This is my favorite book of 2024.

After “The Change,” I had been not so patiently waiting to see what Kirsten Miller would write next. When she posted on her social media the title and a synopsis for her next book, I was already hooked. This was my most anticipated read of this year, and to say that it exceeded my expectations would be an understatement. This is such an important book. I am a staunch opponent of book banning, so I was really interested to see how this author handled it. It’s listed not only as women’s fiction, but also as satire and humor. Needless to say, she knocked it out of the park.

In the state of Georgia lies the town of Troy. In this town a battle is brewing between two of its citizens: Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean. Beverly is the head of the school board, and Lula Dean is trying to protect the citizens of Troy by removing books deemed inappropriate from the local libraries. Lula puts books she deems appropriate for the town to read in her own Little Free Library. Unbeknownst to everyone, Beverly’s daughter Lindsay switches the books in the Free Library with banned books, but leaves the original covers. What happens is a true transformation for the whole town.

Every person in this town has a story, and Kirsten Miller weaves a tale that shows all of the good and the bad. You get to know the people of Troy. There are good changes and changes that are not so good. There is humor and sadness throughout the story. What I loved the most was how she repeatedly showed how a book can change a life. It melted this life-long reader’s heart. When I finished, I sat on my porch in tears. I was so much more emotional than I anticipated.

Just as important as the book itself is the Author’s Note. It is an incredibly moving explanation behind the book. I was in tears at the end…and hopeful.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the absolute privilege of reading this book. It releases on June 18th. I encourage you to preorder it. It is exceptional.

Kirsten Miller's book The Change is one of my all time favorites, needless to say I was absolutely giddy when I was approved for an ARC of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, available June 18, 2024.

Lula is leading the book ban in the small town of Troy, Georgia. Without her knowledge someone fills her little library with banned books that are disguised in different book sleeves. What follows are the charming (mostly) perspectives from the residents as they read the books, the impact the books have on their life, the lives of their family members and the life changing results it has on the town as a whole.

I felt all the emotions with this one, it was uplifting, emotional and will resonate with me for a long time. It does a fantastic job of outlining the dangers we face when people attempt to control what we are able to consume.

Many thank to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be an outlier here. The premise of this book deals with the serious topic of banning books. While I agree that no book should be banned, this book is quite liberal and I don't think I am the right audience. I consider myself somewhat conservative. I also did not like the amount of foul language. This is my first book by the author and went into it not knowing what to expect. I think many will enjoy this book, but it's not a writing style I prefer.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller from William Morrow/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Of course I absolutely _had_ to read this book because I live in the great state of Alabama, where we dare defend our rights.

Just as long as “you” are one of “us.” And want to read, worship, live, and love exactly the same way “we” do. Because your rights are probably what we consider wrongs, and we can’t have that, now can we?

God I hate us so much sometimes. So, so very much. Extra when we’re banning books and defunding libraries, which is very much the order of the day here lately (I write this in April of 2024).

So, yeah, given the times and the fact that I enjoyed Kirsten Miller’s book The Change, I was thrilled to get the advance reader copy of Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, and whipped my way through it in one setting. Loved it, even if seemed awfully fairy tale optimistic in many, many respects. Ms Miller is smart and witty and she nails that small-town Southern “nice” vibe like you wouldn’t believe. She had me laughing out loud more than once.

It’s a pity that some of the small-minded people who are trying to limit access to books in public and school libraries won’t ever read this book and see things from a different perspective. Such a pity.

Oh, two more things. First, I’d start this book by reading the author’s note at the end, first. In fact, if Ms Miller and her people are still open to suggestions, I’d opine that it should be put at the beginning of the book. Second, I’ve got a story for you…….

A Story For You
I know I’ve told this story out loud many, many times over the years, and I’m pretty sure I’ve included it in at least one other Book Report, if not more. But this is the absolute perfect place to share it, so here I go again.

When I was I guess in middle school, in the summer my mom would drop me and my younger brother and sister off at the library while she shopped for groceries. This was of course long before the days of cell phones, so we just had to finish up our browsing and checking out in X amount of time and be waiting on the stairs for her to come by and get us when she was done with her shopping.

Well, one time as we were getting in the car I was very upset because the librarian had not let me check out a book I wanted. Imagine my shock when my mother turned off the car and said, “We’re all going back inside.” She pretty much marched up the steps and into the library and up to the circulation desk, where she asked the librarian had she refused to check out a certain book to this child.

