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The Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Library Binding
Description from Amazon: A gripping story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the 1950s.
“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father – despite his hard-won citizenship – Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
This novel has its critics, especially in certain areas.
- LGBTQ+ Themes
- Alleged sexual content seemed to be the primary reason for its removal in South Carolina, although whether the scenes are explicit or merely suggestive seem to be debatable.
- Derogatory terms, such as “dyke” which is a point of contention for Moms for Liberty
- The primary censorship efforts are in South Carolina and Iowa.
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Sold by Patricia McCormick
Formats: Hardcover, Audiobook
Description from Amazon: Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family’s debt—then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi’s life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother’s words—Simply to endure is to triumph—and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision—will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?The challenges to the book:
- Sexually explicit content, as challenged by Moms for Liberty, who sometimes compare it to pornography
- Mature Themes: human trafficking and trauma
- Violence and brutality: sexual abuse, brutal and cruel treatment
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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Description from Amazon: Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.
Toni Morrison’s body of work won a Nobel Prize in literature, but she has her nay-sayers.
- Racism for exploring the psychological effects of the desire for “white” beauty on young Black girls.
- Sexual Violence, including child molestation and incest
(If the novel is purchased through the link above, we may receive a small commission from Amazon.)
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Formats: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover
Description on Amazon: Since his debut in 1951 as “The Catcher in the Rye,” Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with “cynical adolescent.”
Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he’s been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists.
His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive), capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.
The challenges that led to the banning:
- Profanity and sexual content (including a scene with a prostitute)
- Mature and sensitive themes like death, alienation, and mental health.
- Promotes rebellion
- Negative influence: cynical, behavior
- In 1970, the novel was called racist, misogynistic, blasphemous, and one school board member called it a “communist plot.”
- And of course, the novel’s link to real-world violence, i.e. David Chapman, John Lennon’s assassin, contributed to further controversy.
(If this novel is purchased through the link above, we may receive a small commission from Amazon.)
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The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Format: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
Description from Amazon: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award
Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband.
In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God. The letters, spanning twenty years, record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment guided by the light of a few strong women. She meets Shug Avery, her husband’s mistress and a jazz singer with a zest for life, and her stepson’s wife, Sophia, who challenges her to fight for independence. And though the many letters from Celie’s sister are hidden by her husband, Nettie’s unwavering support will prove to be the most breathtaking of all.(If the book is purchased through the link above, we may be paid a small commission.)
The Color Purple has been challenged and banned for the following:
- Sexual Content including explicit conduct, rape, incest.
- Language and Profanity
- Violence and Abuse
- Homosexuality
- Drug Use