#elizabeths.sideblog

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The Banned Book Masterlist

In light of what is happening in the US, I wanted to both give myself an outlet to remind myself, and discuss, how government censorship isn't something new the world of fandom and Literature are facing. Here is a growing list of banned books I have read and will be reviewing/discussing with all of you. I'm going to say it in many of these reviews, but most of these books are banned due to words being weapons for the educated. For some, they are just books. To others, these are the seeds that can plant revolution. You decide which you want them to be.

Warning: Many of these books will challenge readers with graphic discussions of war, racial divide, sexism, anti-white views, anti-christian views, and some generally uncomfortable topics.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Fahrenheit 451

The Handmaid's Tale

The Giver

The Outsiders

The Bluest Eye

Beloved

ACOTAR Series

TOG Series

The Catcher and the Rye

The Grapes of Wrath

Esperanza Rising

Dear America : My Heart is on the Ground

Animal Farm

The Color Purple

The Lord of the Rings

All Boys Aren't Blue

The Hate You Give

Unwind Series

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Crank Series

Twilight Series

The Stoning of Soraya M

The Kite Runner

Brave New World

Maus

The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Diary of Anne Frank

Four Hundred Souls

The Hunger Games Series

Slaughterhouse 5

The HP Series (I know. I know. We are going to vaguely discuss it and its place in censorship, though.)

Lolita

A Farewell to Arms

The Lovely Bones

Nineteen Minutes

[readychilledwine]

The comparison of books you and baby daddy are reading is HILARIOUS 😭💀

So, unless he wants to know about my book boyfriends, that's a pretty normal look into our lives 😅

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In honor of 420, I wanted this to be one of the first things I reblogged.

To those celebrating, stay safe and take an extra bit for me 💕

-ˋˏ MIRTHROOT MINI- SERIES ˎˊ-

Between dodging death and saving Prythian, it always helps to make time and enjoy one of The Mother's greatest creations: mirthroot.

Azriel — .🍃. — Back to Our Roots

With the Acheron sisters out of town, you and your family plan for a quiet night in— just like old times.

Azriel (2) — . 🍃. —coming soon..

Cassian — .🍃. — A Hobby for Two

Cassian surprises you with a small gift. You spend the night teaching him how to properly enjoy it.

Rhysand — .🍃. — coming soon...

Lucien — .🍃. — coming soon...

Elain — .🍃. — coming soon...

Valkyries — .🍃. — coming soon...

Band of Exiles— .🍃. — coming soon...

[read-chill-wine]

Welcome to reviews of...

✨️Books Liz Loves that you should buy if you are in the US before the orange one takes office✨️

Warnings - slight spoilers, mention of misogyny, mentions of smut, a little bit of SJM criticism.

A/N - To those who may be disappointed, I do not discuss SJM as a person, deep plotholes, full character assassinations, etc. In short, I am not going in on glaring issues from this series or her writing. I have a huge post I have been working on for several months where I am addressing these things, but I will not be posting it until I have all the quotes and exact page numbers I am referencing.

The Banned Booklist

See Liz's original Banned Book Post here

As voted by so many of you, we're talking about the ACOTAR series today

**not my picture, but I'd do some bad things for these first editions. Mainly ACOFAS**

The ACOTAR series is a growing series of romantic fantasy, commonly called Romantasy, novels. The series centers around the three Archeron Sisters as they navigate a new life as made high fae after their own series of traumatic events. It spanned into a whole multi-verse connecting ACOTAR into Maas' beloved Throne of Glass and Crescent City series with many fans accrediting Feyre to being what saved both of those worlds as well. The argument has been made that without Feyre, Rhys would not have been freed to save Aelin. Without Feyre, Nesta would not have been made High Fae to collect the dread trove and help Bryce. This is something I do agree with since it does appear that everything in these three worlds is being shaped up to center around Rhysand's family and, in turn, Feyre. I am open to discussion on this, though!

Books 1-2 (the ones mainly beginning to fall under the book bans and challenges) center around the youngest sister, Feyre. In book one, A Court of Thorns and Roses, we open with Feyre hunting to help her family survive a hard winter. Feyre on this trip kills a wolf that turns out to be a high fae male (and unrated self-sacrificing hero) beginning our story. After this happens, the Archeron family is visited by 1 of the 7 High Lords of the fae lands, Tamlin, and she is forced to leave with him under the guise of a treaty between the fae and mortals.

