I am sorry I found this very hard to read as the pages and editing were a little all over the place and I struggle with that
Very sorry did try twice to read but couldn’t get it into my head and couldn’t get it to download corrected

I really enjoyed Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. I was immediately tickled by the mischief in the opening chapter and I knew it was going to be my kind of book straight away.

However, as I turned the pages of the book and met the residents of Troy, Georgia I came to realise just how far reaching the ripple effect is that one person can have on a whole community. I think this book is a masterpiece for its pitch perfect delivery of messages everyone needs to hear and topics everyone should read about. It really tugs at the heart of the issue - if you go about banning books that feature alternative life experiences to your own, you negatively affect education, empathy, critical thinking and freedom.
I really enjoyed the author’s writing style. It drew me right in and the characterisation was brilliant, because by the end of each chapter I really felt like I knew and understood them when I had only just met them a few pages before.
There are a lot of different characters in this book and initially it can be difficult to remember who is who…but keep with it, it’s totally worth it and it’s needed to show 1) How far reaching the consequences of the little library are and 2)The variety of viewpoints and life experiences in the town.

I genuinely believe this book needs to be on the curriculum, especially in America at the moment but I suspect this book too will be banned. This is of course exactly why you should be reading it!

If you have enraged by the book banning that is currently occurring across America, if you enjoy books set in small town America and if you enjoy reading about a variety of perspectives and life experiences then this is the book for you.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to review an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Loved this, a light fun read about an intense depressing subject. Set in a small town in Georgia, Lula Dean starts banning books and creates a library outside her home of more 'wholesome' titles. A local teen, swaps the dustjackets and places banned books inside Lula's choices. Each chapter is devoted to another person reading one of these 'banned' books, and being changed for the better as a result. With the aim of showing that actually the silent majority are good people, who need a catalyst to speak out against bigotry. Nazi's and rapist's are outed, nefarious motives are brought into the open and queer people are accepted with open arms. This is a delightful read that I really enjoyed, it brings hope and cleverly shows the ridiculousness of banning books.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

According to a recent Guardian article, more books were banned in 2023 in US schools and libraries than any other year for which records have been kept.

Many of the books were targeted because they related to issues of LGBTQ+ communities or race, though the list is broad, including commonly taught novels such as Lord of the Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The group documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship.

Kirsten Miller’s novel is set in a Southern US town and tackles the issue head on.
Lula Dean, a prominent local figure and book banner (“when you have everything, the only luxury left is taking things away from others”), sets up a little library of wholesome titles. An activist swaps the books, but not the covers, for banned books.
Each chapter is titled after a banned book and we get to see the effect this has on the reader and their lives; for example, a down-trodden wife slavishly cleans her husband’s Nazi memorabilia but secretly is reading Anne Frank’s diary. When her son is indoctrinated into the secret group and he paints a swastika on a local Jewish man’s front door as initiation, she calls out the viral hate, provides rational argument to the anti-Semitic nonsense and takes her son away.

In addition to banning books, the novel also explores some of the other means by which control and influence is being applied to people. Many media and news channels are pumping out sensational stories that are aimed at creating fear, stoking culture wars and increasing tensions.

An important and interesting story with a positive message about the power of books and libraries.

I really wanted to love this book. Great premise and good promise. Characters were interesting but could have done with more development, colour and description of the setting.

But unfortunately it was riddled with formatting errors - and protective text (which I support) but this meant that text was missing with sentences cut off midway, that disrupted the flow in the kindle formatting. On the iPad it was a little easier to read, but unfortunately I do most of my reading via the kindle.

Unfortunately I stopped reading at 50%. If the formatting issues can be resolved for the kindle format, I’d be delighted to try to continue.

I struggled through. I loved the premise of this book, however for me it fell short. I almost gave up at 25% but made myself continue. It just wasn't for me as much as I wanted.to love it.

Small town southern states a little library where the community can share books is infiltrated. The books swapped out for those on the 'banned list.' I enjoyed the fiddt couple of chapters but felt a lack of plot development or character depth.

I enjoyed Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books but unfortunately, like a lot of other reviewers, I struggled with the formatting of missing text and random words on each page.

Overall, the premise is good and there were a lot of controversial topics covered in a thought-provoking way.

