Banned Books
People try to ban books under the oddest pretexts — complaints ranging from "references to stuffing and snapping bras," being "happily nonphallocentric" or "presenting homosexuality in a non-judgmental context" (yup!). Our section below includes all books banned and challenged between 2004 and 2005, as well as the fifty most frequently banned books of the 1990s. For some of the stories behind this year's banned and challenged books please visit the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) website.

 

Children's Young Adult

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

Publisher Comments
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies... (read more)
 
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Science Fiction and Fantasy

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Publisher Comments
Slaughterhous-Five is one of  the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the  infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's  odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey  of our own fractured lives as... (read more)
 
Your Price $7.99
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Literature

All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy

Recommended
award winner
Publisher Comments
Now a major motion picture from Columbia Pictures starring Matt Damon, produced by Mike Nichols, and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. The national bestseller and the first volume in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, All the Pretty Horses is the tale of... (read more)
 
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Featured Titles

Perks of Being a Wallflower (99 Edition)
by Stephen Chbosky

Recommended
by independent booksellers by our customers
Publisher Comments
Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in... (read more)
 
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Children's

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
by J. K. Rowling

From Powells.com
It is not surprising that J. K. Rowling needed a break before writing the fifth Harry Potter book. The first four came out within a couple of years, to record breaking success. What is surprising is how she managed to maintain such quality in the... (read more)
 
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Romance

Animal Dreams
by Barbara Kingsolver

Publisher Comments
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her... (read more)
 
List Price $14.00
Your Price $4.95
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Mythology

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
by Anne Rice as A. N. Roquelaure

Publisher Comments
From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story... (read more)
 
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Politics

America (the Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
by Jon Stewart

Recommended
by our customers by our staff award winner
From Powells.com
Why do we love America so much? For the much-celebrated naked pictures of Supreme Court justices? The flashbacks to those stultifyingly dull high school textbooks? Or can it be that seeing the polished irreverence of the Daily Show writers in book form... (read more)
 
List Price $24.95
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Africa

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
by Mark Mathabane

Publisher Comments
The Classic Story of Life in Apartheid South Africa Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage... (read more)
 
List Price $15.00
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Top Ten

Wednesday May 14, 2008

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  2. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
  3. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  5. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
  6. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
  7. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
  8. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  9. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  10. Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich

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Sale Books

Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books (Weetzie Bat Books) Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books (Weetzie Bat Books)
by Francesca Lia Block

Recommended
by our staff by our customers
Publisher Comments
Love is a dangerous angel...Francesca Lia Block's luminous saga of interwoven lives will send the senses into wild overdrive. These post-modern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on... (read more)
 
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Used Books

Harry Potter #01: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Harry Potter #01: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by J K Rowling

Publisher Comments
Poor, orphaned Harry Potter is stuck living with his miserable relatives until salvation arrives in the form of letter: He's been invited to attend the prestigious Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. From that point on your child will follow... (read more)
 
Your Price $22.99
(Used - Hardcover)

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Biology

The Hot Zone
by Richard Preston

Publisher Comments
"Popular science writing at its best and the years most infectious page-turner" (People), this two-million-copy bestseller is "a top-drawer horror story...the best literary roller coaster of the fall" (Newsweek).... (read more)
 
List Price $7.99
Your Price $3.95
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Horror

American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis

Publisher Comments
Now a major motion picture from Lion's Gate Films starring Christian Bale (Metroland), Chloe Sevigny (The Last Days of Disco), Jared Leto (My So Called Life), and Reese Witherspoon (Cruel Intentions), and directed by Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol). In... (read more)
 
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Gender Studies

Women on Top
by Nancy Friday

Publisher Comments
Nancy Friday's phenomenal bestsellers My Secret Garden and Forbidden Flowers broke new ground, revealing for the first time the complexity of women's secret sexual fantasies. In Women on Top, she returns to the subject that made her famous, examining the... (read more)
 
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Biography

Private Parts
by Howard Stern

Publisher Comments
The #1 bestseller and fastest selling autobiography of all time, Private Parts, will be released on March 14 as a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures and Rysher Entertainment. This is the event Stern's millions of fans have been waiting for. Yes,... (read more)
 
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Sexuality

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale
by Jenna Jameson

Publisher Comments
When the stewardess brought me off the plane in a wheelchair, I lowered my head. I was too scared to even look at my father. I didn't want to see the disappointment and horror on his face. All that hate I had accumulated for him over the years, all the... (read more)
 
Your Price $23.00
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African American Studies

Lost Prophet : Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (03 Edition)
by John Demilio

Publisher Comments
One of the most important figures of the American civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin taught Martin Luther King Jr. the methods of Gandhi, spearheaded the 1963 March on Washington, and helped bring the struggle of African Americans to the forefront of a... (read more)
 
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