Banned Library

cover of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, two boys sitting at a bus stop under blue sky — credit: simonandschuster.com

It's hard being a teenager. As this week's book says, you are stuck in between being a child and an adult. As my Granny Wendy would say, "you know just enough to get kicked out of Eden." Trying new things, discovering what you like and what you don't, getting forced into confrontations exterior and exterior. Making and losing friends. Lovers. Ari and Dante find themselves at this point in their lives, and we follow Ari as a narrator struggling against… everything when like quicksand its sometimes better to just let go and live.

PostedOctober 21, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesBook Club

Tagsteen book club, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz

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Notebook of Other Mommy (2026)

Mommy and Daddo are having trouble, so Bella retreats to having fun with Other Mommy, a normal entity that wants Bella to open her heart. Rather than a sad coming of age story where Bella learns about loss and grows, well, it's still that but while battling a demonic creature with teleportation powers who murders douchebags.

PostedOctober 19, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsOther Mommy, 2026, Rob Savage, Nathan Elston, Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, Arabella Olivia Clark, Karen Allen, Arian Moayed

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Notes from Street Fighter (2026)

The evil M. Bison plans to suck the power from one of the most powerful fighters in the world, Ryu, so he holds a sequel to a tournament Ryu won years before. Ryu is reluctant to rejoin because he won the previous tournament by tapping into dark powers while his estranged friend Ken wishes to prove his worth by winning the tournament. Chun-Li, an undercover operator in Bison's organization, has her own plans to take down Bison. All this nonsense plus hundreds of cameos and video game references make this a crazy pants watching experience. Oh, and the flashbacks are animated.

PostedOctober 17, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsStreet Fighter, 2026, Kitao Sakurai, TJ Fixman, Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Jason Momoa

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Poster for the movie Verity (2026)

A lonely author is hired by the husband of Verity, an acclaimed author who sits around all day, to finish Verity's acclaimed book series. The kind of movie that's better alone and stoned or drunk with a crowd. Real "we have Gillian Flynn at home" energy.

PostedOctober 16, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsVerity, 2026, Michael Showalter, Nick Antosca, Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, Dakota Johnson

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credit: Delacorte Press

Mr. Leonard had a phrase he used a lot, "if it seems like writing, I rewrite it." My personal theory is he came up with that while writing this book, Unknown Man #89. The man began to play low jazz here, shifting into a steady gear and focusing on his characters and language unlike he has before while the plot becomes more "what are they going to do" rather than "What's going to happen next?"

PostedOctober 14, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesBook Club

TagsElmore Leonard, Unknown Man 89, 1977

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poster of 2026 movie Incomer with a man waving while two people in bird costumes stand behind him — credit: Focus Features

I loved this movie in a very simple way. It's delightful and charming. My brain wants to say "quirky" but fuck that this movie is weird. The people are strange and for some reason I want to reference Egger's The Lighthouse. If there had been more booze with Isla and Sandy, they might have had that problem. They might have eaten Daniel.

PostedOctober 8, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsIncomer, 2026, Louis Paxton, Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O'Rourke, Emun Elliot, Michelle Gomez, John Hannah

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first edition of Carrie by Stephen king, girl with dark hair and eyes looking at camera on left, words on right "Carrie A Novel of a girl with a frightening power Stephen King" — credit Doubleday, first edition

The book hits pretty hard today. Sure there's regular school shootings now and bullying has changed to a more passive global spectacle rather than the targeted abuse of one kid on one kid, but the feelings of isolation and public ridicule remain. While the shy introverted religious kid has a youtube or twitch following now, they still remain quiet and uniformed about basic sanitary habits. The themes of Carrie resonate still because, shit, growing up sucks.

PostedOctober 7, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesBook Club

TagsCarrie, Stephen King, 1974

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Never trusted hot air balloons myself. Too simple of an idea. Nothing between me and a Looney Tune death but some wicker and a propane filled parachute feels like madness. Yet people love them, and I'll admit they do look pretty floating there against a serene landscape.

PostedOctober 6, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

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movie poster for Forgotten Island (2026) featuring characters Jo, Raissa, and Raww — credit: Dreamworks

Memories and friendship are universal. Forgotten Island, the new Dreamworks animated classic, straddles the worlds of adult and childhood and of fantasy and reality. And it has a badass soundtrack. The adult nature of the film (it's essentially The Hangover with some Eternal Sunshine thrown in) may cause it to miss with the younger crowd, but for those who find this it will be in their hearts forever.

PostedOctober 2, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsForgotten Island, 2026, Januel Mercado, Joel Crawford, H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto

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Credit: Cardinal Films, Wild Atlantic Pictures, Mongrel Media

You never know when your life will end. Few think of it, really digest what it means to no longer be. Even fewer run toward it, chased by the dream of living on by doing one great thing that will cement them forever in history. It's a pretty damn small number more interested in legacy than safety that drives toward death as a stunt driver in a rocket car.

