It’s Banned Books Week: here’s a list of 100 banned books

This is Banned Books Week. It seems the last time I posted anything about this was in 2010, so I think it is time to mention it again with a list of 100 banned books. I know if a book is banned … or challenged, as it is usually called in the USA … it is drawn into focus more than it would have been if left alone.

The following paragraph and list is from modernlibrary.com which you may wish to check out.

On July 21, 1998, the Radcliffe Publishing Course compiled and released its own list of the century’s top 100 novels, at the request of the Modern Library editorial board.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Ulysses by James Joyce
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1984 by George Orwell
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Native Son by Richard Wright
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
The World According to Garp by John Irving
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Howards End by E.M. Forster
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Jazz by Toni Morrison
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Light in August by William Faulkner
The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias by Gertrude Stein
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
White Noise by Don DeLillo
O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Bostonians by Henry James
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Kim by Rudyard Kipling
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

For someone who loves to read my record is poor: six I have read, seven I have seen as movies, eight I have on hand to read – four of those I started.

Have you read any of these? Do you agree with any of them being banned, or do you believe banning books is a bad practice?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Remembering Dr. Seuss

A year ago on this date I wrote a post in honour of Dr. Seuss‘ birthday. If he were still with us today he would be 104. Because I am trying to take care of some other things this week, I am going to simply give you the link to my 2012 post. I hope you will go here and read it again, or for the first time.

I miss reading Dr. Seuss‘ fabulous books to my little girls … who are all grown up now. I suppose I could dig out a few of his books and read them to the dog. If he gets up and leaves the room I’ll know I’ve lost my touch and need more practice in reading aloud again. 😉

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss! Thanks for being a rebel and breaking new ground.

Perhaps we should encourage ourselves by remembering Dr. Seuss as one who didn’t give up his dream. No one can live it or do it for us, so, to quote Dr. Seuss: “You are you and that is true, there’s no one in the world who’s you-er than you.”

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

At what speed do you read?

As you know, I love to read. I love to immerse myself in a book and not come out until absolutely necessary. That word ‘necessary’ covers more ground now, but on those days I can claim some time for myself just to read – and read only – it is delicious time well spent.

How fast do you read? Do you know? Does it even matter? My reading time varies, but once I’m into the story I cover a lot of ground in a fair amount of time.

Last year I came across the neatest thing! Perhaps you have seen this yourself. It’s a test to find out how fast you read at your normal speed. I tried it then, but I don’t remember my results. I tried it again this morning. Now, I’m not a speed reader by any stretch of the imagination; I tend to savour each word and scene as I go along which doesn’t even put me into college student reading speed. But, at my pace I apparently would be able to read War and Peace in twenty-six hours and ten minutes. That’s not bad considering the size of that book, and I’ve been nibbling away at it for months to now be a little over half way through it. (As an aside, I am enjoying War and Peace – it’s just that I don’t have a lot of time to spend on reading only, and without interruption, or reading only that one novel, or I’d be further along – and likely finished it.) The test also told me I can read two books on my Kindle before recharging, assuming an average book has 136,604 words.

I thought you might be interested in trying it for yourself. Just click on this link and have fun with it: INTERACTIVE READING SPEED TEST

You may find that if you do the test again you will be given an excerpt from a different novel to read and probably come up with different results.

Do you know how fast you read? Try the test and let me know how it compares with what you thought.

Watch for an exciting, special feature and page to help writers — soon to be incorporated into my blog!

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

In this New Year do you resolve to, or hope to?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you believe this is “the year of our Lord, two thousand thirteen“? 2013! To me, that seems a strange number; it feels different somehow.

I think the beginning of a new year always brings with it that ‘starting fresh’ feeling, the way the outdoors looks after a fresh fall of snow — all sparkly and clean. The new year comes in like that — sparkly and clean with nothing marring it or tracking it up. We want our new year to be that way … unmarred with no tell-tale tracks. We want to start fresh, leaving the mistakes and disappointments behind.

Have you made any resolutions? For the past several years I have not recorded or purposely written a list of New Year Resolutions. The many times I fell short, and then felt guilty about failing, led me to give up that emotional self-abuse.

