http://bannedbooksweek.org/
According to the American Library Association, more than 400 books were challenged in 2007. The 10 most challenged titles were:
1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
3. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
7. TTYL by Lauren Myracle
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
9. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
(Click here to see why these books were challenged.)
Top 100 Challenged Books 2000-2007
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Have you heard of Danny Wallace?
No?
Are you sure?
Well, I think you should change that. Pretty soon.
*hint hint*
Friends Like These by Danny Wallace.
Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a clich‚. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch. For the first time in his life, he's feeling, well . grown-up.
But something's not right. Something's missing. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too?
And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play?
Part-comedy, part-travelogue, part-memoir, Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and of where the friendships you thought you'd outgrown can take you today...
Also by Mr Wallace...
Yes Man by Danny Wallace.
'I, Danny Wallace, being of sound mind and body, do hereby write this manifesto for my life. I swear I will be more open to opportunity. I swear I will live my life taking every available chance. I will say Yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation. I WILL SWEAR TO SAY YES WHERE ONCE I WOULD SAY NO.'
Danny Wallace had been staying in. Far too much. Having been dumped by his girlfriend, he really wasn't doing the young, free and single thing very well. Instead he was avoiding people. Texting them instead of calling them. Calling them instead of meeting them. That is until that one fateful date when a mystery man on a late-night bus told him to 'Say Yes more'. These three simple words changed Danny's life forever. Yes Man is the story of what happened when Danny decided to say YES to everything, in order to make his life more interesting. And boy, did it get more interesting.
Join Me by Danny Wallace.
WANTED: 100 people to live in my new world order. A perfect utopia of our own design. No riff- raff, convicts or bongos. Please note: no space travel will be involved in this project. Cult- seekers need not apply. If still interested, go to www.join- me.co.uk to sign up. In one of the most original books of the year, Danny Wallace, award- winning journalist, and co- author of ARE YOU DAVE GORMAN?, places an advert on the internet and waits- Inspired by stories of his great uncle Gallus and his failed attempts to set up a commune in post- war Switzerland, Danny tries to do the same and this time succeed. He will travel anywhere, meet anyone. And he'll take it very, very seriously. JOIN ME is the magnificent story of his attempt to recruit 100 people to create a perfect world. But what will that be? Where will they live? Will they have rules? Will they agree on anything? Is one man's Heaven another man's Hell? This modern take on Utopia, will say a million things about the world in which we live. And if you've read ARE YOU DAVE GORMAN? you'll know that it will be very, very funny.
Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe by Danny Wallace.
Random Acts of Kindness by Danny Wallace.
Are you sure?
Well, I think you should change that. Pretty soon.
*hint hint*
Friends Like These by Danny Wallace.
Danny Wallace is about to turn thirty and his life has become a clich‚. Recently married and living in a smart new area of town, he's swapped pints down the pub for lattes and brunch. For the first time in his life, he's feeling, well . grown-up.
But something's not right. Something's missing. Until he finds an old address book containing just twelve names. His best mates as a kid. Where are they now? Who are they now? And how are they coping with being grown-up too?
And so begins a journey from A-Z, tracking down and meeting his old gang. He travels from Berlin to Tokyo, from Sydney to LA. He even goes to Loughborough. He meets Fijian chiefs. German rappers. Some ninjas. And a carvery manager who's managed to solve time travel. But how will they respond to a man they haven't seen in twenty years, turning up and asking if they're coming out to play?
Part-comedy, part-travelogue, part-memoir, Friends Like These is the story of what can happen when you track down your past, and of where the friendships you thought you'd outgrown can take you today...
Also by Mr Wallace...
Yes Man by Danny Wallace.
'I, Danny Wallace, being of sound mind and body, do hereby write this manifesto for my life. I swear I will be more open to opportunity. I swear I will live my life taking every available chance. I will say Yes to every favour, request, suggestion and invitation. I WILL SWEAR TO SAY YES WHERE ONCE I WOULD SAY NO.'
Danny Wallace had been staying in. Far too much. Having been dumped by his girlfriend, he really wasn't doing the young, free and single thing very well. Instead he was avoiding people. Texting them instead of calling them. Calling them instead of meeting them. That is until that one fateful date when a mystery man on a late-night bus told him to 'Say Yes more'. These three simple words changed Danny's life forever. Yes Man is the story of what happened when Danny decided to say YES to everything, in order to make his life more interesting. And boy, did it get more interesting.
Join Me by Danny Wallace.
