fix and The Infected by Perry Prete was a great addition to my binging. The Infected is an original take on a zombie apocalypse.

John awakens, not even remembering his name, as one of The Infected.

We meet Carrie Jordan when she is alone. She is a badass. She does what is necessary to survive. I thought I knew where this was going, but….

The humans rule the day, the zombies the night. I knew John and Carrie would have to come together at some point, seeing they are the main characters, but I didn’t anticipate how. Perry Prete is not afraid to kill any of his characters off, so, even though I came to like a couple of others and thought they might join up with Carrie, it was not to be.

We do have all the grossness of zombies, attacking and eating most anything they can get their hands on. Even mice, fox, and other animals became zombified. One of the grossest moments to me, was when Perry Prete had a zombie with their lip ripped off, and as the zombie attacked another, they didn’t realize they were eating their own lip. LOL People travel miles alone, sometimes meeting up in small groups for the protection it offered. Big groups did the normal, used and abused others they considered beneath them and disposable. Of course, The Walking Dead came to mind and made visualizing Carrie’s dilemma easy.

I had many notes in my ereader, but because I was surprised by the ending, I didn’t want to share too much. I didn’t see it coming and I want you to enjoy finding out for yourself. The ending deserves a star of it’s own and I LOVED IT! I could see it playing out in my mind. I was sad, angry, may have even cheered when….I love an author who writes with such mastery that the book comes to life right before my eyes. If you are looking for some zombies that are a little bit different, The Infected by Perry Prete is a must read.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Infected by Perry Prete.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos
4 Stars

GOODREAD BLURB

A virus infects the world, altering human DNA. The Infected live at night, humans during the day. Each group avoids the other, as humans search for an area free of The Infected until an unlikely bond occurs between the two.

  • Genre: Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, Zombies
  • 234 pages, Kindle Edition
  • Published July 4, 2022 by Sands Press

ABOUT PERRY PRETE

Perry Prete

Perry Prete is a Canadian crime writer and paramedic. His first novel, All Good Things, introduced us to Ethan Tennant, a City of Ottawa paramedic who looks at crimes from the medical perspective.

Perry continues to work full-time as a paramedic and uses his thirty plus years of life changing and sometimes dramatic experiences to bring realism to his gripping medical novels. His other works include, The Things That Matter Most and All Good Things.

He is also a business owner, specializing in the pre-hospital care field. His company sells medical equipment across North America, primarily to EMS agencies.

A native of Sudbury, Ontario, Perry, graduated from Fanshawe College in London but now lives and works in Brockville, Ontario.

MY PERRY PRETE REVIEWS

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