A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Dreaming of Books blog hop winner

The Dreaming of Books blog hop has now ended and the winner of the ARC Being Polite to Hitler by Robb Forman Dew is...

AmandaSue

Thank you so much to everyone who participated!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Throwing My Hat in the Ring: My Take on the Huck Finn Controversy

I was browsing through the blogs I frequent this morning when I came across Liz's eloquent post over at Consumed by Books regarding the recent Huck Finn controversy. I have been stewing over this issue for the past week, but Liz's words finally gave me pause and were the impetus for me to sit down and write about my feelings regarding this issue.

First of all, the professor who approached the New South Books about creating this edited version had good intentions. He wanted to make the book available to a wider audience. Given that Huck Finn is the fourth most banned book in schools today due to the use and frequency of two particular racial slurs, Professor Gribben figured that by replacing the words, it would allow for more students to have access to this great work of American fiction.

But that is where my admiration for Professor Gribben stops. You see, personally, the changes make me angry. Racially charged books like Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird used those racial slurs to try to expose the ignorance and intolerance of their times, not celebrate it. When we take those words out of the books and replace them with something more PC, it's like we're trying to rewrite history. NO ONE back then would have ever DREAMED of calling someone a Native American, which is what Professor Gribben decided should replace the word Injun. Truth be told, I'd rather have students NOT read the books than for them to have some sort of mis-represented view of history. Those words are SUPPOSED to make people uncomfortable. Students aren't going to learn to be bothered by injustice if they don't see it in its most raw form.

And it's interesting that I just so happen to be reading Fahrenheit 451 for the first time because I just came to the part where the head fireman is talking to the main character, Guy Montag, about why their society started burning books in the first place: because too many groups of people were offended by certain books and they just decided that the ideas inside them were too volatile. Intellectualism is dangerous, ignorance is bliss. Ummm... does anyone not see some frightening parallels here?

Hmmmm... might this be the next step? First change the words, then burn the books?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

IMM (12)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Library Loot:

Picture books:

Punctuation Takes a Vacation by Robin Pulver, illustrated by Lynn Rowe Reed
Dark Emperor and Other Poems of Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

Poetry:

I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You: A Book of Her Poems and His Poems Collected in Paris edited by Naomi Shihab Nye and Paul Janeczko
You Hear Me? Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys edited by Betsy Franco

Audiobooks:

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Downloaded from Net Galley:

Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Dark Parties by Sara Grant

Tupelo Honey Cafe by Elizabeth Sims and Brian Sonoskus
Salad as a Meal by Patricia Wells

Cloud of Ink by L.S. Klatt
The Crepe Makers' Bond by Julie Crabtree

In My Mailbox:

Dorris Bridge by Clive Riddle
Across the Universe by Beth Revis

By far my favorite commercial of all time

Have you guys seen this commercial? It is so adorable, but it proves the point so well. I can't help but feel warm and fuzzy when I watch it, while also laughing hysterically.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Dreaming of Books Blog Hop

Thanks to Inspired Kathy for hosting this blog hop.

The prize I am offering is the ARC of the book Being Polite to Hitler by Robb Forman Dew:

After teaching and raising her family for most of her life, Agnes Scofield realizes she is truly weary of her routine. But how, at 51, to establish a separate identity?

Her newfound freedom may not sit so well with the rest of the Scofields, who operate strictly within the confines of polite Midwestern values. They'd be polite to Hitler if need be. But underneath the façade, private triumphs and tragedies---including struggles with alcoholism and illicit affairs-simmer, and Agnes finds herself becoming even more entangled in the family web.

BEING POLITE TO HITLER is a richly wrought portrait of a woman coming into her own in the middle of her life and a family that experiences passions, joys, and grief against the backdrop of the post-WWII era. - synopsis taken from Goodreads

Published: January 6, 2011 by Little Brown and Company
Pages: 304
Genre: historical fiction
Audience: adults

You do not have to be a follower to enter this contest, but you will receive one extra entry if you are.

This contest is open to U.S. residents only and will end at 11:59 on January 17th.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Be sure to visit the other blogs in the blog hop:

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Delirium giveaway

Head on over to Lauren Oliver's blog. She's giving away five signed, finished copies of her new book Delirium that's coming out on February 1st.

Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once love - the deliria - blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Holoway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.

But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.