Village of Cuba Library Starting ‘Subversive Shelf’ Book Club

May 3rd, 2026

CUBA, NY— The Cuba Circulating Library has announced a brand-new book club “The Subversive Shelf” dedicated to reading the American Library Association’s top 100 most challenged books.

The purpose of the group, whose theme was chosen by attendees after they finished their Jane Austen themed book club, is not only to read but also to explore why these books might have been banned in the face of the sweeping book bans that have been going on across the country for the past few years. The posts on Instagram and Facebook promise “From banned classics to controversial YA and juvenile fiction, we’re exploring the stories some people don’t want you to read.”

“I wanted to draw attention to the phenomenon that’s going on in our country right now with so many books being challenged,” says Tina Dalton, the library’s director, “Why are we wanting to limit what people are reading and talking and thinking about? You know, what can we as a community do to protect our freedom of information and freedom of speech?”

Book bans and book censorship have become much more common in the past few years. School districts across the nation have been pulling books off the shelves based on challenges from parents or the community, decisions made by the district’s administration, or in response to government action.  According to PENAmerica, there were 6,870 instances of book bans across 23 states and 87 public school districts during the 2024-2025 school year. A majority of these books explore themes of race/racism, gender identity, sexuality, and violence. While these bans are mostly occurring in states like Florida, Tennessee, and Texas, there have been occurrences of book bans in New York. During the 2023-2024 school year, there have been 65 instances of book bans across 21 districts in the state. The major concerns with these book bans are that they hinder students’ ability to understand different perspectives, diminishes their reading capability by restricting access to books, and that they violate the first amendment.

Dalton says that there has been a huge amount of interest in the ‘Subversive Shelf’ book club. “It’s really surprised me what a hit it’s been. Like, the number of people who are attending the book club doubled. We have more interest in the topic of banned books than we did Jane Austen.” Dalton credits the members’ passion for reading for the interest, “I mean, everyone who was in that previous book club, they’re all library lovers and book lovers, and so they were very interested in that topic.”

The first book covered by the club will be Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel about a world where books are illegal. “It’s just such a classic,” Dalton says, “and I mean, even that book [Fahrenheit 451] that’s about book banning has been banned.” Some other books the ‘Subversive Bookshelf’ The Diary of Anne Frank, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 1984 by George Orwell, and Melissa by Alex Gino.

The first meeting is April 21, at 6:30 pm. Meetings will occur on the third Tuesday of every month.