Classic Book Suggestion September 2010

Animal Farm by George Orwell

In honor of Banned Books Week this September, this month's suggested classic is Orwell's Animal Farm.  The American Library Association has a list of some banned classics and the reasons why they were banned or challenged.  Animal Farm is on this list.

As ferociously fresh as it was more than a half century ago, this remarkable allegory of a downtrodden society of overworked, mistreated animals, and their quest to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality is one of the most scathing satires ever published. As we witness the rise and bloody fall of the revolutionary animals, we begin to recognize the seeds of totalitarianism in the most idealistic organization; and in our most charismatic leaders, the souls of our cruelest oppressors. -book jacket


Wikipedia article
Reading Group Guide
Plot Summary

Best in Books September 2010

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Both a 1988 Pulitzer Prize winning book for fiction and the 1999 YALSA (American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services Association) Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Fiction list, Beloved has been challenged to be removed from library shelves and classrooms. Read the stories behind challenges by visiting the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and scroll to "M" for Morrison.

Review
Morrison encapsulates the horror of slavery and the consuming passion of motherhood in a single act of defiance by a runaway slave. The pivotal event occurs when Sethe, the slave, murders her infant daughter rather than permit her recapture. The story of Sethe's violation, her determined escape, and its horrific consequences is slowly played out in memory and gossip, as Morrison hints at the terrible secret in the woman's past--a legacy so dreadful that she has alienated the black community, driven off her two sons, and sent her remaining daughter into her own form of exile. Sethe is haunted not only by her own memories and her neighbors' reactions, but also by the ghostly presence of the murdered girl, who is called simply Beloved and who appears just as her mother, released from prison, seems ready to embark on a normal, loving relationship with a man. Sethe's history, too awful to be narrated in a straightforward, chronological manner, is related in kaleidoscopic fashion, complete with the shatteringly eloquent and accurate dialogue that Morrison has displayed in her earlier fiction, such as Song of Solomon (Booklist 73:1704 Jl 15 74). DPD. [OCLC] 86-46157 --

Novelist Book Discussion Questions

Toni Morrison Society Website information about the author, upcoming events and the work of the society