WANTED: 100 people to live in my new world order. A perfect utopia of our own design. No riff- raff, convicts or bongos. Please note: no space travel will be involved in this project. Cult- seekers need not apply. If still interested, go to www.join- me.co.uk to sign up. In one of the most original books of the year, Danny Wallace, award- winning journalist, and co- author of ARE YOU DAVE GORMAN?, places an advert on the internet and waits- Inspired by stories of his great uncle Gallus and his failed attempts to set up a commune in post- war Switzerland, Danny tries to do the same and this time succeed. He will travel anywhere, meet anyone. And he'll take it very, very seriously. JOIN ME is the magnificent story of his attempt to recruit 100 people to create a perfect world. But what will that be? Where will they live? Will they have rules? Will they agree on anything? Is one man's Heaven another man's Hell? This modern take on Utopia, will say a million things about the world in which we live. And if you've read ARE YOU DAVE GORMAN? you'll know that it will be very, very funny.
Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe by Danny Wallace.
Random Acts of Kindness by Danny Wallace.
MORE good things #5
When too much cool new stuff is almost TOO MUCH!
The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith.
Eleven–year–old Mark is bored. He spends his days on the Brighton sea–front, practicing on his skate–board. His mother is too ill to leave the house, and his stepfather is determined that Mark shouldn't disturb her. So when the old lady who lives in the flat downstairs introduces him to rock cakes and offers to show him a secret, he's happy to indulge her. The old lady takes a large, old–fashioned key and leads Mark down a dusty corridor to a heavy door. Beyond the door is a world completely alien to Mark's understanding. For behind the old lady's tiny apartment, the house's original servants' quarters are still entirely intact, although derelict. Mark finds himself strangely drawn to this window onto the past, and when, the next time he visits, the old lady falls asleep, he steals the key and goes to visit the servants' quarters alone. And suddenly Mark's life takes a bizarre turn, as the past seems to collide with the present, dreams invade reality and truths become apparent to this hitherto unperceiving boy.
((We here a EHB love love love Mr M M Smith. You should too. -Jordan))
One Flew into the Cuckoo's Egg: My Autobiography by Bill Oddie.
Bill Oddie is best known for the wacky humour of the Goodies, and the irrepressible enthusiasm of his nature programmes, off screen there has been a darker side. Bill has suffered from bouts of depression which have more than once taken him to the brink. Now he is back in control and wiser about the causes and the cure. Here he describes the childhood blighted by the absence of his mother who had been committed to a mental asylum when he was small. It was a lonely and difficult start to life, but there were to be happier times. Touring with the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s saw him alongside the greatest comic talents of his generation John Cleese and of course fellow Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. Soon the Goodies were to become on of the biggest comedy hits of the 70s bringing a new brand of surreal humour to our screens. Now as Britain s favourite birdwatcher Bill has turned his private passion into his most public role and presented more than 20 nature programmes for the BBC. He has also become a fervent and outspoken campaigner for the environment. It has been an extraordinary and far from straightforward journey. Bill Oddie takes us along with him in a memoir which is as witty, candid, curious and unconventional as the man himself.
A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre.
If society has the B-list celebrities it deserves, it now has a killer to match. Except that Simon Darcourt is a great deal more successful in his career choice than the average talent show contestant. He's also got the media taped - by the simple expedient of by-passing them completely and posting real-time coverage of his killings on the internet. He's got viewing figures to make the world's TV executives gasp in envy, and he's pulling the voyeuristic strings of every viewer by getting them to 'vote' to keep his captives alive. Angelique De Xavier, his previous nemesis, is drafted onto the police team trying to bring this one-man celebrity hate-fest to an end. But she can't do it alone, she needs the magical skills of her lover, only she doesn't know where Zal is and meanwhile a whole load of celebs are, literarly, dying to be famous. An intelligent satire, a thriller with exhilarating pace - Christopher Brookmyre at his best.
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.
Danny Coughlin, son of Captain Thomas Coughlin, is Police Department Royalty. Danny is in charge of the predominately Italian neighbourhoods of the North End. Political dissent is in the air - fresh and intoxicating. Drawn into the ideological fray as a favour to his father, Danny is soon laying his loyalties on the other side.
Meanwhile Luther Lawrence is on the run. Suspected of a drug-related shooting in Tulsa, Luther abandons his wife and flees to Boston and begins work as a personal driver to the Coughlin household. After striking up a friendship with Danny and the family's Irish servant, Nora, he sees that the two once had a powerful bond. As the mystery of their relationship unravels, Luther resolves to return to his wife and son but his law-breaking past has followed him north and first he must settle scores with those hot on his trail.
Set at the end of the Great War in an era of unprecedented uncertainty, The Given Day is an utterly spectacular family epic. Meticulously researched and expertly plotted, it will transport readers to an unforgettable time and place.
PHEW!
The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith.
