Book ~ "Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books" (2024) Kirsten Miller

From Goodreads ~ 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.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. The "Girl’s Guide to the Revolution" is wrapped in the cover of "The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette". A jacket that belongs to "Our Confederate Heroes" ends up on "Beloved". 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. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch - including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer and the former DA - all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town ... and change it forever.

Growing up, Lula's family was well-to-do but that changed when her father lost his company (and the family lost their lavish lifestyle) because of  his questionable business practices, which is something Lula never got over. When Lula's husband died young, she received a large insurance payout and she became intolerable ... so much so that as soon as her two children were old enough to leave home, they did and Lula never heard from them again. Lula was cut from the cheerleading squad in high school by Beverly and never forgave her. Now the two are running for mayor of their small town and Lula will do anything to win. 

As Lula has gotten older, she has gotten worse ... her latest mission was to rid the town library of what she deems to be inappropriate books. She creates a small free library in front of her house filled with what she feels are more wholesome books. Lyndsay, Beverly's daughter, doesn't think this is right so as a prank removes those books and refills the library with the banned books but with the dust jackets of the books that been approved by Lula. People in the town are borrowing books from the library, surprised once they start reading them that they aren't actually the books they were expecting but continuing to read them. The books start changing the lives of the readers, with some of the residents becoming more tolerant of others' races and sexual orientations but others becoming increasingly more militant.

I thought this book was okay but there was a lot going on ... the back stories included racism, slavery, homophobia, Nazis, rape, terrorism, spousal abuse and more. The writing style was okay but I thought it dragged a bit in the middle. It's written in third person perspective. I liked the beginning because it seemed like the chapters were devoted to a specific banned book and how it changed the reader's life for the better. I found there were a lot of characters and I had to keep going backwards to remind myself who they were and what their story was again. Some of the characters a bit unbelievable. For example, there is a woman who met and married her husband very young and had a child right away. Twenty or so years later, she has no life other than serving her husband and son but miraculously changes once she read a book. As a head's up, there is swearing.