banned and challenged books

I am choosing banned and challenged books for me and my son to read. As I note the encroaching spectre of anti-intellectualism and parental censorship.

Each year, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom records hundreds of attempts by individuals and groups to have books removed from libraries shelves and from classrooms.

According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least 42 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts.

Here are the yet unread of those 100 books

5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
20. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son by Richard Wright
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
31. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
32. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
34. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
39. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
40. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
41. Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
42. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
44. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce
45. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
47. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
56. Jazz by Toni Morrison
57. Sophie's Choice by William Styron
58. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
59. A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
60. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
63. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
64. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
66. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
68. Light in August by William Faulkner
69. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
71. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
73. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
75. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
76. Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
77. In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
80. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
81. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
82. White Noise by Don DeLillo
83. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
84. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
85. The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
86. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
88. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
89. Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
92. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
93. The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
95. Kim by Rudyard Kipling
97. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
98. Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
100. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

More books to add to a book list:
http://fitnesscontrarian.com/a-mediterranean-diet-may-help-your-brain/

Sally Schneider -- The Way to Cook
Richard Stark's Parker Novels

Shop talk : a writer and his colleagues and their work / Philip Roth.

Sanatorium under the sign of the hourglass / Bruno Schulz ; translated from the Polish by Celina Wieniewska.

The street of crocodiles / Bruno Schulz ; translated by Celina Wieniewska.

Will have to make this tomorrow

Two Bean Stew
-1 15.5 ounce can of lentils, drained (or 1 1/2 cups cooked lentils)
-1 15.5 ounce can of chick peas, drained (or 1 1/2 cups cooked chick peas)
-1 carrot, sliced
-2 celery stalks, diced
-1/2 can diced tomatoes
-1 potato, chopped
-1 large onion, chopped
-2 cloves garlic, minced
-1/2 tsp. oregano
-1/2 tsp. cumin
-1/2 tsp. paprika
-1 tsp. garlic powder
-2 Tbsp. olive oil
-1/2 tsp. salt
-3 Tbsp. soy sauce
-2-4 cups of water (depending upon how thick and hearty you would like the stew)
-Pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery, garlic, onion, and potato. Add spices and salt. Stirring frequently, saute for 8-10 minutes until onions are tender. If vegetables begin to stick, add a few Tbsp. of water.

After 8-10 minutes, add beans, water, and tomatoes. Turn up heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for at least 15 minutes. Stir in soy sauce. Remove from heat, and season to taste with pepper.

More books to put on my list

Fall on your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Nice Big American Baby, by Judy Budnitz
Cruddy by Lynda Barry
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

sometimes I think I read too much yet not enough. Like it's possible to eat too much but not enough of the right foods.

scrap of paper containing book titles, acupuncture

Today I visited an acupuncturist, for glaucoma and liver chi stagnation blockage. Now I find that a hefty majority of Amurricans who visit acupuncturists are treated for liver chi stagnation.

* Heaven & Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine
by Beinfield H. & Korngold E. (New York: Ballantine Books, 1991)
* Fundamentals of Chinese Acupuncture
Ellis, E., Wiseman N., & Boss, K. (Brookline, MA: Paradigm, 1991)
* Acupuncture: How it Works, How it Cures
Firebrace, Peter & Hill, Sarah (New Canaan, CN: Keats Publishing, 1994)
* The Tao of Physics
Capra, Frijtof (New York: Bantam, 1978)
* The Chinese Way to Health:A Self Help Guide to Traditioal Medicine
Gascoigne, S (Boston: Charles E. Tuttle, 1991)
* Acupuncture for Everyone
Lever, Ruth (London: Penguin, 1987)
* East-West Healing: Integrating Chinese & Western Medicines for Optimal Healing
Loo, Mary and Jack Maguire (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001)
* Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing & How It Works Scientifically
Mann, Felix (New York: Vintage Books, 1992)

more fiction:
The Nowhere City
The Robber Bride
Disappearing Moon Cafe
The Jade Peony
Reservation Blues
Nights at the Circus
Golden Notebook
Memoiri from Antproof Case
Buddenbrooks
A Gay and 'Melancholy Sound
Only You, Dick Daring
The Dog Who Wouldn't Be
Van Reid's Moosepath League stories
The Siege of Krishnapur

fielding suggestions for Black American books for Black History Month. PRobably should put an Obama book on hold, hey?

more booklist for later

I wish my library would expand its readers' book list capacity beyond 100 titles.
Don Robertson - Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Thomas Perry - Metger's Dog
Kathryn Davis - The Thin Place
Christopher Moore - The Stupidest Angel
Janet Evanovich - One for the MoneyJohn Burdett - Bangkok 8
Don Quixote
Anna Karenina
Julian Barnes - England, England

Autumnal pleasures

I learned from viewing the Wordplay DVD cover at a local library that five million people do the New York Times crossword each week. Wow, I didn't know it was that popular. Today's crossword was very easy, for a Saturday. I solved it by myself, so it was too easy.

