You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Montana 1948

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. In the news: US prisoner forbidden to read Pulitzer-winning history book Our Bodies, Ourselves turns 40 In Cold Blood gets okay from Glendale, California school board Another annoyed librarian slams Banned Books Week On Facebook: You Can’t Read That! banned […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Norwegian Wood

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Today is the first day of Banned Books Week, which runs from September 24 to October 1.  In honor of BBW, rather than link to the standard lists of books under fire from parents, religious fundamentalists, and political activists, I’ll […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Banned Books Week (September 24 to October 1) is almost upon us. What’s it all about?  From the American Library Association’s site: Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.  Held during […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Lush

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. My last YCRT column was all about Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five.  Can you stand one more link?  It’s a good one.  Oh, all right, one more, in honor of the respectable citizens of Republic, Missouri … you know, the ones […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. I’m starting with an essay on censorship by Chris Crutcher.  Crutcher, an author whose books are frequently challenged and banned from school libraries and reading lists, is coming around to the same conclusion I’ve drawn: that parental book challenges are […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: Crank

You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. From my last You Can’t Read That! post: Apparently it’s a widely-held belief in anti-gay Christian conservative circles that the government — particularly the jack-booted thugs who run public libraries and schools — foists pro-gay literature on young readers while […]

You Can’t Read That!

I started reading a thick paperback yesterday around noon … it looked to be a 400- to 500-pager … but it turned out to be written in blank verse, with just a few words per page.  Including breaks for errands, dinner, and the Rachel Maddow Show, I was done by seven.  The book was Crank […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Book of Negroes

You Can’t Read That! is my new title for banned book reviews and news roundups. From a previous banned book news roundup: Conservative groups who believe in and fear the so-called gay agenda accuse the American Library Association of suppressing books with pro-hetereosexual themes. But 99% of books in libraries implicitly or explicitly endorse heterosexuality, […]