Book Awards Reading Challenge

The Higher Power of Lucky
by Susan Patron

2006, 134 pp.

Newbery Medal

Rating: 4/5




This book created a little controversy when it won the Newbery Medal because it contains the word 'scrotum' in relation to a snake bite on a dog. I'm almost conservative as they come, and I don't see what the big deal is. I really liked this book and found it to be very charming.

Lucky is a girl whose mother has died and who lives with a Frenchwoman. They live in the desert of California in a very small (population: 43) community. Also in her life besides her French guardian Brigitte are Miles, a cute little boy whose favorite book is Are You My Mother?, and Lincoln, a boy her age who is obsessed with knot tying.

These relationships and the longings of this little girl form the heart of the book. I really cared about these characters and found myself rooting for all of them.

I have spent more time thinking about my list than reading since I saw this challenge on a friend's site. Thank you Gill!
Eventually I have decided to commit to the five below. Like lots of other fellow challengers I have a list of read before challenge and I would like to go back and read some again, so I have put them plus my others to choose from at the bottom, to be decided!

1 The Color Purple by Alice Walker Pulitzer 1983, National Book Award 1983) First read July 19th 2 The Bone People Keri Hulme Booker
3 A Visit to William Blake’s Inn; Nancy Willard Newbery
4 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood Booker Prize 2000
5 The Higher Power of Lucky Susan Patron Newbery

To be decided
The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
Schindler's List Thomas Keneally
Hotel Du Lac Anita Brookner
Moon Tiger Penelope Lively
Possession: A Romance A. S. Byatt

The Plague Albert Camus
Atonement Ian McEwan

I actually finished reading “Three Junes” last weekend, but have been putting off writing my review, because (at the risk of sounding ‘literary illiterate’) I’m still not certain if I enjoyed the book or not.

According to the back cover, this 2002 National Book Award winning novel is one “set in Greece, Scotland, Greenwich Village, and Long Island, that traces the members of a Scottish family as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises.” Written in three sections which each focus on different central characters, I found myself either utterly apathetic or completely absorbed with them, depending on where I found myself in the book.

You can read my full review here

This challenge intrigued me from the first moment I saw it...and I joined immediately...I knew that this challenge would stretch me to read some books I wouldn't normally pick up...

I've selected eight that I'm for sure going to read...ones that I probably would have picked up...and then another eight that I'm interested in reading...but I probably wouldn't have picked up...and I'll select my final four from this list depending on what I'm in the mood for when the time comes...

here are the 8 definites...

• Unashamed by Francine Rivers (Christy 2001)


• Arena by Karen Hancock (Christy 2003)


• Songbird by Lisa Samson (Christy 2004)


• Whence Came a Prince by Liz Curtis Higgs (Christy 2006)


• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Newbery 1946)


• The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois (Newbery 1948)


• The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Newbery 1950)


• Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Newbery 1952)

here are the 8 alternates...

• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Pulitzer 1939)


• Lonesome Dove by Larry McCurtry (Pulitzer 1986)


• The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Pulitzer 1983, National Book Award 1983)


• Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (Commonwealth Writers' Prize 1995)


• Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann (Nobel 1929)


• Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (Nobel 1929)


• something by Rudyard Kipling (Nobel 1907)


• something by Ernest Hemingway (Nobel 1954)


• something by John Steinbeck (Nobel 1962)

I haven't read any of these books...so I'm really looking forward to this challenge...thanks, 3M!

blessings, mamabright :-)

I reviewed the God of Small Things (winner of the 1997 Booker Prize):

Excerpt - "The God of Small Things is a complex book that addresses personal loss and weighs it against a country’s politics and cultural traditions. It revolves around one day in the life of a pair of fraternal “egg-twins, ” Estha and Rahel, a day that changed their lives forever, and changed the world very little at all."

The complete review is here.

This book is an interesting peek into the lives of gangsters in 1930's New York. Billy Bathgate was born in the Bronx slums, living a fatherless and reckless life, until he is befriended by famous gangster, Dutch Schultz. Schultz shows him the inner workings of crime, killing, gambling and bootlegging. Billy latches on to this less-than-admirable life as way to scratch some type of existence for his insane mother and himself. An opportunist and a quick study, Billy seems to be numb to the unethical lifestyle of a gangster. That is, until he falls in love with Schultz's girlfriend...(more).

