Review: Suggested Reading by Dave Connis

Hey all, Dani here.

Whew, the work week is finally over for me. I think the plan for this weekend is still the same: Damian and I are going to unplug for a couple of days and do some relaxing and hiking, and go visit his grandparents and camp in their backyard, like we did back in May for Memorial Day weekend. So let’s hope I get my posts for the next couple days finished before we leave. I also need to decide what books to take with me, probably only one or two.

Anyway, as it is still Banned Books Week, I really wanted to either read a banned book entirely during this week or read a book about banned books, and thankfully this book was released last week and I picked it up on Monday on our way home from Cincinnati. Then I read this whole book while I was at work on Tuesday.

Let’s jump into the review.

Summary

In this standalone, a bookworm finds a way to fight back when her school bans dozens of classic and meaningful books.

Clara Evans is horrified when she discovers her principal’s “prohibited media” hit list. The iconic books on the list have been pulled from the library and aren’t allowed anywhere on the school’s premises. Students caught with the contraband will be sternly punished.

Many of these stories have changed Clara’s life, so she’s not going to sit back and watch while her draconian principal abuses his power. She’s going to strike back.

So Clara starts an underground library in her locker, doing a shady trade in titles like Speak and The Chocolate War. But when one of the books she loves most is connected to a tragedy she never saw coming, Clara’s forced to face her role in it.

Will she be able to make peace with her conflicting feelings, or is fighting for this noble cause too tough for her to bear?

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

I definitely need to re-read this book. Okay, so I’m not typically the type of person who likes or has the desire to write in books or to highlight favorite passages or anything like that, but I’ve thought about it with a few books this year, and this is one of them. I think main character Clara would approve of me wanting to mark this book up with orange highlighter.

I ran through so many emotions while reading this book, and I connected so much with Clara, as well as with some of the other characters. Books have always been vitally important to me, and a major constant in my life. I never really had an adult or authoritative figure tell me what I could and/or could not read. Thank goodness. I can only hope that if that situation would have come up, that I would have handled it like Clara did.

She tried to play by the rules, and place written queries and ask questions, but when all of that led to absolutely nothing happening, she was inspired by a new favorite book and by a pretty cool teacher, to start a secret library for “prohibited media.” Got to love that the authority figures tried to remove the stigma around the term banned books by renaming it prohibited media. The students are pretty smart, so this alteration wasn’t all that effective.

This book made me smile, made me cry, and actually made me dig deeper into the issue of censorship.

Again, I have no idea why I choose to take books that I know will likely evoke an emotional response to work with me. I inevitably end up reading them around other people, who then give me fantastically odd looks when I start crying and looking around as if everyone else should feel the same way as me.

I wish I had more to say about this book, but all I can really say is that I absolutely loved it, and I absolutely plan to read it again (and again). This is definitely a new favorite read.

Where to Get a Copy

You can pick up your own copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore.

You can also check with your local library.