| Friday, September 30th, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Read a Banned Book This Week! |
Time: 09:50:44 AM |
| Comments? Add / Read (10) |
Location: Book Central |
I can't believe I got so busy this week that
I almost missed talking about something near and dear to my heart: Banned
Book Week. As you might guess, it
makes me all growly when people talk about banning books. Freedom to read
is part of freedom of expression, in my book. If you're worried about what
your kids are reading, talk to them, don't make the school library remove
a book! In honor of banned book week, here's a (very partial) list of banned
books that you can think about whether you've read or not. It should
disturb you that so many of these books are children/young adult
books.
This post is dedicated to my mom, by the
way, because she NEVER told me I couldn't read a book I asked her about.
Instead we talked about the book, she might have said that I wouldn't enjoy
it or might not understand everything, but she always let me make my own
decisions. And, because she encouraged me to volunteer in my school and
public libraries by always being willing to drive me where I needed to
be. And, well, just because I love her and the fact that she made me into
a reader and a believer.
Bold if you've read it.
Italicize if you've read part/exerpts.
1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for
Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for
Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy
Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
| 
“Don't
join the book burners .
. . .” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States, 1953–1961.
“Restriction of free thought and free
speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American
act that could most easily defeat us."—Supreme Court Justice William
O. Douglas, "The
One Un-American Act." Nieman
Reports, vol. 7, no.
1 (Jan. 1953): p. 20.
“Intellectual Freedom is the right of
every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of
view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions
of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement
may be explored. Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold,
receive and disseminate ideas.”—Intellectual
Freedom and Censorship Q & A
“[I]t's not just the books under fire
now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books
that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always,
young readers will be the real losers.”—Judy
Blume
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty
of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”—Benjamin
Franklin
“Without Freedom of Thought, there can
be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without
Freedom of Speech.”—Benjamin Franklin
According to the ALA, this is the list of
most challenged books for 2004:
- "The Chocolate War" for
sexual content, offensive language, religious viewpoint, being unsuited
to age group and violence
- "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean
Myers, for racism, offensive language and violence
- "Arming America: The Origins of a
National Gun Culture" by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy and
political viewpoint
- Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey,
for offensive language and modeling bad behavior
- "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
by Stephen Chbosky, for homosexuality, sexual content and offensive language
- "What My Mother Doesn't Know"
by Sonya Sones, for sexual content and offensive language
- "In the Night Kitchen"
by Maurice Sendak, for nudity and offensive language
- "King & King" by Linda
de Haan and Stern Nijland, for homosexuality
- "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"
by Maya Angelou, for racism, homosexuality, sexual content, offensive language
and unsuited to age group
- "Of Mice and Men" by John
Steinbeck, for racism, offensive language and violence
|
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| Tuesday, September 27th, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Wow! 1300 Within Reach |
Time: 03:09:52 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (3) |
Location: home |
In my new job as program director for LotusUserGroup.org,
one of my tasks is to create and shepherd through quarterly "Webcasts."
Well, everyone does Webcasts now, so we decided to change things up a bit,
and change the branding at the same time. So, we're doing... appropriately...
Virtual User Group meetings. The Virtual
UG Meeting includes a Webcast
as well as the opportunity to participate in our moderated Topic Forums.
Well, our very first event begins with
tomorrow's webcast: IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 7 Launch Sneak Peek -- offering
a preview of what will be shown at the live
Notes/Domino 7 Launch events.
The speakers
include Ed
Brill, Jon Raslawski, Rob Ingram,
and Mark Jourdain; these IBMers will also moderate the topic
forums all week.
And as a testament to how big the Notes/Domino
7 launch is.... we have almost 1300 members
registered to attend this event!
Woohoo! Hope you can join us.
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| Monday, September 26th, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Recovery |
Time: 11:38:27 AM |
| Comments? Add / Read (2) |
Location: Cafe Artiste |
Well, in the grand scheme of things, we
really dodged that bullet. Power flickered on and off Friday night and
Saturday, but the cable went down on Friday night and stayed that way.
