books

How To Fight Book Bans

 in Banned Book / Books by

With the book bans, book censoring and book restricting going on right now, you may be asking how you are able to help. I wanted to share a great post written by the Authors Guild over on United Against Book Bans.

A post was written titled “Fighting For The Freedom To Read And The Freedom To Write” with some small things that you can do. They include speaking out, joining a book club that reads banned books and report book banning.

Also, the Authors Guild has an amazing tool kit to fight banned books!

While these are all small steps, it everyone does their part as they are able to it will make a difference!

 

A Passage to India by E.M. Foster [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

A classic historical book rich with Anglo British and Indian tension, a story of unlikely relationships and historical challenges.picture of the book a passage to india by e.m. forster n a bookshelf with two small Indian statues on either side of it.

Summary

“Among the greatest novels of the twentieth century, E. M. Forster’s sweeping tale of prejudice and racial tension is set in colonial India at the turn of the century. As the Indian independence movement is gaining momentum but while the country is still under the rule of the British Raj, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, befriends several English tourists in spite of expressions of caution from his Indian friends. What begins as an unexceptional but well-meaning sightseeing outing to a famous cave erupts into a misunderstanding with devastating consequences.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

To say this book was a wild ride of emotions was an understatement. I was constantly confused how I should be feeling with everything happening both within the context of the story and in the context of history. It was just…a lot.

A historical look at British and Indian tension with all the racial issues.

While reading this book, it is important to remember that it is set in the 1920’s. Some reviews available on sites out there are negative towards the book, commenting negatively against the British and some of the racism going on treatment of the Indians. Through a modern lens and with a more progressive mentality, that is accurate absolutely! However, I would say that if you read this book with that view you may not enjoy it as much. With some of the themes, it will make you uncomfortable and that is okay. But while reading I recommend trying to put yourself in the shoes of someone reading it when it was published. It is not easy to do at all, but it helps to provide an understanding and context of the story and what exactly is going on

That being said, looking at this book from a modern perspective with what we know now is really interesting and enlightening. To see the British savior complex and perceived supremacy, the massive disparities between income and what may be rich in one country and rich in another, and the clear divide between the races in such a stark presentation is very interesting.

Racial tensions, gender tension and lies all around!

A Passage to India has a lot going on. You have the theme of racial tensions between the Indians and British, the tension between men and women in respective cultures and the tension between opposite genders in both cultures. Tension all around! It’s quite painful to read from both a modern perspective, as well as that as what I would classify as a good human to see the treatment of other humans as lesser and unequal.

Even within the Indian culture when this book was set (I am by no means an expert on India, their culture and their history!) it was fascinating to see the general divide between individuals from regions and societal classes. The fact that the main Indian character, Dr. Aziz, who was by no means wealthy, had servants working for him was shocking and eye opening. To think that someone that “poor” had someone even poorer working for them just continued to fascinate me from a historical and cultural perspective. The whole local the book was set, the disparities between classes and income, and then between both cultures and money was something to behold and wrap your head around.

And then you have the main female British character, Ms. Quested, and her false accusations which was a whole other wrinkle! I won’t get too far into it to avoid spoilers, but boy did it make my blood boil. Then seeing how Mr. Fielding (another of the British main characters) became integral for Ms. Quested and Dr. Aziz and bridging the gap in a slight way certainly had my feelings confused.

A book with so much beauty and so much pain – the story having you dance on the edge of what to feel.

I have always had a draw to India in books and movies in all of it’s forms. A Passage to India, while it did bring up some of the beauty of the country, the people and India in general, there was the constant underlying tension and relationship with the British. However, it was a wonderful read. I learnt so much, was able to really feel for so many of the characters on all sides, and got an insight into more localized life for Indians under the British rule.

Sometimes in movies and history it can be glamorized when looked through certain lenses. However, if you know anything of history, you know that is not the case. The book managed to get at some of the darker areas without it being too dark of a story overall.

