A Lesson Before Dying

I read this book as a sophomore in high school. I still remember it! This is about a lawyer in the South, before civil rights were 'in'. A young black man is convicted of a crime he didn't commit, and is sentenced to die by the electric chair. A lawyer, who only knows him through some relative, is asked to go and visit him in jail until he is executed, to help him die a man, to die with dignity. The man convicted seems to have little sense of self worth, and believes himself to be stupid, because that is all he has ever been treated as.

I won't give away the ending, but the title is pretty self-explanatory.

What I like so much about this book is that while the prisoner learns a lot about life and himself, so does the lawyer. In fact, I would say the lawyer grows more.

First Post

Well, here it is.

It's my life long goal (okay, just since high school, but the goal will probably take my entire life to complete) to read every book from the AP Literature test list (with few exceptions).

I might as well document them, right? I need to have some way to remember what I read, other than just reading it.

If I find any other really good books I think you should know about it, I'll post them here as well.

Wish me luck!