A Way to Celebrate Banned Books

My life is not currently conducive to large projects, so Banned Books Week is not being celebrated in my house the way it usually is: no giant stack of reading material, no banned book a day reviews being posted, no giveaways. But I certainly don't want to let the week go by without doing something here on the blog! So here are a few of the banned/challenged books I've reviewed since I started blogging:

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Inferno by Dante Alighieri 

the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Entire Harry Potter series

His Dark Materials Trilogy

I was going to give you the reasons these books were challenged or banned, but instead, here's a quick rundown on the top ten reasons books have been challenged/banned in the past 20 years:

#1 Sexually Explicit: Yeah, this one shouldn't come as much of a surprise. If you are looking for sexually explicit books, check out: The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and Native Son by Richard Wright. And you thought I was going to say Madonna's Sex book. :)

#2 Offensive Language: Heaven forbid our teens read the word "shit". Or damn, fuck, hell, bitch, and so on and so forth. I mean, it's not like they've ever heard them before. Or like, use them and stuff. If you are looking for naughty language books, you should really read: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Those are some serious potty-mouths.

#3 Violence:  There are some really gory, flesh-ripping stories here ladies and gentlemen. For nasty, bloody, evil violence, you should read: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. It doesn't get any more violent folks.

#4 Unsuited to Age Group: This one is a serious joke in my opinion because I believe it impossible to determine "appropriateness" based on age. I know 10 year olds who are super mature and 49 year olds who need help crossing the street. If you want to read a book that is unsuited to the age group, go ahead and pick up any novel classified as "Young Adult". Apparently almost all of them are not appropriate. If you want specifics, try The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.

#5 Occult: Did you know that if you read Harry Potter you are being indoctrinated into Satanism? Well, here are some other stories that will have you worshiping the devil and like drinking blood and uh...being all anti-God and stuff: Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz and Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. Yeah, those books are hardcore satanic manifestos.

#6 Homosexuality: As I am sure you know, any book that features a gay character is seriously harming us as human beings. And if there's some hot boy-on-boy action, well, let's just say it melts our minds. But did you know that even a book like My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult is destroying the heteronormative awesomeness of our society. It must be really subtle, though, because I don't really remember the "homosexual agenda" of that particular story...

#7 Religious Viewpoint: Our first example culprit here, And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, shares something in common with many of the books challenged for readon #7: homosexuality. Books featuring homosexual characters get a double whammy in the reason department. Then we have the other double whammy books: those like Twilight by Stephenie Meyer which get to be cataloged under both the occult and religious viewpoint.

#8 Nudity: Nudity on the page is just dirty. When authors are describing those svelte stomachs and bobbling breasts, a little piece of our souls die. Or, you know, when a child is dreaming about flying naked like in In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak. Cuz that's like dirty and naughty.

#9 Racism: The Racism category has me wondering if anyone who challenges these books really knows what racism is. The most challenged book in this category is probably The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, which features a black man and a white boy who are friends. Yep, really racist. Then there's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Wait, Maya Angelou is racist? You have got to be kidding me.

#10 Drugs: Clearly, the best idea here is to ignore that drugs exist. By doing so, we can eliminate drug use from our culture. So be sure you don't read Crank by Ellen Hopkins, or Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.

For more information on banned books, including who is challenging where, visits the American Library Association.

Sexy Book Review: Full Moon Rising

As I said in my Sunday Salon, this weeks' reads and reviews are focused on sex, the positive, life-affirming, chills-inducing good stuff, the stuff people want to remove from our libraries so as to not "corrupt" our youth. Well youth be warned...and let the sexy begin...
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Title: Full Moon Rising
Author: Keri Arthur
Publisher: Bantam Dell
Release Date: 31 January 2006
Date Finished: 26 September 2010

Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Women UnBound, GLBT Challenge, Hogwarts Reading Challenge, R.I.P. V

The Short and Sweet of It
Riley Jensen, half-werewolf half-vampire, works as a liaison for an organization designed to police the nonhuman part of society, but when her brother goes missing, Riley finds herself forced to take a more active role. And it just had to happen right before the full moon when the more basic urges of werewolves take over.

The Sex of It aka Why It's Banned
We're talking lots and lots of explicitly described, down and dirty sex. Book banners may actually have heart attacks and die if they read this one. Even I wouldn't suggest a younger person to read this.