We get to witness a delicious slow burn, almost enemies to lovers situation between Tamlin and Feyre that is littered with hints of something much more dangerous at play. The first book is filled with a lot of whimsy and reads like a very magical world fantasy novel where we see things like a night based in sex magic and fertility, holidays celebrating the arrival of the seasons, and the stunning scenery of the Spring Court. Without spoiling too much, Feyre's time with Tamlin in Spring comes to a very abrupt holt when we get our second glance into Rhysand and his discovery and confirmation of Feyre's existence in Spring and her relationship with Tamlin. Tamlin, in a delicious act of "I'm going to let the world burn for you," sends Feyre back home to the mortal lands for her protection.

Once Feyre discovers her man, male, something (depending on what SJM felt like calling the fae on that page) had been taken by the blight, Feyre gives chase, following him down under the mountain leading to us getting to meet the "Blight" Amarantha and the 3 challenges Feyre is forced to endure to free all of Prythian from the Queen Under the Mountain. Book one ends with Feyre's death and revival at the hands of the High Lords. The now high fae female meets with Rhysand, who may actually not be a bad guy, one last time before heading home with Tamlin to Spring.

Book two essentially picks up where books 1 leaves off. Feyre is back in Spring with Tamlin and struggling deeply. She is scarred from her time under the mountain and it shows through her outward appearance and inwards anxieties that we are a reader experience with her. I will be honest, A Court Of Mist and Fury is my least favorite of the series. I feel it was riddled with plot holes, character assassinations (Lucien, Feyre, and Tamlin) and I do feel SJM killed the very fantasy world based vibes she created with the Spring court once we as readers arrive with Feyre in Velaris. So, to cliff notes this, Tamlin turns into an abuser out of left field, Rhysand is Feyre's mate, they get dirty in some paint after Feyre gives Rhys some canned soup, and her sisters Nesta and Elain are turned High Fae after being kidnapped by Hybern after, and I cannot stress this enough, IANTHE not Tamlin IANTHE sells them out, they get thrown into the Cauldron, Feyre plays dirty little actress, has the King of Hybern (what's his actual name Sarah Janet) break her bargain bond with Rhysand, and we end up back with Tamlin in Spring.

From here, this series is filled with a lot of plotholes and twists that genuinely do not make sense, some poor character development, some good character development, some what the actual hell moments from Rhysand, and a beautiful story in A Court of Silver Flames that centers around Nesta and her growth and journey with addiction and mental health. In short, there are many good things and bad things SJM does, and while the hype around the books may be a little much, it is definitely earned. I do recommend this series to all of my friends in a reading slump.

ACOTAR has created a cult like following with readers ranging from their teens all the way to my 75 year old grandmother borrowing it from me and becoming a huge fan (she's a Helion girlie - I got my love of thighs from somewhere.) That fandom has spanned around the world with many readers in many time zones connecting on levels some argue has not been seen since the start of the Supernatural fandom.

The fandom is filled with controversy, love, drama, and some absolutely talented artists and writers who have all worked their booty off to keep the magic alive while we wait for what is going to be a high anticipated 6th book that many hope will be centered around the middle sister, Elain Archeron. It has helped a lot of readers get back into reading and has landed SJM on the list of top fantasy authors of all time *something I don't agree with. Romantasy, yes. Fantasy, no.*

SJM quickly became one of the most common newly banned authors in 2022-2023 lists with over 13 districts and states banning ACOTAR and ACOMAF with the rest of the series slowly beginning to trickle in. The reason these books are becoming challenged may not shock you all. The first and most common reason is smut. While ACOSF is definitely the most smut heavy, all of these books feature sex scenes. Are they the spiciest books I have ever read? No. Absolutely not. However, it has caused some pearl clutching, causing groups to question if they are appropriate for children and in public spaces. The second reason is ✨️magic✨️. The magic in the book shows "unchristian values" because, evidently, Jesus of Nazareth is the only person allowed to perform magic in books.

There are several common themes in banned romantasy books out side of smut and magic that many against censorship have brought up, and they do appear in the ACOTAR. The most common link in a lot of these novels is strong female leads. From Blood and Ash, Throne of Glass, the Hunger Games, and so many more have potential misogynistic views causing them to end up on these lists.

I don't have a golden way to wrap this one up. I love this series, especially for the fandom. I truly do. I have formed an amazing platform of friends, readers, moots, and connections I treasure dearly. It would genuinely break my heart if this book were to be banned from public libraries. It brings forth so much discussion and beauty, especially when you over look the bad.

