“Looking for Alaska” delves into teenage suicide
John Green's Looking for Alaska has drawn mixed reviews from its largely teenage audience, who either love it or hate it.
View ArticleJohn Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” endures 60 years of “banning”
When preparing to write "The Grapes of Wrath," Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]."
View Article“Gatsby” remains great despite hundreds of challenges
Fitzgerald, inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long Island's north shore, began planning "The Great Gatsby" in 1923 desiring to produce, in his words, "something new—something...
View ArticleOnce banned, “Leaves of Grass” is now a “must read”
Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death. Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Out of the...
View Article“Invisible Man” deals with “black nationalism”
"Invisible Man" addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and...
View ArticleThe Lovely Bones: a view from heaven
Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while...
View Article“A Streetcar Named Desire” banned for “steamy sexuality”
The sexual content of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," which later became a popular and critically acclaimed film, raised eyebrows and led to self-censorship when the film version was...
View ArticleBehind bans and challenges: sex, language, drugs and religion
The Harry Potter books and the Twilight series are often targeted for their "ungodly" content (i.e. witchcraft, werewolves etc), with challengers failing to note the heroic qualities displayed by those...
View ArticleThe Absolutely True Diary rocks the world of censorship
The Absolutely True Diary by Sherman Alexie is a first-person narrative by Native American teenager Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as “Junior”, a 14-year-old budding cartoonist. The book details...
View ArticleNative America history recounted in Dee Brown classic
Dee Brown's 1970 modern classic, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, is subtitled “An Indian History of the American West.” It tells the history of United States growth and expansion into the West from the...
View ArticleJack London’s “Call of the Wild” endures
The classic Jack London novel, The Call of the Wild, was penned in 1903 and is generally hailed as London’s best work.
View ArticleAnne Frank: a memoir of the Holocaust
Ann Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was written by Anne Frank while in hidden in an attic, hoping to escape Nazi persecution. Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, her...
View ArticleThe Kite Runner: A triumphant read
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that...
View ArticleAnd finally, Harry Potter!
I started reading J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series to keep up with my grandchildren, but found myself sucked into the books because of their initial charm and overwhelming fantasy. What child...
View ArticleBanned Books Week to focus on graphic novels
Banned Books Week, September 21-27, is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information....
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