Banned Books Week a good time to buy some
Next Saturday is the beginning of Banned Books Week, the American Library Association’s annual drive to fight censorship. Since 1982, the ALA has worked to publicize books that have attracted one kind of complaint, or “challenge,” after another. Many involved requests to have books removed from class reading lists or library shelves.
I’m going to celebrate by buying copies (used, probably) of books I’ve loved that have attracted such “challenges.”
Among them: J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies,” Chris Crutcher’s “Athletic Shorts” and all of J.K. Rowling’s “”Harry Potter” books.
The ability to read what we want is a precious right. I, for one, plan to do what I can to protect it by buying as many challenging books as I can carry.
Mommies and prayer
Kathleen Finley’s new book provides “a way for mothers — and for all of us — to further develop the daily richness of our relationships as a ‘domestic church’ within the Christian tradition.”
Titled “The Liturgy of Motherhood: Moments of Grace” (Sheed & Ward, 216 pages, $19.95 paper), the book will be featured at a reading Wednesday night at Auntie’s Bookstore (see below). Finley will be joined by her fellow author and husband, Mitch Finley, who will read from his new book, “Whispers of God’s Love: Touching the Lives of Loved Ones After Death.”
Mitch Finley, of course, is the literary readings coordinator for Auntie’s. And his book, “Prayer for People Who Think too Much: A Guide to Everyday, Anywhere Prayer From the World’s Great Faith Traditions,” just happens to be the September read of The Spokesman-Review Book Club.
To join the club, go to www.spokesmanreview.com/interactive /bookclub.
Bolder spirits
The word is out: Spokane writers Linda Lawrence Hunt and Jack Nisbet are among the 10 winners of 2004 Washington State Book Awards.
Hunt’s “Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America” and Nisbet’s “Visible Bones: Journey Across Time in the Columbia River Country” were two of the 25 finalists pared down from more than 300 submitted titles.
Now in its 38th year, the Washington State Book Award is sponsored by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. This year’s awards were announced Wednesday.
Winners are Washington writers whose books meet three criteria: literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality of publication.
Writers wanted
The Gotham Writers’ Workshop will hold a free session at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Valley Barnes & Noble (922-4104).
Expect Terry Bain, a GWW representative, to present the “Gotham Writers’ Workshop Fiction Gallery: Exceptional Short Stories Selected by New York’s Acclaimed Creative Writing School” (Bloomsbury, 386 pages, $14.95 paper) by Alexander Steele and Thom Didato.
Hoops time
Marysville, Wash., author J.R. Nakken will sign copies of her young-adult novel “Three-point Shot” (Authorhouse, 288 pages, $14.95 paper) from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Valley Hastings (see below). Immediately after, Nakken will speak to the Hastings youth group and introduce Ray Peterson, a Central Valley math teacher and coach who is the basis for a fictionalized character in the book.
Unless otherwise noted, the following events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
• Current Affairs Book Group (“Enough: Staying Human in an Engineering Age,” by Bill McKibben), 6 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).
• Mystery Book Group (“The Concrete Blonde,” by Michael Connelly), 7 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Hastings Inspirational Readers Group (“Gun Lake,” by Travis Thrasher), 7 p.m. Monday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague Ave. (923-0667).
The reader board
• Devin Barber (“The Ship”), Sherry Gardner (“Hustlin’ Justice,” “Evidence of Truth”), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Kathleen Finley (“The Liturgy of Motherhood: Moments of Grace,” “Welcome! Prayers for New and Pregnant Parents”), Mitch Finley (“Whispers of God’s Love: Touching the Lives of Loved Ones After Death”), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• Cathal Liam (“Consumed in Freedom’s Flame: A Novel of Ireland’s Struggle for Freedom 1916-21,” “Forever Green: Ireland Now and Again”), 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.
• J.R. Nakken (“Three-Point Shot”), signing 1-3 p.m. Saturday; youth talk, 3 p.m., Valley Hastings.
• James Glass (“Matrix Dreams & Other Stories”), signing, 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Lincoln Heights Hastings, 2512 E. 29th Ave. (535-4342).