Eleven–year–old Mark is bored. He spends his days on the Brighton sea–front, practicing on his skate–board. His mother is too ill to leave the house, and his stepfather is determined that Mark shouldn't disturb her. So when the old lady who lives in the flat downstairs introduces him to rock cakes and offers to show him a secret, he's happy to indulge her. The old lady takes a large, old–fashioned key and leads Mark down a dusty corridor to a heavy door. Beyond the door is a world completely alien to Mark's understanding. For behind the old lady's tiny apartment, the house's original servants' quarters are still entirely intact, although derelict. Mark finds himself strangely drawn to this window onto the past, and when, the next time he visits, the old lady falls asleep, he steals the key and goes to visit the servants' quarters alone. And suddenly Mark's life takes a bizarre turn, as the past seems to collide with the present, dreams invade reality and truths become apparent to this hitherto unperceiving boy.
((We here a EHB love love love Mr M M Smith. You should too. -Jordan))
One Flew into the Cuckoo's Egg: My Autobiography by Bill Oddie.
Bill Oddie is best known for the wacky humour of the Goodies, and the irrepressible enthusiasm of his nature programmes, off screen there has been a darker side. Bill has suffered from bouts of depression which have more than once taken him to the brink. Now he is back in control and wiser about the causes and the cure. Here he describes the childhood blighted by the absence of his mother who had been committed to a mental asylum when he was small. It was a lonely and difficult start to life, but there were to be happier times. Touring with the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s saw him alongside the greatest comic talents of his generation John Cleese and of course fellow Goodies Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden. Soon the Goodies were to become on of the biggest comedy hits of the 70s bringing a new brand of surreal humour to our screens. Now as Britain s favourite birdwatcher Bill has turned his private passion into his most public role and presented more than 20 nature programmes for the BBC. He has also become a fervent and outspoken campaigner for the environment. It has been an extraordinary and far from straightforward journey. Bill Oddie takes us along with him in a memoir which is as witty, candid, curious and unconventional as the man himself.
A Snowball in Hell by Christopher Brookmyre.
If society has the B-list celebrities it deserves, it now has a killer to match. Except that Simon Darcourt is a great deal more successful in his career choice than the average talent show contestant. He's also got the media taped - by the simple expedient of by-passing them completely and posting real-time coverage of his killings on the internet. He's got viewing figures to make the world's TV executives gasp in envy, and he's pulling the voyeuristic strings of every viewer by getting them to 'vote' to keep his captives alive. Angelique De Xavier, his previous nemesis, is drafted onto the police team trying to bring this one-man celebrity hate-fest to an end. But she can't do it alone, she needs the magical skills of her lover, only she doesn't know where Zal is and meanwhile a whole load of celebs are, literarly, dying to be famous. An intelligent satire, a thriller with exhilarating pace - Christopher Brookmyre at his best.
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.
Danny Coughlin, son of Captain Thomas Coughlin, is Police Department Royalty. Danny is in charge of the predominately Italian neighbourhoods of the North End. Political dissent is in the air - fresh and intoxicating. Drawn into the ideological fray as a favour to his father, Danny is soon laying his loyalties on the other side.
Meanwhile Luther Lawrence is on the run. Suspected of a drug-related shooting in Tulsa, Luther abandons his wife and flees to Boston and begins work as a personal driver to the Coughlin household. After striking up a friendship with Danny and the family's Irish servant, Nora, he sees that the two once had a powerful bond. As the mystery of their relationship unravels, Luther resolves to return to his wife and son but his law-breaking past has followed him north and first he must settle scores with those hot on his trail.
Set at the end of the Great War in an era of unprecedented uncertainty, The Given Day is an utterly spectacular family epic. Meticulously researched and expertly plotted, it will transport readers to an unforgettable time and place.
PHEW!
We bring you good things #4
Firmin by Sam Savage.
Firmin is the runt of a litter of rats born in the basement of Pembroke Books, a ramshackle old bookstore run by the equally shambolic owner Norman Shine. Forced to compete for food, Firmin ends up chewing on the books that surround him. Thanks to his unusual diet, he acquires the miraculous ability to read. He subsequently develops an insatiable hunger for literature and a very unratlike sense of the world and his place in it. He is a debonair soul trapped in a rat's body But a literary rat is a lonely rat and, spurned by his own kind, he thinks he recognises a kindred soul in Norman. Firmin seeks solace in the Lovelies of the local burlesque cinema and in his own imagination. But the days of the bookshop and of the close community around it are numbered. The area has been marked out for urban regeneration and soon the faded glory of the bookshop, the low-life bars, loan agencies and pawn shops will face the bulldozers. Brilliantly original and richly allegorical, Firmin is brimming with charm and wistful longing for a world that treasures its seedy theatres, one-of-a-kind characters, and cluttered bookshops.
