Censorship is surging thanks to an organised rightwing minority targeting books on LGBTQ and Black characters and issues“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door,” warns a character in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s dystopian vision of an America where books are considered so dangerous they must be incinerated. The novel appeared 70 years ago, in the aftermath of Nazi book burnings and amid McCarthyism and Soviet ideological repression. But the urge to ban books has resurged with a vengeance, with the American Library Association (ALA) recording a doubling of censorship attempts in 2022, to 1,269 across 32 states: the highest rate for decades. Pen America, which champions freedom of expression, tallied more than 2,500 cases in the last school year.These attempts are not merely more numerous but are also broadening and deepening. The decisions of school boards and districts take place in the context of politicians grasping electoral advantage and punitive yet often vaguely worded state laws on education – such as the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis’s, Stop-Woke Act. At least 10 states have passed legislation increasing parental power over library stock, or limiting students’ access. In place of spontaneous challenges to single titles come challenges to multiple titles, organised by campaign groups such as Moms for Liberty. The ALA says that 40% of attempts last year targeted 100 books or more. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-13 17:21:33 UTC ]
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The Los Angeles Times Book Club has selected “The Other Americans” as its next book and hosts a July 30 conversation with author Laila Lalami at the Skirball Cultural Center. The novel is a mystery and family drama that unfolds in a Southern California desert town after a Moroccan immigrant... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-27 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Just in time for summer reading, the Los Angeles Times Book Club has chosen "The Library Book" as our first community read and will host a June 25 forum with bestselling author Susan Orlean. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-06 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Just in time for summer reading, the Los Angeles Times Book Club has chosen “The Library Book” as our first community read and will host a June 25 forum with bestselling author Susan Orlean. Join us as we explore Orlean’s bestseller, a whodunit about the mysterious 1986 fire that gutted Los... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-06 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Susan Orlean cracked open her book and bent toward the microphone. “Covers burst like popcorn,” she said, reading from her book about the mysterious 1986 fire at downtown L.A.’s Central Library. “Pages flared and blackened and then sprang away from their bindings, a ream of sooty scraps soaring... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House has partnered with the publishing diversity group on a social media campaign as a part of its support for Banned Books Week, held this year September 23-29. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Portraits from the L.A. Times Studio at the 2018 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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California indie Heyday Books, which is best known as a publisher of regional titles, is departing from its standard fare with a new book called 'Our Dishonest President.' The essay collection, which Heyday crashed, is set to hit shelves on July 4. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-06-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Book Hive in Norwich has teamed up with a local book club to help spread opposition to Donald Trump through literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 'New York Times Book Review' has revealed the 10 titles on its 64th annual list of Best Illustrated Children's Books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Heaven for book nerds! The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is underway at the USC campus this weekend, where more than 500 authors are reading, discussing, signing, and living and breathing books. The lineup includes former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, "Top... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2016-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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English PEN and the Howard League for Penal Reform today (11th December) delivered hundreds of books to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to send on to prisoners. Authors Francesca Simon and Miranda France joined representatives of the charities, who wore Christmas-themed clothing and offered mince... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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When the graphic novel remake of Ann M. Martin's book Claudia and the Bad Joke was the best-selling kids book in Canada earlier this month, it was time for bookworms to feel their hearts flutter with nostalgia. The original, part of the wildly popular The Baby-Sitters Club series, was published... Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2024-04-26 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Winners at the 2024 L.A. Times Book Prizes included Ed Park for fiction, Ivy Pochoda for mystery/thriller and the pro-Palestinian commencement speaker whose name has become a rallying cry for free speech. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-04-20 05:08:39 UTC ]
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Five more publishers, including the remaining Big Five publishers, have now joined as plaintiffs to help defend against the state’s bid to lift the block on appeal on Iowa's book banning law, SF 496. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The report, 'Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis,' reports 4,349 book bans recorded from July to December 2023, with more book bans recorded during the first half of the current school year than in all of the last school year. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The hearing comes nearly year after administrators in the Mat-Su district, located just north of Anchorage, responded to a handful of parental complaints by pulling 56 titles from school libraries without any formal review. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Libraries across the U.S. are struggling to cover the cost of e-books, which have grown in popularity Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2024-03-12 14:54:40 UTC ]
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A Llano County librarian who refused to ban books at the direction of the board and county has filed a lawsuit with a firm making a name for themselves protecting libraries nationwide. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-03-05 15:19:15 UTC ]
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