Title: The Optimist's Daughter
Author: Eudora Welty
Country: America (south)
Year: 1972
Rating: B+
Pages: 180 pgs

Prize: 1973 Pulitzer

The Optimist's Daughter is a character-driven rather than a plot-driven story. Therefore, a quick summary of the plot does not do it justice. The majority of what makes the novella a good read is hidden below the surface, as Welty explores issues including love, loss, memory and the passage of time. Although short, it is not an easy read, and is best read at leisure, absorbing the words rather than scanning them.

Read more here.

It too was not on my list but I finished reading it. Hence posting an excerpt of my review.


The Moon Is Down
By John Steinbeck
First Published: 1942
ISBN: 0140187464
Publisher: Penguin/1995
Pages: 112
Rating: 4/5


It is lesser known than some of Steinbeck's other works, but it can be compared with his best. The story moves with good pace, the portrayals are effective and the story rises to make powerfully its eternal point about human liberty. The book is an assertion of freedom and human spirit. This may be the most direct, concise and effective piece of mass propaganda ever written but even after more than six decades, this novel is just as relevant and just as compelling.....

For full review, click The Moon is Down...

David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars is an intriguing mix of literary finesse and shrewd plot-making. While it may not exactly qualify as genre-bending it does tend to push the limits of a reader’s boundaries. The opening chapter, filled with taut courtroom dialogue and jumpy fisherman ‘types’ seemed to run perpendicular to the breathtaking character portraits that followed it. This back and forth continued throughout the book, although it may be safe to assume that the more literary aspects of the novel remained dominant.

The novel is set on the coast of an island in the Puget Sound in 1955 and follows the trial of Kabuo Miyamoto, a local fisherman of Japanese origin who is under arrest for the murder of Carl Heine, another local fisherman. The murder is supposed to have been committed over a land dispute going back to before the war when Miyamoto’s family worked on the Heine family strawberry farm.

The novel uses this ‘drama’ as a backdrop to explore racism, the complications of love and loss, and above all, the destructive capacities of war on an individual. The main male characters in the novel – Ishmael, Carl and Kabuo – share a certain grim understanding of what part of their soul they were asked to give away when they willingly went to war to fight for their country. All of them use the word murderer in their self-reflection, an idea that is only accentuated as Kabuo’s murder trial plays out.

Guterson moves easily from one perspective to another, detailing the interior life of the many individuals that make up the small island community. Through these variegated lenses he manages to paint a faithful and engaging portrait of life as it may have been before and after WWII in a community that was home to a significant percentage of Japanese-Americans. All of whom were sent to the internment camps and who struggled with their bi-cultural identities.

Kabuo’s wife, Hatsue, is the character Guterson uses to express most of this bi-cultural burden and the novel follows her life in exquisite detail. From her childhood working on the island’s strawberry farms, to her secret adolescent love affair with Ishmael Chambers, to her internment during the war and subsequent marriage to Kabuo. She is a remarkable character. Torn between her understanding of her own culture and her youthful love for Ishmael, she navigates a harsh course through the racial climate of pre-WWII America.

Ishmael, for his part, returns from the war minus an arm but overloaded with a raft of bitterness. About losing Hatsue and, especially, about his understanding of how the war managed to transform him. He is a pivotal element of the novel, a man in possession of valuable information about the murder trial. His emotional struggle is one of the more poignant elements of the entire book.

Overall, Guterson does manage to marry the considerable differences between the more sensational undercurrents of the story and its literary mood, creating a lovely piece of fiction with a lot to say about 1950’s America.

This review cross posted at Incurable Logophilia

I recently completed A Confederacy of Dunces, Pulitzer Prize winner of 1981. I originally picked it for the Southern Reading Challenge as it is set in New Orleans. I had never heard of the character of Ignatius J Reilly before, and I'm not sure why, because surely, there is no character like him in literature. This thirty year old, over educated, doofus, still living with his mother wreaks havoc wherever he goes. This comedy is filled with very interesting characters and was laugh out loud funny in parts.

Wow. What a powerful book. I immediately was drawn into the characters. This book is about several black women and their lives and how they all come together while living at Brewster Place, a run down tennament.


It was funny at times and sad at times. I had hoped the end would be more joyful. It did have that "life will go on" message, but not as much as I had hoped. The hardships these women had to endure were so real. Definitely a book not to be missed.

~Rebecca at Fond of Books

Review also posted HERE:

Opening Sentence: "...Gramps says that I am a country girl at heart, and that is true..."

