Are Books Forbidden Fruit?

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. A New York Times Bestseller! Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, Today Show, and MSNBC feature stories From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults. Velshi Banned Book Club Indie Bestseller Teen Vogue Recommended Read Buzzfeed Recommended Read People Magazine Best Book of the Summer A New York Library Best Book of 2020 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020 ... and more!

All Boys Aren't Blue, a collection of essays about growing up as a black queer person, has been banned for its LGBTQ+ content and "sexually explicit material." According to the LA Times, the book has been challenged 86 times, and banned in 38 instances. Among the school districts who have successfully banned the book is Atlanta's Forsyth County. Links: Forsyth County Book Bans: https://www.11alive.com/article/news/education/forsyth-county-school-library-book-removals-hostile-environment-department-of-education/85-01f45446-ddf5-472c-9b94-1a3afe135741 LA Times - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-05-15/15-most-banned-books-2022-2023#:~:text=“To%20Kill%20a%20Mockingbird”%20by,a%20lightning%20rod%20for%20controversy.

And Tango Makes Three is the bestselling, heartwarming true story of two penguins who create a nontraditional family. At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own. Selected as an ALA Notable Children's Book Nominee and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, "this joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library" (School Library Journal, starred review).
In early 2023, the Escambia County School Board in Florida banned this book for alleged pornographic content.

Translated into English with notes, glossary, and indices under the editorship of I. Epstein

The Talmud is known in two forms: the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds. In Christian Europe, it has been the target of censorship and banning, in their most extreme form: burning. In Paris, in 1240 and in Rome, in 1553, copies of the Talmud were burnt for its alleged blasphemy against Christian doctrines.

The Bluest Eye,published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

Since its publication in 1970, Toni Morrison's the Bluest Eye has been targeted by proponents of book bans due to its sexually explicit nature and depictions of sexual abuse. In 2022, for instance, the book was removed from middle and high school libraries in Forsyth County, but was returned a year later upon the recommendation of a committee of teachers, media specialist, and parents https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/22/book-bans-georgia-hostile-environment/ Cobb County: https://www.cobbcounty.org/library/news/september-26-october-2-banned-books-week Other links: https://www.essence.com/entertainment/only-essence/toni-morrison-bluest-eye-ban/

Through surreal, often grotesque humour, Bulgakov gives an ingenious new twist to the "Frankenstein" parable, in a new translation of one of the most popular satires on the Russian Revolution and on Soviet society Having been scalded by boiling water earlier that day, and with little chance to survive the severe winter night, a stray dog is left for dead on the streets. Lamenting his fate, he is ill-prepared for the chance arrival of a wealthy professor who befriends him and takes him home. However, it seems the professor's motives are not entirely altruistic--an expert in medical experimentation, he sees his new charge as the potential subject for a bizarre operation, and implants glands from a dead criminal in the dog. The resulting half-man, half-beast is, as to be expected, a monstrosity, yet one that fits in remarkably well with Soviet society.

The book was rejected for publication in 1925 as a cutting political satire unsuitable for publication. The story was published in the Soviet Union only in 1987.

Harry Potter spent ten long years living with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, an aunt and uncle whose outrageous favoritism of their perfectly awful son Dudley leads to some of the most inspired dark comedy since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But fortunately for Harry, he's about to be granted a scholarship to a unique boarding school called THE HOGWORTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY, where he will become a school hero at the game of Quidditch (a kind of aerial soccer played high above the ground on broomsticks), he will make some wonderful friends, and, unfortunately, a few terrible enemies. For although he seems to be getting your run-of-the-mill boarding school experience (well, ok, even that's pretty darn out of the ordinary), Harry Potter has a destiny that he was born to fulfill. A destiny that others would kill to keep him from.

After the Philippines and Malaysia, in 2002, Saudi Arabia also banned Harry Potter for its portrayal of magic. In the United Arab Emirates, the book was removed from school libraries, but remained in commercial circulation.

