This week’s Banned Book Friday post is a bit behind – like most everything has been with my pneumonia days – but here we are now, with both of this week’s books rereads from my school days – Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

First, I remember reading Morrison’s Song of Solomon in Dr. Hill’s 12th Grade AP English Class, discussing it at length, and writing about it. One of the hallmarks of a great piece is that it stays with you – and I remembered this well, some 27 years later.

Of note, while several of Morrison’s works have been given many awards and honors – including this one – when this piece was released in 1977, it was the first Book of the Month selection by an African American author since Richard Wright’s Black Boy in 1940.

I was happy to revisit it and I hope it is being taught in the halls of RHS every Spring still. ❤

The second banned book I read this week is a classic for sure – and one that is hard to miss as a student growing up in the state of Alabama – Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Set in the Deep South during the Depression, Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel looks honestly at racism, poverty, and Southern culture through the eyes of a precocious child.

Filled with memorable snippets of wisdom, mostly from Atticus Finch, this book is always a welcome reread. ❤

(In the next few days, I also have a regular book report coming to share some other good finds that have come my way recently.)

As for this week’s Banned Books, next up is Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday and happy reading. ❤

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Awakening – Kate Chopin

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence

Animal Farm – George Orwell

1984 – George Orwell

Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

A Separate Peace – John Knowles

Lolita – Vladmir Nabokov

A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

LOTR – The Fellowship of The Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien

LOTR – The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien

LOTR – The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien

Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

Song of Soloman – Toni Morrison

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee