Support Freedom to Read Week - Read a Banned Book

In Canada, the freedom to read what you want to read is easy to take for granted.  But censorship challenges still exist all around the world, even here in Canada.

In support of this important freedom, I offer up five reading suggestions, all titles which have had censorship challenges somewhere in the world.


The Well of Loneliness (M)
by Radclyffe Hall
- previously banned in the UK

"A 1920s classic of lesbian fiction. First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career." -Publisher

Shanghai Baby (M)
by Wei Hui
-banned in China

"Dark and edgy, deliciously naughty, an intoxicating cocktail of sex and the search for love, Shanghai Baby has already risen to cult status in mainland China. The risque contents of the breakthrough novel by hip new author Wei Hui have so alarmed Beijing authorities that thousands of copies have been confiscated and burned. As explicit as Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, as shocking as Trainspotting, this story of a beautiful writer and her erotically charged affairs jumps, howls, and hits the ground running as it depicts the new generation rising in the East" - Publisher

Things Fall Apart (M)
by Chinua Achebe
- previously banned in Malaysia

"Novel concerns the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion throughout the nine, fictional, villages of the Igbo ethnic group of Umuofia in Nigeria, his three wives, his children (mainly concerning his oldest son Nwoye and his favorite daughter Ezinma), and the influences of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on his traditional Igbo (archaically spelled "Ibo") community during an unspecified time in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century." - Publisher

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (M)
by Stephen Chobsky 
- YA novel previously banned in several US school libraries

 "This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up." Publisher

Lolita (M)
by Vladimir Nabokov
- briefly banned in Canada, New Zealand, France, and elsewhere

"Nabokov's classic story about a middle-aged, expatriate European man's obsessive love for a 12-year-old girl. While Lolita continues to raise the hackles of would-be censors even today, most [readers] will marvel at the restraint and playful humor with which Nabokov limns his tale" - Library Journal