Rated 'C'

For the first two weeks of the challenge, I read two Newbery Medal Award winners. First, A Visit to William Black's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard. Click the link for my super small review of this lovely and wonderful picture book. I love William Blake's poetry as much as the author does, and the whimsical pictures and poetry she writes in homage are delight. It makes me nostalgic for innocence.

Today, I finished Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. I found it interesting based on the information it has about survival and life in the Arctic, and I wonder how much has changed since the book was published thirty years ago. I will eventually read both sequels to the trilogy.

Looking forward to my next updates and posting longer reviews when I can.

Finished reading and reviewing another book of short stories. This time by Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Again adding one more book to my list...!! I will update my list soon.


Title: Innocent Erendira
Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
ISBN: 0140157522
Publishers: Penguin Books/1996
Pages: 183
Genre: Short Stories
Rating: 4/5




Err..I should say it has a novella and 11 short stories. All are Marquez like..:D

The novella, The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother, is a very poignant rendering about Erendira, who is only fourteen years old when we first meet her and is punished by her grandmother in a very diabolical manner when she accidentally burns her grand mother’s house. The way Erendira has to repay is heart rending. She runs away numerous times only to be brought back....

For more, click here..

They traveled lightly, the Gillayleys, not loaded down with trivia. But then, in the end we all travel very lightly indeed. Nothing to carry more substantial than memories...and maybe that's the heaviest baggage of all... -From The Bone People, page 323-

Keri Hulme's Booker Prize winning first novel - The Bone People - is a searing, brutal novel about love, violence, language, and mystery. Set in the bleak environment of a New Zealand sea town, the novel introduces three damaged characters all seeking something more in their lives, all having suffered loss and trauma.

Kerewin Holmes, a frustrated artist who turns to alcohol for solace, has built herself a tower - a self-imposed prison, where she can hide from the world and stave off the pain of her family's rejection. She holds tenaciously to her philosophy of life: "...To care for anything deeply is to invite disaster."

Joe also chooses alcohol to warm his soul. He has lost his wife and is trying to raise his adopted son Simon alone. Joe's love for Simon is a mixture of tenderness and brutality.

Simon, perhaps the most heart wrenching character in the book, is a child with a mysterious past. Washed up on shore after a shipwreck and breathed back to life by Joe, Simon is mute, angry and disturbed. These three characters come together in a clash of culture and ambivalence and burn themselves into the heart of the reader.

Hulmes writing is poetic and lyrical, filled with mystical ambiance and beautiful imagery. It ebbs and flows like the sea, building to a terrible climax. At times, feeling battered and exhausted, I wanted to put the book down and not finish it; but each time the words and the story lured me back. There are some beautiful and haunting passages in this novel, such as when Simon gifts Kerewin an amber, gold, turquoise and coral rosary and Kerewin thinks:

Hulme treats the reader to a great deal of Maori culture, weaving Maori phrases throughout the novel (she also provides their translation in an appendix). The book veers into mystical realism at times, which I believe actually added to the mood and flavor of the story rather than taking away from it.

The Bone People is not an easy read - it is disturbing and rips at the reader's heart - but, ultimately its words and imagery, its message about what it means to be human, will linger with the reader long after the last page is turned.

Highly recommended.

**Original review posted on my blog.

I recently finished a non-fiction book about the 1986 accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. It was a heartbreaking book, filled with interviews with the people who suffered through it, the people who's loved ones died from radiation poisoning. I did not know much about the accident before reading this, I only knew that it was tragic and frightening. I can't imagine how scary it must have been to be endangered by something invisible, something that is almost impossible to contain. I have posted a full review of the book on my blog.

Beowulf
Translated by Seamus Heaney
215 pages
First sentence:"So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness."

Beowulf is the ancient tale of the terrorizing of the Danes by Grendel, the heinous beast, and the hero, Beowulf, who travels in defense of the Dane kingdom. This translation is poetic yet masculine to the core. I read along to the sound-recording read by the author, which was a pleasure. Mr. Heaney's accent was certainly a plus. But I warn those who may try to listen while they read, this book-on-tape is comprised "unabridged sections" of the original. That means that every so often a sentence or 2 are skipped. And several times a page or 2(or 3) are completely removed. I had to stop the tape and read these to be able to find where the story had jumped to. Most of the time the section skipped over was reflective of past battles and didn't have anything to do with the storyline.

