Back to the Books Giveaway Hop

For my stop on the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop, hosted by I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and Buried In Books, I'm featuring a book that is set during high school in keeping with the back-to-school theme.  It is also being released as a feature film on September 21st and is an often challenged/banned book.  I read this book for the first time last year and it really stuck with me.  It's a coming of age story that really tugs at your heart-strings.  Sounds cliche, I know, but it's true.  You can check out my review here.

Here's what's up for grabs:

Title:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author:  Stephen Chbosky
Series:  stand-alone
Publisher:  MTV Books
Publication Date:  August 14, 2012, originally published February 1, 1999
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective…but there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. since its publication, stephen chbosky’s haunting debut novel has received critical acclaim, provoked discussion and debate, grown into a cult phenomenon with over a million copies in print, and inspired a major motion picture.

the perks of being a wallflower is a story about what it’s like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school. the world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. of sex, drugs, and the rocky horror picture show. of those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

Rules:

• US residents only, sorry, unless you can provide a US shipping address.
• One entry per household.
• All entries will be verified.  Any entry found to be falsified will result in disqualification of all entries for that participant.
• Winner will be notified via email.  Winner will then have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.
• I am not responsible for lost packages.

And now on to the fun stuff!  You only have to follow my blog to enter, but all other entries/follows are appreciated!  :D

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now that you've entered here, be sure to check out all the rest of the stops on the Back to the Books Giveaway Hop:



Good luck & happy reading!

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Labels: back to school, banned books, contemporary, from book to screen, giveaway hops, giveaways, the perks of being a wallflower

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

From the American Library Association's website:  "Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.

The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society."

 --- GIVEAWAY ---

I am appalled at some of the books that make this list each year.  I understand that every book is not for every reader, but the decision to read or not read a book should be up to the individual, or at the very least, the parents of impressionable children.  Whenever I think about banned books, I'm always reminded of that scene in Donnie Darko, at the PTA meeting, when that hag of a teacher, Kitty Farmer, tries to get Graham Greene's The Destructors banned from the curriculum.  This same woman believed that Graham Greene was the actor who played "Pa" on Bonanza.  (That was Lorne Greene, in case you weren't aware.)  Idiocy like that is why no one else should be able to dictate what me or anyone else is allowed to read.

I looked over the list of most frequently challenged books for the last decade or so, and I saw that The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was often on the list each year.  The reasons why this novel was challenged so often per the ALA's website are as follows:  anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group.  Not only is this a frequently-challenged book, but it's also on its way to the big-screen, with some big names attached to it.  I was intrigued, so I decided to read it myself and pick up an extra copy for this giveaway.  You can find my review here.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  And I hope you'll celebrate the freedom to read by visiting the rest of the stops in this giveaway hop!

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Labels: banned books, giveaways, the perks of being a wallflower

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Title:  The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author:  Stephen Chbosky
Series:  n/a
Publisher:  MTV Books and Pocket Books
Publication Date:  February 1, 1999
Links:  Amazon | Goodreads
Rating: 

From Goodreads:

Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt.

Review:

Wow. I must have exclaimed, “Oh, Charlie!” at least twenty times through the course of this novel. I’m not usually a big fan of contemporary novels, young adult or otherwise, but I really connected with this book. Maybe it’s because I was a bit of a wallflower myself when I was younger. Maybe because I’ve always been a reader, much like Charlie. Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed this novel, and it’s made me rather thoughtful and reflective these last few days.

Charlie’s tale is poignant and intense at times, but it also has moments of light-heartedness and frivolity. It was a much more realistic portrayal of the average teenager’s life than a lot of other stories out there. This was a story based on truth and brutal honesty, and yet it was surprisingly easy for me to read.

The characters in this narrative are not the one-dimensional characters that you typically find in a contemporary novel. They have real problems and real hopes, and they’re all doing what they have to survive high school. Charlie is naïve and likeable and immediately easy to sympathize with. He candidly expresses the happenings in his life to some unknown individual in the form of letters, and he makes it seem as if this is the most normal thing in the world. He’s peculiar and he’s aware of it, but he makes the best of the hand life has dealt him.

I love that although I knew where the story was going, it wasn’t predictable in how it achieved its end. And what an ending. Wow. Did not anticipate that. The story itself was good, but it was made that much better by that ending. It made it all so much more real. And harder to digest.

And with that, I’ll leave you to wonder and hopefully consider reading this book. If you’re not interested enough just yet, maybe a free copy would help? I’ll be giving away a copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower as part of the Banned Books Week hop, which runs from 9/24 to 10/1. So check back on Saturday to enter!

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Labels: banned books, reviews, the perks of being a wallflower