It is a book that will take me time to fully digest and I will have to read it again in a few years. I would say that this is a book for slightly older readers, not only because of the writing style, but because the story just has so much going on that a younger reader may not understand without the guidance of those older.

HOWEVER, with book banning going on and the censoring of books due to ‘uncomfortable’ issues, I think this is a great book to be read to get an understanding of some of the ‘ugliness’ in history without the book being too extreme in nature. I certainly highly recommend this classic and it’s one I am glad to have read. There’s a reason it’s won so many awards.

Have you read A Passage to India? What did you think?

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

Florida Schools Banning Shakespeare ‘Raunchiness’

 in Banned Book / Books by

Schools in Florida, the state where book access is rapidly declining, are removing Romeo and Juliet from schools because of the ‘raunchiness’. Schools will only be using specific excerpts from the book in class school.

Due to Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay” bill, certain topics cannot be taught in school.

Students can choose to read these books on their own, however, I don’t know many high school students who willingly want to read Shakespeare.

According Joseph Cool, a reading teacher at one of the schools, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare because that’s what sold tickets during that time.”

To say this is an embarrassment, the removal and censoring of one of the most classic and well known pieces of literature is beyond sad.

For students, you may be asking where you can access Romeo & Juliet for free online because maybe you’re curious! Don’t worry, I got you!

You can find a version of the full text here, here, and No Fear Shakespeare – Romeo and Juliet text here! You can also get your own copy from Amazon here.

If you’re from Florida and dislike all this book banning, find your representative here, reach out and tell them to stop limiting access to books!

Iowa School District to Potentially Ban 374 Books: What Is Happening?! [Book Banning]

 in Banned Book / Books / Current Events / Interesting by

Due to Senate File 496 in Iowa, there are potentially hundreds of books to be banned in the Urbandale school district. According to the Senate File, it is

establishing a parent’s or guardian’s right to make decisions affecting the parent’s or guardian’s child, authorizing the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in a school district to enroll the student in another attendance center within the same school district in certain specific circumstances, prohibiting instruction related to gender identity and sexual orientation in school districts.” (Source)

Essentially the new law is prohibiting books that address topics of gender identity and sexual acts.

Books included in the potential ban are:

  • Ulysses
  • The Catcher and the Rye
  • Gender Queer
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
  • Mayor Pete: The Story of Pete Buttigieg
  • Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History
  • The Handmaid’s Tale
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower

If you live in this state, reach out to your representatives and legislators (you can find them here ) and reach out! Speak out against this occurring.

Each parent has every right to ask a teacher not to assign a book to their child. They have every right to make that decision for their own child. Not for other children and other families.

This is a gross overstep of power, and one of many states doing this!

 

Happy Reading and Happy Resisting!

#STOPBOOKBANS

 

How To Start A Virtual Book Club

 in Book Events / Books / Fun by

During, and following, COVID many things that once were in person had to pivot to become virtual. And some of these things stayed that way, or opened up a new door with countless possibilities. One of these things was the transition of book clubs from gathering in person to online. This certainly presented challenges but also allowed people who maybe never have been to a book club to go from the comfort and safety of their own home, and meet some wonderful people from around the world.

I’m fortunate enough to be in a book club and actually run one with a wonderful group of men and women, primarily along the East Coast of the United States. It’s certainly not big, which is how I like it – kind of cozy and intimate like a real book club. But it afforded those older an ability to have a community during the trying times of COVID and also exposed me to some incredible pieces of literature and interesting perspectives.

During my time in the book club, co-moderating, and now running it, I’ve learnt a thing or two about how to successfully run a book club and wanted to pass on some tips and tricks if you wanted to start your own – either with strangers, you blog followers, or friends and family!

At a high level, this is what you need!

Made with Canva.com

Now to get into the down and dirty with a bit more information and examples of how I run it! 