I was familiar with the story already but had never read the entire book, which is not long or difficult at all. Though the book is over 200 pages, all the left-hand pages are written in Old English while the right-hand pages are in Modern English; so you're actually reading only about 100 pages, broken down in poetic stanzas. The language is full of emotion. The characters, while we would consider them arrogant and boastful, for it's original time period they would appear courageous and noble, or cowardly and spiteful, depending on the individual.

I enjoyed my reading time. It is clear why this translation won the Whitbread Award. The author is also the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1995. I have to agree with this assessment:

"for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles
and the living past."

I read this in preparation for 9th grade Lit. in the fall. The story is violent and a bit graphic but any older child who loves adventure will listen to this story with pleasure. If they can tolerate the Lord of the Rings then this one will be no trouble. Just don't try to pronounce the names.

Hi Readers -
So here are my twelve (okay ... thirteen, I made it a baker's dozen)
1. The Sea by John Banville (Booker Prize for Fiction)
2. The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard (Agatha Award)
3. Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger (Anthony Award)
4. Snow by Orhan Panuk (Nobel Prize)
5. We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (Orange Prize)
6. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (PEN/Faulkner Award)
7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer Prize)
8. Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak (Edgar Award for Best Critical Work or Biography)
9. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (Printz Award)
10. Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson (National Book Award for Young Peoples' Literature)
11. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan (National Book Award for Non Fiction)
12. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (National Book Award for Non Fiction)
13. Paladin of Souls by Louis McMaster Bujold (Hugo and Nebula Award)

I've actually got a couple of these sitting on my nightstand, I've started with The Road by Cormac McCarthy which my friend Holley recommended very highly!

Just by way of introduction, I'm married with three girls and am a LiBrArIaN in my copious spare time =) You can visit me at The Burrow. I'll be posting my reviews in both spots. I hope to hear from you!
Later -
K

In usual anticipation of new Harry Potter books, I'll reread the entire series, however, this time I decided to only read the 6th book, since I have yet to reread that book. I'm glad I did that, if only because I have a whole lot of other books to read! This also counted for my first book choice in the Book Award Challenge, having won the British Book Award.

I'm not going to do a plot synopsis on this book, you all know how it goes, but I will say that I loved this book, as I love all of the other Harry Potter books. This one is touching in more ways than the others, and just as exciting as books 4 and 5. Harry Potter and Dumbledore gain even more strength in their untouchable bond and Harry continues to learn more about his past, as well as his future. I will admit, tears were shed at the end of the story and it took me a bit of time to recover. I'm recovering all over again now!

I'm very much looking forward to next week and the release of book 7, though in an extremely bittersweet way. This books have meant a lot to me over the years and now they're ending, however I know Rowling will do it in a tasteful and sentimental manner. I can't wait to read it!

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
1961 Pulitzer Prize

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is about a young tomboy growing up in the Deep South during the mid-1930"s. The book spans a little over two years as she learns about prejudice.
I've written a little more at my blog, KimmiesKrap
I recommend this book to everyone. It's a very easy, entertaining and heartwarming story.

Kimmie

Here is my updated list for the challenge:

1. Sarah, Plain and Tall - Patricia MacLachlan (1986 Newbery)
2. The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978 Booker)
3. March - Geraldine Brooks (2006 Pulitzer)
4. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (1961 Pulitzer)
5. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997 Booker)
6. The Giver - Lois Lowry (1994 Newbery)
7. The Hours - Michael Cunningham (1999 PEN/Faulkner; Pulitzer)
8. The Optimist's Daughter - Eudora Welty (1973 Pulitzer)
9. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000 Booker)
10. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (2005 Hugo)
11. Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler (Nebula)
12. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (2007 Pulitzer)

Extras/Alternates:
1. Sophie's Choice - William Styron (1980 National Book Award)
2. Paladin of Souls - Lois McMaster Bujold (Nebula)
3. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson (2004 National Book Critic's Circle; 2005 Pulitzer)
4. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides (2003 Pulitzer)
5. Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech (1995 Newbery)

OK, I know the challenge has just begun and I don't have to have a fixed list but I've been playing with it all the same. I've swapped out a few from my first preliminary list and added in some that I've been especially wanting to read. I don't think I'll need to do any more re-arranging now for a while!