While Riley's brother is gay, the sex remains hetero throughout, but we're not exactly talking about missionary-position, virginal wedding night type stuff here. Instead we have writhing, naked bodies pressed together on a dance floor and indiscriminate, unapologetic sex in public with multiple partners - whether simultaneously or one after the other.

The basic reasoning behind these activities is interesting: werewolves go into heat the week before the full moon and their lust is practically uncontrollable. Because of these natural urges, they have created an ideology of casual sex. It is their way, and they do not feel like they should apologize for it just because current human morality frowns upon such activities. I appreciate Arthur's logic here, and I applaud the premise that different cultures vary in morality and these variances should be respected.

I think I'll pass on giving you the actual sex scenes from the book, but rest assured that passages are full of words such as the following: urges, erotic, lick, thrumming, sensual, hunger, caress, heat, quivering, deep, scream, intimate, electricity, carnal, skin, vibrated, roll over...you get the picture.

Overall Recommendation
Obviously, there was a whole lot of sex in this story, but I have to admit that it left me a bit cold. I'm not sure why exactly, but while the author kept telling me how hot the sex was, I just wasn't feeling it. This is the first in a series of books, and I don't think I'll keep going. Harris, Roberts, and Lowell satisfy my need for sexy novels, and really I just have enough series to read that I don't need to spend time on ones I feel lukewarm about.

This Book Around the Web
If I've missed your review, let me know!

Damn Heart; GoodReads;

A Sexy Question: How old do you think a person has to be before he/she can reasonably read "romance" novels? And I mean that in the "throbbing member", Nora Roberts, Elizabeth Lowell, Jayne Ann Krentz, etc. sense not the Nicholas Sparks sense.

Sexiness Kiss Quotient:

Sexy Book Review: Deliver Us From Evie

As I said in my Sunday Salon, this weeks' reads and reviews are focused on sex, the positive, life-affirming, chills-inducing good stuff, the stuff people want to remove from our libraries so as to not "corrupt" our youth. Well youth be warned...and let the sexy begin...
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Title: Deliver Us From Evie
Author: M.E. Kerr
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: 18 August 1995
Date Finished: 25 September 2010

Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions, Women UnBound, YA Reading Challenge, GLBT Challenge, Hogwarts Reading Challenge,

The Short and Sweet of It
Parr's fifteen years old but he knows a few things. One, he doesn't want to be a farmer like his brother Doug and sister Evie. Two, he likes Angel Kidder. Three, his sister is a lesbian. Told from Parr's point of view, the story reveals all three of the Burrman kids' love lives: Doug and his slightly uppity girlfriend, Evie and her rebellious girlfriend, and Parr and his religious girlfriend. Evie's journey is at the heart of the story even as we - for obvious reasons - get more details about Parr's.

The Sex of It aka Why It's Banned
No surprise here, the primary reason your typical book banner would get in a huff over this one is homosexuality.  Issues of homosexuality are directly addressed time and again throughout the story. Evie's mother berates her for not dressing more feminine, espousing the theory that if Evie is going to be gay, she should at least try to hide it. Evie replies the only way she can:

Some of us look it, Mom! I know you so-called normal people would like it better if we looked as much like all of you as possible, but some of us don't, can't, and never will! And some others of us go for the ones who don't, can't, and never will.

Cord, who has a crush on Evie, succumbs to the "lesbians just haven't met the right man" theory, and has this wonderful tidbit to offer:

"Do you think being a dyke is sinful?" [Parr] asked him.

"Hell no! It's not serious enough to be a sin. It's kid stuff. Two women is...Now two men - that's another matter. That's sin in the Bible."

The book is full of little scenarios like this, lines and actions and thoughts that remind readers of the stupid little falsities and generalities revolving around homosexuality. With this book, however, we have a two-for-one deal because not only would book banners get their grandma-style panties in a bunch over the homosexuality, but the 15 year old boy and his hymn-singing girlfriend get a bit frisky too:

Parr and Angel have just left a dance; once they get in the car together...

Angel was all over me, or I was all over her, or we were all over each other. We'd never really been off alone together, and we just let go.

I had to say, "Hey, wait!"

"For what?"

"Didn't you ever hear boys get excited?"

"Girls do too."

"It doesn't show though."

"I like it showing." She laughed.

Why that naughty girl....