I'm at a coffee shop (that has very limited food) to get WiFi access.
The storm, as you probably know by now,
hit the TX/LA border, which is far enough to our east that we in Houston
were mostly missed. That said, many folks in the area were without power
(and some still are). In our neighborhood, there were a fair number of
lines of one kind or another down, making driving/walking the neighborhood
a bit nervewracking.
It's a good thing that Philip parked
his car someplace different than normal, as an oak tree in the front fell
mostly into that area.
There's still very little gasoline,
and not too much food, in the Houston area -- restaurants are serving up
what they have and grocery stores are starting to reopen and restock as
they can.
As for us, well, we're all fine here
thanks. Some wind and rain, much of which I slept through on Friday night
to Saturday morning. And now we're off into heat advisory land until who
knows when. :-)
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| Friday, September 23rd, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Hurricane Rita - Power flickers |
Time: 11:19:39 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (1) |
Location: In Rita's path |
CenterPoint energy is reporting that over
95,000 customers have lost power. I was one of them, briefly. So, from
now forward, there's no telling wehther we'll have power, which means internet
access.
The rain is steady now. The wind has
picked up a bit.
A few hours ago, I took some pictures
of a sunset that started out grey, went to solid orangey-gold, and then
purple, before going to black. Beautiful.
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| Friday, September 23rd, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Rain |
Time: 09:18:50 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (0) |
Location: In Rita's path |
The rain has started.
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| Friday, September 23rd, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| It’s like a ghost town... |
Time: 12:35:11 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (6) |
Location: In Rita's path |
Houston has rolled up the sidewalks, boarded
up its windows, and closed shop for the duration. There is no gas to be
had in most of central Houston. The grocery stores, gas stations, and other
stores and restaurants are mostly closed up. The streets are empty, locally,
despite the incredible traffic jams moving out of Houston.
My downstairs neighbor drove 13 hours, got tired of the traffic, and came
home in less than 45 minutes. My other neighbors are all gone; we're watching
some of the cats and taped up some of their windows.
My closest friends have mostly headed
for the hills. A few are hunkering down, as we are, prepared with food,
water, gatorade, and candles to wait and watch.
The air is very dry and starting to
become windy, with a strange look and feel to the air and sky, but only
gentle clouds and no rain as yet. The latest report from khou.com makes
it look like the winds and rain will start mid-afternoon and continue for
16-18 hours.
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| Thursday, September 22nd, 2005 |
Author: Libby Ingrassia |
| Hurricane Rita - Update 2 |
Time: 12:10:02 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (0) |
Location: In Rita's path |
We finally found gas for Philip's truck
and David's car last night around midnight. We took a break from taping
windows and bringing in plants and pulling stuff out of my storage unit
and went to see a movie (the theater was completely empty). On the way
home, we went to about 10 gas stations before finding two (at Hwy 59 and
Kirby) that had gas. The lines were fairly long, so I won't vouch for how
long that lasted.
Yesterday, the phone circuits were very
busy. It took me three hours to get through to my friend Cindy after our
call dropped. The land lines are a bit better today, but the cell circuits
are still mostly busy. If you try to get me and can't -- this is probably
why, at least until after the hurricane lands.
The most recent updates show the traffic
snarled all over Houston, although they're finally opening contraflow on
I-45 for over 100 miles north of Houston towards Dallas -- all the southbound
lanes will be closed so that northbound traffic can flow on all eight lanes.
They hope to open this on hwy 290 and I-10 also, at least to some extent.
The hurricane itself has fluctuated
a bit -- from 175 mph winds down to 165 mph winds (all still well within
category 5 strength mind you) and the wind and rains are expected to start
here tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. We should see tropic storm force winds
(39 mph and above) and rain ahead of the actual hurricane -- noon Friday
onward. Then hurricane force winds by later Friday evening.
Signing off now for a while to help
clean/clear/tighten/protect...
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| Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 |
Author: Libby |
| Hurricane Rita - Begining to prepare |
Time: 04:47:27 PM |
| Comments? Add / Read (2) |
Location: In Rita's Path |
Well, Hurricane Rita is now a category
5 hurricane and coming straight for Texas. They still don't know if it
will come right into Galveston, or if it will go more towards Matagorda.
