Saturday, October 12, 2024

The Joy of Autumn

Autumn. A time of soups, pumpkins, Halloween and leaves changing. A beautiful and welcomed time of year.

Enjoy these pictures and I'm wishing you all a joyful autumn.

I make soups all winter long out of our pumpkins.



Fun and games at Halloween time!


Get out and enjoy the fall weather and the gorgeous changing leaves! It's good for the soul.






My front porch. I love decorating for Halloween, even though we don't get trick or treaters.


The contrast of yellow leaves and blue sky is so pretty.



My mums.



The other side of my porch with my witches broom hung up.




Always fun to go to the farm for pumkins too. Love the animals there.




Our deck off the bedroom. Enjoying a mocktail with the vampire pig.




Have a wonderful autumn and Happy Halloween everyone!

Friday, October 11, 2024

Freedom of Choice!

I decided this blog is worth repeating. Keep in mind that there are people who want to take away our right to choose what we want to read. More books are added every year to the ban lists. Different states have different lists but a lot of the books are the same. 

You can Google your state and banned books to see what is banned in your state.

I recognized and have read 29 of these books. Freedom is the right to choose, no matter the choice it should be the indiviuals choice.

By Diana McCollum

Something worth looking at and thinking about again---

American Government does not censure writing or ban books. However, libraries, churches, schools, book stores, and online retailers such as Amazon do ban books. America bans less books than other countries worldwide.


 There is even a Ban Books Week https://library.ucsd.edu/news-events/banned-books-week-2021/. During this week libraries across the country review challenged or banned books. This is a time the entire book community-librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers and  yes, readers, can share in the support of the freedom of authors to express ideas, even if their readers don’t agree with them.

 

The most common reasons books are banned from schools or libraries etc. are

 

Racial themes or dialogue : The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Encouragement to destruct lifestyles: This includes drug use, co-habitation without marriage or homosexuality: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboskey

Blasphemous Subject: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Intimacy issues: Sexual content or dialogue, Fifty Shades series by E.L. James

Violence or negativity: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Presence of Witchcraft: books containing sorcery or witchcraft: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Political Favoritism or extreme political groups: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Inappropriate age group: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger


Think about the books you write. I write about the witches of the Coastal Coven. There are spells and magical creatures in my books. Could my books be banned? Probably, if Harry Potter was banned from certain places, especially certain churches because of the sorcery and spells!

 I was surprised by some of the books on this list of one hundred most challenged/banned books in America. Remember, not challenged/or banned by the government, but by schools, libraries, churches, bookstores, online retailers and parents.

The First Amendment of the Constitution protects our right to freedom of speech. To be able to write about any subject, to offer our opinions on any subject. That other people or entities try to control what I read I find deplorable.

 One thing that was mentioned on the Banned Book site banning books tend to make the books more popular. If a person wants to read it, there is always somewhere you can buy it here in America, thanks to an underground market for both legitimate or pirated copies.

 Other countries are not so lucky. Many governments forbid the banned books to even be printed, and absolutely don’t allow them to be sold. People have been jailed because of reading banned books.

 Here’s the 100 top banned books in America in 2019.

 I’ve heard of or read 29 of these books and marked them in bold. I was surprised that some of them made this list. I don’t think writing or reading books should be restricted in any way.

 Freedom to read what we choose is as important as the freedom to write what we want.

 How many do you recognize and/or have read?

 

1.   Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling

2.    Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

3.    The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

4.    And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

5.   Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

6.   I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

7.    Scary Stories (series) by Alvin Schwartz

8.    His Dark Materials (series) by Philip Pullman

9.    ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series) by Lauren Myracle

10.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

11.  Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

12.  It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

13. Captain Underpants (series) by Dave Pilkey

14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

15. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

16. Forever by Judy Blume

17. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

18.  Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

19. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

20.  King and King by Linda de Haan

21. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

22.  Gossip Girl (series) by Cecily von Ziegesar

23.  The Giver by Lois Lowry

24.  In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

25.  Killing Mr. Griffen by Lois Duncan

26. Beloved by Toni Morrison

27.  My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier

28.  Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

29.  The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

30.  We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier

31.  What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

32.  Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

33. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

34.  The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

35.  Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

36. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

37.  It’s So Amazing by Robie Harris

38.  Arming America by Michael Bellasiles

39.  Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

40.  Life is Funny by E.R. Frank

41.  Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

42.  The Fighting Ground by Avi

43. Blubber by Judy Blume

44.  Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher

45.  Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly

46. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

47.  The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey

48.  Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez

49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

50. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

51.  Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan

52.  The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

53.  You Hear Me? by Betsy Franco

54.  The Facts Speak for Themselves by Brock Cole

55.  Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green

56.  When Dad Killed Mom by Julius Lester

57.  Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

58.  Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

59.  Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes

60.  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

61.  Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle

62.  The Stupids (series) by Harry Allard

63.  The Terrorist by Caroline B. Cooney

64.  Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park

65.  The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

66.  Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

67. A Time to Kill by John Grisham

68.  Always Running by Luis Rodriguez

69. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

70.  Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen

71.  Junie B. Jones (series) by Barbara Park

72. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

73.  What’s Happening to My Body Book by Lynda Madaras

74. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

75. Anastasia (series) by Lois Lowry

76.  A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

77.  Crazy by Benjamin Lebert

78.  The Joy of Gay Sex by Dr. Charles Silverstein

79.  The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss

80.  A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

81.  Black Boy by Richard Wright

82.  Deal With It! by Esther Drill

83.  Detour for Emmy by Marilyn Reynolds

84.  So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Watkins

85.  Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

86.  Cut by Patricia McCormick

87. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

88. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

89. Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissenger

90. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

91.  Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

92.  The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar

93.  Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard

94. Goosebumps (series) by R.L. Stine

95.  Shade’s Children by Garth Nix

96.  Grendel by John Gardner

97. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

98.  I Saw Esau by Iona Opte

99. Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

100.                America by E.R. Frank

 

How many do you recognize and/or have read from the list? ma



ny do you recognize and/or have read?