Greetings from Maria’s Bookshop!
If you’ve been in Maria’s this week you probably noticed the orange bookmarks poking out of books all around the store. These bookmarks are one of the ways we promote Banned Books Week by highlighting books that have been challenged or banned. This is a national program undertaken by bookstores and libraries across the country every year in an effort to draw attention to the ongoing threat of censorship in our public libraries and educational curricula.
Across the country, coalitions of parents and community members are continuously filing formal challenges against books they believe should not be shelved in public or school libraries in their community, or anywhere for that matter. Pressure from these challenges can lead to libraries having little choice but to remove titles from their shelves, despite federal laws protecting them from such action. In this way, small coalitions can impose their personal views upon entire communities by censoring their public libraries.
If you think these challenges must only apply to books you've never heard of, think again. Beloved and important titles like
To Kill a Mockingbird
, The
Harry Potter
Series
, and
The Hate U Give
have all been heavily challenged in recent years. In 2018, the American Library Association recorded challenges to 483 different titles. Of those, more than half were about LGBTQ+ and gender identity themes. Many of the challenges also cited religious or sexual content. In an era of political division and feedback loops, fighting censorship is more important than ever. We can all do our part by reading banned books and having open discussions about the topics they contain.
So, swing by Maria’s and read a banned book today!
-Evan
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I’m currently captivated by William Kent Kruger’s new release,
This Tender Land
. This forceful and emotive novel follows a group of orphaned children as they escape from a Native American boarding school in 1932. It is a saga of kids forced to grow up far too early in a nation suffering in the throes of the Great Depression and the incredible way they retain their compassion and humanity in a way we should all find inspiring. With landscape descriptions evocative of Steinbeck and an emotional pull rivaling
Where the Crawdads Sing
,
This Tender Land
is truly an impressive novel, and one I highly recommend.
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Tuesday, Sept. 24
@ 6:30 pm
Pine Needle Dry Goods
858 Main Avenue
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Book reading and signing with author Jane Parnell
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Jane Parnell, first woman to climb the 100 highest peaks of Colorado, will read from her mountaineering memoir, Off Trail: Finding My Way Home in the Colorado Rockies, published by University of Oklahoma Press. Parnell's fierce, tender memoir spans half a century, recounting not only her adventures in Colorado's high country, but how mountaineering helped her recover from the trauma of rape as a young woman and a family history of mental illness.
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Thursday, Sept. 26
@ 6:30 pm
Durango Public Library
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Book reading and signing with author
Daniel C. Guiet
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Durango author Daniel C Guiet and his co-author Timothy K. Smith tell the story of Jean Claude Guiet’s clandestine role in the French Resistance fight against the Germans. Author Daniel C Guiet will offer a reading and book signing during the event, which is co-hosted by Maria’s Bookshop & the Durango Public Library.
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Welcome fall and welcome game nights!
Here's a little inspiration for cozy evenings with family and friends.
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On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal
By Naomi Klein
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#1 international and
New York Times
bestselling author Naomi Klein, author of
The Shock Doctrine
and
This Changes Everything
, makes the case for a Green New Deal—explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.
An expansive, far-ranging exploration that sees the battle for a greener world as indistinguishable from the fight for our lives,
On Fire
captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal
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The Great Alone
By Kristin Hannah
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“Kristin Hannah's The Great Alone is a powerful, compelling story of survival - survival of the natural elements and of the human spirit. It's 1974, and 13-year-old Leni Allbright lives with her devoted mother, Cora, and abusive father, Ernt, who was a prisoner of war during Vietnam. America is changing after the war, and Ernt thinks their best chance at a fresh start is to move off the grid, to America's last frontier - Alaska. Grizzlies, wolves, and dropping temperatures are Leni's worries outside of her family's cabin, but as Ernt's battle with his demons rages on, it's no safer inside. The result is a beautifully descriptive, heart-wrenching adventure.”
— Hillary Taylor, Lemuria Bookstore, Jackson, MS
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Virga and Bone
By Craig Childs
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From the author of
The Secret Knowledge of Water
and
Atlas of a Lost World
comes a deeply felt essay collection focusing upon a vivid series of desert icons--a sheet of virga over Monument Valley, white seashells in dry desert sand, boulders impossibly balanced. Craig Childs delves into the primacy of the land and the profound nature of the more-than-human.
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Craig Childs is the author of more than a dozen books on nature, adventure, and science, including The Secret Knowledge of Water and Atlas of a Lost World. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Outside. Recipient of the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, he lives in Colorado.
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The World That
We Knew
By Alice Hoffman
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In 1941, during humanity’s darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Dovekeepers
and
The Marriage of Opposites
Alice Hoffman.
***
“Oh, what a book this is! Hoffman’s exploration of the world of good and evil, and the constant contest between them, is unflinching; and the
humanity
she brings to us—it is a glorious experience. The book builds and builds, as she weaves together, seamlessly, the stories of people in the most desperate of circumstances—and then it delivers with a tremendous punch. It opens up the world, the universe, in a way that it absolutely unique. By the end you may be weeping.” —Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of
Olive Kitteridge
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Tale of the Tiger Slippers
By Jan Brett
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Jan Brett reimagines a powerful Middle Eastern folk tale that celebrates hard work and appreciating your roots. J
an Brett's lush, vibrant version of this story will inspire fans of her international retellings to appreciate the hard work that leads to all of their successes.
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Maria's Bookshop is thrilled to be part of Durango History Live!, a series of events celebrating the humanities in September in Southwest Colorado.
and check out our window display!
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