Later this afternoon, on our second visit to the library (to announce the DVD case my son borrowed today was only a DVD case), I started compiling some books for me to read: the King County Library System and the Seattle Public Schools District have carefully compiled lists for children around my son's reading level. I pored through Hallie Ephron (Ph.D.)'s 1001 Books for Every Mood, and aggregated these books for my ever-growing to-read list.

The Thurber Carnival
Barney's Version
The Interpreter of Maladies
The God of Small Things
Christ Stopped at Eboli
An American Childhood
The Wind in the Willows, for the boy
The Art of Eating
The Debt of Pleasure - Lanchester
Tender at the Bone
On Food and Cooking
What Einstein Told His Cook
Midnight's Children
White Teeth
The Sot-Weed Factor
One for the Money (Janet Evanovich Mystery)
How to Stubbornly Refuse to Make Yourself Miserable About Anything: Yes, Anything
When Bad Things Happen to good People
The World According to Mr. Rogers
Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods
Stumbling on Happiness
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest (yeah, right)
Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland
The Moviegoer (I've read this twice, and would read it at least twice more)
Short Guide to a Happy Life
Call it Sleep - Henry Roth
The American Language -- H. L. Mencken
Just So Stories, again for the tot
A Coney Island of the Mnd
On Writing Well
Westward Ha! (Not sure if I've read this, but it's Perelman, so the deja vu would be welcome)
Thank You, Jeeves
Rootabaga Stories
Side Effects - Woody Allen
Heidi - Johanna Spyri, another one for the tot
Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington
David Copperfield
Final Payments - Mary Gordon
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
Awaken to Superconsciousness

Discoveries of the day:
Hildegarde of Bingen. The more I learn of her, the more I consider her worth as a potential role model. I will one day immerse myself in some study of Dorothy Day, Simone Weil and St. Hildegarde.

The dog who irritated me to the point where I became intentionally more conscious of animals' sensitivities and sufferings has blessedly been removed to a place where she'd, I imagine, be much happier. Happy dogs don't bark with alarming frequency when left alone for any length of time. Interesting now how when I see a tethered dog yelp and whine waiting for the owner to return I feel for the dog: my irritation is delayed and a distant second. I imagine the dog is probably not used to being without the owner, or is over-stimulated in the presence of strangers and a strange environment as any child left alone might be.

Accepting the new

Playing Happy Songs for Happy People, by Mogwai. Lots of books, CDs and DVDs rented. After all, you're better off with libraries and no money than you are with money and no libraries.

Other Library treats:
upgrade your life edition 2, by Gina Trapani
The book of general ignorance, from John Lloyd, who brought us 'QI'
Heima, the Sigur Ros DVD
Bobby, Noel & Cole 2 DVD-set where Bobby Short sings and plays the music of you-know-who
After the Rain, the soft sounds of Erik Satie
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players DVD
Diamond Settings: Hommage a Satie, by the Seattle Symphony (score! I didn't know they recorded; more aware of the Montreal Symphony)
Mozart: 3 KlavierSonaten by Mitsuko Uchida

books for the boy, card game rules, chess for children, eating fractions, Velveteen Rabbit (love this book)

To borrow SOON: Wallace Wang's Steal This File-Sharing Book. Guided by Voices DVD box set, Robyn Hitchcock DVD box set.

Another book list: Black fiction for White people

I read on a local periodical's blog a post by its Books Editor noting the segregation of African-American fiction in bookstores and audiences. Most of my friends have read Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and we have a Chester Himes book at home, but now's as good a time as any to cross segregational lines. As one panelist put it at a Book Expo: "Books are the freest media we have—it's the only media where we're not advertising drivel."

Chester Himes
Edward P. Jones
Donald Goines
Nathan C. Heard
James Baldwin
Walter Mosley
Richard Wright
Colson Whitehead

Alice Walker
Zadie Smith
Zora Neale Hurston
Octavia Butler