Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books | Kirsten Miller

A timely book that doesn't completely depress the reader--can't ask for more than that these days, right? Lula Dean is a busy-body in a small Southern town who desperately needs attention. She's felt slighted since high school and she's determined to do something about it. So she decides that taking "dangerous" books out of circulation and defending the Confederate legacy of her community is her path to power and popularity. She hasn't actually read the books, mind you, making her highly susceptible to influence from bad actors, including the local Nazi "memorabilia collectors."

But she's met her match in the offspring of her high-school nemesis and descendent of the town's Confederate hero, Beverly Underwood. (Not a spoiler) Beverly's daughter sneaks into the little library and replaces the incredible boring and "safe" books that Lula bought at Goodwill, with banned books, including Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, Beloved, Catcher in the Rye, Rivals and Lovers and others. The little library does get people in town reading, but not in the way, and with the materials, Lula had expected. People in the town are changed in unexpected and powerful ways after reading the banned books disguised by the wholesome covers.

This is a hopeful and sweet book, and everyone (except a bad actor or two) is better off in the end. You have to suspend reality a bit but it's worth it. The power of reading, knowledge, fairness and equity bring things into balance.