A best seller and critical success all over the world, The House of the Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family -- their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all. We begin -- at the turn of the century, in an unnamed South American country -- in the childhood home of the woman who will be the mother and grandmother of the clan, Clara del Valle. A warm-hearted, hypersensitive girl, Clara has distinguished herself from an early age with her telepathic abilities -- she can read fortunes, make objects move as if they had lives of their own, and predict the future. Following the mysterious death of her sister, the fabled Rosa the Beautiful, Clara has been mute for nine years, resisting all attempts to make her speak. When she breaks her silence, it is to announce that she will be married soon. Her husband-to-be is Esteban Trueba, a stern, willful man, given to fits of rage and haunted by a profound loneliness. At the age of thirty-five, he has returned to the capital from his country estate to visit his dying mother and to find a wife. (He was Rosa's fiance, and her death has marked him as deeply as it has Clara.) This is the man Clara has foreseen -- has summoned -- to be her husband; Esteban, in turn, will conceive a passion for Clara that will last the rest of his long and rancorous life. We go with this couple as they move into the extravagant house he builds for her, a structure that everyone calls "the big house on the corner," which is soon populated with Clara's spiritualist friends, the artists she sponsors, the charity cases she takes an interest in, with Esteban's political cronies, and, above all, with the Trueba children...their daughter, Blanca, a practical, self-effacing girl who will, to the fury of her father, form a lifelong liaison with the son of his foreman...the twins, Jaime and Nicolas, the former a solitary, taciturn boy who becomes a doctor to the poor and unfortunate; the latter a playboy, a dabbler in Eastern religions and mystical disciplines...and, in the third generation, the child Alba, Blanca's daughter (the family does not recognize the real father for years, so great is Esteban's anger), a child who is fondled and indulged and instructed by them all. For all their good fortune, their natural (and supernatural) talents, and their powerful attachments to one another, the inhabitants of "the big house on the corner" are not immune to the larger forces of the world. And, as the twentieth century beats on...as Esteban becomes more strident in his opposition to Communism...as Jaime becomes the friend and confidant of the Socialist leader known as the Candidate...as Alba falls in love with a student radical...the Truebas become actors -- and victims -- in a tragic series of events that gives The House of the Spirits a deeper resonance and meaning. It is the supreme achievement of this splendid novel that we feel ourselves members of this large, passionate (and sometimes exasperating) family, that we become attached to them as if they were our own. That this is the author's first novel makes it all the more extraordinary. The House of the Spirits marks the appearance of a major, international writer.

Following complaints from parents, the Watagua Country School Board in North Carolina challenged this book, however, after months of debate, it remained on the shelves and part of the curriculum.

Hitler's infamous prison writings, a manifesto of hatred and a plan for a program of bloodshed and terror.

This book has never been banned in the United States or in the U.S.-occupied zone of Germany in the immediate postwar years. Neither was it burned, however, authorities used the copies together with any Nazi propaganda publication to produce paper for new publications. The typeset used for the printing of Mein Kampf was melted and the lead was reuse for the printing of newspapers in postwar Germany. In 1947, two years after the end of World War II, the Library of Congress struggled to find 150 copies to transfer them to American universities, which The Atlantic magazine author Steven Lucker found as evidence of the success of its removal from the German public sphere after the Allied victory. He wrote in connection with the entering of Mein Kampf to the public domain and its possible repercussions pertaining the circulations of the ideas it articulated.

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" revealed George Orwell as one of the twentieth century's greatest mythmakers. While the totalitarian system that provoked him into writing it has since passed into oblivion, his harrowing cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate: its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade. In Winston Smith's desperate struggle to free himself from an all-encompassing, malevolent state, Orwell zeroed in on tendencies apparent in every modern society, and made vivid the universal predicament of the individual.

