Banned Books Week- Some of my Favorite Banned and Censored Books

As you might know, this week is Banned Books Week, and in celebration and support of having the freedom to read and write without censorship, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite banned/challenged books. Feel free to visit the American Library Association's page to see what other books are frequently challenged throughout the years.


1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
2.The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
4. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
5. Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
6. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
7. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
8. Cut by Patricia McCormick
9. Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine
10. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Each and every one of these books and/or authors have affected me in significant ways. I literally wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for these books, and many others like them. These books defined my childhood and adolescence- most of which were read while I was in junior high and grade school.

These books, and others like them, are important to so many. These books save lives. These books help explain and teach things in a way that's relatable and understandable. Depriving anyone of any single one of these books is a crime of the worst kind.

As a final thought, I'd like you to think of the good things that these books, and the hundreds of other banned/challenged books, can teach and help kids understand. Seriously. Think about it.

Until next time,
xox

Top Ten Tuesdays #1

In an attempt to have more fun in the blogosphere, I'm going to try to participate in some fun memes, the first of which is going to be Top Ten Tuesday, a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's Top Ten: Authors I've only read one book from, but am dying to read more by.Click the picture to visit each book's Goodreads page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bout of Books 11 TBR!

Hello fellow book lovers! Guess what? It's that time again! Bout of Books time!

In case you don't know what Bout of Books is, here's a quick blurb, straight from the Bout of Books team:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team


This is my second time participating in Bout of Books, and let me tell you, I'm super pumped! Bout of Books 11 will be going on during my first week back on campus (thankfully not during classes-I have band camp the 16-22), so I've decided to make a TBR of 3 e-books and 3-physical books- while I do need to cut down my physical TBR, I have an equally massive e-book TBR that needs to be shortened!

So, the books I'll hopefully be finishing/starting this round are:
The Dark Monk by Oliver Potzsch
The Secret History by Donna Tart
Jackaby by William Ritter
Blazed by Jason Myers
The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I hope to see you all participating if you have the opportunity and I can't wait to check out what you plan on reading!

Until next time,
zoz

A Few of My Favorite Authors Part 1

I recently posted this picture on Instagram, showing a handful of some of my favorite authors, and I thought I'd make a proper post about some of my favorite authors and my favorite books by them.

To start off, let me clarify how I categorize "favorite authors". For me, a favorite author is an author who writes books that I know, no matter what mood I'm in, I'll be able to pick up and fall in love with immediately. If you're a favorite author of mine, I've either read all of your books or have read a good many of them.

Now, many of my favorite authors are ones that I discovered at a young age, but they write the kind of timeless novels, that even today, as a young adult, I can pick up one of their books and immediately fall in love.

In order give a little more detail about what I love about these authors and an attempt to not bore you to tears, I think what I'll do is tell you about three authors now, and make another post or two discussing my other favorite authors. 

The three authors I'll tell you about today are three that, when I think about my favorite books as a child, come to mind first. 

1. Laurie Halse Anderson: The first book I read by her was Twisted, and this book got me hooked on all things Laurie. I know most of you probably know her best for her novels Speak and Wintergirls, but the book I fell in love with most was Catalyst. I'm not even sure why. It was the book I related with least on a personal level, but there's just something about the story that I absolutely love!

2. Jerry Spinelli- My first Spinelli book was Stargirl, and if any of you have read this book, I'm sure you know why I was instantly hooked! I remember going to the library in my town and checking out every Spinelli book they had. I even re-read a few of them, which is something I almost never do. Spinelli just has a way of writing about adolescent life that's so real and true, yet fun and exciting that you can't but devour more of his writing. Some of my favorite books by Spinelli are his Space Station Seventh Grade books, Crash, and Who Put that Hair on my Toothbrush?.

3. Robert Cormier- I fell in love with Cormier's writing after reading The Chocolate War. Cormier writes some darker stuff, but it's really good. If you haven't read anything by him, I encourage you to do so immediately! I promise you won't regret it! Some of my favorite books by him are Fade, We All Fall Down, Tenderness, and the Rag and Bone Shop. 

Alright guys, here are a few of my favorite authors! Please stay tuned for some more! 

Until next time,

xox

Full List of Last Blast Readathon Challenges

1- A book you didn't think you'd like but ended up loving

2- A book you thought you'd love but ended up hating

3- A book you couldn't finish

4- The biggest book you've ever read

5- A ROYGBIV stack

6- Your favorite author

7- Your favorite series

8- A stack of your favorite color

9- A book set in your state/country

10- A book written by an author from a different country than you live in

11- A book you own as both a physical and e-book copy of 

12- The last book you read that made you cry

13- A childhood favorite

14- A book you've read more than once

15- Your most beautiful book

16- Your ugliest book

17- Your most well-loved book

18- The last book you bought

19- A book from your favorite genre

20- A book you feel was over-hyped

21- A book you read only because everyone else was reading it

22- Your oldest book (copyright)

5 of My Not-So-Shameful Unread Books

If you get on YouTube and look at any BookTuber's channel, you might end up finding a video of their "most shameful unread books". This blog post is inspired by those videos, except, unlike these numerous people, I'm not really all that ashamed to have not read any of these books on this list.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having books that you're ashamed you've never read. I have several of those. But the books below are books that basically everyone on earth has read, but I just have no desire to read, and can't be bothered to pretend I want to read because let's face it, I have about a billion other books I want to read more. I can't sit around and read a pile of books just because everyone else is reading them.

Besides, who knows, maybe one day I will read these books. As of right now though, none of them are at the top of my TBR.

1. The Hunger Games- I'm not sure why, but I never really felt the desire to read these books, even when I saw my friends who don't really read much reading them. The story just never appealed to me.
2. The Fault in Our Stars- Okay, don't hate on me for not reading this one! Also, please don't hate on me for what I'm about to say (er, write)- I'm not the hugest fan of John Green in general (I do really like him as a human though, and would love to meet him!). I've read a couple of his books (Look for Alaska and Paper Towns), but neither of them are on the top of my "Best books I've ever read" list, and so I've kind of put off reading any of his other stuff. This is, however, one the books that I feel like I might pick up one day. Not not anytime soon.
3. The Divergent Trilogy- Okay, I do actually own the first one on my Kindle, and I started to read it, but I don't know. I just wasn't that into the book. I'm just not the hugest fan of dystopians or anything like them.
4. The Shatter Me Trilogy- Again, I don't know why, but these books just don't call me in any immediate way. (Although, can I say that Tahereh Mafi if freaking gorgeous???)
5. The Lunar Chronicles- These books are on this list mostly because I'm not the hugest fan of cyborg stuff. However, the fact that they are fairy tale retellings is super tempting, so I really might actually read these books.

Okay guys, these are just a few of the books that I haven't read, and might never read. Do you have any books that you feel the same way about?

Until next time,
xox