Here's my updated list:

1. The Love of a Good Woman – Alice Munro (Giller Prize 1998)
2. Mercy Among the Children – David Adams Richards (Giller Prize 2000)
3. My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk (IMPAC Dublin 2003, Nobel 2006)
4. No Great Mischief - Alistair MacLeod (IMPAC Dublin 2001)
5. The Road - Cormac McCarthy (Pulitzer 2007)
6. The Tenderness of Wolves - Stef Penney (Costa/Whitbread 2006)
7. Le soleil de Scorta (Scortas’ Sun) – Laurent Gaudé (Prix Goncourt 2004)
8. Suite française – Irène Némirovsky (Prix Renaudot 2004)
9. Them – Joyce Carol Oates (National Book Award 1970)
10. The Silent Cry - Kenzaburo Oe (Tanizaki Prize 1967, Nobel 1994)
11. Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata (Nobel 1968)
12. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II – John Dower (Pulitzer/Non-Fiction 2000, National Book Award/Non-Fiction 1999)

I won't re-list all the possible alternates but you can see the full post on my blog HERE.

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
By Yiyun Li
ISBN: 000719663-6
Publishers: Harper Perennial/2006
Pages: 203
Rating: 4/5

A collection of short stories "Thousand years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li" was not on my list. After I picked it up, I saw that it has won "Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award" and "The Guardian First Book Award."

'A Thousand Years of Good Prayers' portrays a discerning look at life in contemporary China and its recent past. Most of the stories take place in a rural and small town China labouring under economic change and the move to a more free-market economy. All the ten stories delve into the ruin of the Cultural Revolution on the modern Chinese. The writing is immaculate, vivid, at times deeply unsettling. The stories cover a wide range of topics...

.......for more, click Thousand years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li...

It is time to talk about an old friend. Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. A novel that has become without a doubt my most favorite book in the entire world. Okay, so you might think I'm a bit overly dramatic at times. (I've been told this countless times.) But this time, I really, really mean it. (You still don't believe me, do you?) To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born. No, I wasn't born loving Ender's Game, but sometimes it feels like it. (Yes, it was that life-changing.) It was seven years ago. The fall of 2000. I was taking a Master's level class in Children's Literature. The professor was Dr. Betty Carter. Ender's Game was a required book for the class. Up until that point, I had never read a science fiction book. Never heard of Orson Scott Card. Never even heard of the Nebula and Hugo awards. I was in for quite a surprise. I liked it, I really liked it. Melodramatic as it sounds, this book opened up a new world for me. I began to devour anything and everything Orson Scott Card. I began to spend my weekends searching used bookstores for copies of his works. And I began to obsessively check his official website maybe not every day but more than three times a week. I especially fell in love with his "Uncle Orson Reviews Everything" columns. And as my whole family--even extended family--can tell you, I began centering whole conversations around Orson Scott Card. Did you know that he.....Guess what OSC thinks about this....If OSC likes a movie, then I'll see it. (Although I don't always always agree with him on everything.) If he recommends a book, I try to read it. (I especially read it if it's a kid or YA book since that's my passion.) So maybe it's not normal to know what your favorite author likes to watch on tv...but if he chooses to write about it...then I might as well read it and remember it like trivia. Why is Ender's Game such a life-changing book? Yes, it is wonderful. Yes, it is practically perfect in every way. Yes, I could read it a hundred times and never get bored with it. But it did much more than that. Now, when you ask me to list my top ten books...or my top twenty books...it's hard for me not to make the majority of my list Orson Scott Card.

Ender's Game is the novel that started it all. It remains my favorite and my best. My second favorite would probably be Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.

What makes Ender's Game so perfect? The characters. Yes, there is action. Yes, there is a war. But it is the characters that draw you in. It is Ender and Valentine and Peter that make you keep turning the pages. I think OSC gets characters in a way that few other authors do. He creates thoroughly human characters.

Andrew Wiggin "Ender" shows readers that it is not easy to be a hero. That 'saving the world' demands great sacrifice and selflessness. A hero's life is not a happy life. Yet a hero is what the world needs when the story opens. Set hundreds of years in the future, Ender's Game shows an Earth that has survived two alien invasions. The "Buggers" (an insect-like alien race) have been defeated twice. But the war--though over--carries on. As long as this alien race is out there somewhere, the Earth could still be in danger. Therefore, the world has united as one to fight their common enemy. The brightest and best children are taken from countries all over the world to Battle School. This school is a space station. The children--ranging in age from six to sixteen--are trained from the very beginning by the military. Everything has a purpose--from the "video games" that psychoanalyze each student to the battle games the children play in zero gravity. The military--the powers that be--believe Ender to be the savior that the world has been looking for all these years. And they will devote their lives to ensuring that he becomes exactly the kind of hero they need for the final battle that is to come. The problem? Such training is not healthy psychologically. These children aren't really children. They're being raised to kill and destroy the enemy as defined by the powers that be. They're being taught to hate. They're being taught to love war....to love battle...to love competition. They don't know about love. They don't know about kindness. They don't know about mercy and compassion. Most forget what life was like on Earth altogether. They've forgotten about their families, their homes, their customs. In other words, they've forgotten just why Earth is worth defending and protecting. The war has become a game to them almost. A fight for the sake of fighting.