The woman said yes, it was from the adult section and did not seem appropriate for her age. My mother, with ice in her voice and veins and fire in her eyes, said, “This is MY child and her father and I will determine what is suitable for her to read. Let her check that book out NOW, and whatever she wants in the future.”

Whoa. My mother (aka my pusher, these days), taking my side instead of that of another adult?? WHOA.

So, I got the book, we went home. And unloaded the groceries, as we always did. Then she asked me to give her the book, which I did. (Memory fades…..pretty sure it was some Harold Robbins or the like.) And she said, “You can’t read this. It’s too old for you.”

I was gobsmacked. “But, but, Mama, you made her let me check it out!”

“Yes, I did, and I also told her that your father and I would determine what is and isn’t appropriate for you, and this is not appropriate.”

Bless my little heart!

I guess I probably snuck around and read it in chapters while at the library at different times in the future, can’t remember. But what I can always remember is my mother (and daddy) standing up for what was right.

DESCRIPTION
“Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books is shaping up to be this summer’s Big Read. Kirsten Miller has that rare ability to take a serious subject and make it very, very funny. I enjoyed this novel and you will too.”--James Patterson

The provocative and hilarious summer read that will have book lovers cheering and everyone talking! Kirsten Miller, author of The Change, brings us a bracing, wildly entertaining satire about a small Southern town, a pitched battle over banned books, and a little lending library that changes everything.

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

What Lula doesn’t know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula’s library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. That's when the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.

Lula Dean is the epitome of a Southern Belle super-conservative. She forces her town's libraries to pull books off the shelf that SHE deems inappropriate, and won't listen to reason. She puts up a Little Free Library in front of her house, and fills it with old, out-of-date books that no one really wants to read. When a college student home for a visit learns of the LFL, she empties out the books that are there, and puts the book jackets on books from Lula's banned book list. Chaos and revolution in this quaint Southern town ensues.

I LOVED this. I finished it in about 36 hours. It was SO MUCH fun. Fair warning, there are a LOT of triggers for those who have trouble with discrimination and racism. It's RAMPANT. But most of the worst characters start learning their lesson, or receive their comeuppance.

I have Little Free Library in front of my house. Granted, I don't manage to have many banned bills in mine, but I do my best to keep a wide range of topics in there. I think I'm going to get a copy of this, just so I can share it!!

This was so delightful, I can't wait to talk it up at the library. Love, love, love.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

This book was definitely timely. Sometimes hard to read and frustrating but all too real. I’m not usually a fan of political books because reading is an escape for me from real life, but this was well done and I enjoyed it.

Thank you William Morrow and Kirsten Miller for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Kirsten Miller just has a way of making her characters pop right off the page, it's so impressive to me! This book is unfortunately extremely timely but damn it if it's not absolute perfection. In the words of Schmidt: No Notes.

The Change was in my Top 10 Books of 2022 and Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books is definitely going to be making my top 10 in 2024. Seriously, I cannot recommend this book enough. I've got my finished copy pre-ordered!

Pub date: June 18.

Eons ago, in undergrad, I read a critic who believed that, at the core of Mark Twain’s humor, was rage. I tend to agree with this. Outside of his more slapstick bits, Twain’s commentary frequently hums with a kind of moral outage that he bends into hilarious storytelling. Best example: His first book, a send-up of European and Holy Land travel and travel writing, The Innocents Abroad.

It was this energy I felt the entire time reading Kirsten Miller’s newest Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. If you read her previous novel, The Change, you know she works deliciously from a place of rage. Harriet is still one of my favorite characters I’ve read, and so I was THRILLED to see how Miller might take her same verve and apply it to the topic of book banning.

I’ll start by saying that Lula is not The Change. So if you weren’t a rabid fan of The Change (like moi), this may be the Miller book for you. I think the difference between these two, and I’ve spent months figuring out how to say this (because I desperately want to be friends with Miller and I hate not loving a book of hers): The Change felt like characters led the concept. With Lula, it felt like the concept led the characters.

Which it may have. Miller notes in the afterword that her editor actually pitched her the concept of a little free library with banned books.

Don’t get me wrong: I love what Miller is saying with Lula. She is doing the Lord’s work. I think this is a fun concept; there are lots of great moments and laughs; I just would have preferred more focus on a smaller cast of characters, particularly octogenarian lawyer and cake master Wilma Jean Cummings, who absolutely, ahem, erupts from the pages.

