Novelist Elif Shafak to be tried for "Insulting Turkishness"

Novelist Elif Shafak is to be brought to trial in a Turkish court Sept. 21 for "insulting Turkishness", according to a report of PEN American Center. She is the third prominent Turkish novelist to be tried in just over a year. Shafak, who divides her time between Turkey and teaching at the University of Arizona, wrote her novel in English about two families, one in Instanbul and the other an Armenian family living in San Francisco. The offending passage in her book mentions Turkey's genocide against Armenians in the early 20th century. The Turkish version of her book is a bestseller in Turkey.

Kentucky school board nixes banning book

The Warren County School Board of Kentucky voted 3-2 against
banning a book the parent of a Greenwood High School student said was
"full of various types of immorality," according to Bowling Green
Daily News (Kentucky), Aug. 15. Here is an excerpt of the article:

Lee Ann Austin first complained last year about "Flowers for Algernon," by
Daniel Keyes, when it was one of the required books in her son's English
class.

The science fiction book, first published in 1966, focuses on Charlie
Gordon, a 32-year-old man with mental retardation who undergoes surgery
that turns him into a genius. Part of the plot involves the character's
sexualexperiences, which include his having sex with a former teacher,
as well as other women.

Austin objected to the school's inclusion of a book that portrays this, as
well as drug use and profanity...

"Flowers for Algernon" was 47th on the American Library Association's list
of the 100 books most challenged between 1990 and 2000...