sept 25 to oct 2 is banned books week!

To make up for all the books that get banned, limiting what people can read and learn about and damaging freedom of speech, this whole week, everyone should read as many banned books as they can get their hands on.

The ALA list of last year's banned books:
1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle


Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs

2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson

Reasons: Homosexuality

3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide

4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee

Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult

Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence

8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker

Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier

Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

2008's Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell


Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group

2.His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman

Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence

3.TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

4.Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence

5.Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya

Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, and violence

6.The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group

7.Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

8.Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen

Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group

9.The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group

10.Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper

Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group


2007s Books:
1.And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell


Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint, sexism, and unsuited to Age Group

2.The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

Reasons: offensive Language, sexually explicity, violence

3.Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit

4.The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

Reason: religious viewpoint

5.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Reason: racism

6.The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit

7.TTYL, by Lauren Myracle

Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8.I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

Reason: sexually explicit

9.It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

Reasons: sex education and sexually explicit

10.The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group


Which mostly proves to me that the people trying to ban books are a) unimaginitive and b) scrabbling for a new top ten each year because, get this, most books aren't offensive, and the ones they pick aren't that bad, either.

And the 100 most banned books for the 2000s:
1 Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2 Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3 The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4 And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5 Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7 Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8 His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9 TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11 Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12 It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13 Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16 Forever, by Judy Blume
17 The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18 Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19 Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20 King and King, by Linda de Haan
21 To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22 Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23 The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24 In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25 Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26 Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27 My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28 Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29 The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30 We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31 What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32 Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33 Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34 The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35 Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36 Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37 It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38 Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39 Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40 Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41 Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42 The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43 Blubber, by Judy Blume
44 Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45 Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46 Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47 The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48 Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50 The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51 Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52 The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53 You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54 The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55 Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56 When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57 Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58 Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59 Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60 Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61 Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62 The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63 The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64 Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65 The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67 A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68 Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69 Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (IRONIC, THIS ONE)
70 Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71 Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72 Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73 What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74 The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75 Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76 A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77 Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78 The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79 The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80 A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81 Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82 Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83 Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84 So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85 Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86 Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87 Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88 The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89 Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90 A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91 Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Graighead George
92 The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93 Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94 Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95 Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96 Grendel, by John Gardner
97 The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98 I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99 Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100 America: A Novel, by Frank, E.R.

And several of these are about intollerance, restricting knowledge, racism, or about wht happens to the world when these things are allowed. Funny how that happens, isn't it?
 
Challenged Classics can be found here
The ALA website for Banned Book Week can be found here

booklust

When I'm at work and I should be doing stupid, annoying, but necessary work things, I can think of a half dozen books I want to read. When I'm at home and looking at the little search bar on Amazon, I can't think of any of them. How is that fair?

But I will say this: Since they gave me that ipad, I've been totally won over by the Kindle App. Most books are available there-- eight of the ten for class, and about the same percentage of all books I've looked up since then*. The reading experience is clean and clear and lovely. You can hilight and comment, just like in a real book, but with better handwriting. And there are things that aren't in real books-- lines that lots of people hilight come up underlined in the e-copy, and if there's a footnote (which there tends to be lots of in the sorts of books I read), it comes up as a link in the text, and if you click on it, it loads it into the text itself so you don't have to go searching through the book to find the right note!

And best of all, Kindle is a boy-once place. If something happens to your iPad, you can download it again later because you've already bought it. If you get it for the iPad, you can also get it for your desktop. Short of losing all their servers, it's about as safe as a digital book can be!

And now I'm eyeing all my actual books and thinking, I could replace all these with digiversions. I could clear that whole shelf... I mean, I'll keep all the really old books, the ones I inherited from Papa and the Modern Library collection. I'll keep the ones I really love and have filled with notes and the ones that I return to over and over. But I could easily replace a lot of them that I want to keep around but don't go back to as often, if they're available...


*No PC Hodgell on Kindle, which makes me sad. More people should read her books so they can stay in print and at the same publishers. They're awesome, and I really need to get the next one in the series. If I can find it.

link: 13 Books Nobody's Read But Say They Have (PHOTOS)

13 Books Nobody's Read But Say They Have (PHOTOS)

So, I've read five of the books no one's read, and two of them were actually very enjoyable.

These lists should be a way for me to gloat since I have a whole degree based on reading behind me, but more and more, I think it's just exposing how good I got at entirely avoiding certain kinds of the cannon classics! I managed to read a minimum of Falkner and Hemingway in those six years, and I'm still kind of proud of that because I don't particularly care for their stories, but I feel more and more like I really should have read them, if only so I could more effectively complain. And be contrary.

in-reading notes: murder in vein

There's something off about this book. The story's fine, the mystery is interesting, but the main character feels... hollow. Like all she does is react, while at the same time she doesn't have much in the way of internal monologue exccept for what she's physically doing, and it makes her sort of Mary-Sue-ish. Like Bella Swan from Twilight, though this is meant to be an adult book and isn't really that sort of vampire novel at all. I just feel like I don't need an avatar in the book world; I know who I am, and I don't need to ride someone else and fill in the gaps. Just show me who you are, Madison Rose.

Other than that, it's pretty interesting, and I'm liking the plot. I like also that the vampires are a married couple, which is a nice difference from most, and I like the Detective who seems to never sleep. He reminds me of an amalgam of people from the Blood Ties stories, and hopefully he'll get more page time in the second half.

I still don't understand why people keep basing vampire stories in LA, though. Anyway. Pet peeve.

