Book Awards Reading Challenge

The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson won the 2007 Edgar Award. It is the fictional story of John Wells, an American and agent for the CIA. He is also the first and only American to have joined the ranks of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and moved up the pecking order toward becoming a trusted insider. His goal is to report as much information as possible back to the CIA so that al-Qaeda can be stopped before attacking the US once again. The problem is that both the CIA and al-Qaeda want his unquestionable loyalty, and being a slave to those two masters proves to be a very difficult and dangerous occupation.

The Faithful Spy is to spy thrillers what the Russians vs American Agent novels were to the Cold War. Anyone with an interest in the current global climate of terrorism would find something to engage him/her in this novel. It's timely, well written, and tightly plotted. It gives readers a sense of what kinds of sacrifices people who do what John Wells does make on a daily basis. It also points out the extraordinary sense of alertness and focus people on either side of the terrorism issue need to have all the time. Except, and this point is well made in the book, terrorists can be wrong many times; Counterterrorism agents only need to be wrong once. The responsibility is intense, and many who do this kind of work lead very solitary lives because the work consumes more of their time than anything else does.

Ever since 9/11, I have read more and more books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the influence of terrorism world-wide. I found A Faithful Spy to be an excellent addition to my collection. Not only is this a timely subject, but Alex Berenson has a very good grasp of the whole terrorism concept, and he was able in The Faithful Spy to give his readers a compelling sense of what fighting such an abomination can be. It's all-consuming and exhausting.

My Review is posted here at my blog.

This book is the 1997 recipient of the Edgar Award.

Henry Griswald is a moody, solitary boy whose father is the Headmaster of Chatham School. He dreams of life beyond his existence in the village of Chatham but has no idea that his life and the lives of those around him will be irrevocably changed by the events that take place in Chatham and at Black Pond in 1927.

I had some difficulty getting into this book. I am not exactly sure why. I enjoyed the author's writing style and I loved how the details of the story are handed out slowly making you want to learn just a little more. I can only attribute it to the fact that I am in a mid-winter funk. I am very glad I persevered though because I did enjoy it in the end.

There is a tragic air to this story that lets you know that a train wreck is inevitable. The reader can see that a chain of events is unfolding and wishes for the ability to alter circumstances for the characters and though things didn't unfold the way I thought they would, the ending is tragic just the same. This book turned out to be much better than I felt it would be at the beginning. (3.5/5)

Winner of the Edgar Award, 1987

This was an interesting mystery as family secrets are revealed a bit at a time. At first, the slowness of the narrative annoyed me, but overtime I began to appreciate the way Faith learned about her family's past along with the reader.


More book information here.

This is my fourth book for the Reading Awards Challenge and the winner of the 2005 Edgar Award. The plot revolves around the gruesome murder of Janelle Vonn in the late 1960s in Orange County, California. It traces the murder investigation by a rookie detective who happens to know the victim, and the case's portrayal in the newspaper by the detective's reporter brother.

Strengths of California Girl: I really enjoyed this novel.

Visit my blog for the rest of this review.

I lost track of the fact that I'm a contributer on this blog, so to get up to speed I'm going to do a quick post about the books I've read so far for this challenge.

2 Newbery Award Winners:
Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron --My review.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin --My review.

2 Pultizer Prize Winners:
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx (Also, a National Book Award) --My review.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee --My review.

1 Edgar Award Winner:
Bones by Jane Burke --My review.

The Sculptress by Minette Walters was the 1994 Edgar Award Winner. It is the story of Olive Martin who was arrested, tried, and convicted to spend at least 25 years in prison for the murder and dismemberment of her mother and her sister. She is called "The Sculptress" for the strange figurines she carves in her jail cell.

Rosalind Leigh is a writer who has suffered personal tragedy of her own. She is assigned by her editor to write a book about Olive Martin; it is an assignment she does not want but has no choice but to accept.

Through the course of her interviews with Olive, Roz becomes convinced that Olive did not commit the crimes of which she has been convicted. While doing research for the book, Roz becomes more and more involved in Olive's story all the while using the information she uncovers to build (at least in her own mind) a case for Olive's innocence.

