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Jim Cox Report: September 2025
Dear Publisher Folk, Friends & Family:
This month the subject is the censorship of books and what should and could be done about it.
The first place I go when researching a subject is Wikipedia. Doing so I found the following:
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments and private institutions. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is referred to as self-censorship. General censorship occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel. Specific rules and regulations regarding censorship vary between legal jurisdictions and/or private organizations.
Censorship has been criticized throughout history for being unfair and hindering progress. With respect to Internet censorship, social commentator Michael Landier explains that censorship is counterproductive as it prevents the censored topic from being discussed. Landier expands his argument by claiming that those who impose censorship must consider what they censor to be true, as individuals believing themselves to be correct would welcome the opportunity to disprove those with opposing views.
Censorship is often used to impose moral (and political) values on society, as in the censorship of material considered obscene (or anti-American).
Political censorship is the censorship of political opinions in violation of freedom of speech, freedom of the press or freedom of assembly. Governments can attempt to conceal, fake, distort, or falsify information that its citizens receive by suppressing or crowding out political news that the public might receive through news outlets. In the absence of neutral and objective information, people will be prevented to dissent against the government or political party in charge. The government can enforce media bias to spread the story that the ruling authorities want people to believe. At times this involves bribery, defamation, imprisonment, and even assassination. The term also extends to the systematic suppression of views that are contrary to those of the government in power.
The content of K-12 school textbooks (and community/public library books for young readers) is often an issue of debate, since their target audiences are young people. The term whitewashing is commonly used to refer to revisionism aimed at glossing over difficult or questionable historical events, or a biased presentation thereof. The reporting of military atrocities in history is extremely controversial, as in the case of the Holocaust (or Holocaust denial), Bombing of Dresden, the Nanking Massacre as found with Japanese history textbook controversies, the Armenian genocide, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War.
In the context of secondary school education, the way facts and history are presented greatly influences the interpretation of contemporary thought, opinion and socialization. One argument for censoring the type of information disseminated is based on the inappropriate quality of such material for the younger public. The use of the "inappropriate" distinction is in itself controversial, as it changed heavily.
For example: A Ballantine Books version of the book Fahrenheit 451 which is the version used by most school classes contained approximately 75 separate edits, omissions, and changes from the original Bradbury manuscript.
Book censorship can be enacted at the national or sub-national level, and can carry legal penalties for their infraction. Books may also be challenged at a local, community level. As a result, books can be removed from schools or libraries, although these bans do not typically extend outside of the local area served.
Internet censorship is control or suppression of the publishing or accessing of information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of the government or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship on their own or due to intimidation and fear.
In the United States, most forms of censorship are self-imposed rather than enforced by the government. The government does not routinely censor material, although state and local governments often restrict what is provided in libraries and public schools. In addition, distribution, receipt, and transmission (but not mere private possession) of obscene material may be prohibited by law. Furthermore, under FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, the FCC has the power to prohibit the transmission of indecent material over broadcast. Additionally, critics of campaign finance reform in the United States say this reform imposes widespread restrictions on political speech.
On the censorship of critical perspectives of U.S. history in American schools, a study published by Indiana University in 2024 found that "in 16 Republican-dominated states, policies have been enacted to restrict the teaching of critical perspectives on race, sexuality, and other controversial subjects and to perpetuate a positive view of U.S. history".
In 2019, Julia Carrie Wong wrote "today's reactionaries are picking up the mantle of generations of Americans who have fought to ensure that white children are taught a version of America's past that is more hagiographic than historic", with examples cited including Oregon enacting a law in the 1920s that banned the use of any textbook in schools that "speaks slightingly of the founders", to Lynne Cheney, the chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, launching a campaign in the 1990s against an effort to introduce new standards for teaching U.S. history which she found insufficiently "celebratory".
