For Banned Books Week, a few of our Reckless Reader partner bookstores sent us their lists of recommended books to read or reread with themes and storylines related to censorship and oppression. In the current moment, it is difficult for many to find solid footing amidst the social and political turmoil unfolding this year. These books may serve as a ledge to grasp, a guide to better understand our own era.
¤
From Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Texas, a list of classics featuring social upheaval, authoritarian systems, and counterculture lenses:
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Handmaid’s Tale by Maragret Atwood
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Burn This Book by Toni Morrison
The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech by Ellis Cose
Dare to Speak by Suzanne Nossel
Macroeconomic Inequality from Reagan to Trump by Lance Taylor
¤
From Green Apple Books in San Francisco, CA:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Animal Farm by George Orwell
All American Boys by Brendan Kiely & Jason Reynolds
George by Alex Gino
Looking For Alaska by John Green
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (banned in certain prisons)
Push by Sapphire
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
The Terror of the Unforeseen by Henry A. Giroux
Advice & Consent: A Play in One Act by Yxta Maya Murray
Atrocity Exhibition: Life in the Age of Total Violence by Brad Evans