Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

by Kirsten Miller

Ronnie was absolutely certain that the world would be a much better place if more folks stepped out of the boxes they’d come packed in and opened their minds to the mysteries of the universe.

When you have everything, the only luxury left is taking things away from others. It was an indulgence that Lula Dean certainly seemed to relish.

As far as he was concerned, if your faith was shaken by foul words or sex scenes, then you must not have had very much to begin with.

There is no need to make magic. There is magic all around us. We need only to recognize it and make use of what is already there.

And as far as I know, Jesus never said a damn thing about gay folks or barbecue. But he sure did talk a lot about love.”

They had to do whatever it took to keep future generations from living lives more fulfilling than their own.

This glorious antebellum South they yearned for never featured any of the ugly realities of the past—body odor, hookworm, rape, cesspools, death, disease, and whippings, not to mention the unrelenting poverty of the folks called white trash.

They went around waving a flag they claimed was all about heritage. The flag for which their poor ancestors had fought and died, while the rich slaveholders who’d started the war were exempted from service by Jefferson Davis himself.

Beverley was reminded of the advice the town librarian had given her all those years ago. You get to choose whose footsteps you’ll follow, Jeanette Newman had told the young Beverly. Find a set that went in the right direction.