Overall Recommendation
I found the juxtaposition of homosexuality and farming quite interesting. Kerr dispels common misconceptions about both groups. I found it rather refreshing that Kerr manages to raise the issues of each without harping on them in some soapboxy or melodramatic fashion. That being said, the book almost felt more about farming than it was about lesbianism. Telling the story from Parr's perspective seemed like a bit of a cop out; as if having Evie tell the story would have been too dramatic. Overall, I can't put my finger on exactly how I feel about this book (speaking of cop outs right?).

This Book Around the Web
If I've missed your review, let me know!

AfterEllen; GoodReads;
 
I think the wonderful Cass from Bonjour Cass! is putting up her review of this book today as well.

A Sexy Question: What's the sexiest kiss you've ever read about in a book?

Sexiness Kiss Quotient:

Sexy Book Review: The Bermudez Triangle

As I said in my Sunday Salon, this weeks' reads and reviews are focused on sex, the positive, life-affirming, chills-inducing good stuff, the stuff people want to remove from our libraries so as to not "corrupt" our youth. Well youth be warned...and let the sexy begin...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: The Bermudez Triangle
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)
Release Date: 12 October 2004
Date Finished: 26 September 2010

Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Reading Resolutions, Women UnBound, YA Reading Challenge, GLBT Challenge, Hogwarts Reading Challenge,

The Short and Sweet of It
The summer before their senior year, the Bermudez Triangle finds themselves spending time apart. Nina heads off to a leadership program, where she falls in love with an environmentally conscious-hippie-ish Steve. Mel and Avery have their own summer romance back at home. With each other. When she returns, she is surprised and confused by the separation she feels from Mel and Avery, but things make a bit more sense when she catches them making out.

The Sex of It aka Why It's Banned
Once again, the primary motivation for our holier-than-thou book banners challenging this one is homosexuality. Nothing overtly sexual is detailed on the page. As a matter of fact, most sexual activity is merely suggested, taking place off the page, and what readers get to see remains in the realm of kissing. In fact, this may be the most explicitly sexual passage in the book:

They were kissing.

Kissing. As in kissing.

The real deal. Mel had Avery pressed into the corner. Her hands were on Avery's waist. Avery's hands were lost somewhere in Mel's hair. Full-on, serious making out.

Not too porn-like is it? This is a really tame story, so the fuss seems ridiculous. Perhaps the real reason for the sensationalism is the awesome way Johnson portrays the gray areas of sexuality. Avery is not gay, not bi, not straight; she doesn't know what she is, but I kept thinking about how wonderful it was to see a character attracted to individual people instead of a gender.

Having just read Deliver Us From Evie, I was primed for the following passage:

No one would call Mel a dyke. Mel wore pink shirts and cute little necklaces, and she had all of that long, orangey hair that was always whipped into some adorable arrangement. She hated Mel's cuteness at that moment...Mel had nothing to worry about. Only Avery would be seen as the rough dyke who lusted after the cheerleaders and couldn't be trusted in the locker room after gym. Other girls would put their books up over their boobs when they passed her in the hall, and they'd stop fixing their makeup when she walked into the bathroom. They would see her as a predator trying to sneak a peek or cop a feel...

I found it interesting that both books emphasized the struggles more butch lesbians have over the more feminine-looking. I guess it makes sense - being able to "blend" deflects attention, but Mel certainly receives more negative attention than Avery in the story.

Overall Recommendation
The characters in this book are smart, funny, distinct individuals who felt amazingly real to me while I was reading. Actually, the entire book felt real; the plot perfectly plausible (that was a lot of ps) and the details of the setting and the minor and supporting characters felt authentic. There is no explicit sex, vulgar language, or really anything that wouldn't be perfectly fine for a middle-grade kid to read. And as it is very well-written, I recommend this book for all ages.

This Book Around the Web
If I've missed your review, let me know!

things mean a lot; The Zen Leaf; GoodReads;

A Sexy Question: When shopping together, do you go into the dressing room with your significant other?

I do, just so you know. I follow Brian right into the little room to make sure everything fits and to just sit down. :) I must admit, however, that I have never made out in a dressing room....

Sexiness Kiss Quotient:

Sunday Salon: Sex is Good

Yesterday was the start of Banned Books Week, a yearly tradition I have been participating in, in one form or another, for six years.

