Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

Ok, so it really started on Saturday, but there are still six days in which to celebrate your freedom to read as you choose.

• Here’s the official Banned Books Week site from the American Library Association.
• Here are the top ten banned books of 2008.
• Here’s a banned books carnival at The Novel World.

I went through some of my postings of this past year. Without checking each and every entry, here are some banned/challenged books I’ve read so far.

• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Watchmen by Alan Moore
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker

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Here are my favorite reads from the past week:

• Springsteen in Des Moines review from a non-die hard fan. I especially like his points about the stage (in comparison with my thought’s about U2′s). They didn’t get Born to Run though. I can’t believe I was so lucky.
• The story of Born To Run on Slate. I didn’t know there were other lyrics to it.

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I’m a fan of Joss Whedon. I’m a fan of the X-Men. So imagine the lovely chocolate-peanut butter hours I spent with the Joss Whedon penned issues of The X-Men.

I’ve covered other graphic novels here. Some are political. Some are artistic. Some are genre twisting.

But these X-Men issues? They are just rip-roaring fun.

These provided the quintessential comic book experience—just at the highest levels.

Thanks to Joss’s ability to tell a story, write characters, make a funny, and give sparkling dialogue, these X-Men arcs shine.

The adventure was high. I can’t believe how many times I turned a page and reacted (gasped, shouted, swore) out loud at the revelation on the other side.

The characterizations were so strong. (He sure can write young women.) The societal issues were classic X-Men, and I loved every second of it.

Joss may be great, but he is not always kind. If you’re familiar with his TV work, you’ll know that heroes don’t always get the happy ending in Whedon’s world.

You can try to prepare yourself, but the end is still breathtaking and amazing.

• Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3: Torn
• Astonishing X-Men Vol. 4: Unstoppable

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