This is a wonderful novel set in Louisiana in the 1940s. A young black man is in the wrong place at the wrong time, is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Another young black man returns to his hometown, temporarily, to teach. He wants to escape to another state, but his grandmother persuades him to visit the prisoner and try to "impart his learning and his pride" before the execution. They both learn something. This award-winning book is very moving and difficult to put down.

5/16/03 This book will be going out as a Book Ray next week. PM me if you would like to sign up. International.

This book has started on its journey around the world! Mailed out today to mom-of-one. Please PM the next person on the list for his/her mailing address when you receive the book. If anyone else expresses interest in joining, I'll add that name to the end of the list. Thanks, and enjoy!

Order of this international bookray:

Mom-of-one - USA
Karoda - USA
missJAS - USA
AmberLee17 - USA
jenvince - USA
Hawkette - Australia
Veracity - Australia
Jolanda - The Netherlands
Arina - Portugal
mfa - Portugal
LeighBCD - UK
Leanne345 - UK
eriko1908 - USA

This book made it to eriko1908! Thank you all.

Received this little gem in the mail today and have already read over ten pages! This is going to be a good one!!! Thanks Kiptrix! Going to Karoda when I'm finished.

Okay...well...here goes. This was a wonderfully written book. It WAS hard to put down. But (yes, there's a "but" here)... I didnt particularly like this one. (Sorry Kiptrix!) I think I just need to avoid subjects of this type, because I also disliked "The Lovely Bones" when everyone else was raving about it. I don't want to say too much more, though, and ruin it for everyone else. I think it's a book that needs to be read, rather one likes it or not. Very thought provoking!

That's okay, Mom-of-one! I'm often not in agreement with what others write about books that I've read. That's why there are so many books out there, right? Perhaps I would feel a little bad if you thought it was not worth reading at all! (I'd be sorry to have wasted your time.) Hope your next book rates a 9 or a 10 for you :-).

I hated to have to write a "poor" review on A Lesson Before Dying! It really was a beautifully written and poignent book! I AM glad I got to read it. It is just so difficult to read about the ugliness and prejudice mankind can subject to other "youmans." But like I said in my review, I think it is a book that should be read, whether one likes the content or not.

Release planned for Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at bookring in Butler, Pennsylvania USA.

Moving on through the bookring. Being sent to Karoda in KY. Enjoy!

This arrived today...I'm half way through one book and I have another one in front of this one.

Ernest J. Gaines was here last year teaching a one week workshop. I really regretted that I could not afford to attend.

Release planned for Friday, September 26, 2003 at postal release to BCer missJAS in Vancouver, Washington USA.

Will mail on Friday.

Yahoo! It's finally here! Received 10/26 and I'm about half way through. Should be able to get it moving before the end of the week.

I agree that it needed to be read, but....
The prejudice described in this book is awful, and I don't dispute that it was real. That being said, Jefferson was not innocent, although his crime was not worthy of the death penalty and that was tragic and unjust. I interpreted the "hog" defense differently, however. If the jury could be convinced that he was simple-minded and therefore not capable of plotting murder, then he would not warrant the death penalty. Instead, it seems the hog statement was taken as white Americans' view of black Americans being less than human, so to put one to death was no big loss. That is disgusting.
Where I was disgusted by the extreme racism the black community lived with, I was annoyed with the reverse racism. One white man "of good stock" that did view the characters as human, and admirable ones at that, asked to be counted as a friend. That was neither accepted nor rejected, but left hanging in the air, as if it wasn't particularly desirable because he was white.
Isn't the goal not to judge anyone based on color, either color?
Mailing to Amberlee on 11/6/03.

Arrived today. Thanks for the chance to participate in this ring.

A painful, thought-provoking book. I'm not able to articulate all that the book brought to me, but here are two extracts that were particularly powerful for me:

The teacher has promised the prisoner a radio, and rather than travel many miles to get the money to buy he has accepted a loan from several friends. The final friend runs the restaurant that he's eating at that evening: ""Here." It was the kind of "here" your mother or your big sister or your great-aunt or your grandmother would have said. It was the kind of "here" that let you know this was hard-earned money but, also, that you needed it more than she did, and the kind of "here" that said she wished you had it and didn't have to borrow it from her, but since you did not have it, and that she did then "here" it was, with a kind of love. It was the kind of "here" that asked the question, When will all this end? When will a man not have to struggle to have money to get what he needs "here"? When will a man be able to live without having to kill another man "here"?"

The teacher is talking to the prisoner: "...I want you to chip away at that myth by standing. I want you -- yes, you -- to call them liars. I want you to show them that you are as much a man -- more a man than they can ever be. That jury? You call them men? That judge? Is he a man? The governor is no better. They play by the rules their forefathers created hundred of years ago. Their forefathers said that we're only three-fifths human == and they believe it to this day. ..."

Am verifying the next reader and will have this off soon.

The book arrived yesterday! I look forward to reading it and passing it on to the next person.

This was an interesting story.

Mailed 2/5 to Hawkette.

I have just today returned from 5 weeks of travel, and was very excited to find this in my pile of mail.

I actually found this one hard to get into, and I blame recent similar (somewhat) reads like The Color of Water and Ellen Foster, which I really enjoyed. It wasn't until the execution date was set, and Grant seemed to have a character transplant and get on with things, that my interest was maintained!

While the hardships of black people in a white world were outlined, the attitude of our Grant towards his aunt, his students and fellow man, and even woman, didn't endear him to me. The plight of Jefferson was certainly saddening - but it just didn't quite fill out enough for me.

I actually received this a little while ago but missed journalling it. It's next on my TBR.

received this book in the mail today. somewhere during travelling it got some bad weather,the book is soaked. However saved by the postman who put it in a plastic bag. I'll dry it first before I'll start reading.

An interesting book. I'm not sure wether I liked it or not. However I kept thinking of it and that's what a good book does to you.

I've pmed Arina a while ago and never received an answer. I'll pm the next one on the list.

got it today on the mail (Arina has kind of left bookcrossing some time ago). will have to wait a bit, i'm afraid... thanks jolanda!

this truly is a thought provoking book. i couldn't stop rememberibg "thunder, hear my cry", and although i've read it ages ago, i guess the feeling was pretty much the same: anger that such things did happen (and still do), and a huge sense of powerlessness because i couldn't get into the characters and change their fates and attitudes. however, i couldn't wish a book about racism and the way it was accepted to be anything but deppressing.
what annoyed me, i must confess, is the way nobody really questioned the sentence (or the death penalty itself, but that's another matter). that speaks volumes about the way descrimination gets under your skin, and the first battle is indeed for self-respect. but i'm still one of those who believe you cannot kneel and stand at the same time...

This Ray showed up in the mail today...I will be starting it tomorrow...it looks as if it has travelled far and wide & been enjoyed by all...any special plans for it when I've finished, kiptrix, or can I pass it along how I see fit?

Sorry about the length of time it took for me to get to this one, but I figured since I was last in line I would wait until I was in the right mindset to enjoy it rather than rush through it...

I was very touched by this story...it is amazing to look back on history and see how far we have come & how far we have yet to go...

Thanks for sharing this one!! It is in rather beat up condition at this point in time, so I am going to see if I can find a local loving home for it to rest awhile in...