Launched in 1982, BBW - which has a dedicated website - spreads the word about the censorship of books and reminds the public of our need to stay constantly vigilant against oppression by small minded individuals who desire nothing more than to control the rest of us. Okay, so they might not put it in exactly those terms, but I'm a bit biased. I have a very strong dislike that borders on hate for people who try to ban books.

There I've said it. My feelings about this topic are not really logical, practical, or objective; I actually get angry to the point of fantasizing about causing violence. I feel no sympathy for the parents who are "just trying to protect" their children; I don't sympathize with the religious organizations who "just want to protect" the public from sin. Sympathy or empathy are not the primary emotions I have for these people: sadness at the smallness of their minds and pissiness at their unwanted "protective" actions are what I feel. I actually want to bitch slap these people. Does that make me a bad person? Hmmm...

One of the most common reasons books are challenged is *drumroll please* SEX. Shocked? Didn't think so. We've all known for some time that certain people think sex is some dark, dirty, secret act which no one knows about except middle aged married folks. What rock are these people living under? If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that children know about sex, as in the details of how it's accomplished, by the time they are in sixth grade. I'm not saying they have a grasp on foreplay, the emotion involved, the repercussions thereof, the many variations, etc., but they know enough. Once they know how to do it, I think it's very, very important for them to start learning about the whys, the whos, the whens, and the what ifs. But apparently those who want to ban books think we should stop with the how.

This makes no sense whatsoever in my opinion. Knowing the physicality of something is not nearly as important as understanding the mental aspects of it. When teaching someone martial arts, you teach them the moves but you also discuss when and where and why to use those moves. Well, kids know how to perform the act of sex; reading books that include sexual activity may help them understand the important parts.

The other SEX concern is books which include homosexuality. The best part about this - these books don't even need to have naked bits in them; as long as there is the suggestion of homosexuality, the book banning idget's go into manic mode. I'm not even going to spend much time on this point because the idiocy is obvious. And if it's not obvious to you, then you probably shouldn't be reading my blog.

On a side note, the people who want to ban Twilight because of sexual content are killing me. Twilight is this large treatise on why people shouldn't have sex before marriage, about how we have to "control ourselves". I would think that the typical book banner would be fawning all over this.

My goal for Banned Books Week is to read a whole bunch of sex. Lovey-dovey, smutty, sweaty, delicate, deliberate, drunken, romantic, raunchy, and all-in-all pleasurable. I'm going to find some hot man-on-man action, some women with women and not for men's pleasure sexy stuff, some hetero-role-playing-fantasy fun, some first time love joy, whatever I can find that celebrates sexuality.

I'd love it if you would let me know suggestions, or join me in reading and reviewing books that highlight positive sexual relationships.

Some of the Books on the Sex Pile

1. Deliver Us From Evie by M.E. Karr: butch-on-femme love and girl-on-boy make out session
2. Annexed by Sharon Dogar: wet dreams and stolen kisses
3. Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton: uncomplicated hetero sex and possibly hookers
4. The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson: teenage lesbians
5. will grayson, will grayson by John Green and David Levithan: boys liking other boys...a lot
6. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler: we chunky girls have sex too
7. Nora Roberts and Elizabeth Lowell: explicit pre-marital sexual encounters
8. The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex by Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist: the title says it all

Book Review: A Few Fables

Title: Fables 3: Storybook Love
Author: Bill Willingham
Publisher: Vertigo
Release Date: 1 May 2004
Date Finished: 1 September 2010

Buy | Borrow | Accept | Avoid

Challenges: 100+ Reading Challenge, Graphic Novels Challenge, Hogwarts Reading Challenge,

The Short and Sweet of It
As with Legends in Exile and Animal Farm, Storybook Love recounts the adventures of fairy tale myths and legends living out their days in New York. Forced to leave their homelands after a powerful Adversary went all Dark Side on them, they have carved out their own space in our world. And just like with the first two, I loved it!

A Bit of a Ramble
Storybook Love, book 3, houses four separate stories that each add to the overall world; however, it is the third story that continues the main plot line told in the first two installments. In this section of Storybook Love, Bigby and Snow are ....

You know what? Summarizing the stories within this volume would be difficult. Willingham's Fables series defies simple paraphrase because he has created a complex world. Each story, text and images, reveals more about the characters and the world than can be easily translated. This complexity is one of the reasons I adore the series so much. For every story, I get multiple perspectives, back story is used to illustrate current events, action takes place simultaneously in multiple locations with variant characters, and so many details are working together to create the whole.