Or are yours more like “hope to’s”? What I usually do is simply think about what I want to try to change in the new year, which is sort of making resolutions but it often happens less deliberately. It could be called my list of “hope to’s” instead.

My goals this year are centered around reading, writing, and attitude – none of which should be a surprise to you. 🙂

READING: You have no idea how many books I have collected over the years with the intention of reading them someday. The problem with that is my TBR (to be read) stash continues to grow as I keep adding to it and have less time to read. The older books are still waiting and the newer ones keep coming. My husband gave me an e-reader for Christmas (a Kindle) so now I have a growing digital TBR book stash! (What complicates it further is that I found a “free e-books on Amazon” daily list. Oh woe is me! but how delightful at the same time.) To say I love books is almost an understatement. My plan is for some of them to be reviewed on my blog, a few old ones, but mostly new titles. I have a waiting list.
WRITING: Of course I hope to continue writing picture book drafts and working on the ones I already have. I also hope to finish writing my novel this year. As for my blog, I’m now trying to formulate a better plan regarding my posts. I will still be writing book reviews, interviewing authors, posting about other things in between, but possibly something else will also take shape on my blog if I can get it worked out. Being better organized along with the habit of scheduling would be very beneficial. I have not signed on for the extra writing challenges this year that I enjoyed the past few years, as much as I would have liked that. Perhaps it will give me more chance to catch up on emails, blogging, and the book writing I mentioned. Maybe next year I will be able to try some of them again.
ATTITUDE: As you know, my word – since my birthday in November – is GRATEFUL. I have not made it my habit yet, but that is something I am aiming for – to become consciously grateful every day for something. And to say out loud (to God as well as to myself) — “I am grateful!” I believe in every circumstance there is something for which to be grateful, and once found it changes one’s attitude and perspective, and releases the stress – at least a little. I believe an attitude change will help me handle things much better, including the combined challenges as a wife, caregiver, and writer.

Perhaps I have set resolutions for 2013, but I prefer to call them goals … goals that I hope to achieve – not just in 2013, but as positive long-term life-affecting choices.

How about you – what resolutions or ‘hope to’s’ have you made for 2013?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Book Review: The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge – by Christine Nolfi

Book: The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge

Author: Christine Nolfi

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Date: March 15, 2012

Genre: fiction, romance/mystery/suspense

Pages: 382, paperback

Price: $13.95; less in Kindle

My rating: A gripping story that stirs emotions and feelings on many levels.

I won a copy of this adult book from the author.

The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge begins with a hook (a line that grabs one’s interest), and the reader’s curiosity is stirred immediately.

Our main character, Ourania (whose name I’m never sure I am correctly pronouncing – and I do ‘hear’ the words even as I read along silently) is a strong single woman, who owns and operates her own electrical contracting business. She bids on – and is accepted for – a challenging job that places her directly in the path and life of a man she once knew. Then her life gets really complicated.

Because of her mother’s work in family services, she gets pulled into foster parenting – and not of one child but of two troubled siblings. As if her job’s stability isn’t precarious enough already, things start heating up between her and the man who hired her, she feels threatened by dominating male presence on the job site, and her private life gets more complicated as she has to deal with the young children’s issues when she knows little about parenting. Besides all that, the children’s safety is at risk and she must somehow protect them although they resent her.

Does this intrigue you so far? Read on.

There is this ancient tree, a tree that – if given the ability – could reveal secrets that would boggle one’s mind. Besides its being a private meeting place for people over the years, some of them romantic interludes, there had been a savage, brutal act committed there decades before. We learn with Ourania what an impact this one site had and will have on her life, along with other shocking information she struggles to handle.

Not wanting to give away any more of the story, I will say that Christine Nolfi wrote an interesting, gripping, yet tragic tale. The way she connected everyone works well. The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge is a painful story to read, while being a hopeful one through which love winds its way.

What doesn’t work for me is the repetitive lusting after one another
… but that’s my personal preference; it seems to be what many people want to read. I also found it unnecessary to repeat the explanation of one person we never meet except in the characters’ telling and thinking. Once or twice is fine, I believe the reader will remember from there.

