...as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

Davidson romps through the eighteenth century ...Her vast command of its literature and history... is put to use in demonstrating that politeness and manners served hypocritical aims, principally the subjugation of servants and women...

Reading is a democratic activity, argues Philip Pullman, and theocracies discourage it.