'The Dirty Book Club' - a novel about banned fiction novels

[Dustyblue]

I'm half-way through 'The Dirty Book Club' by Lisi Harrison. Great read! It centres around a group of women who try to read every book that has been banned.

Of course, I now must read all the banned books. Here's a starter list, have read some but not all:

"Are you there god? It's me Margaret" and "Forever"
"Catcher in the Rye"
"To Kill a Mockingbird"
"The Joy of Gay Sex"
"The Grapes of Wrath"
"The Colour Purple"
"Fear of Flying"
"Lolita"

I can think of more banned books... maybe they'll be mentioned in the 2nd half!

Gotta love a banned book, such a good idea for a novel!

Lady chatterleys lover is quite a good one - have you read it? I’m sure I read somewhere Stephen King’s Carrie was banned too.

I hadn't thought of Lady Chatterleys Lover!

Was Carrie banned too?

When we say 'banned' here- I think some (like the Judy Blume's) were merely banned by a few school systems and Librarians, etc.

Then there's Salman Rushdie and his Satanic Verses- WHOLE different kind of banned.

At least Judy Blume never had a fatwa proclaimed!

Is that an American book? In this country there were loads of LGB books banned during the time of section 28, Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin was the book that famously kicked the whole thing off. Didn't Oranges are Not the Only Fruit go straight from being banned to being on the GCSE reading list?

I hadn't heard about Carrie being banned but I know Rage, which is about a school shooting, is out of print. I don't think it is banned though, I think Stephen King decided he didn't want it printing anymore. I have read a version online, and compared with some of the stuff he's written it seemed pretty tame to me. Maybe that's because school shootings don't have the same resonance here as they would in the US.

Some of the books mentioned, I get why they were banned, while not agreeing with it, but others I don't get at all. Grapes of Wrath for example, all I can think is possibly that final scene, but it is a while since I read it so maybe I'm forgetting something controversial.

I'm not yet grasping how/why Grapes of Wrath was banned either.

This book hasn't yet mentioned American Psycho, my 1st banned book. Although it wasn't fully banned, just restricted to 18+ and wrapped in plastic. At the bookshop! Imagine that now. I was 16 and felt so illicit 😎