For all those who keep insisting that banning a book isn’t really a ban if you can buy it in bookstores, never fear! They’ve gone on to the next step. Texas, which always fights Florida to lead the cause of book-banning, is now considering a bill to hold businesses liable if they sell a book…
Tag: booknotes
BookNotes: No books for you, come back when you’re 26
In what might be the silliest idea yet to protect young people from acknowledging the existence of sex, Corpus Christi, Texas has created two separate sections of its library: One for teens, as in ages 13-18, and another for “young adults,” for books appropriate for ages 18-25. That’s right. They are now restricting certain books…
A parable from Petunia Pigthighs
It’s been a while since we’ve done a roundup of book banning news, because it’s so freaking depressing. Buckle in, folks, and grab the mood-altering beverage of your choice. (Mine: coffee.) The title comes from a nastygram I got on social media this week for pointing out yet another round of book banning. I got…
BookNotes: It’s a hell of a week in Book Land
South Carolina and Arkansas have eliminated AP African American history classes, in case you were thinking the ongoing tide of book banning was solely about getting naughty books away from minors. The governors of Florida and Illinois are loudly arguing about Florida’s “revisions” to history. Pritzker is fighting DeSantis before the College Board, advocating for…
March 2024 Linkspam: Return to the swamp
In the late 2000s, I wrote a media tie-in novel titled Dreadmire. It was a dark fantasy adventure tied to a d20 RPG published by Spellbinder Games, sourcebook by Randy Richards. The medievalesque high fantasy Randy created was inspired by the ecology and culture of the Louisiana bayous, and I found it a fascinating setting. I…
BookNotes: Don’t say race
PEN America is fighting against six pending pieces of legislation that will seriously curtail free speech on college campuses. Florida – oh Florida, why is it always you? – isn’t satisfied with “don’t say gay.” Now they’re saying teacher education programs can’t teach college students anything related to racism or identity politics, which of course…
February 2024 Linkspam: The First Duty
I have traditionally taken January off from public appearances and traveling, in an increasingly vain attempt to maintain my sanity. That means January is usually pretty quiet. In this case, it was quiet, gray, and very very cold. January is not my favorite month. However, I have AWP to look forward to! The annual conference…
BookNotes: Nevermore
Today’s top read: The Estrogen Zone, or how women pioneered creative nonfiction before it was even a thing. All the way back to Nellie Bly, women like Joan Didion, Rachel Carson, Gail Sheehy, and others had to deal with the most rank sexism to fight their way out of the “flamingo pink” women’s pages…
Booknotes: Gang aft a’gley
Technically Jan. 25 was Burns Night, when Scotsmen and literature nerds throw dinner parties on the birthday of poet Robert Burnes. It’s traditional to play bagpipe music, recite the Selkirk Grace, serve haggis, drink scotch, and other Scottish-type things. I’ve never actually attended a Burns Night, but my local coffeehouse is hosting one on Sunday…
BookNotes: AI and book banning, once again.
This week’s roundup in book news is pretty much all AI and book banning, but we do have some fun stuff first: • A postdoc teaching associate at Northwestern University believes he has found about 20 stories and poems he believes were authored by Louisa May Alcott, previously unknown. They were ghost stories and even…