There is a lot more about censorship on Wikipedia. There is even more (including anti-censorship efforts) to be found elsewhere including:
How to Fight Against Censorship
https://www.peoplefor.org/how-fight-censorship
Banned Books (A guide to resources on organizations that fight censorship in America)
https://guides.gccaz.edu/BannedBooks/anti-censorship
Artists and Organizations Rally Against Censorship in Open Letter
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/anti-censorship-letter-ncac-2681015
And if you want to see the height of hypocrisy from Donald Trump on the subject of anti-censorship check out:
Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-freedom-of-speech-and-ending-federal-censorship
Every author, publisher, librarian, bookseller, bibliophile, and freedom lover seeking to 'preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies foreign and domestic' has a vested interest in fighting against the kind of censorship that seeks to restrict what can be written, published, and read be it in a K-12 school library, community and academic libraries, private or governmental agency collections.
The well known adage that 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing' is especially relevant when the subject is the unfounded censorship of the written word.
Quote of the Month
"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."
-- Lyndon B. Johnson
Website of the Month
National Coalition Against Censorship
https://ncac.org
Here are reviews of books with a special relevance for authors, publishers, and dedicated bibliophiles:
You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?
Andrew Laties
https://www.andrewlaties.com
Rebel Bookseller
c/o Book & Puppet Company
https://bookandpuppet.com
9798990844858, $14.00, PB, 116pp
Book & Puppet Company
https://bookandpuppet.com/browse/filter/t/%20979-8990844858/k/keyword
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Telling-Kids-They-Childrens-Literature/dp/B0F7JTFG3S
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/youre-telling-my-kids-they-cant-read-this-book-andrew-laties/1147388678
Synopsis: With the publication of "You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?: Our Hundred-Year Children's-Literature Revolution and How We'll Keep Fighting to Support Our Families' Right to Read", Andrew Laties has written timely broadside against censorship.
In the pages of "You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?", Laties deftly weaves together stories from his fifty years as a bookseller, activist, and parent, while sharing tales from authors, librarians, publishers, journalists, and customers.
Laties' comments on events as recent as the May 2025 firing of the Librarian of Congress and the June 2025 Supreme Court LGBTQ+ storybook decision. With a conversational style presentation, "You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?" reveals patterns in the history of book challenges, while teaching resistance tactics.
"You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?" is an essential read for parents, librarians, educators, and everyone committed to intellectual freedom.
Critique: Informative, articulate, insightful, thoughtful, iconoclastic, compelling, inherently fascinating, and a thought-provoking read from cover to cover, "You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?: Our Hundred-Year Children's-Literature Revolution and How We'll Keep Fighting to Support Our Families' Right to Read" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Anti-Censorship collections and supplemental curriculum studies list. It should be notedfor students, academia, governmental policy makers, Free Speech political activists, authors, publishers, bibliophiles, and non-specialist general readers who support democracy and oppose authoritarianism, that this paperback edition of "You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?" from Rebel Bookseller is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.30, Amazon).
Editorial Note: Andrew Laties (https://www.andrewlaties.com) co-founded the Easton Book Festival, Book & Puppet Company, Vox Pop, The Children's Bookstore, Chicago Children's Museum Store, and The Eric Carle Museum Bookstore. He shared the 1987 Women's National Book Association's Pannell Award for bringing children and books together. His book "Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For-From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities" won the 2006 Independent Publisher Award.
That Book Is Dangerous!
Adam Szetela
The MIT Press
www.mitpress.mit.edu
9780262049856, $29.95, HC, 288pp
https://www.amazon.com/That-Book-Dangerous-Remaking-Publishing/dp/0262049856
Synopsis: With the publication of "That Book Is Dangerous!: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing", Adam Szetela shows how well-intentioned and often successful efforts to diversify American literature have also produced serious problems for literary freedom.
Although progressives are correct to be focused on right-wing attempts at legislative censorship, Szetela argues for attention to the ways that left-wing censorship controls speech within the publishing industry itself.
Szetela draws on interviews with presidents and vice presidents at the Big Five publishers, literary agents at the most prestigious agencies, award-winning authors, editors, marketers, sensitivity readers, and other industry professionals to examine the new publishing landscape.
