The first time I read this I was much , much younger and I remember loving it then . Over forty five years later, it still held so much for me - wonderful language and characters that I never forgot about and relevancy even so many years later .

I'm not sure I have an original thought or feeling that someone else hasn't already articulated. So I will only say that for me the beauty of this book lies in how Lee has so perfectly captured the time in the 1930's and the place Maycomb and the life in this small town and what it meant to be black then and there and how a young girl tries to make sense of what is happening around her . It's a portrait of a place that comes alive because of the richness of the characters . Yes, it's about racism in the south in the 1930's , and about family and how life in a small town can shape people or not if you are Atticus Finch but my heart belongs to Scout .

I decided to reread it in preparation for reading Go Set a Watchman because my first reading had been so long ago . I wish I had done what my GR friends Diane S. and Diane B. did in not rereading TKAM but choosing to read Go Set a Watchman and judging it on its own for what it is . I was more than halfway through TKAM when I saw their perspective on this and it was just too late - I was just too hooked on the book again. I remembered some but it felt as if I was reading it for the first time , being introduced to this time and place and this story and to beloved Scout , Jem, Atticus and Calpurnia , Miss Maudie and Boo once again.

There will just not be anything like this book and now I'm looking forward to reading Go Set a Watchman and approaching it for what it is - not a sequel but the seed of the iconic book . I think I'm going to wait a bit to read it . I want to savor what I've just read .