ALA's most banned books.

The American Library Association has released their State of America's Libraries Report 2012. It's a little early for Banned Books Week, but the report lists the top ten banned banned books for 2011.

• ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle 
• The Color of Earth (series), by Kim Dong Hwa
• The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins
• My Mom’s Having A Baby! A Kid’s Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Alice (series), by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
• Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily Von Ziegesar
• To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

No huge surprises there. To Kill a Mockingbird and Brave New World make the top of the list every year* and as young adult series become more popular, they're becoming bigger targets for banning.

My Mom's Having a Baby! threw me for a loop at first. How offensive could that possibly be? It sounds kind of sweet. After looking up the description on Amazon, I think I've figured out why some parents find it so bad-- there's a description of SEX! We definitely can't talk about SEX! in a book about pregnancy aimed at eight year olds. Oh no, they'll end up as sexual deviants for sure. Best to tell them that babies come from the stork or the Easter bunny or kissing or something.

The Hunger Games isn't a surprising addition to the list. It's violent as all hell and the protagonist is a decidedly un-lady like young woman who isn't concerned with landing a man and having babies. It does amuse me that so many people are fighting against it, though, considering how incredibly popular the book series (and now the movie) is. The anti-learning/anti-book/anti- First Amendment crowd is just whistling into the wind at this point (or whatever metaphor is apt).

*I've read Brave New World within the past decade or so, but for the life of me, I can't remember what the hell is so offensive about it.

Audley goes to the movies!

Tonight's episode: The Hunger Games

 Before we start, I'd like to make a couple of things clear: 1) I've read the book series and 2) holy crap, SPOILERS.

And here we go!

It is incredibly refreshing to see a blockbuster movie with a young woman in the lead role that isn't some piece-of-shit romance/rom-com. I don't need to see another fucking movie with a ridiculous (and oftentimes emotionally abusive (played for laffs, of course)) romantic entanglement. Barf, barf, barf.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen as if she has actually read the books. Katniss is strong and loyal. She doesn't make friends easily or try to impress people. In other words, she is the polar opposite of the milquetoast can't-make-a-decision-for-herself type of role that we see so often lately. *cough!* Bella *cough!*

The casting in general is pretty inspired, but Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) stole the entire show. He manages to perfectly encapsulate the immense likeability and the extremely fake emotional reactions that are the hallmark of the truly great talk show hosts. Tucci plays Flickerman like Ruby Rhod without Chris Tucker's mania. And trust me, it works.

The other thing that struck me was how emotionally engaged everyone in the theater was. Right at the beginning during the "reaping" scene, people in my row and behind me had already started crying-- Katniss' sacrifice for her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) is terrible. Later in the movie, when Rue (Amandla Stenberg) died, I found myself crying, even though I knew it was going to happen and I haven't cried during a movie in years. Both she and Jennifer Lawrence were just that good.

All in all, I was impressed. The Hunger Games had to walk a fine line between making a point about senseless violence and being grotesque. It succeeded though an excellent script and excellent casting. I would definitely consider watching it again.

If you would like a little more meat, may I suggest reading up on the racist reactions to the casting of The Hunger Games? It's an interesting look at a mix of how awful people truly are and their complete lack of reading comprehension skills.