What he finds is unsettling: mandatory sensitivity reads; morality clauses in author contracts; even censorship of "dangerous" books in the name of antiracism, feminism, and other forms of social justice.
These changes to acquisition practices, editing policies, and other aspects of literary culture are a direct outgrowth of the culture of public outcries on X, Goodreads, Change.org, and other online platforms, where users accuse authors (justifiably or not) of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other transgressions.
But rather than genuinely address the economic inequities of literary production, this current moral crusade over literature serves only to entrench the status quo. "While the right is remaking the world in its image," Szetela writes, "the left is standing in a circular firing squad."
Compellingly argued and incisively written, "That Book Is Dangerous!: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing" is a much-needed wake-up call for anyone who cares about reading, writing, and the publication of books - as well as the generations of young readers we are raising.
Critique: Given that one of the major goals of an authortarian regime attempts to accomplish is the control of information whether published or broadcast, "That Book Is Dangerous!: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing" is essential reading for every concerned American -- but most especially those involved in journalism, publishing and broadcasting. The threat to American democracy is no longer theoretical, it is here and already being felt by journalists, broadcasters and publishers.
Simply stated, a copy of "That Book Is Dangerous!: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing" should be in every community, public, college and university library collection and supplemental Communications & Media curriculum studies lists.
For students, academy, authors, publishers, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in combating censorship and political suppression of books and journals, it should be noted for personal reading lists that this hardcover edition of "That Book Is Dangerous!: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing" from The MIT Press is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.99).
Editorial Note: Adam Szetela (https://adam-szetela.com) earned his Ph.D. in English from the Department of Literatures at Cornell University. Before that, he was a visiting fellow in the Department of History at Harvard University. He writes for The Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, and other publications.
Unpacking My Father's Bookstore
Laurence Roth
Rutgers University Press
https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org
978-1978836600, $29.95, HC, 330pp
https://www.amazon.com/Unpacking-Fathers-Bookstore-Laurence-Roth/dp/1978836600
Synopsis: With the publication of "Unpacking My Father's Bookstore" by Laurence Roth brings to life the history of J. Roth / Bookseller of Fine & Scholarly Judaica, which was a microcosm of the Los Angeles Jewish community from 1966 to 1994 and one of the premier Jewish bookstores in the United States.
Blending critical analysis with a personal account of growing up in his father's bookstore, and connecting both to larger forces that helped shape Jewish and American book retailing in the twentieth-century, Laurence Roth crafts a richly felt narrative about his family's Jewish experience in America.
It is also a reminder that while most independent bookstores like J. Roth Bookseller are disappearing from history, these bookstore retailers often had outsized effects on their communities.
Breaking with conventional modes of scholarship, "Unpacking My Father's Bookstore" tells a unique and troubled story that rarely gets told, one that is both personal and analytical, theoretical but rooted in the everyday.
Critique: Fascinating, informative, exceptionally well written, "Unpacking My Father's Bookstore" by Laurence Roth is a compelling and fully engaging read from start to finish. Of special value to readers with an interest in the changing nature of the publishing industry and the impact of those changes on independent and neighborhood bookstores, "Unpacking My Father's Bookstore" is a welcome and highly recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community and college/university library American Jewish Biography collections and supplemental Publishing Industry History curriculum studies lists.
Editorial Note: Laurence Roth is the Charles B. Degenstein Professor of English and director of the Jewish & Israel Studies Program and The Build Collaborative at Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Inspecting Jews: American Jewish Detective Stories (Rutgers University Press, 2003), and coeditor, with Nadia Valman, of The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Jewish Cultures.
The Battle of the Bookshops
Poppy Alexander
Avon Books
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
978-0063436619, $30.00, HC, 352pp
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Bookshops-Heartwarming-Enemies-Lovers/dp/0063436612
Synopsis: The cute, seaside town of Portneath has been the home of Capelthorne's Books for nearly a hundred years.