Overall, 3.5/5 ⭐️ for me.

Read with: ebook 📱

For fans of:

-truth, justice, and the American way
-the complicatedness of small Southern towns
-the power of the book
-ensemble casts

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Kirsten Miller for sending me an ARC!

This is a tough review for me to write. I finished the book 3 days ago and I’ve been trying to put my feeling into words ever since. I really enjoyed The Change by Kirsten Miller and I was hoping to love this one as well. However it is a very different book. It is enjoyable - lots of humor in a small southern town, but the topics covered are very political and sometimes hard to laugh about. Topics include book banning, racism, prejudice - both racial and LGBTQ - gun ownership, BLM and CRT.
I’ll give it 3 stars. Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins for the digital ARC.

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books is a satire set in Georgia. It is the story of a Southern town that is politically and ideologically divided. Lula Dean is a woman on a mission to get the books she finds deplorable banned. She is soon leading the Concerned Parents Committee, made up of herself and other members of the community that don’t mind making their divisive views known. The CPC pulls all of the books they find to be undesirable from the library and school bookshelves. Lula puts a Little Library of the books she believes should be available to the town in her front yard. Meanwhile, a smaller, less vocal contingent starts to fight back by giving people the chance to experience the books the CPC has decided they should not be reading.

Many people in the town have their minds changed in positive ways by the books they find in the new and improved Little Library. Not everyone is convinced or swayed by the changes that start happening to and around the people in the town, but many good conversations take place between families and neighbors throughout the story. Some are funny, some are heartwarming, some are sad or frustrating, but all are important in their own ways.

The stories of many of the townspeople’s experiences with the books they borrow are interwoven throughout the pages, which lends a cohesiveness to the narrative that makes it even more interesting and poignant. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It deals with racism, white nationalist beliefs, homophobia, anti-Semitism, ageism and a host of other issues (including, of course, the banning of books) in an incredibly thought provoking way. This is a book that we should make sure all of the states, towns, schools, and libraries that try to ban books receive a copy of, because who needs to hear the message about the importance of providing access to all types of literature more than the people trying to deny that very access to others?

If the idea of banning books bothers you, you’ll also want to pick up a copy of Kirsten Miller’s book as a reminder of why we must continue the fight against the practice. This may be a work of fiction, but the truths it shows us are all too real, and happening right now all around us. Books can’t save themselves; they need readers to do the work for them to remain on the shelves where they belong.
Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Kirsten Miller for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Kirsten Miller's, Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books, is what the country needs right now. Everyone should read this novel. What happens when banned books are disguised with different dust covers? This is a novel for anyone who loves books and libraries and who knows how important it is to read. It is perfectly okay to read novels, as well as nonfiction and history. Readers learn about the world beyond their own doorstep when they read.

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books is a series of vignettes about what happens in the small town of Troy, Georgia, when people read books that have been banned. The literary device is what happens when banned books are disguised by the dust covers of books deemed acceptable. Miller cleverly uses dust covers, with titles that complement the banned books within. Reading enriches lives, while allowing readers to escape into a new and dynamic world. Books teach us compassion and history and how important it is to read. Books of all kinds teach lessons about honesty, compassion, and hope. Reading is how people are educated about the world and about difference. Readers learn empathy and how important it is to get to know those who are different than us. Reading books accomplishes all of these lessons. I know I am preaching to the world of readers, but I hope I can illustrate all that Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books can accomplish.

Miller's characters are richly described and complex. Readers of Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books meet characters of all walks of life. The title character, Lula Dean, is vicious, mean, hurtful, and focused on revenge. Her meanness has isolated her from the rest of the town. She uses grudges to feel important and to ban books and hurt others. Of course, Lula has not read the books she bans. In contrast, Beverly is Lula's counterpart. She gives back to her small community and is much admired. Beverly is who Lula wishes she could be. Finally, Wilma is the perfect description of how older people can still contribute to the world. She is not useless, as so many people seem to think. She may be elderly, but Wilma has much to contribute. There are many more characters who make up the small town of Troy and who will delight readers.

I definitely recommend Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books. Miller's novel is the perfect novel for people who love libraries and books. Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to read and review. I honestly hope that everyone will read Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books and be educated about the world of books.

