Birds of a feather

Last night I mentioned To Kill a Mockingbird in my post in regards to a Lane Cake. Tonight I discovered that Miss Harper Lee is going to be publishing a new novel on 14 July 2015, exactly one day before my 53rd birthday! There will be 55 years between the first and second novels. My lifetime, pretty much!

I've read and re-read To Kill a Mockingbird at least once every decade since I first read it as a girl. I've taught it and read Charles Shield's biography, Mockingbird, in hardcover back in 2007. Now to discover that she's actually going to publish the novel Shield's mentioned in his book, Go Set a Watchman, is truly amazing.

Having read the biography, I know that she actually wrote that novel first and Mockingbird second. As an agent, I know that many author's first works are a way of clearing their throats and sharpening their skills. The fact that the first book, Watchman,  includes that same characters to which Mockingbird would be the prequel is even more interesting.

To be able to read about Scout after she left home and see what she's like as she returns again, phenomenal.

I'm just an excited little girl, all over again, feeling the thrill of it being summer and the time of year I can read all the books I want to read just for me. This is a picture from one summer in July, with my sister. I know my brother Mike is going to be thrilled with this news, too. He's a Harper Lee and John Irving aficionado. We both bought the 40th Anniversary Edition of To Kill a Mockingbird for our niece Jazzmine one Christmas, and we'd both already inscribed them to her. It's the kind of book you want to share with the next generation, if they don't get it in school.

I was born the same year as the title film. Love it to pieces. More moral compass material from my childhood.

I'm rambling. Too much shoveling/raking. Not enough sleeping. Alton's post took a lot out of me last night. So tonight is a light, short and giddy post with one of my favorite pictures with my sister.

Good night, Mockingbirds and birds of a feather, G'night! xo