To read a more in-depth review (also written by me) click here. Although I'll warn you now, there are spoilers. It was written for a class. And in writing assignments like those, it is all about summary and analysis. And you can't analyze a book without discussing the ending!

My Author Study Paper on Orson Scott Card

Winner - Anthony Award - Best First Novel, 1992

This is the first book of the Alex Jensen (Alaska Mystery) series. I especially appreciated the map at the beginning of the book as I frequently referred to it. I also liked learning about the history of the Iditarod trail and about the mining villages. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Termination Dust.

More book information here.

I finished Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead last week and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was an interesting read because although all the important aspects of ‘story’ were present and perfectly acceptable, even interesting, what I found more compelling about the book was its preoccupation with what it means to be human and to love, how to find happiness and how to be a good person.

Quite unusually, I was not invested in the story per se, not the way I can be with other books. What I mean by that is that there was no real urgency to my getting through the beginning-to-end story. All the same, the experience of submerging myself beneath Robinson’s prose was something I did not want to end. The tone was reflective, meditative and very insightful. I could open the book to nearly any page and find an example worth reading aloud:

"That mention of Feuerbach and joy reminded me of something I saw early one morning a few years ago, as I was walking up to the church. There was a young couple strolling along half a block ahead of me. The sun had come up brilliantly after a heavy rain, and the trees were glistening and very wet. On some impulse, plain exuberance, I suppose, the fellow jumped up and caught hold of a branch, and a storm of luminous water came pouring down on the two of them, and they laughed and took off running, the girl sweeping water off her hair and her dress as if she were a little bit disgusted, but she wasn’t. It was a beautiful thing to see, like something from a myth. I don’t know why I thought of that now, except perhaps because it is easy to believe in such moments that water was made primarily for blessing, and only secondarily for growing vegetables or doing the wash. I wish I had paid more attention to it. My list of regrets may seem unusual, but who can know that they are, really. This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it."

The premise of the book creates a reflective and quiet mood - it is a life’s testament, lovingly written by an older father, who has been told he doesn’t have much longer to live, as a gift for his very young son. The idea being that the son won’t benefit from the usual time spent together to absorb his father’s personality and any experiential wisdom…the father is writing to fight against that reality. And although I say the mood is quiet, there is a feeling of ‘fight’ inside of it. The 76 yr-old Reverend Ames does not want to die, does not want to leave what he considers the beauty of living. Similar to the one above, he devotes several passages to this idea - the beauty of raw existence, the beauty of health and youth, the beauty of quiet reflection.

His reflections become much more than touching letters to his son - they become a kind of meditation on humanity, on reflection, on character.

There is turmoil at the heart of the story, mostly surrounding human transgression, but I am very surprised to find how much optimism, hope and compassion floats around in the text. And it is not a simple or naive optimism. It is complicated and careful, well-thought out and candid.

This was cross-posted in two parts at: http://incurablelogophilia.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/experimental-success/

These are my tentative twelve selected from my actual pile of books.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven (Hugo/Nebula)
2. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie (Booker/James Tait Black Memorial)
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (Nobel)
4. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (James Tait Black Memorial)
5. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle (Booker)
6. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (National Book)
7. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Booker)
8. Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (Arthur C. Clarke)
9. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Pulitzer)
10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Booker)
11. Atonement by Ian McEwan (National Book Critics' Circle)
12. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Royal Society Prize)

I'll finalize the list by the end of the month. For now I'll start with one of these and will revise as I go along. Or I could retain this and simple add additional titles much later. Happy reading to everyone!

This is a list of Pulitzer Prize Winners I will be reading for this challenge. My reason for entering the challenge can be found at Maggie Reads. I do so look forward to sharing with the group.

