It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

Welcome to It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading!  This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I love being a part of this and I hope you do too!  As part of this weekly meme I love to encourage you all to go and visit the others participating in this meme.  I offer a weekly contest for those who visit 10 or more of the Monday Meme participants and leave a comment telling me how many you visited.  **You do not have to have a blog to participate! You receive one entry for every 10 comments, just come back here and tell me how many in the comment area.

Since I was out of town last weekend I never got the previous winner posted so this is the two week ago winner and this past weeks winner using random.org (because that is how I roll!)

Last weeks winner: Lisa from Lisa’s World Of Books!!!

Congratulations!  Please choose a book or bookish item from the Reading Cafe!  And for those of you waiting on a win, the book room as you will see below is now done so I can find the books to mail you

What a great and crazy week!  The construction finished on Wednesday for the book room, I set up and had a family reunion at my house on Saturday and I am tired but now geared up for Banned Book Week!

Here are the posts worth checking out from this past week:

 

We Need To Talk About Kevin – book and movie reviews – I read this book so long ago but it still haunts me

 

There And Back Again by Sean Astin - an interesting take on being a hobbit and the working behind the scenes of the Lord Of The Rings

 

Defending Jacob by William Landay - OOOHHHHHH lets just say….oooooohhhhh!!!!

 

Back Seat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson – wow!  I think I found another author to wacth!

 

SSSQQUUEEEE  The book shelves are finished!!!!  Here are the pics and the final room look!

 

PREP by Curtis Senterfield - my first banned book review and a giveaway of a gift card!  (OOH – everyone likes gift cards!)

 

Banned Book Blog Hop is going on and I am doing a giveaway as well as many MANY more blogs check it out – its a good week to win some great books!

 

Banned Book Week kicked off on Sept 30 and I will be hosting blogs and giveaways all week long!  Here is the first post and amazing book giveaways you will not want to miss!

 

 

It was a great week but thank goodness for audio because I have been not getting any book time lately.  I set the book room, cleaned the house and garage all to audio.  Because of this I am ahead for banned book week with two more banned audio books to review and a third being listened to right now.

So as I said, it is banned book week and if you know me – you know I love chatting Banned Books!  Here is what I will be reading/listening to this week:

 

In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community’s Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. With echoes of Brave New World, in this 1994 Newbery Medal winner, Lowry examines the idea that people might freely choose to give up their humanity in order to create a more stable society. Gradually Jonas learns just how costly this ordered and pain-free society can be, and boldly decides he cannot pay the price.

A banned book and one that has graced me shelf way too long unread.

 

 

 

Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth’s natural beauty.

One of the funnier banned books – I want to review book and movie.

 

 

 

On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered, but she remained haunted by Matthew’s murder. October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard’s life.

On October 6 I am going to break away from the banned books to review this sad book about Matthew Shephard on the anniversary ate of his brutal murder.

 

Ok I plan to fit in more banned books but we will see how this week goes.  Now I am so excited to see what you are reading!  Please add your link below where it says click here. 

 

 

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and those of you who read mainly children’s through YA reads – please ALSO link your post here:

PREP by Curtis Sentenfield (Celebrating Banned book Week and a Giveaway!)

Lee Fiora knew from a young age she wanted out.  Out of her hum drum life in South Bend Indiana, out from under her parents smothering thumbs….  she dreamed of being a boarding school student but her family did not have the means or the desire to see her attend such a place.  Lee knew is she wanted to make that dream come true, she would have to work for it.  When Lee earns a scholarship to Ault, her family is shocked but accepts that their daughter is going away.

What Lee finds at school is mostly money kids who have always had access to money and never have known what it is like to live on a budget.  These students were raised as privileged and Lee finds herself feeling insecure in her placement at Ault, while few know she is on scholarship, she fears she reeks of inadequacy. 

Between hot girls and cute boys (enter the likes of super hotty Cross Sugarman), Lee stumbles along always feeling like an outsider.  She works hard to earn every tiny step she makes towards feeling good about herself and if making slow but steady progress when she makes a major lack of good judgement and destroys all that she has worked so hard to earn.