The book was banned by Jackson County in Florida for its alleged pro-communism in 1981, while it was banned in the Soviet Union for political reasons as well. The Florida decision also pointed out the book's sexual content. In 2022, the book has been a best seller in Russia.

The theories propounded by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species have had a profound and revolutionary effect, not only on biology but also on philosophy, history, and theology. His concept of natural selection has created eruptive disputes among scientists and religious leaders of his time and ours. The phenomenal importance of his brilliant work is universally recognized, but the present volume marks the first scholarly attempt to compile a complete variorum edition of The Origin of Species, covering all of the extensive variants in the six texts published between 1859 and 1872.Darwin's changes were extensive. His book grew by a third as he rewrote many passages four or five times, and in this edition Morse Peckham has recorded every one of those changes. A book of such distinctive dimensions, on a subject of such profound importance, will be of intense interest to historians of biology, evolution, science, literature, and cultural development. It will be an invaluable aid to the clarification and full comprehension of this complex and renowned scientific classic.

This book was first published in 1859 and banned in 1895 from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Darwin had been a student for contradicting Christian beliefs. In 1925, Tennessee banned the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools; the law remained in force until 1967.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Eloquent and enthralling..." --Washington Post "The emergence of our true selves is all of our life's work. Pageboy helps chart the course." --Jamie Lee Curtis "Searing, deeply moving, and incredibly poignant... This isn't simply a book on what it means to be trans, it's about what it means to be human." --Alok Vaid-Menon NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK by Salon, The Week, Elle, Bustle, and more. Full of intimate stories, from chasing down secret love affairs to battling body image and struggling with familial strife, Pageboy is a love letter to the power of being seen. With this evocative and lyrical debut, Oscar-nominated star Elliot Page captures the universal human experience of searching for ourselves and our place in this complicated world. "Can I kiss you?" It was two months before the world premiere of Juno, and Elliot Page was in his first ever queer bar. The hot summer air hung heavy around him as he looked at her. And then it happened. In front of everyone. A previously unfathomable experience. Here he was on the precipice of discovering himself as a queer person, as a trans person. Getting closer to his desires, his dreams, himself, without the repression he'd carried for so long. But for Elliot, two steps forward had always come with one step back. With Juno's massive success, Elliot became one of the world's most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare. As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do. Until enough was enough. The Oscar-nominated star who captivated the world with his performance in Juno finally shares his story in a groundbreaking and inspiring memoir about love, family, fame -- and stepping into who we truly are with strength, joy and connection.
The book, published in June 2023, was celebrated at the National Book Festival where the author discussed the book with Semafor's executive editor, Gina Chua, who also reviewed the book for the New York Times. To view the conversation introduced by Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqYH5kCHt9E

"An unsuccessful writer and an inveterate alcoholic, Boris Alikhanov has recently divorced his wife Tatyana, and he is running out of money. The prospect of a summer job as a tour guide at the Pushkin Hills Preserve offers him hope of regaining some balance in life as his wife makes plans to emigrate to the West with their daughter Masha, but during Alikhanov's stay in the rural estate of Mikhaylovskoye, his life continues to unravel. Populated with unforgettable characters-including Alikhanov's fellow guides Mitrofanov and Pototsky, and the KGB officer Belyaev-Pushkin Hills ranks among Dovlatov's renowned works The Suitcase and The Zone as his most personal and poignant portrayal of the Russian attitude towards life and art."

During his lifetime, Dovlatov (1941 – 1990) faced censorship and limited publication opportunities due to his subversive and satirical style. His major works were not published in Russia until 1989.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."--Newsday Winner of the Whitbread Prize One of the most controversial and acclaimed novels ever written, The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's best-known and most galvanizing book. Set in a modern world filled with both mayhem and miracles, the story begins with a bang: the terrorist bombing of a London-bound jet in midflight. Two Indian actors of opposing sensibilities fall to earth, transformed into living symbols of what is angelic and evil. This is just the initial act in a magnificent odyssey that seamlessly merges the actual with the imagined. A book whose importance is eclipsed only by its quality, The Satanic Verses is a key work of our times. Praise for The Satanic Verses "Rushdie is a storyteller of prodigious powers, able to conjure up whole geographies, causalities, climates, creatures, customs, out of thin air."--The New York Times Book Review "Exhilarating, populous, loquacious, sometimes hilarious, extraordinary . . ."a roller-coaster ride over a vast landscape of the imagination."--The Guardian (London) "A novel of metamorphoses, hauntings, memories, hallucinations, revelations, advertising jingles, and jokes. Rushdie has the power of "description, and we succumb."--The Times (London)

