(Image from Barnes & Noble)

I rarely re-read books.  Almost never.  With so many great new stories out there just waiting to be cracked open, why waste time going back to one I've already experienced?  That's my usual philosophy, but sometimes, I get a hankering to re-enjoy an old favorite.  Like Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird.  It's been a long time (high school?) since I first read and loved it, so a re-reading was long, long overdue.  And, you guys, I'm so glad I took the opportunity!  I swear, everything about this book touches some part of my soul.  It's just a beautiful, inspiring, charming story—one that will never get old, no matter how many times I read it.  

I'm not even going to attempt any deep literary analysis of To Kill a Mockingbird.  That's been done many, many times, and by people much more knowledgeable than I.  So, let me just encourage you to read this one, whether for the first time or the twentieth.  It's an incredible novel, the kind that should be studied in schools and revered worldwide (oh wait, it already is ...).  

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of A Time to Kill by John Grisham)

Grade:  

If this were a movie, it would be rated:  

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), violence, racial epitaphs and references to rape

(Incidentally, the classic 1962 movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird is Not Rated.)

To the FTC, with love:  I bought To Kill a Mockingbird from Amazon using a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger.  Ha ha.