The bookshop, in the heart of a high street that stretches crookedly down the hill from the castle to the sea, may be a tad run-down these days, but to Jules Capelthorne, the wonky, dusty world of literary treasures is full of precious childhood memories. When her great-aunt Florence gets too frail to run it alone, Jules ditches her junior publishing job in London and comes home to make the bookshop's hundredth birthday a celebration to remember.
Jules quickly discovers things are worse than she ever imagined: The bookshop is close to bankruptcy, unlikely to make it to its own centenary celebration, and the lease on the building is up for renewal. With a six-figure sum needed, the future looks bleak.
To make matters worse, the owner of the property is the insufferable Roman Montbeau, from the posh, local family who owns half of Portneath. The Montbeaus and Capelthornes have feuded for years, and Roman has clearly not improved since he tormented Jules as a child. Fresh from a high-flying career in New York, he is on a mission to shake things up, and (unforgivably) proves his point about Capelthorne's being a relic of the past by opening a new bookshop directly opposite -- a shiny, plate-glass-windowed emporium of books.
Jules may not be able to splash the cash on promotions and marketing like the Montbeaus, but she's got some ideas of her own, plus she has a tenacity that may just win the hardest of hearts and the most hopeless of conflicts.
Let the battle of the bookshops commence!
Critique: A unique and original novel that will have immense interest for fans of deftly crafted contemporary romance, small town tales of feuds and competition, and bibliophiles who enjoy browsing old bookstores and comparing them with new ones, "The Battle of the Bookshops" by Poppy Alexander is a charming 'enemies-to-lovers' story of Novel of romance, rivalry, and the fight to save a cherished bookstore in a quaint seaside town'. A fun read from start to finish, "The Battle of the Bookshops" is an extraordinary and recommended pick for community library collections. It should be noted that this hardcover edition of "The Battle of the Bookshops" from Avon Books is also readily available for personal reading lists in paperback (9780063340671, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).
Editorial Note: Poppy Alexander (https://poppy-alexander.com) is also the author of The Littlest Library, Storybook Ending, and 25 Days 'Til Christmas. She wrote her first book when she was five. There was a long gap in her writing career while she was at school, and after studying classical music at university, she decided the world of music was better off without her and took up public relations, campaigning, political lobbying, and a bit of journalism instead. She takes an anthropological interest in family, friends, and life in her West Sussex village where she lives with her husband, children, and various other pets.
How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library
Philip Schmidt
Cool Springs Press
c/o Quarto Publishing Group USA
www.quartoknows.com
9780760398821, $24.99, PB, 176pp
Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Very-Little-Library/dp/0760398828
Barnes & Noble
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-build-your-very-own-little-free-library-little-free-little-free-library/1146803304
Synopsis: Around the world, a community movement is underway featuring quaint landscape structures mounted on posts in front yards and other green spaces, as well as supported in large pots and other vessels outside homes and businesses on busy urban streets. They are evidence of the growing trend toward neighborhood organization, community outreach, and in some cases, a quiet protest against book bans.
This movement has been popularized by Minnesota-based Little Free Library (LFL), whose members currently include 200,000 library stewards around the world who seek to build community togetherness and promote reading by sharing books among neighbors. LFL has inspired builders to use similar structures to share things like CDs, food, and seeds in the community.
Produced in cooperation with the Little Free Library nonprofit organization and authored by professional carpenter Phil Schmidt, "How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library: 11 Mini Structures You Can Build" is the builder's complete source of inspiration and how-to knowledge.
This newly updated, information-packed, DIY instructional guide features:
A how-to for planning and designing your little sharing structure
An overview of building materials and tools
11 complete plans for structures of varying sizes and aesthetics
Step-by-step color photography and instructions
A gallery of tiny structures, along with uplifting words from stewards, for further inspiration
Information on proper installation of the small structures
Common repairs and maintenance for down the road
Timely information on how LFL has become part of the growing movement against book bans
"How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library" even includes information on how to become an official library steward, getting the word out about your little structure once it's up and running, and tips for building a lively collection. Also included are QR codes for additional building videos as well as interactive maps for locating other LFLs near you - or wherever you may travel!
