A Veteran of the Book-Banning Wars on the Importance of Speaking Out Claudia Johnson is a nationally recognized advocate for free speech, author of Stifled Laughter: One Woman’s Story About Fighting Censorship—nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1994—and winner of the inaugural PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “extraordinary efforts to restore banned literary […]
(Feature image: Main Branch, Tacoma Public Library, Tacoma, WA) Today is Library Snapshot Day! This day is celebrated in 38 states of the U.S. some time in the first half of each year, and for 2023 that day is today. But Library Snapshot Day is no April Fool’s joke: It is an engaging way to
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Reviewer Jeana Jorgensen Interviews Thomas Cirotteau, Coauthor of Lady Sapiens: Breaking Stereotypes about Prehistoric Women The book Lady Sapiens “corrects mistaken stereotypes about prehistory, asserting the primacy of women in past societies and honoring the foremothers who advanced civilization with their art, knowledge, and power,” writes reviewer Jeana Jorgensen. “In reality,” she notes, “early women
The Defiance of Salman Rushdie “After a near-fatal stabbing—and decades of threats—the novelist speaks about writing as a death-defying act.” David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, offers background on Salman Rushdie as well as news about the author’s life since he was attacked at a literary event last August 11. Category: Author News 8
Harlem: The Journey Uptown The February 1, 2023, daily newsletter from The New Yorker describes this article from 1981 as follows: Few neighborhoods in New York City—indeed, few neighborhoods anywhere—are as closely linked with a community as Harlem is with African Americans. In literature and music, fashion and film, the area has become synonymous with
You Can Watch ‘Kaleidoscope’ Episodes in Any Order. A Complete Guide I love novels with unusual structures. So when I read that the episodes of Netflix’s new drama Kaleidoscope could be viewed in any order, I had to check it out. This article from CNET discusses how several choices can affect the way viewers experience the
We Need Diverse Books Launches #BooksSaveLives Initiative Against Censorship We Need Diverse Books, an organization formed in 2014 “to advocate for diversity and inclusion in the publishing industry,” has launched its #BooksSaveLives initiative with “as much as $10,000 in grants to schools and libraries in underserved communities so they can purchase challenged and banned books
Atoms as They Fall Upon the Mind This article from The Point magazine extols James Joyce’s Ulysses as an example of the experimental literary technique of stream of consciousness: “When in prose carefully structured to imitate the patterns of the mind these aspects of consciousness reveal themselves to us as they do in life, through
How Do the Books We Read Change Our Brains? “Gregory Berns on Measuring the Effects of a Really Good Story” In this article, adapted from his book The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities, Emory University psychology professor Gregory Berns describes a neuroimaging experiment he devised to measure whether reading
Opinion Have we forgotten what a public library is for? The executive directors of the Michigan Library Association and Michigan ACLU reflected on the recent vote to defund a public library outside of Grand Rapids over its display of LGBTQ books. Categories: Censorship, Libraries The Ultimate Guide to Wondrous Independent Bookstores Shortly after opting out
