The Reading Diva

Book News out of Charleston this week: A woman wrote a letter to the local paper's editor complaining about a book her daughter (who will be a freshman at one of the local high schools) had to read for English class.  Her complaint was that it was too vulgar and that the book should be off the summer reading list (even though the child could have read another book off the list).  To make a long story short, she got her way and the school pulled the book almost three weeks before school starts.  One, if her daughter doesn't know some of that stuff that's mentioned in the book, she will by the time she graduates.  And if I was a kid or a parent of a kid who read that book and it was pulled from the reading list, I would be ticked.  Just because one parent has a problem with it doesn't mean that other parents feel the same way.  Here are reactions from the local library's YA department and the author of the book .   There is a campaign to raise money ...

South Carolina Book Festival in 2012 News came out of Columbia yesterday that the  South Carolina Book Festival is no more .  Instead, the state Humanities Council decided that it would be best to do author events across the state.  To be honest with you, I have not been to the state book festival since 2012 when they brought Kimberla Lawson Roby, Zane and Eric Jerome Dickey.  I was in Chicago last year and the other two years they didn't bring people that interested me enough to roll out of bed and drive almost two hours to Columbia.  There were a lot of things I think they did wrong, which lead to the book festival being the thing of the past. Inviting the same people OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I can see them inviting Dorothea Benton Frank every year because she comes out with a new book every year.  But inviting Pat Conroy (and some others) just for the hell of it got old. NOT ENOUGH DIVERSITY.  There were some years (like this one) you can count...

Relax in Paradise Chenjerai Hove , E. L. Doctorow and Tom Moore . Prayers go out to Alan Cheuse , who was seriously injured in a car crash. Congrats to Deborah Johnson for winning the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction! Is Go Set a Watchman an indictment of the limits of liberalism ? Sebastian Junger is writing a book about how solders deal with stress after returning from wars. Pledged, a book about how it goes down in (mostly white) sororities, has been recently updated.  Author Alexandra Robbins talks about how some sororities deal with sexual assault claims . Reshonda Tate Billingsley talks about stereotypes and violence while promoting her new book Mama's Boy. Edwidge Danicat talks about how she wrote her first Young Adult novel . Toni Morrison talks about the inspiration behind The Bluest Eye . Nigerian author Dillibe Onyema talks about the many authors that have come from his home country . A new book discusses the impact of the late 60s-early 70s PBS...

Congrats to Tracey K. Smith, who was named director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing ! Ida B. Wells was honored with a Google Doodle  yesterday. Is there a third Harper Lee novel out there ?   A fourth ? A Charleston native spoke about his feelings after reading Go Set A Watchman and how it relates to his family and life.  And Jabari Asim has been rethinking his thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird. Another book that received a lot of hype this week was Ta-Neishi Coates' new book, Between the World and Me.  Based on his Facebook post, Dr. Cornell West wasn't a fan (and Michael Eric Dyson told him to get over it).  And this guy from the New York Times missed the damn point. Booksellers and authors are demanding the federal government investigate Amazon over anti-trust violations. Publishers Weekly is already talking about fall releases.   And The Million has also dropped their list of books to look forward for the rest of the year. ...

Many people are awaiting Tuesday's release of Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman , which is the "sequel" for To Kill A Mockingbird.  PBS will be showing the American Masters episode chronicling Harper's life tonight and will include an update about the new book.   Here is a picture of Harper receiving a finished copy of the book.  And you can read the first chapter here . Relax in Paradise James Tate . Congrats to the Andrew Carnegie Award winners ! Congrats to  Chimamanda Ngzoi Adichie, who is expecting a little one ! Congrats to Lawrence Hill, who was honored with the Order of Canada . The huge news that is coming out of my home state is that the Confederate Flag is FINALLY off the Statehouse grounds. THANK GOD. This recent interview of Percival Everett (who is releasing a short story collection) and his thoughts on the Confederate Flag were…interesting. Speaking of the flag coming down, poet Nikky Finney wrote a passage to commemorate this day. ...

Hello!  I'm still in recovery mode from what's been happening in Charleston the last few weeks.  I'll be back next Friday with the return of Book News.  Have a safe and happy holiday! Picture is from Healthline.