This is a very tightly crafted mystery that for me easily falls under the heading "just cannot put it down until I know who did it". As a matter of fact, when I finished this book I wished that Minette Walters had written other mysteries using Roz as the writer/detective of true crime events. There is something very likeable about Roz as Walters has written her, and it would be a pleasure to read more about this character.

I highly recommend this book to mystery lovers -- especially the ones who like to see if they can unravel the mystery before the ending explains it all. The trail Walters leaves for her readers to follow is not an easy one, but the end is very rewarding.

Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Balliett, is reminiscent of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler but definitely stands on its own. Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay have a one-of-a-kind teacher. Instead of sitting them down with books and lectures and pointless homework excitements, she pretty much leads them where their fancy takes them. Petra and Calder aren’t friends at first, but as they bump into each other under some very interesting circumstances, a friendship quickly grows between them. They are fascinated with the theft of a Vermeer painting, and the thief’s insistence that the painting will not be returned until the works not actually painted by Vermeer are noted in all of the museums. They study the suspicious characters around them as they search for the painting.

The story is quick-paced but quite intricate in detail. Calder corresponds with his friend Tommy, whose stepfather Fred moved him and his mother away, using a code they invented from his favourite pentominoes. The letters to and from Calder and Tommy are written in code, and the reader has to decipher them to find out what was said. Very fun. And there is also a secret message in Brett Helquist’s delightful illustrations. I loved the book, and believe it definitely deserved its 2005 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile.

A sequel is out, called The Wright 3. Tommy is back in town, and perhaps a little envious of Calder’s friendship with Petra and their solution of the crime. Because everyone knows he’s a much better detective than Calder. I’m looking forward to reading this one as well.

Did I like it? Well, that’s a little hard to say. It was well written. The characters were believable. But the plot, well, not so much.

Duncan is spending his summer working in the lost and found section at the Toronto Transit Authority. That sounds more glamourous than it really is, as the majority of his days are spent packing up boxes of unclaimed items to go to the YMCA sale. He snares a cool leather jacket. One day, bored, he picks up a book with no title or author on the cover, and sits down to read. Instead of finding a novel, though, he is horrified to find that it is a journal of a sociopath’s experiments in animal torture, then arson, and his desire to move on to something bigger.

Duncan enlists his friends Vinnie and Wayne to help him track down the book’s author before a murder is committed. In the end, though, the man who Duncan has christened Roach turns up at the lost-and-found, asking for a book that he’d lost.

You know, I kept asking myself whether a sociopath would really go to the lost-and-found department looking for the book in which he’d written down all his bizarre experiments on animals and torture, and in which he’d recorded his plans for attacking a woman next, along with detailed notes on the three women he’d been following. I suppose it’s possible, but it seemed a little unreal to me. Okay, yeah, Duncan did take the journal to the police, who brushed it off as a kid’s summer prank. So he stole it back on his way out of the police station.

This thread was far-fetched enough that it really distracted from my enjoyment of the book. And the descriptions of Roach seemed as though they were taken right out of “Profiling for Dummies.” They were a little too far-fetched, in an already far-fetched book.

So I can’t say I enjoyed the book, but I would be willing to give the author another try.

Its official name was the World's Columbian Exposition, its official purpose to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, bu under Burnham, its chief builder, it had become something enchanting, known throughout the world as the White City. -From The Devil in the White City, page 4-

And in Chicago a young handsome doctor stepped from a train, his surgical valise in hand. He entered a world of clamor, smoke, and steam, refulgent with the scents of murdered cattle and pigs. he found it to his liking. -From The Devil in the White City, page 12-

Erik Larson has written an evocative and compelling novel about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the first known serial killer to strike on American soil. Told in alternating chapters, Larson reveals the excitement and creativity of man's imagination in the building of the fair, juxtaposed with the horrific destruction of an evil man's fantasies. Larson's ability to create setting and suspense, make The Devil in the White City read more like fiction than non fiction.