[read-chill-wine]

Welcome to reviews of...

✨️Books Liz Loves that you should buy if you are in the US before the orange one takes office✨️

Tw - banned books, spoilers, politics, racism, oppression, and many other potentially uncomfortable topics

Read Liz's original banned books post here

On today's discussion, a book that truly gives me chills just reading the title:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is one of the most well-known and to some controversial, members of the black rights movement and women's rights movement. Angelou, rest her soul, was known for her work with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X during the Civil Rights Movement. She made over 80 appearances in lectures, was an actress, an American poet, and director. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is one of her most prized to Liz autobiography works. I genuinely cry every time I read this book. Maya Angelou is also the most banned author on the banned books list.

The book is focused on a young Maya and is a coming of age story with a focus on overcoming adversity, racism, and trauma. The book begins with a 3 year Maya and her brother, forced to move to Arkansas with her grandmother. This book follows her journey as she is SA by her mother's boyfriend, as she hides her uncle from KKK raiders, as she is forced to change her name to Mary by a racism boss, as she slowly turns the narrative with herself. Maya shows a story of progression from victim to a strong self spoken young woman who is able to look prejudice in the face.

Just when readers believe they will find comfort towards the end of this book, Maya presents the next challenge she faces: motherhood as a black woman living in the US.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the first part of a seven book series in Angelou's autobiography, with each of the 7 books addressing different points in the author's controversial and courageous life.

This book has been unfire since it was published in 1969 with many claiming it cannot be an autobiography due to Angelou's writing styles and storytelling, and more importantly, because it shows the racial divide that has existed in the US since Christopher Columbus decided he evidently found a new world.

This book has been banned for being: anti-white, sexually explicit, for portraying acts of violence and racism, and for addressing issues involving censorship.

I easily would consider I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in my reading top ten, and I think if you are interested in the birth of the Civil Right's Movement, interested in challenging your own comfort zone, and interested in seeing life from the perspective of a member of one of our most oppressed communities, this is a difficult but fantastic place to start. I highly recommend the copy with a forward from Oprah. Something about one of the most powerful women in history opening one of the most powerful books I've read makes my heart flutter, and I think it will make yours flutter, too.

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Anons on your main are off, but Like a Boy? More please.

I probably could turn them back on at this point, especially since they are on for this blog and nothing has gotten out of pocket here.

I'm so glad that you and so many others are enjoying it. It's been sitting in my docs for a few days now, but I was really unsure about posting it until I got a few yes feedbacks.

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Anti-men? 🙄

Insecure men, note the key word, tend to get big mad when they're written in a way that doesn't stroke their ego and savior complex. Anti-men is going to be a reason a lot of books I'm going to talk about are banned or challenged. It's actually a very common theme.

The argument is a book that is "anti-men" is anti-family. Perhaps if you look at it under traditional definition and close both eyes, there may be anti-family undertones, but oddly enough, family is still something humans as a species crave. We are, in our nature, pack animals and thrive best with companionship and nurturing relationships. That's why the found family trope is so popular.

[read-chill-wine]

Welcome to a review of...

✨️Books Liz Loves that you should buy if you are in the US before the orange one takes office✨️

Warnings - Sexual abuse and exploitation of women, dystopian novel, discussions of swomen's rights, bodily autonomy, religion and cults, rape culture, and censorship

📚 The Banned Books List 📚

See Liz's original post about banned books here

This book needs no introduction. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Hold my hand, grab your tissues, and take a deep breath. The Handmaid's Tale is a novel set in futuristic New England focusing around a total patriarchal society. The Gilead Group, formed from a radical Christian group called the Son's of Jacob, has overthrown the United States Government in an attempt to bring it back to the so-called glory days of the Old Testament. In doing so, many laws were abolished, but this novel focuses on some regarding the environment and women's rights.

Due to high pollution levels, many women are now infertile, leading to a select group of women, the Handmaids, to be forced into sex slavery and turned into breeding stock for the Commanders of the Gilead. This group has also limited the rights of women, making them the lowest possible members of the food chain and making it illegal for them to read and write. This book also uses a class system further dividing the women by what colors they are allowed to wear. High ranking wives in light blue, the daughters of Commanders in white, Handmaids in red, Aunts in brown, ect. This system further creates tension within the women by showing who is of value, who has a low ranked husband, who is nothing more than a kitchen servant, and so on and so forth. The TV does a great job displaying the false sense of superiority and arrogance the women in light blue carry, something I feel also came across in the books.