I would like to share with you one of the hottest images from the novel.

This tiny little pig tailed blond in the pink undies, sporting a giant freaking axe just really impressed me. She looks so amazingly badassed. Badass women abound in this series: sexually confident, intelligent, ruthless, these women have their issues but are strong enough to go after what they want and to change when they should.

If you haven't started this series, you really really should! And now I'm off to volume 5!


This Book Around the Web
If I've missed your review, let me know!

Fyrefly's Book Blog; things mean a lot;

There must be more people who have reviewed this, so be sure to let me know and I'll add your review to the list!

Banning Schmanning

Let's get one thing straight: I'm not promoting the ALA. I am promoting the recognition of our freedom to speech, our freedom to freely express and consume ideas regardless of how they relate to current or past ideology. In light of my last post on Banned Books Week and the discussion that took place in the comments section, I thought it necessary to stress this.

The American Library Association's website has the following to say: "Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them."

I am 100% against any form of overt censorship in public forums. No one has the right to tell me what I can or can not read, watch, or hear. If I, an adult, want to sit down with Madonna's Sex book while watching Debbie Does Dallas and listening to some rapper talk about killing cops...well that's my right. Now I'm not quite so loosey-goosey when it comes to those under 18. I'm pretty sure letting a 12 year old do the above is not necessarily the best idea, BUT when people no longer see the distinction between allowing a 12 year old to read Madonna's Sex and freaking Bridge to Terabithia, we have a serious problem.

If you don't want your child to read some of the best books ever written like The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, or Of Mice and Men, well I guess your child can go ahead and stick to Goodnight Moon until they go to college. Sorry they'll be a bit behind when they get there.

Everyone should join in the Banned Books Challenge I posted about yesterday!

Banned Books: A Long-Term Challenge

The top 100 challenged books in the 90s are listed here. I thought it would be fun if we could compile reviews for these books. So if you've reviewed one of the books from the list, leave your link in the comments section of this post. If you haven't, go out, read a book, review it, and come back. If possible, try to review books others haven't already. It would be great if we could have at least one review for everyone on the list!

For every review you submit, your name will be entered into a drawing to receive one book of your choice from my BookMooch list. I will have give aways periodically during the challenge which will run through September 2010.

I hope you join!

UPDATE: I've created a separate page for this post, and I've already started adding reviews. Head to Unlock Worlds to post your reviews and see what others have said.

An Illegal Library

Chris from book-a-rama posted this link, and all I have to say is I would be proud to be this kid's mother. She (I think it's a she) has an illegal library running out of her locker and the one next to him full of books which have been removed/banned from his school.

I was wondering what to do with my students for Banned Books Week a few posts ago, and I will certainly be using this kid's story.

What would you do if your kid was running an illegal library out of his or her locker?

Banned Books Week

The American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week during the last week of September every year. "BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where the freedom to express oneself and the freedom to choose what opinions and viewpoints to consume are both met."



Every year I try to figure out a fun way to introduce Banned Books (Week) to my students without dedicating a bunch of class time to a large project. I teach composition, literature, and film, so I'm well positioned to bring Banned Books into the classroom. Unfortunately the demands of a fast-paced, content-heavy schedule make any time-intensive study difficult.

Do you guys have any ideas on how I can make Banned Books Week fun and educational for college students?

Books Make You Kill Yourself

From thisislondon.co.uk:
The DaVinci Victim [yeah, it's the book's fault]
A painter fascinated with best-selling conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code committed suicide after becoming convinced she was the subject of a real-life murder plot.

Caroline Eldridge, 38, moved to Italy to pursue her interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, but her mind became "muddled" by the mysteries surrounding his work, her father said. She suffered paranoid delusions that she and her family were in danger "because of the knowledge that she had" of
Leonardo after working on an exhibition about his paintings.

After repeatedly telling her family, "I'm not going to let them take me alive," she took an overdose of paracetamol. The Da Vinci Code, which has sold more than 60 million copies, centres on a sinister plot by Catholic organisation Opus Dei to kill the book's hero Robert Langdon before he discovers, via clues in Da Vinci's paintings, that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and had a son.

The woman did not kill herself because of a book. She killed herself because she was crazy. Anyone have any other examples of books being blamed for something they didn't do?