Community togetherness has never been so much at the fore of our consciousness - or so important. "How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library" is a brilliant and effective tool on the road to helping you build literacy and community in your neighborhood.
Critique: Often referred to as 'Bird Houses for Books', the Little Free Library system is volunteer based and an ideal project to promote literacy, a cooperative community spirit, and make accessible books for those members of the general public who might otherwise be without access to a formal community library or library systems. Beatufifully illustrated, providing 'user friendly' DIY step-by-step instructions, this large format (8 x 0.5 x 10.25 inches, 1.55 pounds) paperback edition of "How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library: 11 Mini Structures You Can Build" from Cool Springs Press is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community center, public and academic library Community Service and Carpentry collections. It should be noted that "How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library: 11 Mini Structures You Can Build" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $23.74, Amazon) as well.
Editorial Note #1: Philip Schmidt is a writer, editor, and project designer specializing in houses and everything we do with them. A former carpenter, he is the author of more than two dozen books covering subjects from solar power to backyard treehouses to DIY plywood furniture, including How to Build Your Very Own Little Free Library, The Complete Guide to Treehouses, PlyDesign, The Complete Guide to Patios, and Install Your Own Solar Panels. He lives in Colorado.(https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/120132.Philip_Schmidt)
Editorial Note #2: More information about the Free Little Library organization can be found on their website at: https://littlefreelibrary.org
"The Midwest Book Review Postage Stamp Hall Of Fame & Appreciation" is a monthly roster of well-wishers and supporters. These are the generous folk who decided to say 'thank you' and 'support the cause' that is the Midwest Book Review by donating to our postage stamp fund.
Hwei-Ju Yu
Daniel Wells
Claire Selden
Charles R. Bush
Rebecca Wueste
Frederick Burton
Catherine M. Mathis
Gretchen Dlugolecki
Simmons Buntin -- "Satellite"
James Bultema -- "Red Lines"
Gordon Frisbie -- "Farm Pond"
Rick Tucci -- "Ideas to Action"
Nancy Kay -- A Dog Named 647"
Stefano Teatini -- "Saving Utopia"
Joe Tarantino -- "Pale Pink Roads"
Andrew Nitkin -- "Strings Attached"
Melissa Clark -- "Through Her Lens"
Bob Adamov -- "Not Along at Home"
Laurie Woodford -- "The Heart Hitch"
James Gardner -- "Finding Our Grove"
Ann Licater -- "Echoes from the Forest"
James Hallenbeck -- "Operation Reboot"
Marcie Maxfield -- "Jew Girl: A Memoir"
John Thorndike -- "The Passionate Sister"
Bodie Plecas -- "The Adventures of Black Santa"
Julie Ann Sipos -- "Horrible Women, Wonderful Girls"
John F. Andrews -- "Novels of the Great War: Volumes 1, 2, 3"
Wendy Chambers -- "Technology-Mediated Language Learning and Teaching"
Amy Rose Herrick -- "Self-Employed Taxes, Unleashing Schedule C Deductions"
Michael Raymond -- "Wise Jungle: Everyday You Have A Chance And A Choice"
Lost Lake Press
Blue Lake Review
Gallery by the Cemetery
Healthy Houseplants.com
Dancing Robot Press LLC
46 North Publications, LLC
Robert Downes -- The Wandering Press
JAD Media Enterprise
Elizabeth Frazier -- Waldmania! PR
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Simply log onto your PayPal account and direct your kindness (in any amount and at your discretion) to the Midwest Book Review at: SupportMBR [at] aol.com (The @ is replaced by "[at]" in the above email address, in an attempt to avoid email-harvesting spambots.)
If you have postage stamps to donate, or if you have a book you'd like considered for review, then send those postage stamps (always appreciated, never required), or a published copy of that book (no galleys, uncorrected proofs, or Advance Reading Copies), accompanied by a cover letter and some form of publicity release to my attention at the address below.
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So until next time -- goodbye, good luck, and good reading!
Jim Cox
Midwest Book Review
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www.midwestbookreview.com
James A. Cox
Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
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Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
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