This week, for our Banned Books Friday report – actually being written on Friday, stop the presses 😉 – I revisited two books on our list that I read when I was much younger – Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. Though they are completely different – and we will discuss both – having them together this week has made for a lovely week of reading on this project. ❤

First, John Knowles’s A Separate Peace.

When I reread A Separate Peace, it was powerful and so moving to me, first in reading the story again of these young men, growing up and learning hard and tragic (at times) lessons about life and the consequences of their choices – all against the backdrop of World War II closing in on them – and, then also in reminding me of my own high school days when I first read it and spent a great deal of time discussing it in the classroom.

I am glad to have revisited this one for sure.

The second book this week is Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Soul-stirring and heart wrenching at times, this novel captures the strength and struggle of its heroine, Janie, in a way that draws the reader into all that she has walked through.

As an anthropology nerd, I have, in recent years, developed a huge nerd crush on Hurston and her accomplishments as an anthropologist also – particularly as she worked in the early 1900’s, being a woman of color and having to fight every step of the way.

Against all odds, she left a significant body of work, including this gorgeous novel – which author Alice Walker was key in seeing distributed widely in the 1970’s so it was not lost to us.

All that said, it was a joy to reread Their Eyes Were Watching God – and it is one of our banned books that I encourage everyone to pick up.

As for this upcoming week, I am working on several articles for another project that I am so excited about – and also reading Lolita and A Farewell to Arms from our list (among other things I hope to get posted). ❤

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

Grace and Blessings.

Books Read So Far:

• The Great Gatsby (3.11.24)
• The Awakening (3.13.24)
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover (3.20.24)
• Animal Farm (3.21.24)
• 1984 (3.26.24)
• Slaughterhouse-Five (3.30.24)
• Brave New World (4.3.24)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God (4.9.24)
• A Separate Peace (4.12.24)