From One Book Lover

Are you ready to read some banned books? For some of us, this isn't a stretch — like Whoopi Goldberg, we read plenty of books that have been banned or challenged, like poems by Shel Silverstein. (Watch the video below.) For others, it is novel: why read something you're not supposed to read? Someone decided it's not right to do, read a particular book — so why read it? My question is: why let someone else decide what you're going to read? Yes, we do it all the time. We pay attention to awards and bestseller lists, bookseller picks, our friends. But we have choices. When someone pulls a book off the library shelf, it removes our choice based on their criteria. Libraries do not have all books on the planet (and they have fewer every day — so make sure your state and municipality support and fund public libraries!). Someone has to decide what makes it on the shelves, so why not manipulate the criteria? If I don't "believe" in evolution, o

One of the most tragic stories in literature is unrequited love.  One of the bravest characters in literature is Severus Snape. (For the record, I wondered, but never wavered. If the headmaster could trust him to completely, who was I to doubt?)

Today, former Poet Laureate Rita Dove is reading at the Fall for the Book Festival, and I can't wait to meet her. Here is one of the Pulitzer Prize-winner's poems. Listen to her read it at the White House, then read it yourself. Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967 For a fifteen-year-old there was plenty to do: Browse the magazines, slip into the Adult Section to see what vast tristesse was born of rush-hour traffic, décolletés, and the plague of too much money. There was so much to discover—how to lay out a road, the language of flowers, and the place of women in the tribe of Moost. There were equations elegant as a French twist, fractal geometry’s unwinding maple leaf; I could follow, step-by-step, the slow disclosure of a pineapple Jell-O mold—or take the path of Harold’s purple crayon through the bedroom window and onto a lavender spill of stars. Oh, I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch the rough curve of bound leather

National Punctuation Day is September 24. Start practicing now: your life may depend on it! Get the t-shirt!

What if you had no choice in what you could read? There are plenty of people who think they know better than you what you should be able to find at the public or school library. The American Library Association supports the freedom to read by illustrating the danger of limitations on this freedom from Banned Books Week. This year, Banned Books Week is September 30 to October 6. Celebrate Banned Books Week by reading a banned or challenged book. You can find the top 100 banned or challenged classics of the 20th century here . Consider participating in a read-out , either in person or virtually.  Read a banned book out loud and share it, as encouraged by Bookmans : ...or on your own YouTube video channel. Find out more here . Reading out loud, in public, on camera — they're all just ways to make sure you read what you want, when you want, and how you want. Don't let others make that decision for you. Support the freedom to read.

Courtesy English Muse.

If you're in the metropolitan Washington area, or if you want to take a trip to the nation's capitol, consider the two biggest book festivals of the year. National Book Festival features 100 authors and illustrators that gather on the National Mall for two days of book-love. This year, the festival will be held September 22-23 and this year features Avi, Jewel, Lois Lowry, Donna Britt, Walter Issacson and Charlaine Harris and dozens of others. Click here for information . If you want a chuckle with your guidance, read this Washingt on Post article, " Everything you always wanted to know about the National Book Festival (but were afraid to ask) ." Fall for the Book will be held September 26-30 at George Mason University, the City of Fairfax and throughout the metropolitan Washington region. Scheduled authors include Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon and Alice Walker and dozens of others. Click here for information . What festivals are in your area? How do

You may recognize this poet from a previously shared poem on Hedgehog Lover ....   Porch Swing in September The porch swing hangs fixed in a morning sun that bleaches its gray slats, its flowered cushion whose flowers have faded, like those of summer, and a small brown spider has hung out her web on a line between porch post and chain so that no one may swing without breaking it. She is saying it's time that the swinging were done with, time that the creaking and pinging and popping that sang through the ceiling were past, time now for the soft vibrations of moths, the wasp tapping each board for an entrance, the cool dewdrops to brush from her work every morning, one world at a time. by Ted Kooser   From Flying at Night . © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Courtesy The Writer's Almanac

What would you take with you if the house was on fire? I asked that question in one memorable Poetry Wednesday post, The valley is on fire . Find out about Foster Huntington's book and related website , The Burning House , and how he found that answer among friends and strangers alike. Have you written your poem on the subject? Taken a photo? Made decisions?

(Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?)

Years ago, I watched news coverage of a California wildfire on television and asked myself, "What would I take with me in a fire?" Of course, I had to up the ante, so I tossed in a little more tension. This was the resulting poem.  It's actually an amazing mental exercise: if all of your peeps and pets were safe, what belongings would you take with you? Set your own boundaries (car or carry, etc.) and answer the question yourself. Maybe the answer is your next poem. The valley is on fire and it comes as no surprise to me.   I grew fond of the dense grainy sunset, and the ashes on the porch were a welcome sight.   They helped me think. But my eyelid still twitches when I get the empty boxes from the trunk of my Chevy, and when the cat scratches her litter I freeze, sure it is your tires crunching up the gravel driveway.   I’m not a coward, but I know my strengths.   You are not among them.   So I

Is your summer reading program completed, now that school is in full swing and you are back to the grind, the sand swept out of the car and the cardigan is gently hung in the closet? Or are you a "late" reader, with summer reading extending until the lunar end of the season: the autumnal equinox? Either way, I hope your summer reading was successful and fun. I am among the latter — as are all those who joined Chris' Summer Reading Challenge. Summer lingers for a while after Labor Day, even though the days are drawing to a close earlier with every passing sunset. The nights are cooler, but the sun remains strong — and reading, any kind of reading, remains a joy. Summer continues through September 22 this year, so those who are up for the challenge have a little longer to consume their summer reading list. Those who joined Chris' Summer Reading Challenge have until another 11 days to finish their summer reading. Please send me your completed reading list (tit

Caitlin Moran is like the girlfriend you always wanted, or always wanted to be. She's honest, smart, quick-witted and funny as hell — and so is her book, How To Be A Woman. She also knows how to go too far at the right time. There were a couple of stories and quips where I had to hang on for dear life to read. I may not have had a similar life, but I assure you I've had some of the same thoughts, ideas and experience. I don't know if I'd have the same conversations with my husband about my daughter's vagina, but let's just say if I did, I'd feel better knowing someone else had, too. She wrote enough to make me realize I'm not the only one — on so many topics. I also loved her chapters on underwear, menstruation, sexism and declaring her feminism. I heard a friend say she didn't think she was a feminist, but she was an educated professional with her own bank account and the family's sole provider. When I asked her what she thought feminis

Einstein was a genius, so of course he wrote poetry. (Duh!) Thanks to Stephanie Smith and Susan Entner from the City of Lake Forest, California, for sharing this gem. Imagination Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. (I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.) Imagination is more important than knowledge. Information is not knowledge and yet knowledge is still limited, for knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be. Yes, logic may get you from A to B, but Imagination will take you everywhere. Imagination encircles the world. Imagination is everything. by Albert Einstein

Think about all the benefits the workforce has been given, and today thank those who came before you who made sure you got them. We call them "work benefits," but they're really life benefits. Good fences make good neighbors, indeed. These benefits are fences that keep employers from taking what isn't theirs: your life. They were hard won, and they are hard kept. Workers need to protect them, even now, preferably as a group, with the power and protections such a group conveys. The interests of employers is different than the interests of workers. Abigail Adams' words ring true even today: all men would be tyrants if they could. Always tend your fences: not against someone, but for yourself.