Banned or Challenged Books

Read these dangerous books at your own risk!

Updated June 7, 2023
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The Handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ** Discover the dystopian novel that started a phenomenon. Offred is a Handmaid in The Republic of Gilead. She is placed in the household of The Commander, Fred Waterford - her assigned name, Offred, means 'of...
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
Paper Book
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal...
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Capote, Truman
Paper Book
Reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. In this title, the author's study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved.
The diary of a young girl : the definitive edition
Frank, Anne
Paper Book
This special educational edition of Anne Frank's unique diary, describing her family's plight during the Nazi persecution, is accompanied by substantial background material and photographs to help students to contextualise this teenager's account.
Lord of the flies
Golding, William
Paper Book
A story for adults about small boys, marooned on a coral island. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death.
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Haddon, Mark.
Paper Book
OVER TEN MILLION COPIES SOLD The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about...
The kite runner
Hosseini, Khaled.
Paper Book
Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the...
Brave new world
Huxley, Aldous
Paper Book
Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. INTRODUCED BY MARGARET ATWOOD Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to...
One flew over the cuckoo's nest
Kesey, Ken.
Paper Book
Pitching an extraordinary battle between cruel authority and a rebellious free spirit, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel that epitomises the spirit of the sixties. This Penguin Classics edition includes a preface, never-before published illustrations by the author, and...
Lady Chatterley's lover
Lawrence, D. H.
Paper Book
Constance Chatterley feels trapped in her sexless marriage to the invalid Sir Clifford. Unable to fulfil his wife emotionally or physically, Clifford encourages her to have a liaison with a man of their own class. But Connie is attracted instead to her husband's gamekeeper and embarks on a...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper.
Paper Book
___________________________________ 'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man falsely...
The things they carried : a work of fiction
O'Brien, Tim
Paper Book
The million copy bestseller that redefined the way the world saw war. One of the ten books - novels, memoirs and one very unusual biography - that make up our Matchbook Classics' series, a stunningly redesigned collection of some of the best loved titles on our backlist....
1984 : a novel
Orwell, George
Paper Book
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens...
My sister's keeper : a novel
Picoult, Jodi
Paper Book
THE MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER AND MAJOR MOTION PICTURE 'Emotionally riveting and will test your tear ducts to the limit' Daily Express In all thirteen years of Anna's life, her parents have never given her a choice: she was born to be her sister...
The satanic verses : a novel
Rushdie, Salman.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this spectacular novel, verbal pyrotechnics barely outshine its psychological truths."--Newsday ...
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
The Catcher in Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth and has influenced countless coming-of-age stories since. Holden Caulfield is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up,...
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Skloot, Rebecca
Paper Book
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. Born a poor black tobacco farmer, her cancer cells - taken without her knowledge - became a multimillion-dollar industry and one of the most important tools in medicine. Yet Henrietta's family did not learn of her 'immortality' until...
Of mice and men
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back - and a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, but their hopes are dashed as Lennie -...
Slaughterhouse-five, or, The children's crusade : a duty-dance with death
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Paper Book
Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published. 'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York Times Book Review Billy Pilgrim - hapless barber's...
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book
Brideshead revisited : the sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder
Waugh, Evelyn
Paper Book
Brideshead Revisited is Evelyn Waugh's stunning novel of duty and desire set amongst the decadent, faded glory of the English aristocracy in the run-up to the Second World War. The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden...

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