Banned Books
People try to ban books under the oddest pretexts — complaints ranging from "references to stuffing and snapping bras," being "happily nonphallocentric" or "presenting homosexuality in a non-judgmental context" (yup!). Our section below includes all books banned and challenged between 2004 and 2005, as well as the fifty most frequently banned books of the 1990s. For some of the stories behind this year's banned and challenged books please visit the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) website.

 

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Publisher Comments
"Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid... (read more)
 
Your Price $2.50
(Used - Mass Market)
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Children's Young Adult

The Catcher in the Rye
by J D Salinger

Publisher Comments
Ever since it was first published in 1951, this novel has been the coming-of-age story against which all others are judged. Read and cherished by generations, the story of Holden Caulfield is truly one of America's literary treasures.... (read more)
 
Your Price $4.50
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Children's

James and the Giant Peach
by Roald Dahl

Recommended
by our staff
Publisher Comments
Roald Dahl was a champion of the underdog and all things little — in this case, an orphaned boy oppressed by two nasty, self-centered aunts. How James escapes his miserable life with the horrible aunts and becomes a hero is a Dahlicious fantasy of... (read more)
 
Your Price $3.95
(Used - Trade Paper)
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Literature

This Boy's Life: A Memoir
by Tobias Wolff

Recommended
by our staff by our customers
Publisher Comments
This unforgettable memoir, by one of our most gifted writers, introduces us to the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are... (read more)
 
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Ethnic Studies

Always Running La Vida Loca Gang Days
by Luis Rodriguez

Publisher Comments
This award-winning and bestselling classic memoir about a young Chicano gang member is now updated with a new Introduction and reading group guide.... (read more)
 
List Price $14.00
Your Price $6.98
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Featured Titles

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

Recommended
by independent booksellers by our customers
Publisher Comments
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. This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in... (read more)
 
Your Price $7.95
(Used - Trade Paper)
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Anthologies

Dante's Inferno
by Marcus Sanders and Sandow Birk and Dante Alighieri

Publisher Comments
A faithful yet totally original contemporary spin on a classic, Dante's Inferno as interpreted by acclaimed artist Sandow Birk and writer Marcus Sanders is a journey through a Hell that bears an eerie semblance to our own world. Birk, hailed by the Los... (read more)
 
List Price $22.95
Your Price $12.00
(Used - Trade Paper)
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Romance

Animal Dreams
by Barbara Kingsolver

Publisher Comments
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her... (read more)
 
Your Price $6.95
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Horror

American Psycho
by Bret Easton Ellis

Publisher Comments
Now a major motion picture from Lion's Gate Films starring Christian Bale (Metroland), Chloe Sevigny (The Last Days of Disco), Jared Leto (My So Called Life), and Reese Witherspoon (Cruel Intentions), and directed by Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol). <... (read more)
 
List Price $14.95
Your Price $8.00
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  1. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  2. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
  3. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
  4. This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  7. Song of Solomon (04 Edition) by Toni Morrison
  8. Always Running La Vida Loca Gang Days by Luis Rodriguez
  9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling
  10. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

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Sale Books

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Collected from American Folklore Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Collected from American Folklore
by Alvin Schwartz

Publisher Comments
Filled with folktales of eerie horror and dark revenge, this collection contains stories about skeletons that roam the Earth with torn and tangled flesh; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where a bloody head falls down the... (read more)
 
Your Price $5.99
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Used Books

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
by J. K. Rowling

Synopsis
When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again at the Hogswart School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power that has once more been unleashed on the school.... (read more)
 
Your Price $22.99
(Used - Hardcover)

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Politics

America (the Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction
by Jon Stewart

Recommended
by our customers by our staff award winner
From Powells.com
Why do we love America so much? For the much-celebrated naked pictures of Supreme Court justices? The flashbacks to those stultifyingly dull high school textbooks? Or can it be that seeing the polished irreverence of the Daily Show writers in book form... (read more)
 
Your Price $9.95
(Used - Hardcover)
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Mythology

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
by Anne Rice as A. N. Roquelaure

Publisher Comments
From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty, ' the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story,... (read more)
 
Your Price $9.50
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Biology

The Hot Zone
by Richard Preston

Publisher Comments
"Popular science writing at its best and the years most infectious page-turner" (People), this two-million-copy bestseller is "a top-drawer horror story...the best literary roller coaster of the fall" (Newsweek).... (read more)
 
Your Price $3.75
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Sexuality

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale
by Jenna Jameson

Publisher Comments
When the stewardess brought me off the plane in a wheelchair, I lowered my head. I was too scared to even look at my father. I didn't want to see the disappointment and horror on his face. All that hate I had accumulated for him over the years, all the... (read more)
 
Your Price $32.50
(New - Hardcover)
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Africa

Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth's Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa
by Mark Mathabane

Publisher Comments
Written with courage and conviction, Mark Mathbane's reveals the extraordinary memoir of growing up in a world under apartheid. B&W photo insert.... (read more)
 
Your Price $7.95
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Gender Studies

Women on Top
by Nancy Friday

Publisher Comments
The author of the groundbreaking bestseller My Secret Garden returns to the subject that made her famous to document and explore women's sexual fantasies of today. With actual transcripts of over 150 sexual fantasies, drawn from thousands of interviews... (read more)
 
Your Price $3.95
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