Review is due Sunday or before, and the book comes out Sept 1, so there's still time for the end to totally win me over.

in-reading notes: black hole sun

The cover says it's like Mad Max, but it's totally not like that. It feels more like Firefly meets the down-fall side of 1984 or something like that-- the cleverness and moral ambiguity of Joss mashed up with the grey and crumbling distopias that are made of corporations and do their best to crush souls. Firefly if they were kids trapped on the Vogon homeworld by way of the Mars from Total Recall.

It's very interesting. My mind is already spinning off ideas for novels and histories and plotlines that could easily cover several books, and that's the sort of story I like best: the kind that sparks inspiration. Who wants a book that's closed and tells you everything? There's no room for your own ideas there.

I think this one will be done first (it's currently a rundown between this and Murder In Vein to see who gets read and reviewed first, but both are due by Sunday and come out on Sept 1).

in-reading notes: wintergirls

This book is harrowing. Not just because it's meant to be and has that built in contradiction between what she's saying and what she's doing (and I really love the strike-out in the text to show the disjunction between what she's thinking and what she's telling herself)-- but also because of how close to home it hits.

I was never intentionally anorexic, but it was ingrained enough that reading this book is hard. It's bringing up old thought patterns and the newer patterns that developed to deal with them-- while she's talking about not eating, all I want to do is eat to prove that I'm not like that anymore. It might be in part because I'm currently trying to lose weight, and the whole calorie-counting and food-choice-making feels a little too like anorexia sometimes, but this book is just too much sometimes.

But it's fiercely good. And frequently very beautiful. Which is part of the problem, I think. If it was relentlessly horrible, it wouldn't affect me so much.

omnitopia dawn by diane duane

This book... I really wanted to like it, but it just felt like so much of it was waiting for something to happen, that huge swathes of the book never actually did anything. It's past the half-way point before even the inkling of something happening happens, and then it really all doesn't come together until the second-to-last chapter. It's got a good idea, but it has trouble getting there, and I wish I was one of her advance-readers while she was writing it-- I think I could have convinced her to shift the focus and it would have been so much better. But maybe that's just my ego talking.

I'll probably pick up the next book in the series, but if it's similarly slow, I doubt I'll care much past that.

Side note:
The cover of the book calls it a 'thriller'. Does that word mean 'extremely backloaded so that most of the rest of the book doesn't really matter when it comes down to it'? Because Impact was also called a thriller, and though I found it almost insufferable, while this one was just dull, they have the same dragging in the plot, the same idea that most of the book is just filler. If that's how it is, I think I don't care at all about thrillers, and they're mostly lazy writing and sort of an insult to the scifi tropes they seem to want to steal all over the place lately.

Official review here.

PS: There doesn't seem to be much sense to where the links go in. I'll have to play around with that, I think...

review: the charlatan's boy by jonathan rogers

This is one of those rare little books that is entirely charming. It's straightforward without being simple, and incredibly rich. I really loved reading it, and while doing my research for the turn in, I found out that there are more stories set in the same world-- a Trilogy called the Wilderking that also deals with feechies (which is now what I call my fish, and also what I think I'll call my children when I have them and they're being clever and wild).

It's worth the read. My full review is here.

And it has a lovely cover.

national geographic: july 2010

ancient human skull on the cover
table of contents here


Let me just say that I absolutely love NatGeo and I always have for as long as I can remember. Before I could read, I'd lay on my stomach on the floor at my Aunt Betty's house, looking at all the amazing pictures and being just stunned that the things in them were real, that one day I might get to see them for myself. Then, almost as soon as I could read, it seemed, I'd spend hours reading through the back issues that were always there, filling my head with information and big words and page after page of text. Maybe that's why I'm not afraid of text.

When I was maybe 17, I got my first subscription to them under my own name, and since then, I've had several. Not really consistent, since my income is not really consistent, but at least a year, at least every few years, and when I don't have a sub, I usually track down the new issues and get them individually at cover price. I've tracked down the issues from the years of birth for my entire immediate family (except my own, which seems to all be mythical). I've kept all the ones I've bought.

And my favorite ones are the ones that feature human history and archaeology. This issue doesn't disappoint, and it's beautiful. Well-written, told like the best story around, clear, informative, not too much slant that I can see (which either means it's pretty unslanted, or that my degree in anthropology slants in the same way and I don't notice it). Evocative. Exactly what I want from NatGeo. Even the little articles are amazing-- one about space junk, how it matters and how to deal with it-- a little one-pager about the worst places in America to be a pedestrian (with the top four all being in Florida!).

If I wind up working for a magazine, I want it to be NatGeo. I want to be able to say, 'I edited that to make it so pretty', or 'I wrote that article and it blends seamlessly with the 150 year history of the mag'.

I've got two more fresh issues to read, and another old one that I misplaced and never finished, and that right there is more than worth the time it takes to read a whole issue. It actually almost makes me wish I still had a two-hour each way bus ride to get to work!

currently reading: week 33, first half of august

Any minute now, my reading load doubles, at least. By the end of this month, I'll be caught up with reviewing, and next week I need to start reading the books for school, so, yeah. As of this moment, I'm reading Charlatan's Boy, which I'm thoroughly enjoying, still reading How to Write SF and F, starting on Murder In Vein, and I've got Wintergirls lurking, waiting to start Monday. And I just picked up City of Glass, which finally hit QP and matches the rest, and Heatwave, which is thin and beautifully cliched... though who knows when I'll get to read those two!

Linkies!
The Charlatan's Boy isn't available yet, so here's it's preemptive link