Did Palin Try to Ban Books?

UPDATE: The list of books at the end of this post is inaccurate and we know now that no books were banned from the Wasilla Library. - LM, 9-9-08 8:15AM

As a librarian, any mention of book banning catches my attention, and that was one of the tidbits mentioned as the press explored John McCain's new running mate. Reporters flocked to Alaska in the last week to visit Palin's home town of Wasilla. Time Magazine has posted an article on their website entitled: Mayor Palin: A Rough Record.

The article starts by quoting John McCain as saying, "I found someone with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies,"... Does "entrenched bureaucracies" include the local library?

The article goes on to interview, Joe Stein, the town's former mayor who, in all fairness, was defeated by Palin for the position. Here's what Stein had to say:

Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

People have tried to ban books for "inappropriate language" for years now. In some cases, like The Catcher in the Rye, it's because of the use of profanities, esp. the "F" word. And then there's the politically correct crowd that wanted to ban Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for using the "N" word. And sometimes the objections come from the author "taking the Lord's name in vain". No matter the reason, it's still censorship and a violation of the First Amendment, or so we librarians tend to think.

So what books did Palin want to ban? There are lists making their way around the internet and via email, which may or may not be accurate. Both lists I saw (one sent to me by email, the other at librarian.net) start with A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Say what? This is a children's science fiction classic. I've read the book twice, once as a pre-teen and again a few years ago. I know there's no "inappropriate language" in that book. All I can figure is the book's world view isn't sufficiently Christian for the social conservative mindset.

A list of the books Palin supposedly wanted to ban:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
Confession, by Jean Jacques Rousseau
Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood, by the Grimm Brothers
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Pigman, by Paul Zindel

Plus:

Anything by Stephen King, everything by J.K. Rowling, just about everything by Roald Dahl, both of Mark Twain's major works, most of Judy Blume, most of William
Shakespeare, and (this is truly mind-boggling) Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff.

Some of these come as no surprise, but others have me scratching my head. Little Red Riding Hood??? Webster's Ninth? Can this be for real? And if it is, do we really want this woman as vice-president? I just hope they don't let her anywhere near the Library of Congress.

Linda

The Corpse and I

It's not every day a girl gets her picture taken with a corpse, but that's what happened to me at BEA. I went to help out at the EPIC Authors booth and next door was a booth containing a corpse in a wheelchair. Naturally, I had to check it out and I couldn't refuse when co-author Lloyd Garner offered to snap my picture with the body.

Corpse of Freedom is the title of a book by brothers Dax and Lloyd Garner, two handsome and talented young men. BEA was a stop on their "Rot 'n' Roll Tour 2008" they'd peridically take the corpse on a wheelchair tour of the convention hall. I have to say, with their moxie and great marketing sense, they're going to go far.

The book is described as "a dark suburban adventure sprinkled with humor and suspense" in which a bored teen digs up the corpse of another teenager and befriends it.

Lloyd told me the screenplay is already written, so don't be surprised if you see a movie by this title turn up at the local theater one of these days.

Linda

Book Expo America in LA

On Saturday, I went to Book Expo America, the premier trade show for the publishing industry, for the very first time. It was impressive, exhausting and overwhelming.

I'd offered to spend some time helping out at the EPIC booth, so that was my first stop. (For those not familiar with EPIC, it's the Electronically Published Internet Connection, an organization of e-book authors and publishers.) Here's a picture of the booth. I'm on the left, EPIC President Carol MacLeod w/a Lynn Crain is in the middle, and author Kathryn Sullivan is on the right.

We talked up e-books to people who stopped by, demonstrated our e-book readers and answered lots of questions. Amazon had a large booth at the show to demonstrate the Kindle, so there was a lot of interest in that. I took mine along to demo. We took turns wandering around. Here are a few more pictures.




















On the left: RWA President-Elect and friend Diane Pershing at the RWA booth.

On the right: My good friend Patricia Thayer signing her book for a fan at the Harlequin/Silhouette booth.

By the time I got home that night, my feet and shoulders were sore, and I felt brain dead, but it was a fun day. BEA is in New York next year, so I won't be there.

Has anyone else ever been to BEA? If so, where and when?

Linda

Note: Links updated 6-3-08, 8:40AM

More Sense and Sensibility

As I've mentioned before, I love Jane Austen and her works and a visit to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath was a highlight of my trip to England in 2003. Here's a picture of the townhouse at 25 Gay Street where Jane lived for a time.

Last Sunday I watched the second part of Sense and Sensibility on Masterpiece Theatre and loved it. I teared up more than once as Marianne and Elinor both suffered broken hearts and sighed when, at long last, they found love. LOL, it's not as if I'm not familiar with the story, but it's one I love and the production was good enough for me to get caught up in the emotions. I didn't remember Brandon fighting a duel with Willoughby but that was a fine scene. I loved it when Brandon drew blood.

The Masterpiece Theatre pages at pbs.org are wonderful. My favorite is the Men of Austen page which includes dating profiles of each man. I was surprised to realize how fabulously rich some of her men were. In today's currency, Colonel Brandon's 2,000 pound income would be equal to $1.2 million US, and Mr. Darcy's 10,000 pounds per year is the equivalent of $6 million! Even Edward Ferrars 100 pounds per year income translates to a respectable $60,000 income in today's money.

As much as I enjoyed the story, I can't help comparing social conditions then with now. I wonder how many of today's mothers would consider the thirty-five-year-old Brandon a suitable match for a seventeen-year-old daughter? Of course, there is that $1.2 million income to consider.

Who's your favorite Austen hero?

Linda / Lyndi

Enjoying Sense and Sensibility

Sunday evening Masterpiece Theatre aired part 1 of a new version of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I wasn't sure if I'd like it since I so loved the film version starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. I saw the film at the theater, then bought the CD of the soundtrack and played it while I was writing my Regency romance, Lady Elinor's Escape. (The photo to the right shows the entrance to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England, taken by yours truly in 2003.)

But I'm happy to report the new version hooked me immediately, opening as it did with a rather steamy scene of the dashing but rakish Willoughby seducing a young lady before a roaring fireplace. You can bet that got my attention!

As with all Masterpiece Theatre presentations, the acting is impeccable and the details seem authentic. Watching, I was reminded of the fact that Europe was still in the Little Ice Age 200 years ago. Though the cottage the ladies move to is in a lovely spot, it looked terribly chilly to this pampered Californian.

I was also reminded how powerless women were at the time and how the method of primogeniture disinherited all but the eldest son (or closest male relative). A young lady without a decent-sized dowry stood little chance of making a good match. Fortunately, Jane's young ladies always come about in the end.

I love Jane Austen's works. She was ahead of her time in many ways and she was a master of characterization. My three favorites are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion.

Are you a Jane Austen fan? Which is your favorite book / movie?

Linda