The 100 Most Banned/Challenged

Books Of The Last 10 Years

Last week in BunzelGram I mentioned how the Burbank School District in California apparently violated its own policy by instructing teachers to stop teaching books that had been challenged by parents or other individuals. Thanks to my friends at Book Passage in Corte Madera in California, here’s a list—compiled by the American Library Association, in honor or Banned Books Week—of the 100 most frequently banned and challenged books of the last decade. Topping the list: Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey; Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Looking for Alaska by John Green, and the most challenged book of 2019, George, by Alex Gino. First launched in 1982, Banned Books Week is the ALA's annual event celebrating the freedom to read, and highlighting the value of free and open access to information. In 2019, ALA reported a 17% increase in the number of challenges to library, school, and university materials and services—with an alarming uptick in the number of challenged books that included or addressed LGBTQ+ content

Weekly Book Sales Drop 5.5%

But Are Still Up Vs. 2019

With summer officially ending September 22, there were no major releases last week, resulting in a 5.5% drop in unite sales of print books compared to the previous week. According to Publishers Weekly, the top-selling book last week once again was Bob Woodward’s Rage, but unit sales fell 79% from the previous week, dropping to roughly 72,000 copies. The bestselling new release was Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh, which sold just over 37,000 copies, making it the third most popular title last week. Adult nonfiction and fiction both saw unit sales decline about 8% last week; the only major category that did not experience a decline was juvenile nonfiction, which managed to have a 0.5% gain. Note: A decline in week-to-week sales is not necessarily reflected in comparisons to a year ago, and that is true in the most recent week. Print unit sales were up 10.3% over the week ended September 28, 2019. Year to date, total unit sales increased 6.4% over 2019.

Five Literary Mysteries That

Have Never Been Solved

Mysteries have been the staples of literary fiction for centuries, but they’ve also been a part of literary fact. From unexplained disappearances, to strange and otherworldly manuscripts, to inexplicable deaths with no known cause, the history of writing is littered with the inexplicable—and the just plain weird. As award-winning playwright Charlotte Ahlin points out, most contemporary mysteries we read or watch come together with an ending that ties up most of the extraneous plot lines (except, perhaps, the TV series Lost). With real-life mysteries, however, we often have to accept that we'll just never know what really went down. Sometimes the truth is stranger (and a whole lot messier) than fiction, and some of the true literary mysteries have yet to be solved. Example: the Voynich Manuscript, which was completed in the early 15th century, but which no one can read. Or where (and how) did Edgar Allan Poe spend the last week of his life when he supposedly was to travel from Richmond to Philadelphia, but was found delirious in the streets of Baltimore?

Ten American Masterpieces

That Really Are Crime Fiction

Think about virtually any masterful work of literary fiction, and you’ll realize that as mainstream as the writer tried to make it, it very likely fits within a conventional genre. Mystery, thriller, crime novel: much of what we enjoy through either printed or visual entertainment is preoccupied with the problems of crime and punishment. And not just for their utility as conditions for narrative momentum. As Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith wrote in CrimeReads last week, we sometimes forget (or neglect) the fact that the “great American novel” often takes place in worlds outside the American mainstream, and even outside its borders. We also ignore—at our peril—that the American novel is made of the same stuff as the potboilers and pulp fictions, and the “bleeds-it-leads red presses” that inspire them. From William Faulkner’s Light In August to Ivy Pochoda’s These Women, here are a few that make the most of that inspiration.

Inspiring Quotes From Top Thriller Writers

I’ve been to a number of authors’ conferences over the years and have found that no two of us write alike. Some (like me) use extensive outlines; others just shoot from the hip. Some (like me) know how the book is going to end before typing a single word; others like to tempt fate and see where their 100,000 words take them. For every piece of advice, there are so many others to simply ignore. I mention all this because here are a few of the most inspiring quotes from top crime writers—to take to heart, or discard immediately:

• “The way to write a thriller is to ask a question at the beginning, and answer it at the end.” Lee Child
• “Figure out what exactly is at stake, and how to establish it quickly. That’s your conflict.” Katia Lief
• “I can’t start writing until I have a closing line.” Joseph Heller
• “The only writers who survive the ages are those who understand the need for action in a novel.” Dean Koontz
• “The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.” Mickey Spillane
• “I always refer to style as sound. The sound of the writing.” Elmore Leonard (pictured)

25 Mystery Books That

Will Keep You Guessing

If you’re an avid mystery or thriller reader you have a list (at least in your mind) of your favorite books. I know I do. From time to time, however, I like to explore those books that other writers (and readers) find most inspiring to them, so I get to work on Google. I found this list of the 25 Best Mystery Books That Will Keep You Guessing to be particularly interesting, largely because I’ve read a lot of them, and I mostly agree with Yen Cabag, the author who pulled it together. I particularly liked #2 on her list, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, because of the suspense and the immaculate portrayal of the troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Also: Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle and John LeCarre’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

OPINION

Casablanca: Without Question The

Best American Movie Ever Made

Casablanca is the best American movie ever made. Period. While I rarely find it atop of critics’ “best ever” lists, it’s almost always in the top five or six. Why do I love it so much? Many reasons, but largely because—as Roger Ebert once said—“The dialogue is so spare and cynical it has not grown old-fashioned.” Without a doubt it features one of the finest scripts ever written, with not a single word wasted by any member of the stellar cast: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Dooley Wilson. The romantic and political thriller, based on Murray Burnett and Joan Alison's unproduced stage play Everybody Comes to Rick's, was directed by Michael Curtiz and released in late 1942. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, it ultimately won three, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director. It also leads the American Film Institute’s list of Top 100 Movie Quotes with six, including “Here’s looking at you, kid” and “round up the usual suspects.” Ebert again: “As we leave the theater, we are absolutely convinced that the only thing keeping the world from going crazy is that the problems of three little people do after all amount to more than a hill of beans." Time to watch it again, for the first time.

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“Reed Bunzel hits all the right notes in Seven-Thirty Thursday, an intensely personal tale that has echoes of both Greg Isles and John Hart. This is Southern gothic writing extraordinaire, establishing Bunzel as a kind of William Faulkner of the thriller-writing world. His effortless prose crackles with color and authenticity as the brooding Charleston skies set the stage for the storm that’s coming.”

–Providence Journal