From Amazon.com:

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber

Well written and enjoyable. A bit long though. Not in number of pages, but I felt it had at least three endings, and that the author could have stopped a tad bit earlier.

RELEASE NOTES:

I will bring this book to the BC meetup today. If nobody's interested, I will leave it in the OBCZ.

I brought the book home from the meetup in Oslo today. I am generally not very good at resisting temptations, for instance it is almost impossible not to bring home a book that I would like to read, although I have got at least 20 books at home already waiting to be read. I plan to read it during my summer holiday.

I liked this book very much. It is one of the books that I had heard about for so long that I almost believed I had already read it - but I hadn't!
This book gives me the feeling of entering in to the lives of some real people. It feels like a story that easily could have been true. I believe in the characters and the story. What I do not at all understand is what is written on the backside of the cover: "Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story". How on earth can anyone call this a love story???
I recommend this book, and I understand why it became so popular.
The book is on the 1001 list.
I will probably bring it to the next meetup in Oslo.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Gitt til Tanumine på BookCrossing treff.

I'm looking forward to reading this, since it's one of the classics.

This is one of the best novels I have read.
The story is so lovely, hard, sad and good at the same time. Really well written. I like the fact that we hear the story through Scout, I would be quite different told from an adult's point of view.
Highly recommended!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Given to a fellow bookcrosser at our meetup today in Oslo Central Station, la Baguette.

Enjoy :-)

Forgot this in my bookshelf, but i have read it - many years ago. I agree with Tanumine and Jannice. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and it certainly deserves the position of a classic. It's almost as if you can smell the southern cooking ... and feel the injustice.

In the telephne booth close to the old bridge in Gamlebyen.