Either way, Houston is 75 miles inland, but even with that, they're saying
most of Texas will experience hurricane or tropical storm -force winds,
lots of rain, and likelihood of many tornadoes. Currently, landfall is
expected sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
Schools and offices are mostly all closed
between now and Monday, and circuits are mostly busy on the phones. Lines
at gas stations are out the lots, and many of the stations only have the
most expensive gas. Grocery stores are all out of batteries and water,
and the freeways are packed solid -- I-45 (the main evacuation route from
Galveston) is packed from Galveston to the Woodlands, a distance of probably
125 miles. Many people who aren't even in the "Must Evacuate"
areas are doing so -- flying away if they can, driving if they can't.
For now, we're staying put. I'm on the
second floor, and we're not in one of the voluntary evacuation areas, even
though they are now doing some voluntary evacuations in Houston. But we're
still keeping an eye on things, taping up the windows, laying in a small
store of food, water, and candles, and hoping to be spared the worst.
More updates as they come.
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| Monday, September 19th, 2005 |
Author: Libby |
| Busy weekend, basic update, pirate day |
Time: 11:40:14 AM |
| Comments? Add / Read (1) |
Location: yawwwwnnnnn..... |
Wow. If you don't keep on top of this blogging
thing, a week goes by and you don't even notice. Sheesh.
Well, last week, I put all my writing energy
into my first paper for grad school. Of course, 5 minutes after I turned
it in, I realized how many things I still want to fix in it, but that's
the way these things go. You work on it as much and as well as you can,
and when you have to turn it in, you do. The paper, discusses the importance
of book 9 of the Iliad, based on repetitions and echoes of themes,
actions, and speeches. :-) Fun stuff, baby, let me tell you. I was considering
posting the paper, so that I create an archive for myself, but I'm still
pondering whether that's a good idea....
****
My friend Chris would like to point
out that today is Talk
Like a Pirate Day. If you need help,
try the How-To
or English-to-Pirate
Translators.
***
If you're a book and/or library geek, the
comic strip Unshelved
is really worth your time. Thanks,
Shelly, for the link.
***
Weekend went by in a blur: birthday dinner
for a friend on Friday night; Graduate School writing seminar on Saturday
morning; helping boyfriend's brother move on Saturday afternoon, evening,
and night; and babysitting for and hanging out with some friends on Sunday.
Oy! Not even a run this weekend -- too darn worn out.
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| Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 |
Author: Libby |
| General Update: Life, Books |
Time: 11:14:51 AM |
| Comments? Add / Read (2) |
Location: home |
Life: Basically Good. A small bill paying
mistake that is causing me some angst, and the evil rotten Sprint that
is causing me a lot of angst (more on that in another post). Philip has
been away for a few days, helping his brother move back to Houston. I'll
be glad to have Philip back home - I miss him! Doing quite a bit of running,
walking, yoga (my teacher
is having free classes this week,
at the Nia
studio), reading over the long weekend.
Baked a blueberry peach pie that turned out quite well -- let me know if
anyone is interested in the recipe and I'll post.
Books: Recent reads include the following:
- The
Iliad - still working my way through
this one, but quite enjoying this translation, which is very much in the
modern vernacular, but in a way that just makes it easy to read, not hip-hop
or anything. It feels as though it's in more normal language rather than
something approximating "poetic" language, but for all that,
it is no less poetic. Translation is by Stanley Lombardo, and I like it
very much. Ilium
and Olympos,
by Dan Simmons, this summer -- they're based loosely on the Iliad, the
Odyssey, and the Tempest -- set in another world and another time, but
tied to Earth just enough to make it interesting. It means that even though
I've not quite finished the Iliad for class, I have actually become refamiliarized
with the story, characters, and even some of its history, by reading these
great books by Dan Simmons.
