To Kill a Mockingbird

I just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The reason I picked up this book is because the public library is having a winter adult reading program and you are supposed to read 5 books that have been made into movies. So this is the second time that I have read this book, though the first time might have been ten years ago. A good book that is definitely worth reading once or twice or even more than that. It of course makes me wonder how people could treat people of another race so poorly, but I still see a lot of that. Maybe racism has not changed much in America, even though people would likely say it isn't as bad as it was. Here where I live people still are wary of people that are not Anglos. And often that includes me, despite my education and experiences with people that are not the same as me. Has our culture not allowed us to really change? Or is human nature that way?

The Glass Castle

I never heard of the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls until my sister mentioned that her book club had read it. It is Jeannette's own story of growing up with parents that are definitely not average. Her parents loved her, that you could tell, but they had unique views of getting along in our society. The story was a bit graphic at times, and the ending was not tragic but still sad. It made me wonder how many more unusual families there are in the world where children are treated so poorly that they cannot adjust to a "normal" life in our country. Her story did make me more thankful for growing up in a fairly normal family. This isn't a book for everyone, but it did make me think.