Thought Train to Pusan

CBR11 Bingo Square: Banned Books I remember reading Blankets a number of years ago, and if I recall correctly, I liked certain aspects but didn’t love it. But having a copy on my shelves, I decided to re-visit it for my Banned Books square, after learning that both this novel and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home were challenged and subsequently removed from the public library in Marshall, Missouri, after complaints that the novels were “pornographic” and might be read by children. This began a series of discussions about censorship, and the institution of new materials selection policies to the library board, and the novels were returned to the shelves after less than a year being removed. Blankets is an autobiographical story of Craig Thompson’s childhood and adolescence, dealing largely with his personal struggles with faith in an Evangelical Christian family, and searching for meaning and purpose therein. It also centers greatly on Craig’s understanding of lo...

Why not read a book about an eerie house during this spooky month of October? Turns out, I didn’t realize that this short novel was an offshoot story from David Mitchell’s larger universe of The Bone Clocks . I can’t help but feel like maybe had I already read The Bone Clocks I would have enjoyed Slade House more, but as a story itself it isn’t bad, and definitely made me interested to pick up the original book that this is a companion to because of it. In any case, Slade House is a story that spans across five decades, centered on a mysterious house that no one has ever really heard of or seen except for one every nine years, when some special person (typically lonely or different in some way) is invited inside and never to be seen again. The residents of the house who do the inviting, however, don’t necessarily seem to think that their way of life can last as it has, and that sooner or later something or someone will come along to throw things out of balanc...