The Handmaid's Tale is told in a first-person perspective from Offred, one of the Handmaidens. We get to explore her intricate relationship with her commander, her past life pre-revolution, and see bits and pieces of her memories of her indoctrination training from the Aunts, and I am going to tell you now, none of it is pretty. The book ends in a way that makes you wonder what has happened to Offred and, in my opinion, without closure, something I've heard is a fairly common and unsettling feeling.

This is a hard book to read, but it genuinely changed me as a person. From reading about the monthly "Ceremony", a ritualist rape that takes place during ovulation windows, the labor ceremonies, and the use of the Bible to create this very dark world of control, it truly made me sit and think. There were moments of light in this very dark book, but bluntly, this is heavy. It's meant to be a warning. It is meant to be uncomfortable, and it is meant to send a strong message about religion, women's rights, and the power of knowledge.

I think this book does a wonderful job showing the cult mentality and how dangerous radical groups can be once they are given power. The Sons of Jacob gained power the way we see groups all around the world begin. From Jim Jones to Shoko Asahara to the Church of Wells, a common theme we see in the creation of cults is the use of religious idealogy. Religion is one of the 3 subjects kids may hear their parents say you don't discuss in polite company, and that's because religion is one of the most controversial topics in the world. It can start wars, it can heal the broken, it can create divide, and it can be twisted so deeply others are able to find someone with a weakened mindset and desperation for salvation and turn their lives upside down.

Outside of cults, we see religion influencing cultures all around the world in positive and negative ways. One of the most recent to hit the eyes of social media and news outlets was a passed Taliban law prohibiting women from showing their faces or speaking in public to prevent them from "leading men into vices." Women caught violating this law can be detained and punished. This is a huge step back for the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, and one that has many captured the attention of many eyes.

This book also shows one thing that is also very common in religion, the oppression of women. Women's rights have been a struggle since the dawn of written religion. Many religions point to women being the origin of sin (Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) or suffering (Pandora and the box), and for these reasons many religions discuss women as needing to be punished and redeemed through servitude. The oppression of women is still an ongoing battle that The Handmaid's Tale loudly shows. From taking bodily autonomy to rape culture to women not being able to receive proper medical treatment without the consent of a man, internalized misogyny and sexism is an everyday battle that is faced in different variations all around the world.

The Handmaid's Tale also shows the dangers of government censorship in reading. There is a reason during most wars that the first things destroyed are libraries and archives. An educated public is harder to control and break down. Dictatorships rely on the poorly educated to allow them into power because the public will have no other reference point from history to sit and say, "This is wrong." The Handmaid's Tale shows it through women not being allowed to read and write, something that did happen in history. Women's clothing used to be made without pockets to prevent women from hiding reading materials, and, in America, anti-literacy laws were made to prevent slaves from learning to read and write.

The above reasons are why reading is so political, something I know is being debated hugely on booktok, bookstagram, and booktube. Reading and writing are essential skills to prevent oppression, to allow us to gather information and ideas, and to show humans one big thing: There is hope, but it will come through massive change.

For obvious reasons, The Handmaid's Tale has appeared on numerous banned and challenged lists since its publishing date, but a few of the reasons are: anti-government, anti-Christian values, anti-religion, acts of violence, anti-men (I shit you not), LGBTQIA+ Representation and so much more.

If there's one big thing The Handmaid's Tale shows, it's what I've been trying to drive home with these banned books:

Words are weapons in the hands of the educated

Read this book. Genuinely, read it. Please.

The Banned Books Masterlist

@ofelvesandfae

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💕 Welcome to Liz's side blog 💕

Main blog is @readychilledwine

I wanted to start sharing my personal favorite fics, head canons, and fan art with you all, but keep my main blog as streamlined as possibly since I am a busy bee who tries to post frequently.

Here you will find the following:

What book I am currently reading 💕

My fic recommendations from a few fandoms 💕

Fan art and memes 💕

If I am a good bean - my rating on the books I'm reading 💕

Occasionally, baby daddy recommending fics (that aren't mine)

You can also send me an ask with your recommendations if you want me to read or check out a fic, ask me about what I'm currently reading, and ask me about what I liked about certain fics.

I actively try to avoid AI based artwork, but a few of my lists do currently have AI on them. Don't be surprised when they get updated. Think of the AI as a placeholder.

