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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Library Borrow – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee #harperlee #tokillamockingbird

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

I quickly discovered why To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee has become a classic and won the Pulitzer Prize. I was immersed in the struggles of a lawyer, a widowed father, raising two young children, while defending a black man charged with raping a white girl.

All the darkness of the times came through the story, racism, classism, and violence in the Deep South during the 1930s. My disgust and anger brought a tear or two to my eye.

Scout, an eight year old girl had me in stitches. Her older brother, Jem, matures as the story develops.

I was smiling and laughing at their thoughts, their innocence, and their vivid imaginations.

“Maybe he died and they stuffed him up the chimney.”

The sophistication of the writing stands the test of time!

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos
5 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

  • Genre: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult
  • 331 pages, Kindle Edition
  • First published July 11, 1960
  • Literary awards:

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1961), Audie Award for Classic (2007), The Quill Award for Audio Book (2007), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (1961), Alabama Author Award for Fiction (1961)

Original title: To Kill a Mockingbird Series

To Kill a Mockingbird (#1)Setting

Maycomb, Alabama (United States, 1933), Alabama (United States)Characters

Scout Finch, Atticus Finch (The Sanibel Sunset Detective Returns), Jem Finch, Arthur Radley, Mayella Ewell, Aunt Alexandra, Bob Ewell, Calpurnia (housekeeper), Tom Robinson, Miss Maudie Atkinson, Judge John Taylor, Dill Harris, Heck Tate, Stephanie Crawford

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 .

  • You can see my Giveaways HERE.
  • You can see my Reviews HERE.
  • If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
  • Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
  • Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
  • I am an Amazon affiliate/product images are linked.
  • Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

A Japanese Classic – Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama @UMNews @NetGalley

Text: The first English-language translations of the original Shigeru Kayama novellas reveal...

I want to thank NetGalley and the University of Minnesota for the opportunity to read and review Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama.

Amazon / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

After watching the movies, over and over again, I had to grab me a copy of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama, when I had the opportunity. I didn’t even know there were novellas out there and Jeffrey Angles did a great job translating this Japanese classic into English. The stories flowed smoothly and rolled out like the movies I’ve seen. That always makes it easier to visualize the action as Godzilla leaves his devastating mark on Japan. Of course, he may never have risen, if we didn’t create nuclear weapons, and that is Shigeru Kayama’s statement against the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

I learned some of the facts that are shared in the part of the book about the author, Shigeru Kayama and the how and why of his desire to create a monster that is payback for humans disregard for the world around them. His ‘bio’ is about a third of the book, and though I found it interesting, I wanted more of Godzilla and the other creatures he comes up with.

All in all, it was worth the read and I recommend grabbing a copy for yourself. It may be a fluff piece, but it is loaded with action and a quick read. If you are a creature feature lover, like me, this is a must have. HA HA HA HA HA

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos
3 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

The first English translations of the original novellas about the iconic kaijū Godzilla

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world’s most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity’s shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas.

Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama’s two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. This book finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama’s vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from those of the films, and clearly display the author’s strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions.

Kayama’s fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity’s onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways.

  • Genre: Classics, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Novella, Science Fiction
  • Format: 243 pages, Kindle Edition
  • Expected publication: October 3, 2023 by Univ Of Minnesota Press
  • ISBN: 9781452969855 (ISBN10: 145296985X)
  • Language: English
  • You can see my Giveaways HERE.
  • You can see my Reviews HERE.
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  • Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
  • Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
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  • Thanks for visiting fundinmental!