The Color Purple
The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009 at number seventeenth because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels."
Stats for nerds
5recommend
16mentions
15people
2008–2026years
31% recommend69% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Man’s Search For Meaning (Frankl), The Color Purple (Walker), Orbital (Harvey)
Not specifically for the HN community but these are the only books I read this year that I would recommend without qualification.
- It was surprising to me just how many of the banned books have immense literary value. The Color Purple, The Handmaid's Tale, The Kite Runner, etc. aren't random books that may be a little obscene, they're literary classics. In my opinion this is what makes it obvious that these bans were made in bad faith.
- The Color Purple - Even on re-reading I get emotional because the story is so powerful and impactful to me.
- 83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
- Usually I will find out what book famous people has read, what are their favorite books, hope that any book which bring influence on them, will bring good influence on me too.. also, as famous n successful people combined with their experience, I'm sure they have better taste on their choice too.
Stephen King's Favorite: This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes Saturday by Ian McEwan The Mad Cook of Pymatuning: A Novel by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson The Tenderness of Wolves: A Novel by Stef Penney When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel by Kate Atkinson
J.K. Rowling's Favorite: The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith Skellig by David Almond The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Jeffrey Eugenides, author, Pulitzer prize winner "Herzog," by Saul Bellow "Love in a Fallen City," by Eileen Chang "The Lay of the Land," by Richard Ford
Oprah Winfrey's Favorite: White Oleander by Janet Fitch The Color Purple by Alice Walker A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
For complete list visit http://www.famouspal.com
- It is not disingenuous, maybe a little loose on the 'meaning', but your definition is rather narrow. The Color Purple has been challenged many times in order to be removed from public library circulation and public school curriculums. Annie on my Mind was banned from the Kansas Public School system and subject to book burnings at the federal courthouse. The removal of the book (ban?) was overturned by the court. There are many similar examples of this on banned book lists. Colloquially, the term 'banned' is used often to encompass books that are actually banned, challenged, or illegally removed from public spaces due to a group actively censoring literature for various reasons. I think that general use is fine rather than being pedantic about it considering the social and intellectual costs involved. To call a book that is removed from circulation illegally not banned because there is no law banning it is foolish, since that is a reoccurring tactic among groups applying censorship on communities.
