The Randolph County school board in North Carolina has rescinded its ban on Ralph Ellison’s highly revered Invisible Man following a little over a week of intense criticism from free speech and literary advocates. The 5-2 decision, initially sparked by a parent’s complaint that the book was not appropriate for teenagers, was reversed in a […]
Censorship and Invisibility: A Boomer Perspective | Barbara Jones. Banned Books Week: September 22-28 In honor of Banned Books Week, Barbara Jones, director of the ALA (American Library Association) Office for Intellectual Freedom, offers a history lesson on book censorship over at Huffington Post. She recalls that, when she was an undergraduate at the University
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Why GR’s new review rules are censorship – Some thoughts Late Friday (US time) Goodreads announced a change in review and shelving policy, and immediately started deleting readers’ reviews and shelves. In doing this they became censors. Limiting readers’ ability to discuss the cultural context of a book is censorship designed to promote authors’ interests.
Banned Books Week September 30 — October 6 Banned Books Week at 30: New and Notable Efforts Publishers Weekly has a good overview of Banned Books Week in honor of its 30th anniversary. How to teach your child to love reading This article comes from a newspaper in the United Kingdom, but the content
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Print Books vs. Ebooks Debate (cont., ad nauseam) Never one to shy away from controversy, Jonathan Franzen recently condemned ebooks as the harbingers of the fall of civilization: “I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this
The greatest death scenes in literature Five judges of the 2012 Wellcome Trust book prize for medicine in literature ponder the question “What makes for a great literary death scene?” Tim Lott calls their choices “eclectic.” Take a look, and see if you have other favorite death scenes to add to the list. The 10
Glendale school board may block ‘In Cold Blood’ – latimes.com The landmark 1966 literary nonfiction book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote may not make it onto a high school honors reading list in Glendale after obections were raised by a committee made up of school principals. The school board must approve the book before
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Banned Books Week this year is from September 24 through October 1. More information is available from the American Library Association: Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
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The 10 Most Powerful Women Authors Forbes contributor Avril David has put together a list of “10 women [who] can tell (and sell) a good story”: Although there are many more women throughout history who have proven to be powerful authors, this list is limited to those who are living, with a focus on personal