1. Choose your platform to host it on wisely.

There’s a lot of great places out there that you can host on – I know there’s some in Discord for example. But for me personally, Facebook groups was the way to go. We needed it simple for those less technologically inclined and something which was accessible to many without needing to make a new account. If your group is older, or mixed, some of these fancy new apps and such may not work.

2. Decide if you will make administrative decisions or want the group to vote!

Some groups like to vote on everything. Others like to have the leaders make the choices. I personally enjoy doing a mix because it lets people be involved, but makes sure things get done. An example is, I will have people suggest monthly themes and I collect them all and then I choose what month they will occur on and try and get in as many as I can that were suggested! I’ve tried the collection of themes and having people vote on when they wanted it and let me tell you, it got messy. Sometimes as a moderator you need to just make decisions on your own.

3. Decide how many books you want to read and organize, organize, organize!

Some book groups read one book a quarter, some only a couple a year and others one a month. We are the latter so we get through a lot of book which is fantastic. But it means there is a lot of planning. How many books you want to read will determine how many themes you will need for the year. And this will also dictate when you need to be collecting and posting what people will be reading. You need to make sure to leave enough time to get the book – whether that be buying it or getting it from a library. Make sure you know what is happening when before you start.

If it’s friends it’s a little less informal and you can go with the flow, but if it’s strangers you want to put a good foot forward to have people engage and want to read the books.

4. Make Themes!

Themes are a great way to make sure that you have an array of books (you can see an example of what I do to the left). This is particularly important if you plan to try and read a lot of books. You can make your book club have a theme if that is your desire – so you are a classical book club, or a sci-fi book club. But, if you just want to read anything out there, start with making themes. Before January (or whenever your “new year” will start) it can be smart to know what your monthly themes will be.

How I’ve run mine is that end of November or early December I do a post in the Facebook group and ask my members for theme suggestions. Suggestions can be super specific or very general – but you want the themes to have enough clarity so people know what kind of book to suggest.

Once you collect all the theme suggestions, I’d recommend making executive decisions on what month will be when, and try and be logical! Maybe keep spooky themes to October, travel reads to the summer (or maybe the winter to escape the cold!)

5. Decide on your schedule.

You need to decide what is going to be happening when so people know what to expect. For example in my book club, during the month of January, the first of the month I post what our February theme is. People know what the theme is already because there’s a pinned post so they know what is up and coming and that is decided every year for the following year.

But, I’ll do a Facebook group post stating the theme for next month and asking for suggestions of books. I’ll usually leave that open for a week and choose the date I will accept suggestions until. Then on that date I collect everyone suggestions and do a poll! This allows members to vote on what they want to read – this will be open about a week too. Whatever has the most votes at the end wins! If two tie, then I’ll usually make an executive choice. By about the third week of a month, for this example in January, we’ll have our book for the month of February and we’ll post the winner!

The month of February is for reading and also choosing when we discuss the February book I recommend setting that in stone for your group if you can – i.e.: the first Sunday/the first Friday or a month we will meet to discuss. My group likes to be a bit more flexible so we vote on which of the first two weekends in the following month (so for this example, the following month is March) works best.

So for one book for one month, there’s about a 3 month timeline. It’s a lot of work and a lot of organizing but once it’s set and flowing, it’s worth it! That being said, you can simplify it absolutely! This is just how mine works, and sure it is complicated sometimes, but we have it down to a fine art after many years!

 

After that, you just have to have fun and be flexible! Book clubs should be a social time so it is entirely up to you how you want it to go. Having some structure can help it go smoothly, but if you want to just go with the flow then that is okay too! Just be open to some feedback to best suit it for your group! That being said, if you have a huge virtual book club then organization will be key!

Book clubs are a great way to be exposed to more books. I’ve definitely read books I’ve disliked or never would have read but ultimately I’ve enjoyed the process and community! Also with virtual it means you can possibly meet people from around the world. Starting small is great and growing your community from there is key!

 

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to run a virtual book club that I haven’t mentioned here? Feel free to share in the comments!