Salman Rushdie's book was banned in various Muslim countries and burned in England. Ayatollah Khomeni issued a fatwa or religious edict against Rushdie, in which he sentenced the author to death for what he termed blasphemous work. Rushdie was attacked and seriously injured at a book reading in the United States in 2023.

'Philosophy is written in this great book which is continually open before our eyes - I mean the universe...'Galileo's astronomical discoveries changed the way we look at the world, and our place in the universe. Threatened by the Inquisition for daring to contradict the literal truth of the Bible, Galileo ignited a scientific revolution when he asserted that the Earth moves. This generous selection fromhis writings contains all the essential texts for a reader to appreciate his lasting significance. Mark Davie's new translation renders Galileo's vigorous Italian prose into clear modern English, while William R. Shea's version of the Latin Sidereal Message makes accessible the book that createda sensation in 1610 with its account of Galileo's observations using the newly invented telescope.All Galileo's contributions to the debate on science and religion are included, as well as key documents from his trial before the Inquisition in 1633. A lively introduction and clear notes give an overview of Galileo's career and explain the scientific and philosophical background to the texts.

Galileo’s theories about the solar system and his support of the discoveries of Copernicus were condemned by the Catholic Church. Under threat of torture, and sentenced to jail at the age of 70, Galileo was forced to renounce his findings. His widow agreed to destroy some of his manuscripts upon his death.

As the fierce lovemaking and fights of Nathan, a paranoiac Jewish intellectual, and Sophie, a Polish-Catholic concentration-camp survivor, intensify, Stingo, a writer who lives below them in a cheap rooming house, becomes more and more involved in their lives.

The book was banned in South Africa in 1979 and in California it was removed from a school library for its sexual content.

Uncle Tom, Topsy, Sambo, Simon Legree, little Eva: their names are American bywords, and all of them are characters in Harriet Beecher Stowe's remarkable novel of the pre-Civil War South. Uncle Tom's Cabin was revolutionary in 1852 for its passionate indictment of slavery and for its presentation of Tom, "a man of humanity," as the first black hero in American fiction. Labeled racist and condescending by some contemporary critics, it remains a shocking, controversial, and powerful work -- exposing the attitudes of white nineteenth-century society toward "the peculiar institution" and documenting, in heartrending detail, the tragic breakup of black Kentucky families "sold down the river." An immediate international sensation, Uncle Tom's Cabin sold 300,000 copies in the first year, was translated into thirty-seven languages, and has never gone out of print: its political impact was immense, its emotional influence immeasurable.

The book was banned as abolitionist propaganda in many parts of the United States South in the years following its publication in 1852. In later years, the school districts across the United States banned the book for its use of racist language. Links: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states https://firstamendmentmuseum.org/banned/

Venus in Furs tells the story of a young man who signs his life over to an older woman in a binding contract. This contract forms the basis of their relationship to each other, in which he is entirely bound to obey her, even should she tell him to kill himself. Austrian author Leopold Sacher-Masoch thus gave birth to the concept of "masochism", which describes the sexual, fetishistic infliction of pain and humiliation under the terms of a contract, implied or real. Venus in Furs was his most famous novel and comes under the first part of his Legacy of Cain series, Love.

The book is famous for its sexual explicit content. It was published as part of Harper Collins's Perennial Forbidden Classics.