A topic that I cannot help but get riled up about, but told in such a way as to highlight the hypocrisy and bigotry that seems to be behind such moves.
Lula is outraged at the material available to loan at her local library, so she starts a committee to get worrying books banned. Naturally, she hasn’t read any of them but she is convinced it is her role to be the moral compass for the town. As part of this, she establishes her own library on her property full of books that she believes to be wholesome.
Unfortunately(only not, it’s the best thing ever) a local girl all too aware of the bigotry around swaps the books inside for those on the banned list.
We follow a number of characters as they loan one of Lula’s books, and see how the experience impacts them.
Parts of this had me laughing out loud. A lot of the characters are racist bigots, and I found myself increasingly angry at their behaviour. However, there’s plenty of characters who challenge these ideas. There needs to be more.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this before publication.

An interesting (if at times a bit twee) look at the fate of one small town in Georgia when Lula Dean, a woman who has felt ignored for too long, decides to become the town's arbiter of decency and the consequences when others fight back.

I listened to a very well read audio. The narrator, January Lavoy, had a good clear voice and the differences between characters was very good. I liked listening to her mild Southern drawl and she gave just enough drama to the text which could have easily fallen into melodrama at times.I also had a hard copy and it was great to swap between the two. It was an excellent book for audio though.

The story is an interesting one and was written in response to the increasing amount of book banning going on in the USA. Although I'd have to say its not just an American problem- it is worldwide. The wider premise of the book is to show that history is not what you may think it is - there's a famous quote about history always being written by the victors. The history in Troy, Georgia is of a very personal nature as very different people discover their shared history.

The book, on the whole, is an easy read even if the contents are quite astonishing at times. For example I was bewildered by why any of the books would be banned but then I'd read quite a lot of them.

The book is quite funny at times but it is sending a clear message of tolerance, understanding and being judgemental when you don't know the true facts. For that alone it should be applauded.

I would definitely recommend this book and the audio to anyone.

Thankyou to Netgalley, Harper Collins HQ and Harper Collins Audio for both the hard copy and the audio. Very much appreciated.

Thanks to #Netgalley for an #ARC of #LulaDeansLittleLibraryofBannedBooks.
I really enjoyed this book, it is one of those rare books that you wish to remove all memory of it and read it for the first time again.

This uplifting novel certainly doesn't shy away from difficult and upsetting topics and I think that's why I loved it so much.
Set in a small town in Georgia, Lula Dean takes matters into her own hands when she feels that the children are being corrupted by books in the twon library. This starts a butterfly effect through the town and each chapter shows how this touches on other people's lives.
This book will definitely get people talking, I think it would be perfect for a book club. Especially the way it is written, it almost lulls you into a false sense of security before hitting you with a few home truths.
Racism, sexism, homophobia, terrorism and indoctrination are all explored.
This will have you laughing. It will have you angry and it may even make you shed a tear. I highly recommend picking this one up.

I was very intrigued by the idea of this book. With all the misinformation, lack of tolerance and paranoia in the world today I liked the idea of a story that dealt with this. Unfortunately this book is not for me. I have to be honest and say that I couldn't finish this book. It started okay though admittedly I did find it a little basic in terms of the prose and story telling. However I was interested to see where this went. It wasn't long however but I was just plain bored. This book just seems to be a series of chapters from different perspectives (which is fine in itself) but the writing is superficial and not the output of a professional author. No character depth and boring writing means I gave up at about the 20% mark.

I'm sorry I have to DNF this book. I thought I'd really enjoy it, it sounded like I would, however I just couldn't get into it t all. I tried a few times but it seems like there's words missing, there's random words placed all over, copyright, publisher.....
I may try again when it's released.

A prank being the catalyst for change! Based in a small town in America with various prejudice, experiences and ideals of the residents. Both light hearted and exploring big topics such as racism and cancel culture.

I really liked that the chapter narration shifts between characters, each linked to a specific book. Easy to read and just the right length.

