The Banned Book Club "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult

The Banned Book Club is led by Bryn Durgin. It is dedicated to reading and protecting the most important and threatened books for our generation. August's pick is Nineteen Minutes, bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most riveting book, a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy. "Having the most banned book in the country is not a badge of honor - it's a call for alarm," Picoult said. "Nineteen Minutes is banned not because it's about a school shooting, but because of a single page that depicts a date rape and uses anatomically correct words for the human body."

We will meet in person in the loft at our store at The Mark, 117 S. Pineapple Ave. The book club is $17.99, which includes a copy of Nineteen Minutes to be picked up at Bookstore1 any time before our meeting.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sterling is an ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens--until the day its complacency is shattered by a school shooting. Josie Cormier, the daughter of the judge sitting on the case, should be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened before her very own eyes--or can she? As the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show--destroying the closest of friendships and families. Nineteen Minutes asks what it means to be different in our society, who has the right to judge someone else, and whether anyone is ever really who they seem to be.

JODI PICOULT received an AB in creative writing from Princeton and a master’s degree in education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of twenty-seven novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers House Rules, Handle With Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, for which she received the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Visit her website at JodiPicoult.com.

About Book Bans:

Book bans in public schools have recurred throughout American history, and remain an issue of concern to us at Bookstore1Sarasota. Over the past years, the scope of such censorship has expanded rapidly. In response, PEN America has collated an Index of School Book Bans, offering a snapshot of the trend. The index provides a comprehensive list of books banned in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year. Check it out and join us in our efforts to protect free expression and students' first amendment rights. You can view the index here: https://pen.org/book-bans/pen-america-index-of-school-book-bans-2023-2024/.

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