Prep, is Lee’s story.  She narrates this as being 24 years old looking back at her days in Ault, reliving each feeling and what, now in hind site, she could have done differently.

Why did I want to read PREP?  I actually started reading PREP over a year ago.  At no fault of the book, life became busy, I sat it down and just did not get the time to finish it.  This year, I found the audio version at a sale and could nor resist giving it another go.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out this book was also a Banned Book, so it fit right into my Banned book Week planning. 
PREP is Lee’s story.  Narrated by Julie Dretzin this 17 hour+ audio can feel long at times, and yet author Curtis Sittenfield keeps it  engaging.  As Lee retells her prep school adventures you can feel for her… trying to find a good roommate, avoiding the girls that others pick on so she can up her status, meeting the guy, thinking about the guy, dreaming of the guy… and then getting the guy…

sort of.

It’s hard to review this book because it really is day-to-day life at Ault and while as I mentioned above, there are periods in Lee’s retelling that seem to be drawn out… in reality, life is not one big moment after another… but times of small moments… with occasional big ones.   All in all, while PREP wasn’t over the top engaging, it did hold my interest and I am glad I had this opportunity to listen to it. 

Why was PREP challenged/banned?

In 2008 and in 2009 Pulled from the accelerated reading program in the Heritage Oak School in Yorba Linda (CA). A parent complained that the book was “pornographic.”

My thoughts:  PREP has a few sex scenes, but they are not anything detailed and I have read much more detailed scenes in books that are not banned. 

Amazon Rating

Goodreads Review

Check out other banned book reviews and giveaways here

 

 

For this giveaway – A $10 Amazon gift card will be given away at the end of Banned Book Week.  To enter, let me know in a comment what book on the banned book list really surprises you.  Click here for a list of these books.

Banned Book Week Kick Off! Seven Days of Books, Reviews, and MANY Giveaways!

It’s here!  It’s finally here! Today officially kicks off  Banned Book Week

and I am going to ask you to bookmark my blog this week and keep on stopping by because many awesome book bloggers have signed up to celebrate these books with me!  They (as well as myself) will be doing this by posting about banned and challenged books, as well as many will be having a giveaway.  Each morning I will list which blogs on participating on that day and I hope you will stop by their blogs and show them some comment love. 

I will be putting together a banned book package that will be given away to one of the commenters on these posts – that means that I will be counting all the posts that I link this week as well as my own banned book posts and entering those who comment in a drawing for the package.  The more posts you comment on, the more times you will be in the drawing.  The package will include several banned books as well as a gift card.  Winner will be announced at the end of the banned book event, next Sunday morning here. 

So let’s get this party started right?

Elida at My First, My Last, My Everything is posting about Bridehead Revisited and she giving away a copy of the book!

Shelena at Writer Quirk is talking about Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan and she has not one, but TWO prize packages she is giving away!

Kelly at The Well-Read Redhead is chatting up One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and offering up a giveaway copy as well.

Bex at An Armchair By The Sea is talking about banned books and offering a giveaway for a choice of a Banned Book!

Charity at The Bookworm Fairy is reviewing The Hunger Games Today as well as offering up a copy of the book giveaway!

Elisha Of Rainy Day Reviews is discussing The Adventured Of Huckleberry Finn.

Pam at Unconventional Librarian is posting about To Kill A Mockingbird and hosting a giveaway for that book as well.

Jennifer Of The Bookie Nook is talking about SPEAK today (love that one!) and giving away a copy of it as well.

Laura at Owl Tell You About It is reviewing The Perks Of Being A Wallflower and offering up a giveaway copy as well (SQQQUUUEEEE!  I don’t have that one in book format!) 

I am also participating in The Banned Book Hop – lots and lots more of banned book giveaways

and I will be posting my review of Prep later today with a giveaway

Some of these books I have read, some are new to me and I want to read them!  If you already own any of the books listed above, enter anyway because you can always give these great books to another reader. 

Are you reading any banned/challenged books this week?