Cab drivers cursed and gentled their horses. A lamplighter scuttled along the edges of the crowd igniting the gas jets atop cast-iron poles. Abruptly there was color everywhere: the yellow streetcars and the sudden blues of telegraph boys jolting past with satchels full of joy and gloom; cab drivers lighting the red night-lamps at the backs of their hansoms; a large gilded lion crouching before the hat store across the street. In the high buildings above, gas and electric lights bloomed in the dusk like moonflowers. -From The Devil in the White City, page 17-

I found myself sinking into the story of the fair - relishing the details like the inventors who proposed outrageous ideas to "out Eiffel the Eiffel" and descriptions of the devices and concepts which were new in 1893, but which we now take for granted (moving pictures, the first zipper, an electric kitchen, an automatic dishwasher, boxed pancake mix, and Cracker Jacks to name a few). Set against the backdrop of the labor unions and economic depression, the novel reveals the true spirit of man's endurance and determination. The 1893 World's Fair is with us today every time we watch The Wizard of Oz (who's Emerald City was inspired by the tremendous architecture of the fair), or when we celebrate Columbus Day, or when we stroll down a carnival midway or ride a Ferris Wheel. Larson's accessible prose puts it all together for the reader without weighing her down with facts.

Larson's parallel story about H. H. Holmes - the first American serial killer - is just as compelling and provides the dark side to the White City.

I found some great Internet sites of photos and information about the fair here and here and here.

This is a novel I can highly recommend. Rated 4.5/5; read my original review here.

The Devil in the White City is a terrific non-fiction book. It is in the incredible story of the 1893 World's Fair held in Chicago and Dr. H. H. Holmes, America's first serial killer. The author, Erik Larson, has written a well researched book that is highly recommended, particularly to those interested in American history. You can read my full review at my blog.

I've never read anything by Dick Francis before even though he's a well known mystery writer. I suppose the picture of a horse, on almost all of his covers, was a major deterrent. I am not a horse lover, although I do love good mysteries.

This book was very well written: beautiful British phrases, intricately woven details of the plot, fine character development. But the premise, discovering the person who was cutting off colts' feet and why, was less than exciting to me. I'm still not quite sure why it won an Edgar Award, even though I did admire the ex-jockey turned investigator (Sid Halley) very much as our hero.

Overall, I finished the book with the same opinion in which I had begun it; Dick Francis is a mystery writer for horse lovers, not me.

I'm Pamela and can be found at http://paigesbookblog.blogspot.com/

My list for the challenge is:

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt - 1997 Pulitzer (Biography/Autobiography)
B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton - 1986 Anthony
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly - 1992 Edgar Award (First Novel)
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak - 2007 Book Sense (Children's Lit)
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen - 2001 National Book Award
Eldest by Christopher Paolini - 2006 Quill Awards (Young Adult/Teen)
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald - 1997 Commonwealth Writers (First Book)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - 2007 Pulitzer (Fiction)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - 1990 Newbery Award
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1962 Nobel Prize
Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky - 2004 Prix Renaudot
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - 2007 Alex Award

Award winners I read in the first half of 2007 (not counted for the challenge):
Angle of Repose **** (Pulitzer)
Atonement ***1/2 (NBCC)
To Kill a Mockingbird ***** (Pulitzer)
The Echo Maker **** (NBA)
The Road ****1/2 (Pulitzer)
Everyman * (PEN/Faulkner)
The Giver ****1/2 (Newbery)
March ***1/2 (Pulitzer)
The Inheritance of Loss ***1/2 (Booker/NBCC)
The Handmaid's Tale ****1/2 (Governor General)
The Stone Diaries ****1/2 (Pulitzer/NBCC/Governor General)
Amos Fortune, Free Man **** (Newbery)
The Color Purple **** (Pulitzer)
A Wrinkle in Time **** (Newbery)
Number the Stars **** (Newbery)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell ****1/2 (World Fantasy/Hugo)
The Bone People **** (Booker)
Wild Swans ****1/2 (British Book of the Year)

