For November - 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

Our next book is a classic tale of race and class in the American 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".

Copies are available to pick up in the library, and we're meeting 4.30-5.30 on Wednesday 4th November.

Interesting, but not Doubleplus Good

We felt ‘1984’ had a lot of interesting ideas; the world hasn’t turned out the way thought it might, but he did anticipate some of the ways people are monitored, such as by CCTV, and even some of our entertainments, like the lottery. The details in the book were good, and we discussed the way reducing language (Newspeak) could also reduce our capacity to think about things.

But … the story didn’t really grab us a story. The characters didn’t seem real enough, the dialogue often didn’t ring true and the basic plot just seemed a bit weak. We agreed some people might get a lot out of the novel, but it wasn’t the page-turner we’d hoped it might be. Overall score out of 10 – only a 4 I’m afraid.