A Bath LGBTQ+ nonprofit is launching a new book club focused on controversial and challenged literature.

“I think we lose focus once we leave public school about the importance of reading books that are difficult to talk about,” said Bath Pride organizer Sam Hallowell. “I am hoping people can learn something about books they may have forgotten about if they read them as children.”

Bath Pride’s Instagram page first teased the Banned Book Club in December 2024. The nonprofit expects to hold the group event in the evening on the third Wednesday of every month at Patten Free Library.

Hallowell got the idea from hearing about book bans in the news and wanted to start a book club focused on books banned or challenged in the U.S. People interested in participating do not have to be members of Bath Pride.

Bath Pride partnered with the Mocking Bird Bookstore in downtown Bath, which recommends books and provides discounts to participants. Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” this month’s book, will be discussed from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, at Patten Free Library.

The book has been challenged or banned in school districts across the country as far back as 1998, primarily over concerns about sexually explicit material, descriptions of child abuse and focus on racial issues.

January’s book was “Year of Wonders” by Geraldine Brooks. Around six people showed up for January’s Banned Book Club, but Hallowell expects more to attend this month’s discussion.

None of the people who attended last month’s Banned Book Club had read “Year of Wonder” before, with a mix of attendees who either loved or hated the book. For Hallowell, this made the conversations more interesting, asking questions about why the books are subject to bans.

The American Library Association included it on its list of the 100 most-challenged books of the decade, primarily due to themes of “witchcraft, mental illness and repressed sexuality.”

Next month, the group will focus on Angie Thomas’ 2017 debut novel, “The Hate U Give,” which is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.

“If you are trying to avoid a difficult conversation with your kids, maybe think about why that is,” Hallowell said.

Hallowell believes that reading books by people of color and LGBTQ+ authors broadens one’s horizons.

Hallowell used to be the assistant manager at a bookstore and remembers the graphic memoir “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe flying off the shelves during the American Library Association’s banned book week because people wanted to know what was so controversial about it.

“I think the more people who value perspectives that are maybe pushed under the rug or actively censored, keeping those voices alive and relevant will go far in the next few years,” Hallowell said.

Banned Book Club meets for about an hour on the third Wednesday of each month in the second-floor Community Room of the Patten Free Library. Hallowell will announce the books for the next quarter in the following week.