Award-winners read before 2007:
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson ***** (Pulitzer/NBCC)
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway ****1/2 (Pulitzer)
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck ****1/2 (Pulitzer)
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney ***** (Whitbread)
The Chatham School Affair by Thomas H. Cook ****1/2 (Edgar)
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Newbery) *****
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Newbery) ****
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Newbery) ****1/2
The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare(Newbery) *****
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Newbery) ****1/2
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Newbery) ****1/2
...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Newbery) ****1/2
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Newbery) ****1/2

** I had to switch my list around to be able to fit this challenge into my 2008 challenge schedule.

Here is my list:

1. Number the Stars – Lois Lowry NEWBERY(1990)
2. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini ALEX AWARD (2004)
3. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak PRINTZ HONOR BOOK(2006)
   
4. Bootlegger's Daughter - Margaret Maron ANTHONY AWARD(2001)
5. The Poet - Michael Connelly ANTHONY AWARD(1997)
6. No Colder Place - ANTHONY AWARD(1998)
   
7. Water For Elephants -Sara Gruen ALEX AWARD(2007)
8. Blood Work-Michael Connelly ANTHONY AWARD(1999)
9. Mercy Falls - William Kent Krueger ANTHONY AWARD(2006)
10. Blood Hollow - William Kent Krueger ANTHONY AWARD(2005)
11. Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson PRINTZ HONOR BOOK(2000)
    
12. The Chatham School Affair -Thomas H. Cook EDGAR AWARD(1997)

2012 Gone by Mo Hayder
2011 The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
2010 The Last Child by John Hart
2009 Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
2008 Down River by John Hart
2007 The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
2006 Jess Walter, Citizen Vince
2005 T. Jefferson Parker, California Girl
2004 Ian Rankin, Resurrection Men
2003 S. J. Rozan, Winter and Night
2002 T. Jefferson Parker, Silent Joe
2001 Joe R. Lansdale, The Bottoms
2000 Jan Burke, Bones
1999 Robert Clark, Mr. White's Confession
1998 James Lee Burke, Cimarron Rose
1997 Thomas H. Cook, The Chatham School Affair
1996 Dick Francis, Come to Grief
1995 Mary Willis Walker, The Red Scream
1994 Minette Walters, The Sculptress
1993 Margaret Maron, Bootlegger's Daughter
1992 Lawrence Block, A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
1991 Julie Smith, New Orleans Mourning
1990 James Lee Burke, Black Cherry Blues
1989 Stuart M. Kaminsky, A Cold Red Sunrise
1988 Aaron Elkins, Old Bones
1987 Barbara Vine, A Dark Adapted Eye
1986 L.R. Wright, The Suspect
1985 Ross Thomas, Briarpatch
1984 Elmore Leonard, La Brava
1983 Rick Boyer, Billinsgate Shoal
1982 William Bayer, Peregrine
1981 Dick Francis, Whip Hand
1980 Arthur Maling, The Rheingold Route
1979 Ken Follett, The Eye of the Needle
1978 William Hallahan, Catch Me: Kill Me
1977 Robert B. Parker, Promised Land
1976 Brian Garfield, Hopscotch
1975 Jon Cleary, Peter's Pence
1974 Tony Hillerman, Dance Hall of the Dead
1973 Warren Kiefer, The Lingala Code
1972 Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal
1971 Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, Den skrattande polisen, English
translation as The Laughing Policeman
1970 Dick Francis, Forfeit
1969 Michael Crichton writing as Jeffrey Hudson, A Case of Need
1968 Donald E. Westlake, God Save the Mark
1967 Nicholas Freeling, King of the Rainy Country
1966 Adam Hall, The Quiller Memorandum
1965 John le Carré, The Spy who Came in from the Cold
1964 Eric Ambler, The Light of Day
1963 Ellis Peters, Death and the Joyful Woman
1962 J. J. Marric, Gideon's Fire
1961 Julian Symons, Progress of a Crime
1960 Celia Fremlin, The Hours Before Dawn
1959 Stanley Ellin, The Eighth Circle
1958 Ed Lacy, Room to Swing
1957 Charlotte Armstrong, A Dram of Poison
1956 Margaret Millar, Beast in View
1955 Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye
1954 Charlotte Jay, Beat not the Bones