2006 - March - Geraldine Brooks
2005 - Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
2004 - The Known World - Edward P. Jones
2003 - Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
2001 - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
1995 - The Stone Diaries - Carol Shields
1990 - The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos
1988 - Beloved - Toni Morrison
1987 - A Summons to Memphis - Peter Taylor
1986 - Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
1983 - The Color Purple - Alice Walker
1980 - The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer
1968 - The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1958 - A Death in the Family - James Agee
1952 - The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
1947 - All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
1942 - In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1940 - The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
1939 - The Yearling - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1932 - The Good Earth - Pearl S. Buck
1928 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey - Thornton Wilder
1925 - So Big - Edna Ferber

The Blind Assassin is the type of novel that my English professors would have assigned to me if I was a college student right now. This book encompasses everything my forward-minded professors adored in modern literature: complicated plots, creative storytelling, literary allusions, feminist implications, symbolism and foreshadowing – all wrapped up into a neat yet complex package...(more)

1985 Booker Prize

The Bone People wasn't an easy read, with characters like Kerewin, Joe, and Simon and their somewhat unorthodox relationship. In addition, the prose was unique and could be difficult, but for some reason, I easily let myself go and floated along on the lyrical, magical words. I quickly understood who was thinking or speaking in the unusual style of Hulme's writing. The Maori words and phrases list at the back also helped, but didn't need to look that often as the meaning was usually clear.

Joe is a widower and foster parent to Simon, a mute child with severe behaviour problems. They suddenly enter Kerewin's life and Tower home which is all the more amazing as she is an artist and hermit, happily miserable in her own world. This unusual threesome quickly bond, but it is a difficult relationship as all three seem used to pushing people away. It is a difficult life to read, with much violence and drinking.
Overall, I really liked the book. The writing especially carried me along, and even when the book became mystical and, to me, vague, I still was able to feel connected to the story. A line of Kerewin's I particularly liked was
A hook to his jaw and a hook in his thumb and a kind of hook in my heart, by God

And while I can't say the characters were terribly likeable - there were mean streaks in each of them, I still rooted for the three of them together. There was about much Maori legends and the New Zealand setting was powerful. Hulme does a great job of bringing the reader to her land and her Maori culture. This was a book unlike any other I've read.
ps thanks for the book Michelle!

Here are my choices for the challenge:

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison [Pulitzer (Novel) 1988; Nobel 1993]
2. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood [Booker 2000]
3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole [Pulitzer (Novel) 1981]
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck [Nobel 1962]
5. Empire Falls by Richard Russo [Pulitzer (Novel) 2002]
6. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis [Pulitzer (History) 2001]
7. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace [Pulitzer (History) 1999]
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck [Pulizer (Novel) 1940; Nobel 1962]
9. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison [National Book Award 1953]
10. Life of Pi by Yann Martel [Booker 2002]
11. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez [Nobel 1982]
12. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington [Pulitzer 1919]
13. Possession: A Romance by A S Byatt [Booker 1990]
14. The Red Lily by Anatole France [Nobel 1921]
15. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro [Booker 1989]
16. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris [Pulitzer (Biography) 1980]
17. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson [Royal Society Award 2004]

First thoughts on my twelve:



The Chatham School Affair - Thomas H Cook (Edgar)

Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Pulitzer)

Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (Booker)

The Siege of Krishnapur - J G Farrell (Booker)

Coram Boy - Jamila Gavin (Whitbread Children's Novel)

Set in Stone - Linda Newberry (Costa Children's Novel)

Property - Valerie Martin (Orange)

Mister Pip - Lloyd Jones (Commonwealth Writers Best Novel)

Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald (Commonwealth Writers Debut Novel)

The Book of Chameleons - Jose Eduardo Agualusa (Independent Foreign Fiction)

The Broken Shore - Peter Temple (Duncan Lawrie Dagger)

Joseph Knight - James Robertson (Scottish Saltire Book of the Year)

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.

The Door in the Wall
by Marguerite de Angeli

(1949, 121 pp.)

Newbery Medal

Rating: 4 out of 5




My favorite passage sums up this book nicely:

"Fret not, my son. None of us is perfect. It is better to have crooked legs than a crooked spirit. We can only do the best we can with what we have. That, after all, is the measure of success: what we do with what we have."

Robin is a boy whose father expects him to be a knight. When his father goes off to war, Robin is left alone and falls ill. His legs are slightly crippled afterward. Some monks come to his aid and he learns to "do the best with what he has." Recommended.