PostedSeptember 30, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsStunt Driver, 2026, Michael Dowse, Jay Baruchel, Ed Helms, Ben Foster, Laurence Leboeuf, Joe Cobden, Marc Beaupre

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Cryptids come and go in the library. The Book Wyrm. Purple Paper Eater. Magazine Guy. But none is more mysterious than THE MOTHMAN. All this week we celebrate the Mothman with programming to bring you closer to the Sacred Flame.

PostedSeptember 28, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesNewsletter

TagsMothman, Steve Hystarion, Marge, Reference Librarian, Amy Ironbar, Arthur Mebegone

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Credit A24

Walking into this movie, I had only heard Robert Pattinson's performance was top notch. Otherwise, I had little interest in the story of Chris Hanson, award winning journalist and host of To Catch a Predator, the show where he and his crew lured sexual predators to a fake address and confronted them on camera.

PostedSeptember 27, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsPrimetime, 2026, Lance Oppenheim, Ajon Singh, Luke Dittrich, Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher, Phoebe Bridgers

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poster for The Weight showing Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe under a rope bridge

Anything can happen in the woods. You can be sitting and enjoying a nice fire when in stumbles a bit of trouble. Ethan Hawke's character learns that in The Weight, a new thriller from the minds that brought you… Holy s**t this is the director's and the writers' first movie (one writer has one other credit, but that's not really holy s**t worthy). I'll be honest, that lifts my estimations of this movie much higher.

PostedSeptember 25, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsEthan Hawke, Russell Crowe, Julia James, Austin Amelio, Avi Nash, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Sam Hazeldine, George Burgess, Padraic McKinley, Shelby Gaines, Matthew Booi, The Weight, 2026

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hand stretched up giving the rock symbol before a cloudy stage

Tuesday night was the library's big Autumnal Equinox Celebration and if you were not there, you missed a hell of a time. Last minute we did have some unforeseen changes. Mr. Rabbit Pete, local entertainer for children, had to cancel due to a case of paw and mouth disease. Our circulation librarian Brenda has some contacts in the music industry though, and a little band called Carnal Death Punch was able to fill in and rocked the dust off the library shelves!

PostedSeptember 25, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesFiction

TagsAutumnal Equinox Celebration, Mr. Rabbit Pete, Carnal Death Punch, Brenda, Natalie, Patty, Les Saul

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movie poster for Resident Evil (2026) an over head shot showing a man standing in front of a car in the snow — image: Sony Pictures

When I say I understand how Bryan the medical courier feels trying to escape a plague of mutant zombies, you get what I mean. The new Resident Evil by Zach Cregger is a visceral splash of gore and tentacles right out of H.P. Lovecraft's dreams minus all the cats and puritanical racism. The film clips along at a brusque pace from a lone farmhouse to the empty Raccoon City without taking much of a breath. A hell of a good time at the movies.

PostedSeptember 24, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesMovie Club

TagsZach Cregger, Shay Hatten, Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hause

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cover of Terry Pratchett's first edition Hogfather featuring a winter scene of a sled being pulled by hogs in a winter landscape

Terry Pratchett wrote several books on belief but in this one he tackles the biggest aspect of belief: Hope. What else can come from a crazy assassin with a baby face and an evil heart being hired to kill Santa Claus? When the symbol of the season of death is taken away, who else but Death incarnate can slip in and take up the sled?

PostedSeptember 23, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesBook Club

TagsTerry Pratchett, Hotfather

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Twice a year mankind is forced to reckon with balance. The day and the night meet in perfect unison as the sun sits right over the equator. Summer ends and everything falls into autumn. The trees feel it and drop their leaves. Animals begin prepping their dens with winter shutters and aluminum siding backed by pink fluffy insulation. Everyone waits for darkness to fall.

PostedSeptember 21, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesNewsletter

TagsChildren's Librarian, equinox, Ed "Powertool" Langer, Reverend Silva DocMartain, roleplaying, state fair, TS Eliot, turtle races, ghostworld, road house, spider-man, Lanterns, Serial Mom, SIFF, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, VE Schwab, jambalaya

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They came in the library like locusts into a cornfield. Sheets were torn from the hands of librarians. They ran through the stacks with wild abandon. The library scavenger hunt began in a fury.

PostedSeptember 18, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesFiction

TagsBrenda, Eric, circulation, Reference Librarian

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Students going back to school means after the final bell rings our stacks get full. For some, they've been coming for years but others this is their first time in the library. Dumped off by parents, waiting for rides, or just have no other place to go. We try to give them things to do other than dry hump in the copier room, but we are only librarians.

PostedSeptember 16, 2026

AuthorBanned Library

CategoriesNonfiction

Tagskids

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