((I read this as a proof, and found it the most delightful, original and charming thing I'd read in quite some time. -Jordan))
Monsieur Rat by Federica Mossetti.
Monsieur Rat is a little rat with a big problem.
When a moustache experiment goes wrong, Monsieur Rat sets off on a journey that leads him to an unexpected destination.
We bring you good things #3
Terry Pratchett is a man who can churn out a darned good yarn.
Here are three new ones...
The Illustrated Wee Free Men (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Player (Illustrator).
Nation (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett.
The sea has taken everything.
Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.
Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .
Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.
The Folklore of Discworld (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett & Jacqueline Simpson.
Here are three new ones...
The Illustrated Wee Free Men (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Player (Illustrator).
Nation (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett.
The sea has taken everything.
Mau is the only one left after a giant wave sweeps his island village away. But when much is taken, something is returned, and somewhere in the jungle Daphne—a girl from the other side of the globe—is the sole survivor of a ship destroyed by the same wave.
Together the two confront the aftermath of catastrophe. Drawn by the smoke of Mau and Daphne's sheltering fire, other refugees slowly arrive: children without parents, mothers without babies, husbands without wives—all of them hungry and all of them frightened. As Mau and Daphne struggle to keep the small band safe and fed, they defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down. . . .
Internationally revered storyteller Terry Pratchett presents a breathtaking adventure of survival and discovery, and of the courage required to forge new beliefs.
The Folklore of Discworld (Hardcover) by Terry Pratchett & Jacqueline Simpson.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
We bring you good things #2
October new releases are flying in - thick and fast!
Anathem (Tradepaper) by Neal Stephenson
The Vertigo Encyclopedia (Hardcover) by Alex Irvine, with introduction by Neil Gaiman!
The DC Comics Encyclopedia (Hardcover) by Michael Teitelbaum, Scott Beatty & Robert Greenburger.
GAH!
Anathem (Tradepaper) by Neal Stephenson
The Vertigo Encyclopedia (Hardcover) by Alex Irvine, with introduction by Neil Gaiman!
The DC Comics Encyclopedia (Hardcover) by Michael Teitelbaum, Scott Beatty & Robert Greenburger.
GAH!
We bring you good things...
Fresh out of the box from the US:
Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil (Hardcover)
by Mike Mignola & John Byrne.
Absolute League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Hardcover/Slipcase)
by Alan Moore.
((You won't find this ANYWHERE else - because we are super sneaky!))
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Pop-Up Book (Hardcover)
by Sam Ita.
Sneakers: The Complete Collectors' Guide (Hardcover)
by Unorthodox Styles.
Hellboy Library Edition, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction and Wake the Devil (Hardcover)
by Mike Mignola & John Byrne.
Absolute League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Hardcover/Slipcase)
by Alan Moore.
((You won't find this ANYWHERE else - because we are super sneaky!))
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: A Pop-Up Book (Hardcover)
by Sam Ita.
Sneakers: The Complete Collectors' Guide (Hardcover)
by Unorthodox Styles.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Currently reading...
Jordan is reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
Sooz is reading Once More, with Feeling: How We Tried to Make the Greatest Porn Film Ever by Victoria Coren & Charlie Skelton.
Richard is reading The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan.
David Foster Wallace
It is with great sadness that we say farewell to David Foster Wallace, who passed away on September 12th, aged 46.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
James Beckingham - Fantastic New Fantasy
Hot off the press, James Beckingham is sure to be The Next Big Thing in Australian scifi/fantasy ficition.
Hailing from Melbourne, James has freed himself from the evil clutches of the IT industry and is charming our collective pants off with his debut (but not first) novel - SongForge.
((I got to read this in draft form, and am pleased as punch to finally have it in stock! -Jordan))
10 days to go!
Brisingr (Inheritance, Book 3) by Christopher Paolini.
If you're down with the hype-machine, then you'll be looking forward to this.
If you preorder with us, you will get a free copy of THE TAPESTRY 1: THE HOUND OF ROWAN by Henry H Neff.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Who Watches the Watchmen?
I'm sure by now you've all seen this:
But now its time to find out what the hype is all about.
We have The Watchmen back in stock - we can't keep it on our shelves at the moment.
AND I'm pleased to announce that we will be getting many a copy of Watching the Watchmen (a retrospective by Dave Gibbons) later in October.
This will be available in both limited (signed by Dave Gibbons) and regular editions.
But now its time to find out what the hype is all about.
We have The Watchmen back in stock - we can't keep it on our shelves at the moment.
AND I'm pleased to announce that we will be getting many a copy of Watching the Watchmen (a retrospective by Dave Gibbons) later in October.
This will be available in both limited (signed by Dave Gibbons) and regular editions.
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