Good Reads: To Kill A Mockingbird

When we're not making bags, designing bags, fiddling with websites and all the rest that comes with running a little business, we'll often be out gallivanting in the hills of Wales with a couple of crazy dogs in tow. But when weather is bad, the nights are long and dark, or we're just having a lazy can't-be-bothered-to-leave-the-house day, you'll mostly find us with our faces submerged in a book.

So in honour of our great love of books, Good Reads is a regular feed of what we've been reading and loving (hint: often features wild country, westerny feels, adventuring, but with some thriller, classics, and random literature thrown in. You have been warned).  We say we because we nearly always read the same books - one of us reads it first, raves about it, and the other will then pick it up - and generally if one of us loves it, the other does too.

To start the ball rolling, a classic (and rightly so): To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Forgive us, if everyone has read this already, but embarrassingly, up until this year neither of us had read this, so we're both late to the game (somehow it had passed us by). But boy, it was worth the wait. A story of  the racial tensions in 1930s south Alabama seen through the eyes of Scout, a 6 year old girl. Innocent, long dusty summer months where she plays out the days with her brother Jem and friend Dill, pondering the mystery of their never seen neighbour, Boo. Her innocence is slowly taken away as she witnesses her lawyer father (Atticus Finch) try to defend a black man in a racist town. 

A story with humour, mystery and sadness, brilliant names (who doesn't love the names Scout, Jem, Atticus, Boo?), and Atticus Finch, the fair, gentle but strong, father and lawyer. 

All we can say is, if you were like us and hadn't got around to reading this, put it on your book list this year.