Banned Books Week

The urban classic coming-of-age story about sex, drugs, and basketball   Jim Carroll grew up to become a renowned poet and punk rocker. But in this memoir of the mid-1960s, set during his coming-of-age from 12 to 15, he was a rebellious teenager making a place and a name for himself on the unforgiving streets of New York City. During these years, he chronicled his experiences, and the result is a diary of unparalleled candor that conveys his alternately hilarious and terrifying teenage existence. Here is Carroll prowling New York City--playing basketball, hustling, stealing, getting high, getting hooked, and searching for something pure. The Basketball Diaries was the basis for the film of the same name starring Leonardo DiCaprio."I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation. . . . The work was sophisticated and elegant. He had beauty." -- Patti Smith

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF TIME’S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The “extraordinary” (The New York Times) autobiography of the legendary civil rights leader once called the most dangerous man in America—essential reading for anyone who wants to understand this nation’s historyIn the searing pages of this classic biography, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and activist, tells the remarkable story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement to veteran writer and journalist Alex Haley. Haley worked with Malcolm X for nearly two years; all the while, Malcolm did “not expect to live long enough to read this book in its finished form.” As clear-eyed about his own fate as he was about the plight of his community, Malcolm saw his truth-telling as a gift that would live beyond his own mortality.Raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm Little journeyed on a road to fame as astonishing as it was unpredictable. Drifting from childhood poverty to petty crime, Malcolm found himself in jail. It was there that he encountered the teachings of the Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad. The newly renamed Malcolm X devoted himself body and soul to Islam, quickly becoming the Nation’s foremost spokesman. When his conscience forced him to leave the group, Malcolm founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity to spread an inspiring message of pride, power, and self-determination across the country.The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. This commemorative edition, published on the 100th anniversary of Malcolm X’s birth, is both a celebration of the lasting impact of his story and a chance to interrogate how far we’ve collectively come. In revisiting his incisive perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, we gain extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.

A profound portrait of family dynamics in the rural South and “an essential novel” (The New Yorker) “As close to flawless as any reader could ask for . . . The living language [Allison] has created is as exact and innovative as the language of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye.” —The New York Times Book ReviewOne of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years The publication of Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina was a landmark event that won the author a National Book Award nomination and launched her into the literary spotlight. Critics have likened Allison to Harper Lee, naming her the first writer of her generation to dramatize the lives and language of poor whites in the South. Since its appearance, the novel has inspired an award-winning film and has been banned from libraries and classrooms, championed by fans, and defended by critics.   Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other’s trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, “cold as death, mean as a snake,” becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This "powerful, mesmerizing story” (People) is an unflinching look into the abyss of slavery, from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner. With an afterword by the author and a new introduction by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.“A masterwork.... Wonderful.... I can’t imagine American literature without it.” —John Leonard, Los Angeles TimesSethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.“Dazzling. . . . Magical. . . . An extraordinary work.” —The New York Times