I've just finished the first book in my Book Awards Reading Challenge, The Giver. The Giver is a children's book, written for kids about Maya's age (aka, probably found in the young adult section in the library), and it won the Newbery Medal in 1994. The Giver is sort of science fiction, set in the future, and at first appears to be a Utopian setting. The main character is Jonas, a 12-year old boy. At the age of 12, children learn what their careers are going to be. A group of elders watches them for a couple of years prior to them turning 12, while they volunteer throughout the community, so that the elders can see where the childrens' interests and skills lie. Jonas is selected for a very rare role, that of the Receiver of Memory. In this Utopian society, memories have been lost to most of the population. Children only have contact with their parents until they grow up and move out, and thus there are no stories handed down, no grandparents, no history. The elders know that some wisdom comes from knowing what happened before, however, so they keep the Receiver of Memories around, so they can ask him or her for advice when something new happens, something that they haven't dealt with before. The Receiver of Memories has memories going back to perhaps the beginning of time, memories of starvation, war, disease, happiness, joy, love, holidays, everything.

I could go on and tell you more, but I don't want to ruin the story for you. This was an excellent book, a quick, easy read, and one that I would recommend to anyone.

The Sea
by John Banville

2005, 195 pp.

2005 Booker Prize

Rating: 2 out of 5



This was not my cup of tea. I don't need an exciting plot to enjoy a book. I don't mind older men looking back on their lives. In a similar vein, I loved Marilynne Robinson's Gilead but hated Roth's Everyman. This was closer to Everyman.

Max is a widower that is overly sensitive to smells who is grieving (I guess?) over his wife. He calls her the "c" word and admits he really didn't know her because he preferred not to know her.

Not one character in the book was likable. I guess I was lucky this was short.

The Moviegoer. Walker Percy. (NY: Vintage, 1960 [1998 reprint]). 241 pages.

I have posted my first review for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. To read the review CLICK HERE.

The Moviegoer won the 1962 National Book Award and I found it to be a great read.

The winner is Peter Temple for his novel The Broken Shore.

My first book I read for this challenge was To Kill A Mockingbird, I had read it in high school, but I knew I needed to read it again as an adult. My very short review is at my blog fond of books.

I finished my first entry. It was "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson. I have my 2-cent blurb at KimmiesKrap. I can't claim to give good reviews so I just write about the basics.

"Gilead" is a letter from a dying 77-year-old preacher to his young son. He is trying to see that the young boy gets an idea of who his father was. He tells him about his family history and the relationships between fathers, friends, and God. "Gilead" is a book that should be read slowly and savored.

Kimmie

PLEASE let me know if I've left anyone off this list. Also, if I've put you on this list and you're already a contributor to this blog, let me know. It's hard to keep track of everyone. I think there's already over 70 participants!

a.book.in.the.life
Ant Queen
Chauceriangirl
CJ (My Year of Reading Seriously)
Debi
Debi's daughter Annie
Framed
Jelly Jules
Jenny (Up the Hill Gang)
Lynne's Little Corner
Rosangela

Winner: Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
Click on picture for story.

I just reviewed my first Award Challenge book on my blog. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts because truthfully? I did not like this book. At all.

(3M, if you would prefer me to post a review on this site, please tell me. I do not want to go against your plans!)

I just joined this group and this is my list - as of today - I am leaving room for additions or changes.

1. The Bridge to Terabithia - Paterson/Newbery
2. Bel Canto - Patchett/Pen/Faulkner
3. War Trash - Ha Jin/ Pen/Faulkner
4. The Good Earth - Buck/Nobel-Pulitzer
5. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Shriver/Orange
6. The Known World - Jones/Pulitzer
7. Atonement-McEwan/NBCC
8. Kate Vaiden- Price/NBCC
9. Wide Open - Baker/Impac Dublin
10. Small Island-Levy/Commonwealth Writers
11. March-Brooks/ Pulitzer
12. Stones for Ibarra - Doerr/National Book Award

As of today, I own all but three of these books so that is an added bonus. I look forward to hearing about the wonderful books everyone is reading.

My 12 are (not necessarily in the order I will read them):

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech - Newbery Award - Finished - Review HERE
Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen - Newbery Award
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson - Newbery Award
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg - Newbery Award
The Borrowers by Mary Norton - Carnegie Award (TBR)
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Gouge - Carnegie Award (TBR)
A Thousand Acres by Jan Smiley - Pulitzer Prize
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - Orange Prize
Falling Free by Lois Mcmaster Bujold - Nebula Award (TBR)
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx - National Book Award
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling - Hugo Award (TBR)
The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard - Agatha Award

Extra list - in case any of above are non-finishers (This will be added to as I come across others)
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear - Agatha Award