Thank you HQ for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
#LulaDeansLittleLibraryofBannedBooks #NetGalley

This is a relatively lighthearted look at the evolving world around cancel culture and small town prejudices, centered around the seemingly random banning of books thought to lead the youth of the town down immoral pathways.
Each banned book finds its ways onto the hands of a resident and changes their views on life, culminating in an increase in tolerance and a greater mutual understanding o how the past does not have to dictate the future.
The only downside was the appalling layout of the book for Kindle (presumably which will be fixed!) where sentences were incomplete on most pages, some of which the missing words were randomly at the end of the next paragraph and some of which were never to be seen again!
That is not the fault of the author though and although it detracts from the readability of the book it does not affect the content or storytelling.

Awesome! I love the way each chapter is initially defined by a book but as it progresses the town and it's prejudices are gradually brought out. Thought provoking and emotional. Very pertinent at this time

An empathetic look at cancel culture and book banning in the US that is a surprisingly feel good read. Through the stories of each of the residents in the southern town we learn how discovering one of the 'banned' books that has been removed from the school or public library has had an impact on their lives. This book celebrates the power of knowledge that reading can bring as well as the empathy and understanding for those that we struggle to understand. I think the book is very clever and the notion of replacing the so called acceptable books with the banned books in a little book swap box was just wonderful. The right books were then in the hands of people at just the right time that they needed them. I was left with a real sense of hope that people can overcome differences of opinion and beliefs if we just try and understand each other. This is a real delight for book and library lovers with some wonderful characters - a joy to read!

I was looking forward to reading this but the copy thst opened was unreadable
random words in capitals and publisher names randomly popped in. I couldn't follow the story
disappointed

Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean have been arch enemies ever since their high school cheerleading days. The mostly silent rivalry between them becomes public however after Lula embarks on a book-banning mission. To ‘replace’ the books she’s removed from the local schools and library, Lula has created a little library filled with titles Lula deems appropriate reading in her front yard. Not that Lula has read the books she has banned or the titles in her garden.

Beverly’s daughter Lindsay is outraged about Lula’s actions and uses the cover of night to fill Lula’s little libraries with banned books wrapped in dust jackets that belong to books Lula approves of.

Curiosity being what it is means that inhabitants of the town of Troy pick up books from the Little Library and most of them finish reading the stories even after they discover the book in their hands isn’t what they thought it was.

Actions have consequences and it isn’t long before Lula and Beverly are running against each other in the town’s Mayoral election. And that’s when the repercussions of Lula’s library and Lindsay’s counter action become visible. Because everybody who picked and read a book from the Little Library has been affected in one way or another.

At first glance this book offers an easy to read, mostly light-hearted story. It appears to be one of those Southern novels in which even the bad people end up sounding adorable. Don’t let first impressions fool you though. Once you settle into the story you will find a darker edge to many of the chapters. What really scared me is that quite a few of the right-wing ideas shared on these pages don’t sound immediately shocking or wrong. It’s almost too easy to understand how people stumble into traps laid by people like Donald Trump and how a journey down that road comes without a return ticket for most people.

Although it is very easy to read and get lost in, this book doesn’t try to make our current reality look any better than it is. In this book the silent majority are people who have no interest in banning books or excluding certain people from society. They are those who can easily live their lives under the radar and prefer it that way. In this book, as in reality, they don’t speak up until they feel their way of life and/or their sense of fairness is under threat.

While the book is overall a fun read, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that book banning and censorship are real issues, in particular in America. Only this week I came across the following tragic news: An Idaho Public Library Will Become Adults-Only per July 1, 2024. News like that makes me want to cry. There’s a part of me that feels Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books is too easy to read to make a difference in real life. On the other hand, maybe an easy read with characters most people would recognise is exactly what is needed to get people to question what is going on around them. Sure, real life is never going to come with perfect solutions like the ones found in this book, but maybe this book can make imperfect solutions possible in real life. And if that isn’t a fabulous reason to promote Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, I don’t know what is.

I loved the layout of this book. Lula Dean has decided that the way to power is through fear, so she has decided to ban certain books from the public library and the school. These are books she has deemed unsuitable and that will corrupt young minds. She has gained quite a following in her southern state town.
I enjoyed the layout, with each chapter featuring a resident of the town of Troy who picks a book from Lula's book cupboard and is surprised to find what's between the covers.
However, like other reviewers, the layout of the text in my kindle has made this a frustrating read. I am guessing the ending of sentences and every single page has a copyright text on it. Glad to know it's not just me, but not sure how to give a full review.