Books by Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird was, for a long time, the only novel Harper Lee ever published. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. It depicts the racism she observed as a child in her hometown in Alabama and was first published in November 1960. Subsequently, an early 1957 version was published in 2015 under the title Go Set A Watchman, initially marketed as a sequel, but most likely more of a first draft. Harper Lee died in 2016 at the age of 89, and it remains unclear how she felt about the publication of her second book.
“It’s dated in many ways; it’s extremely sentimental. But it’s beautifully done – you can’t take a thing away from it.” Read more...
Scott Turow, Thriller and Crime Writer
Interviews where books by Harper Lee were recommended
Great Actors Read Great Novels
If you enjoy listening to books as audiobooks, it’s a great time to be alive. From Rosamund Pike narrating Pride and Prejudice, Jeremy Irons reading Lolita to Meryl Streep telling the story of Heartburn, many prominent actors have signed up for performing their favourite books in unabridged versions.
The Best Legal Novels, recommended by Scott Turow
Great novels about the law have always been an inspiration to lawyers, bringing home the problems of the law, the human mess that it tries unsuccessfully to make sense of, and the gulf that can exist between the law and justice. Scott Turow, the bestselling author of Presumed Innocent, talks to us about his own favourite legal novels, from a classic set on aboard a Royal Navy ship during the Napoleonic wars to a murder trial in the Pacific Northwest after World War II.
The best books on Sex and Society, recommended by Eric Berkowitz
For thousands of years, human societies have tried to regulate sexual activity. The author of Sex and Punishment tells us why this should be so, and how what’s permissible has varied according to time and place.
The best books on Capital Punishment, recommended by Clive Stafford Smith
The lawyer, who’s defended many clients on death row, tells us why the legal system in capital cases is set up to fail, and says all of us should know more about what happens in an execution
The best books on Progressive America, recommended by Antonio Villaraigosa
In the last of our series of interviews on American progressivism, the mayor of Los Angeles chooses five novels and biographies that provide lessons from the past and show what a democratic society should aspire to be
The best books on Human Rights, recommended by Shami Chakrabarti
Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti says Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is a thinly veiled metaphor for the War on Terror