- Shelf
Life, a memoir of an author who works
for a year in a local bookstore, by Suzanne Strempek Shea. Quite a quick
read, but of course it made me want to run out and support an independent
bookstore, work in a bookstore, and finish writing all those stories, essays,
and poems that are sitting in various journal-books on my bookshelf.\
- Zorro,
by Isabell Allende (did I already review this one here? I'll have to look
back to see...) I read this for a book club meeting earlier in the summer
and re-read it over the weekend. I liked it less than the other folks in
the book club so I thought it deserved a second shot! I liked it better
the second time around, although there are still some things that bother
me about the way Allende puts the story together. That said -- it is so
lyrically written -- excellently translated.
- The
Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes,
The
Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll's House,
and The
Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country,
all by Neil
Gaiman. As much of a fan as I am
of his novels, I hadn't really read his graphic novels, so... QUITE good.
Really enjoying the stories and most of the art, although I'm a bigger
fan of the stories than the art in these cases. As it happens, one of the
stories in Vol. 3 is about a man who takes a muse hostage. The muse in
question? Calliope. The interesting bits? Calliope is the name of my new
goddaughter, and, Calliope happened to be Homer's muse. :-)
- I reread Wicked
earlier this summer, again for a
book club meeting, and am now reading Lost,
another one of Gregory Maguire's inventive re-imaginings. I'm a big fan
of Wicked, now I'm hoping to be as entranced by Lost, which I've only just
started.
- An
Assembly Such as This is the first
in a three-part novel by Pamela Aidan -- it's a retelling of the Pride
and Prejudice story from Mr. Darcy's
perspective. I quite like P&P (just watched the Bollywood version,
Bride and Prejudice, this weekend, btw -- AMAZINGLY fun! Just the right
mix of musical, retelling, and staying true to the story.), so I'm always
up for a story that takes me back to such a favorite... The Jane Austen
Book Club, Pride and Prejudice and Jasmine Fields, This
Side of Married... Anway, I think
that Aiden has a good voice for Darcy, and captures Bingley very well.
I like some of her added characters, such as Darcy's friend Lord Dy Brougham.
We'll see how the rest of the story goes as we move to the next books.
- Speaking
with the Angel is a collection of
short stories, edited by Nick Hornby (he of High Fidelity fame). The stories
are written by some familiar names, such as Dave Eggers, Melissa Banks,
Zadie Smith, Colin Firth, Helen Fielding, and Hornby himself. They're all
(so far, I've read about 6 of them) smoothly done, although quite British
in tone and humour, and gently thought-provoking. Of course, I started
it all by bawling at the introduction, written by Hornby to describe why
some of the profits for the book are going to benefit a school for autistic
children -- his son goes to this school and Hornby wants to help other
children to find places in this school or others that offer so much to
bring them out of their tightly imposed cocoons. If you've read Mark Haddon's
The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,
or know any autistic children or their families, it's even more poignant.
- Harlan
Coben's The Innocent was one that
I was promising myself I was going to wait to read until it was out in
paperback, but then my Mom sent it to me (thanks Mom!), not only hardback,
but in autographed hardback. Gotta love that Powell's bookstore! Anway,
it was a quick read over the weekend, and although I like all Coben's books,
this one was a bit more transparent than most, although even with
that, there were a few twists as we got to the end that I didn't completely
expect. In all, a good relaxation read, if you like mysteries at all. I
keep hoping for a new one in his Myron Bolitar series, and the short story
in the back of this one didn't really satiate my appetite!
- Other books partially started and on the
night table include: How
to Read and Why by Harold Bloom,
Guns,
Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond,
The
Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon,
How
to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster,
Will
in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt,
One
Continuous Mistake, by Gail Sher,
and Without
Reservations, another book by Alice
Steinbach, whose book Educating Alice I wrote about a few weeks ago...
Hmm,
that was a lot more books than I realized. :-) Err, yeah. Most of that
was over the last weekend... See what a holiday with no boyfriend in town
will do for me? And doesn't even really talk about the quickie re-reads
I sneak in here and there to completely relax (always have a Mercedes Lackey,
David Eddings, Piers Anthony, Tolkien, or Jane Austen around for relaxation
purposes!).
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