Book bits

In Africa, writes journalist Stephanie Nolen, "AIDS is not an event, or a series of them; it's a mirror held up to the cultures and societies we build." Twenty-eight million people living in Africa today have been diagnosed with AIDS, so in 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa Nolen offers one story for each of those millions. All stories are based on her own reporting and first-hand observations in Africa and together they create a vivid, hard-hitting, but always compassionate portrait of one of the most devastating human crises of our time.

– Marjorie Kehe

Most challenged books

To mark Banned Books Week (Sept. 29 – Oct. 6), the American Library Association has listed the "10 Most Challenged Books of 2006." (A "challenge" is an attempt to remove books from schools or libraries.) On the list:

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Gossip Girls series by Cecily Von Ziegesar

Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Off this year's list: Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. –M.K.

Readers' picks

For a great "at the site of action" war story, choose any of David L. Robbins's books. I just finished Last Citadel. Robbins has a great command of description and he truly researches his history. This book deals with the German Tiger tanks and the Cossack war front in World War II. Also, in The End of War, Robbins gives terrific insight into the power struggle between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt. – Marilyn Kortum, Arlington Texas

I just finished Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and found it enchanting. I enjoyed seeing the relationship of the two sisters evolve and also that of the young daughter and older cousin. – Christine Kilmer, Troy, N.Y.

I'm reading Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. It's a very good book about John Paul Vann and the Vietnam War. I like the way the author achieves incredibly good depth in the people he is writing about and the details in his story. – Ted Picado, Rialto, Calif.

My wife and I are reading The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig. Beginning in 1909, this novel tells of the life of the Millirons, a recently widower father and his three sons, who are homesteading in Montana. Mr. Milliron hires Rose Llewellyn from Minneapolis, herself a recent widow, as housekeeper. What follows is funny, dear, sad, and totally engaging. – Eric Thacher, Potsdam, N.Y.

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. Her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries still hold up after 70 years!– Becky Sirrine, Phoenix

The Courtship of Julian and Frieda by Krista Perry Dunn is the remarkable and true odyssey of two young people who, in Nazi-occupied Austria, commit the capital offense: They fall in love.– Rosemary Reimer, Dolgeville, N.Y.

What are you reading? Write and tell us at kehem@csps.com.

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