Thursday, September 30, 2021
Cat Thursday - Coffee 3.0
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Banned Books Week 2021 - Spotlight on a favorite: The Giver
The Giver by Lois Lowry has made the 100 most frequently challenged books list for three decades (since the ALA started collecting data in 1990), in 1990-1999, 2000-2009, and 2010-2019.
Released in 1993, it has been one of the most controversial books in American schools. Between 1990 and 1999, The Giver ranked 11th on the list of the books most frequently requested for removal. In the 2000s it was 23rd, just two spots below To Kill a Mockingbird. Just under one-third of all challenges of The Giver (for which the outcome was reported) resulted in a removal. The state that has seen the most attempts at removal is Texas, but the book has also been challenged in Massachusetts, Washington, and many other states all over the country.
A must-read dystopian novel for any teen, I first read this book in middle school, and then I reread it in high school and college. The main character, a tween named Jonas, is given the important role as ‘Receiver of Memory,’ where he is supposed to retain the beautiful and dark moments others in his community can't see. He can see color in a black-and-white world as well as the environment, animals, human emotions and past experiences. The book sheds light on the importance of freedom and living life as one chooses to, but the message goes deeper than that. Valuing our relationships with our friends, family, and colleagues in the real world is a gift. Oftentimes, we lose sight of what makes our life beautiful, even though it is right in front of us. And those lessons are conveyed elegantly in this book, from start to finish. Life is spontaneous and crazy, and there shouldn’t be someone telling us how to live our life when we have the ability to carve our own destiny. Banning this book would be a loss for children, not a gain – Sudiksha Kochi (from a USA Today article, September 28, 2021)
My personal experience with the book, to touch on what Kochi talked about above, was the gut-wrenching reality of family not meaning what it means in our society. Honestly, it made me cry. The story's focus on personal freedom and choice, and the value of relationships, made for a truly powerful read. Certainly an important read for today's young people.
Read my review of The Giver here.
Read my review of The Giver here.
Monday, September 27, 2021
Banned Books Week 2021
It's that time again. Another year, another bout of targeting books. Let's take a look at the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020. You'll probably notice a few of the titles seem to make the list almost every year. This year's theme is "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us." I'm planning to share a few posts this week, but have not quite decided what I will be covering. Stay tuned.
- George by Alex Gino
Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community” - Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people - All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now” - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author - Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views - To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message
What about you? Are you surprised by any of the titles appearing on the list?
Thursday, September 23, 2021
Cat Thursday - Autumn is here!
Thursday, September 16, 2021
Cat Thursday - Random
Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite lolcat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Share the link to your post with your comment below.
Late posting today. Email subscribers, you won't receive this until Friday. I apologize.
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Cat Thursday: Authors and Cats (106) Donald Hall
The second Cat Thursday of each month is Authors and Cats Thursday. Each time I will feature an author (with a birthday during the month), pictured with their/a cat(s), or guest posts by cat loving authors who also (sometimes) write about cats.
Tuesday, September 7, 2021
Cover Reveal: And By Fire, Crime Mystery Debut by Evie Hawtrey
The above mentioned Evie Hawtrey (aka historical novelist Sophie Perinot – in a new, darker, incarnation) has recently revealed her cover for her crime mystery debut! AND BY FIRE is a dual timeline novel, pitting two extraordinary female detectives—tempered by fire and separated by more than three centuries—against a pair of murderous geniuses who will burn the world for their art.
ABOUT AND BY FIRE:
Nigella Parker, Detective Inspector with the City Police, has a deeply rooted fear of fire and a talent for solving deadly arson cases. When a charred figure is found curled beside Sir Christopher Wren’s Monument to the Great Fire of London, Nigella is dragged into a case pitting her against a murderous artist creating sculptures using burnt flesh.
Nigella partners with Colm O’Leary of Scotland Yard to track the arsonist across greater London. The pair are more than colleagues—they were lovers until O’Leary made the mistake of uttering three little words. Their past isn’t the only buried history as they race to connect the dots between an antique nail pulled from a dead man’s hands and a long-forgotten architect dwarfed by the life’s work of Sir Christopher Wren.
Wren, one of London’s most famous architects, is everywhere the pair turn. Digging into his legacy leads the DCIs into the coldest of cold cases: a search for a bookseller gone missing during the Great Fire of London. More than 350 years earlier, while looking for their friend, a second pair of detectives—a lady-in-waiting to the Queen and a royal fireworks maker—discovered foul play in the supposedly accidental destruction of St. Paul’s Cathedral…but did that same devilry lead to murder? And can these centuries-old crimes help catch a modern-day murderer?
As Nigella and O’Leary rush to decode clues, past and present, London’s killer-artist sets his sights on a member of the investigative team as the subject of his next fiery masterpiece.
PRAISE FOR AND BY FIRE:
“BONES meets the Restoration Court in Evie Hawtrey's AND BY FIRE, a taut dual-timeline mystery that races along at the pace of an inferno! .... Fresh, dynamic, and crisply researched, AND BY FIRE WILL appeal to histfic fans and mystery readers alike—I couldn't put this one down!"
—Kate Quinn, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Alice Network
BIO:
Evie Hawtrey is a Yank by birth but a sister-in-spirit to her fierce and feminist London detective, DI Nigella Parker. Evie splits her time between Washington DC, where she lives with her husband, and York, UK, where she enjoys living in history, lingering over teas, and knocking around in pubs.
Sunday, September 5, 2021
Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.) XVI and Something Wicked Fall
I rarely share the scary stuff on this blog. Everyone knows I have my horror blog, Castle Macabre. However, I make an exception during this time of year. Yes, autumn is the season for scary. I know it's not technically fall yet, but what's a few weeks. You should see all the Halloween stuff I've been buying. Step away from the online shopping, lady.
So, R.I.P is back...version XVI...and my scary events are back this year with Something Wicked Fall over at Castle Macabre in September and October, and in conjunction, the FrightFall Readathon over at Seasons of Reading in October (sign-ups for the readathon will be open soon). All the details about Something Wicked Fall can be found here.
My reading plans are in the graphic below. I know I won't get to everything, but going to try. Several are for sure, as I'm reading them for read-alongs, challenges, and my book group read in October. The Blood Countess, All Things Cease to Appear, Stoker's Wilde, and Mexican Gothic. Some of them are short story anthologies so I will be picking and choosing stories from them. Gothic horror in September and horror in October.
I completely forgot about this beauty I picked up a couple of months ago. A lot of great classic horror stories in this 864 page tome. Classic Tales of Horror
Going to try to fill in this BINGO card for R.I.P. since I watched three horror movies last night...The Fear Street trilogy on Netflix. SO good! I'll also be listening to Bone White by Ronald Malfi on audio. It's a reread...one of my favorites.
I will be posting updates on this post. Hopefully, I'll keep up with it. There will a tab linking to it in the blog menu. Title = Fall Reading
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Cat Thursday - There's just a lot of mischief
I looked back on previous posts and it seems I've used mischief a lot. Well, cat lovers...there is A LOT of mischief. You know what I mean...and we love every minute of it.
