This week’s Banned Book reading has been pleasurable all around.

First, I finished J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy with The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

I know I’m repeating myself from last week but this series is one I wish everyone would read: if you haven’t read LOTR, please consider adding it to your TBR for 2024.

It is beautifully written and the adventures of hobbits, wizards, elves, kings, dragons, dwarves, trees, trolls, and all manner of other creatures are a delight all the way through.

(And, again, also – no book should be banned, but *why* in this world are these on the list???)

After finishing Tolkien, I also read Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.

While I have always liked Vonnegut, I had never gotten to Cat’s Cradle until now and I am so happy it came to me.

Classic Vonnegut, it reflects his love of science fiction and satire. It is darkly hilarious, while honestly addressing weapons of mass destruction – and the insanity we are capable of as humans where they are concerned – as well as the use of religion to control the masses, with his delightfully irreverent religion, Bokononism.

Of Cat’s Cradle, I will say that there are some elements that are politically incorrect because it was written in 1963. We run into this often on the banned book list, of course – and it is absurd. A novel must be taken within the context of the time in which it was written and it bewilders me to no end that this must be explained again and again.

There are also thematic elements that are difficult – as is the purpose of literature often, to break open the hard things. As such, Cat’s Cradle touches on everything from weapons of mass destruction to state execution, totalitarian government to absurdist religion, free will to the meaning of this life. It touches topics that are just ugly, including mass casualty and suicide, sadly very real things.

These are not reasons to ban a book.

No.

These are reasons to read and discuss it, especially when it has been written well – and Vonnegut has certainly done so.

I love Vonnegut a little more every time he and I cross paths on this project – whether for a new read or a re-read.

Now I’m on to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood – and, especially as a true crime junkie, I cannot believe I have not found way to it before. Not only is the story fascinating, Capote’s writing is brilliant.

So far, it is fantastic.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and Happy Reading as well. ❤

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

Grace and Blessings.

Banned Books Read So Far:

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