Banned Books Week Virtual Read-Out: A Separate Peace

So earlier this week I bought a shiny new webcam, and this morning I broke it in by making my first-ever Virtual Read-Out video for Banned Books Week! I chose to read an excerpt from A Separate Peace by John Knowles, partly because I really just love this book and partly because I have already reviewed it here on the blog, so I had a good idea which excerpt I could legitimately read under two minutes.

You can find this and any other videos I end up making for the blog on my new YouTube Channel - I created tabs at the top of the page with links to different places where you can connect with me.

Anyway, here is my video:

If you made a Virtual Read-Out video for Banned Books Week, feel free to leave a link in the comments! And don't forget - 1 October is the last day to enter both my Banned Books Giveaway AND my It's My Birthday! Giveaway. I will be randomly selecting a winner for both giveaways on 2 October.

Banned Books Week Continues!

Hello, lovelies! I'm making this quick because I'm in the library on campus and other people undoubtedly need to use the computer. I won't be back home until later tonight, though, and did not want to miss out on my daily post to promote Banned Books Week!

So far I only have one Banned Book in my reviews archive - A Separate Peace by John Knowles. If you haven't checked it out yet, please do so! Fellow bloggers, do you currently have any Banned Books in your archives? Tell me about it in the comments! Feel free to link to them if you'd like.

And a question for everyone - have you started reading or re-reading any Banned Books this week? I am almost through reading Christopher Priest's The Prestige, and was planning to read Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins next, but I believe instead I'll start re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Also, don't forget you have until 1 October to enter my Banned Books Giveaway! Check out the post for more details.

A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles takes place during the second World War at Devon School, a boys' preparatory academy in New England. Here on the homefront, the war doesn't seem very real. Sure, there are rations, and the seniors are being scheduled for physical training regimens to prepare them for enlistment after graduation - but in the lazy, carefree Summer session, the idea of war seems very distant to the other students. Especially to Phineas.

Finny is athletic and charming - he can talk his way out of any potential trouble, even when he doesn't really make any sense. His friend and roommate (and our narrator), Gene, is booksmart and reserved - he tries to be a good student and to follow the rules, but Finny always seems to get his way. There is something about him that is impossible to resist. That's what started it - just a tiny spark of jealousy, of resentment - and an accident in a tree on the school grounds changes everything.

Or was it an accident?

Either way, things will never be the same again - for any of them.