The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge is a title I wondered about until I got into the story. Although it was difficult to read in places because of the rawness of human nature being exposed, I found it harder to NOT read this book. If you enjoy a little romance interwoven with suspense, mystery, and drama, I believe you will like Christine Nolfi’s The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge from its beginning page to its dramatic end.

Watch for a soon-upcoming interview with Christine Nolfi, the author of The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge. She will be offering a copy of this book to one reader-commenter at that time!

You can find The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge listed on my BUY THE BOOK! page.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

When is a writer not a writer? (pity party alert)

My apologies right off the top for a dreary post.

My question is: When is a writer not a writer? No, this is not a riddle. Then maybe again it is … but I have no real answer for it. Maybe you do?

I’m tired. No, let me say that again … I’m so tired.

And I don’t feel particularly creative. My well is low – on motivation, energy, inspiration, ideas, stamina. Maybe it’s because I’m tired. And a little discouraged. And feeling a bit forgotten. Now, is that a great menu for a pity party, or what!

My creative well is rather plugged up with stuff, such as – lack of quality sleep (aware all the time while “on duty”, then at home it’s hard to relax from that), caregiving concerns (situation is getting more involved as Alzheimer’s gets worse), always trying to balance two households (but not knowing enough about my own anymore)

physical pain (more since I had a fall a week ago, so add to the list an x-ray tomorrow AM), seeming to be invisible when it comes to the fellowship I was part of (probably “out of sight out of mind” because I seldom get there now), not having much interaction with writers (really need an ‘anytime chat’ place), needing a vacation (every second week at my own home is not a vacation), missing the ocean (my healing place), I have books to read and reviews to write (love doing both, time is a factor), I’m WAY behind in my emails and blog (many other demands and concerns),

and —

I hate that I sound like such a whiner!

Of course, my sister also has her own set of life stuff going on along with our caregiving commitment. It’s always interesting!

Okay, I need a hug. Where is my grandson when I need him?

There must be an up side to all this. Yes, of course there is.

1. Our loved one gets to stay in his own home for as long as we can help him.
2. We get the privilege of honouring him through giving of our time for him.
3. My sister and I are learning as we go while also learning to work together to make a stressful situation workable.
4. We have fibre optics here! 😉
5. … hmm 5. … ?

I’m sure there’s more to add but right now I can’t think of it. (Was that you I heard say, “Good!”) This has been a writing exercise for me if nothing else, and hopefully my next post will be more upbeat after the tropical storm and hurricane pass tonight and tomorrow.

By the way, I don’t believe it’s writer’s block that’s got me in this place, it’s weariness and life stuff. Otherwise I could take some tips from my own Writer’s Helps page. 🙂

In the meantime, can you answer my question? When is a writer not a writer? What do you do when you not only can’t come up with ideas but you hardly are interested in trying?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Help! What’s your favourite e-reader?

I LOVE BOOKS!

Big books, little books, thick books, thin books, old books, new books —

historical fiction, picture books, YA, mystery, fantasy, classics, and the list goes on. But now I have a problem!

I said I’d never do it; I thought I never would.

I said I’d read just “real” books; I really thought I could.

But some books don’t have paper, they’re only on a screen.

I’m nearly done resisting; I think I’m “going green!”

I have a pc kindle but it’s stuck here on my desk.

So now I have to ask you, what reader is the best?

Please forgive my falling out of rhyme there, but I really do want – and need – your opinion on this. As I said above, I have a pc Kindle with several books loaded onto it. The problem is that when I want to read one of those books and not have to be sitting in front of my computer to do it – right now I can’t. I need some help from you.

I’ve been told that having an e-reader (electronic book) is very convenient because it’s easy to carry and many books can be loaded onto it. (I’m not sure I know how that works, but I’m interested in learning.)

I know I’m often slow with technology, but in this case – I love real books, I love the old ways that work well, and I usually see no reason to mess with a good thing. You know the grammatically poor saying, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” I just found out that e-books have been around for almost a decade … or am I behind in that too? Is it longer? *blush*

What reasons do you have for using an e-reader? Do you prefer an e-reader to a “real” book?

And my main question: I’ve heard about the Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony reader, IPad, and some others. Which e-reader do you recommend and why?

I’m grateful for your help to get me a little more up-to-date. 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