4.5 stars rounded up

Kirsten Miller certainly knows how to write fleshed out, engaging characters! I loved The Change by this author and Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books did not disappoint! This novel follows the residents of a small Georgian town who are shaken up when one of the locals forms a Concerned Parents Committee hellbent on banning books. When she sets up a Little Free Library outside her house, a prank is pulled and all her wholesome books are replaced with insightful and life changing novels. I particularly enjoyed the first few chapters which followed individual characters as they each pick out a book from the library and have their lives and routines changed by the words they read.

Miller’s novel reflects on the politics that have been tearing our nation apart and makes great commentary on the importance of access to novels and open information. I loved following the residents of Troy and seeing the progress they made. An overall hopeful novel despite the conflict it addresses.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for access to an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was pure magic (but, to be clear, there is no fantasy/magic in the book). It was pure and heartwarming, but also dealt with some real issues in the world.

Plus, haven't we all encountered a book that changed our lives?

Lula Dean is craving attention and admiration. She found her cause in protecting children by banning books from the local library and school libraries. She even built a little free library in front of her house with acceptable books. But there s a rebel in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia. A local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets, and restocked Lula’s library with banned books: literary classics, gay romances, Black history, witchy spell books, Judy Blume novels, and more. In a case of the right book finding the right reader, her neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways.

Why I started this book: Requested an ARC because I had read The Change with my Book Club and loved it... plus this title appealed to me.

Why I finished it: I was hooked by the first chapter and read this book in one day. It was so delightful. (Okay at parts it felt a little to pat, but I loved it all.). And I do believe that the right book at the right time can give you the bravery to change you life. I am looking forward to pressing this book into patrons' hands once its published.

Synopsis: The results of a book ban and Lulu Dean’s little library shake up the small town of Troy, Georgia.

Thoughts: I had such high hopes for this book. The premise sounded amazing but definitely fell short for me. I did not find anything about this book funny. It was very depressing how divided this country is. The book ended up being very political and after a few chapters, it felt like the same theme hammered into the reader over and over again. This book is definitely left leaning politically. Topics of racism, LGBTQIA+, rape, suicide etc. are included in this book.

Thank you to Kirsten Miller, William Morrow and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Kirsten Miller is a new author for me. The story is about a small Southern town battling book banning. I enjoyed the interconnecting characters and how books can open minds.

The story made me reflect how grateful I am to my Silent generation mother that she let this Gen Xer read whatever I wanted.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Hooray for everyone who supports intellectual freedom. What a fun novel about circumventing book banners.

Wow! This is exactly what we need to read right now with these crazy efforts to ban books from school and public libraries. This is a hilarious satire about what happens when one small minded person in a small southern town tries to ban books in her town and how many of the townspeople fight it in their own individual way.
Lula Dean is a nasty, attention seeking person and to get the attention she craves, she decides to go to the school board and demand that many books in the school libraries and classrooms be banned. Lula Dean has set up a Little Free Library at her house that has "appropriate" books for the townspeople to read, but late one night, Lindsay, the college age daughter of the school board president swaps out the "appropriate" books with some of the banned books but keeps the book covers of the "appropriate " books on the books. As these switched out books are borrowed and people catch on and add their own books, a quiet revolution takes place in this town. The affect of these books are told in separate chapters and addresses the issues of racism, antisemitism, gender and sexuality.
This book addresses what happens when books are banned but also what a community can do to combat the book banning when they join forces and speak up and out.
Book banning is a serious topic but the author created a very entertaining and charming story while getting her message across.
This is a very timely book and I highly recommend it.

Thank you William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I loved this satirical look at book banning, racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, all wrapped up in a small town story about a power grabbing, attention seeking Lula Dean and the community members that work together to defeat her. While Lula Dean forms a committee to protect the children of the community by pulling books from the library that they deem inappropriate, an enterprising young person changes out all Lulas little library books with banned books by changing out the dust jackets. One by one the banned books are shown to make a difference in peoples lives, and various chapters are devoted to how those characters are changed.

We are introduced to a lot of characters, and I would have loved to see more of retired DA Wilma who I adored, but I was eventually able to keep everyone straight. Despite the important subject matter, the author manages a balance of humor and heart, and although some of our townspeople are basically caricatures of a certain type, she gets her point across in a thoughtful and enjoyable way. I think there are many important and timely issues dealt with here in a clever satirical story, and it was a hit for me.

Thank you to net galley and the publisher for this e galley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I really enjoyed this book about a small town in Georgia, book bans, and how to stand up for what you believe in. It's a story about how books can transform lives. And it's funny!!