I will not be using this account to take asks and requests for my main account. If you have a request, please send it to @readychilledwine so I can keep everything in one place 💕

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✨️Currently Reading✨️

Look... I know I'm behind on this one..

Edited to Add

✨️Baby daddy is currently reading✨️

He does not plan on updating. He just thought this was a hilarious comparison

[read-chill-wine]

Welcome to reviews of...

✨️Books Liz Loves that you should buy if you are in the US before the orange one takes office✨️

Tw - dystopian society, huge parallels to Nazi Germany, government censorship, acts of violence

📚 The Banned Books Masterlist 📚

See Liz's original banned books post here

Take a deep breath with me. This book is going to hit a lot of our fears close to home. I wanted to talk about one of the books that changed and challenged me as a reader living in the conservative Midwest in a conservative home where I rarely was allowed to question the government. Say hello to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel set in "futuristic" United States where books have been outlawed. In this novel, there are people known as the "firemen" who have the sole purpose of burning any book they find. The story centers around a male lead named Guy, who is a "fireman," and how meeting a teenage girl changes the course of his life. Clarisse is a young free thinker who brings to question societal normals, leading to her becoming an outcast. It follows his process of waking up after Clarisse disappears, and he watches a woman choose to burn herself alive instead of leaving her books. Guy then realizes his job causes him to destroy knowledge and freedom of thought and mind, how his job makes him feed into government censorship, and how it destroys the literature that made society who we are. It follows Guy through his journey of burning books to making it his sole life mission to save literature, no matter how dangerous it is to him.

This book was written and published in the 50s. It called to memory for many of the Nazi book burning acts and propaganda and fed into Soviet ideology fears the US currently had during this time frame. Though Bradbury changed the reason why he wrote this book several times, one theme did stay, he wanted to explore the idea of government censorship on media as a whole. And boy did he. Fahrenheit 451 is one of the best written books I have had the pleasure of reading and owning. It hits so many emotions like fear, sparks of joy, anger, and sadness. This book is a ride for those of us who love literature and cherish not just the reading process, but the smell of a library, the feeling of fresh pages, and the wealth of knowledge that comes from reading. I feel like Guy goes on a very believable character growth arc that turns him from someone you hate to someone you sympathize with to someone you are cheering for.

This book has been believed to be set sometime after 2022 in the United States of America. Though it's author did not want it to be used a prediction of the future, it something the US is going to have to prepare ourselves for as political goals like Project 2025 and the banned and challenged books lists only continue to grow and expand. Fahrenheit 451 is a story of the dangers of government censorship, the reminder of the need to protect our culture and society, and one big message I am going to be pushing as I review these books:

Words are weapons in the hands of the educated

Fahrenheit 451 has been banned and challenged since its publishing date despite the overwhelming majority of people having positive feelings towards this novel. It has been banned for: anti-government messages, violence, anti-christian messages and values, mentions of drug use, discussions of sex (mainly abortion).

There isn't a single banned book I will be reviewing that I do not recommend, but if you are going to pick just one book I talk about, please let it be this one.

Ps- yes, there is a movie adaptation. It has Michael B Jordan in it. He looks fantastic as always on the cover of the book made to match the movie.

The Banned Books Taglist:

@ofelvesandfae

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Happy October, Monsterfuckers. Stay freaky 💕

[read-chill-wine]

💀 The DNF List 💀

I used to say death before DNF, but with the rise of BookTok, I am learning there's a reason we use the phrase DNF. Here's my growing list of DNF books. If asked, I can always do reviews or 5 point reasons why I didn't finish them.

Also, since this always needs to be said, just because I DNF a book does not mean you should not pick it up or try it out. It doesn't mean you are wrong it you liked it. It just means I didn't.

Court of the Night King by Natalie Barry

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

In an Instant by Suzanne Redfern

Credence by Penelope Douglas

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Have you read the Kingdom of the Wicked series? If you haven't I'm begging you to put in on your reading list pls. Hope you have a good day that's all I wanted to say!

-✨

I saved this just so I would remember to go buy the series 💕

Adding it to my tbr cart right now

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When do you plan on posting masterlists? I'm just really excited to see what Mother reads.

Hopefully, a few will be up today and tomorrow. I am finishing adding links and emoji codes.

I will be starting with posting my ACOTAR character ones and then jumping around from there. I have a few that are more empty than I would like them to be, but I feel like some characters aren't as heavily written for as three certain little bats are.