tomhanna, 2 years and 11 months agoBanned Books
Over the next several months I'll be writing some posts on the topic of threatened books under the topic «banned books». I won't actually be limiting myself to books that have suffered an actual legal ban but will be including banned, boycotted, threatened and censored books, books whose authors have suffered «fatwas» or similar extrajudicial punishment, and controversial books that have narrowly escaped these fates. I'm devoting this project to the concept from Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature that «readers are born free and ought to remain free.»
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editor A.J. Jacobs used to be smart. «in high school and college, [he] was actually quite cerebral.» Covering pop culture at 
, then highbrow pop culture at Esquire drained his brain. He wanted to feel smart again. So, he decided to read the 
all the way from a-ak to zywiec. Actually, he stole the idea from his father, an attorney and prolific author of law books, who tried the same feat but only made it to the mid-Bs. 
is the story of his year long quest. 
, Jenna Black invites the reader into the world of exorcist Morgan Kingsley, a world where demons operate openly, so openly they're regulated and controlled by law. Kingsley's job is to exorcise the demons that break the law and possess the unwilling and she is one of the best at it. These are and aren't the demons we know. The premise is that these supernatural beings are the basis for the demon mythology, but they aren't simply fallen angels. In fact, Black never makes it entirely clear just what a demon is - of course not, this is the first novel in a series.
after reading the tragic story in the prologue. Don't. This book based on a compilation of posts from his popular blog 
by Steve Berry is a historical conspiracy novel centered around the Piri Reis map; a group of mythical beings, The Watchers; the disappearance of a top secret Navy submarine and a conspiracy stretching from Charlemagne's court to Hitler's bunker and into the highest levels of modern American government.
is 
, Richelle Mead's second novel and her first effort in the Young Adult market, opens with Rose, our heroine, and Lissa, her best friend, under attack by what they think are Strigoi, the evil immortal vampires of human legend. Rose is a Dhampir, a human/vampire hybrid, and Lissa is a Moroi, a mortal but pureblooded vampire with powerful magic, and a Princess at that. They've run away from St. Vladimir's Academy, a vampire boarding school in Montana of all places, and the Academy wants them back. [Spoiler of sorts, but nothing you won't find on the book's cover or deduce from the title - they get taken back.] The book manages to combine typical school age gossip and rivalries with royal intrigue and the complexities of Mead's own vampire society. The entire story is set against the related mysteries of why Rose and Lissa ran away from the Academy in the first place and the unusual telepathic bond between the two. 
by Margaret Lobenstine is aimed at people who might be described as multiply interested, the cliched «jack of all trades and master of none.» She calls them «Renaissance Souls» (the modern, PC version of «Renaissance Man».) 
