Books

This week, PEN America released a report on the current state of book bans in the USA. The report discusses the 50+ “parents’ rights” groups operating across the country, both on the national and local levels, and how these groups are responsible or connected to at least half of the book bans that have taken place since July 2021. But who are these groups? Where are they located? PEN’s report lays out and links to several stories about various groups, including this box exploring some of the nationally-organized groups. Read...

The New York Times has reported on the passing of Hilary Mantel. Mantel, 70, died from a stroke on Thursday. The British author, two-time winner of the Booker Prize, was a prolific author of literature, including historical fiction, personal memoirs, and short stories. She authored Wolf Hall (Booker Prize winner), Bring Up the Bodies (Booker Prize winner), The Mirror and the Light (Booker Prize longlist), and published a collection of essays, entitled Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books, among many other works. Find...

“Boys don’t cry” — this stale narrative has done a lot of harm. Men’s emotions are devalued. They are pressurized into a performative model of masculinity that completely removes empathy out of the equation. As a result, men are always expected to be strength personified. Their breakdowns and mental health issues are pushed under the carpet. Most importantly, since they are constantly asked to cut ties with their human side, they may not know who to be if not robotic and mechanical in their demeanor. Today, I have curated a...

Oak Brook is a small town just outside of Chicago, Illinois. It is home to one of the state’s largest malls, as well as an array of restaurants, golf and sports clubs, and other markings of a typical middle to upper middle class suburb. Oak Brook is also home to one of the most unconventional public library setups, both in the area and in the country. There is no formal library board that governs library operations. Instead, the village board operates in that capacity, and while that board appoints a...

Last month, Christine Gaiter spoke at a Wellington library board meeting advocating for 19 titles to be moved off the public shelves. She said that this these books were pornographic, and that they shouldn’t accessible by children — even though the majority of the books listed were shelved in the adult fiction section. She went on to claim that the library was acting as an adult entertainment business under the town’s land use code by carrying these materials. The titles, which Gaiter found on an online list of books being...

“More” is the key word in a newly released report from PEN America, the free expression group which has been tracking and detailing censorship and gag order bills across the country. The report, which updates their “Banned In the USA” from April, includes new data and information about the rise of book bans in the last year. Among the findings: 2,532 individual books have been banned between July 2021 and June 2022, and of those, there are 1,648 unique titles, all of which are viewable, sortable, and searchable in their...

Authors using pseudonyms is nothing new. In fact, there are still five that are unknown, with another mystery author story fresh from the headlines this week. They choose a pseudonym for many reasons: to avoid the limelight, to remain anonymous, to avoid criticism, or to protect their identity. Some authors write under a pen name when they switch genres or audiences—Sandhya Menon writes as herself for young adults and as Lily Menon for adults, for example. But things get curious when it’s a bestselling author writing under a pen name...

The longlists for the 2022 National Book Awards (NBA) were announced on September 14–16. The awards are divided into five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature. Among the judges for this year’s awards are Ben Fountain, Brandon Hobson, Pam Houston, Dana Johnson, and Michelle Malonzo for Fiction; Carol Anderson, Melissa Febos, Thor Hanson, Janet Webster Jones, and Oscar Villalon for Nonfiction; Kwame Dawes, Juan Felipe Herrera, Keetje Kuipers, January Gill O’Neil, and Mai Der Vang for Poetry; Nick Buzanski, Veronica Esposito, Ann Goldstein, Rohan Kamicheril, and...

Next week begins Banned Books Week, and rather than passively “celebrate” banned books, let’s spend this week regrouping and taking a series of small action steps toward actually curtailing the non-stop assaults on intellectual freedom and First Amendment rights. I’ve pulled together a list of seven action items for the week plus several bonus actions — pick and choose to do them all or choose one per day for seven days (then, of course, keep the momentum going). Let this list help you get into the habit of championing the...

Sci-fi can be intimidating. Let’s not pretend it isn’t. There’s a whole set of rules to the genre and a new vocabulary to keep up with. On top of that, sometimes sci-fi can feel unwelcoming to the uninitiated. Where do you even start? Don’t worry, I, a very casual reader of sci-fi, am here to guide you. I read sci-fi the same way I watch it — infrequently and usually with popcorn. Science fiction does not have to be all battle sequences and triangulating flight paths. The beauty of speculative fiction,...

It’s still calendar and meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but before you know it, the calendar — and the leaves, the temperature, the weather, etc. — will begin their transition into autumn. We’ll be sporting our favorite hoodies with cozy leggings, trading in sunglasses for scarves, and enjoying a delicious warm pumpkin spiced beverage (or maple beverage or apple beverage) instead of the iced drinks. The light will decrease and we’ll be curled up in warm blankets reading our tomes, enjoying the way the world finally slows down a...

The past two years has seen a rise in conservative propaganda against queer books in schools and libraries, so it’s not a surprise that Pride displays got hit especially hard in June. In one Illinois library, though, the fight began before Pride month had even started, and what happened offers a useful case study for librarians in how to approach these challenges, especially when the accusations includes lies or misinformation. In the Illinois county where Joan* works, complaints against their Pride display started to come in before they had one....

If you’re a horror fan, or even if you’re not, the word possession often conjures images of an exorcism. You think Regan, taken over by Pazuzu right under her parents’ noses in The Exorcist or the subway scene in Possession. It makes sense, when these movies were, and still are, staples in the body possession sub-genre. And, really, the appeal of the sub-genre isn’t that strange when you think about it. There’s nothing that makes you appreciate the control of your body more than watching a fictional character struggle, and...

With a backlist of over a dozen novels and novellas, Colleen Hoover isn’t a new author. Since publishing her first novel in 2012, the romance writer has earned the loving nickname of CoHo and has worked to cultivate a huge following of devoted fans. She started a Facebook group in 2016 called Colleen Hoover’s CoHorts that is still active today with over 130,000 members gushing about her work. Other groups have sprung up dedicated to talking about her individual novels, like this one for Verity with over 30,000 members. Hoover...