I have several perpetual challenges going on, and last year it was my goal to read 6 books in each category. I made my goal in some categories but not in others. This year, I’ll have two different levels. Some categories will have a 6 book goal, and some will have a 3 book goal. I’ll list some possible titles below under each category, but I do reserve the right to change my titles at any time.
Here is the plan for 2010:
Pulitzer Prize – 6 titles
2010 winner
2002 – Empire Falls (Russo)
2001 – The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Chabon)
1992 – A Thousand Acres (Smiley)
1989 – Breathing Lessons (Tyler)
1981 – A Confederacy of Dunces (Toole)
1937 – Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1936 – Honey in the Horn (Davis)
1935 – Now in November (Johnson)
1925 – So Big (Ferber)
Booker Prize – 6 titles
2010 winner
1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan
1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
1982 Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
1981 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Newbery Medal – 6 titles
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
The View from Saturday by Konigsburg
Holes by Sachar
NYT Notable – 6 titles
American Rust by Phillipp Meyer
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The Maytrees by Annie Dillard
Kafka on the Shore by Murakami
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Orange Prize – 3 titles
2009 Home, by Marilynne Robinson
2008 The Road Home, by Rose Tremain
2006 On Beauty, by Zadie Smith
2005 We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
2004 Small Island, by Andrea Levy
2002 Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
2001 The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville
1998 Larry’s Party, by Carol Shields
Printz Project – 3 titles
2009 Jellicoe Road by Marchetta
2006 Looking for Alaska by John Green
2001 Kit’s Wilderness by Steve Almond
Nobel laureates – 3 titles from 3 different laureates
Finally made out my Top 20 list, although I had to make it 21 because I just could. not. remove. any. more. titles from the list. I had already taken off The Age of Innocence, The Help, and Shanghai Girls, which was painful to say the least. I did include some ya/children’s titles as well, though, because they were just that good. Still, I probably left off at least ten 4.5 star books, but what’s the use of a top 30-35 list? It just must be narrowed down somehow.
I’m also working on a stats post, but that takes a little time so look for that later in the week.
I read a lot of great books in 2009. Really great. It’s too bad I didn’t review more of them. I’m still going to try to at least get to the ones on this list, though. I owe them that much. I just hope I have the same success in 2010 as well.
Anyway, in the list below, the first five are ranked, while the rest are in no particular order.
This year I made the Book Awards Challenge quite a bit more difficult by requiring 10 different awards, but it’s okay to cheat a little, too. For instance, I’m mostly interested in the Pulitzer, Orange, and Booker winners, but I can still find some of those winners on other lists, too. So of course it’s acceptable to use double winners in that manner. For instance Lonesome Dove (a Pulitzer) also won the Spur Award, and Bel Canto (an Orange) also won the PEN/Faulkner. There are other examples below as well. In looking at my list below, I’m really surprised that I have that many titles as possibles for the Nebula. Maybe I need to read more from that award!
Hope everyone has fun attempting this challenge.
Here is what I’m thinking about for the Book Awards IV:
Anthony Award – She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
Booker Prize – Disgrace by Coetzee
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize – Andrea Levy, Small Island
OR Kate Grenville, The Secret River
OR Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (U.S. title: Someone Knows My Name)
Costa/Whitbread – Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
Edgar – Blue Heaven by C.J. Box
Giller – Alice Munro, The Love of a Good Woman
Hugo – To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
IMPAC – Michael Thomas, Man Gone Down OR Rawi Hage, De Niro’s Game OR Herta Müller, The Land of Green Plums
James Tait Black – Rosalind Belben, Our Horses in Egypt
Kiriyama Prize – Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
Miles Franklin - Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
NBCC – Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres
Nebula – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon OR The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon OR American Gods by Neil Gaiman OR Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler OR Doomsday Book by Connie Willis OR Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card OR Neuromancer by William Gibson
Newbery – Lynne Rae Perkins Criss Cross
Orange Prize – Home – Robinson OR On Beauty – Smith OR The Idea of Perfection – Grenville OR Larry’s Party – Shields
PEN/Faulkner - Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
PEN/Hemingway – Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Printz – Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta OR Looking for Alaska, John Green
Pulitzer – Empire Falls – Richard Russo OR American Pastoral - Philip Roth OR Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler
Spur – Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
OR Tallgrass By Sandra Dallas
OR The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udal
World Fantasy Award - Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay OR Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Thanks to those 2009 Pub challenge participants who made it a great success! I hope you’ll consider joining the 2010 Pub as well. For those who didn’t participate last year but want to read more 2010 releases, join us. New members are always welcome! The challenge lasts for all of 2010.
Here are the 2010 rules:
Read a minimum of 10 books first published in 2010. You don’t have to buy these. Library books, unabridged audios, or ARCs are all acceptable. To qualify as being first published in 2010, it must be the first time that the book is published in your own country. For example, if a book was published in Australia, England, or Canada in 2009, and then published in the USA in 2010, it counts (if you live in the USA). Newly published trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks do not count if there has been a hardcover/trade published before 2010.
No children’s/YA titles allowed, since we’re at the ‘pub.’
At least 5 titles must be fiction.
Crossovers with other challenges are allowed.
You can add your titles as you go, and they may be changed at any time.
Thanks to all those who participated in the first three book awards challenges!! Are you up for a fourth? The challenge for Book Awards IV will last for 10 months, from January 1 through November 1, 2010.
Rules:
Read 10 books from 10 different awards during January 1, 2010 through November 1, 2010.
Overlaps with other challenges are permitted.
Choices don’t have to be posted right away, and lists may be changed at any time.
‘Award winners’ is loosely defined; make the challenge fit your needs.
If you’d like to be a contributor on the Book Awards blog, email me at 3m.michelle at gmail and reference your blog address if you have one. (I must have your email address, so comments to this post won’t work.)
Did you participate in the Decades ‘09 last year? Would you like to again? Or, if you didn’t take part in 2009, are you interested in doing so in 2010? We’d love to have you join us!
Decades 2010 Rules:
Read a minimum of 10 books in 10 consecutive decades in 2010.
Books published in the 2000’s do not count.
Titles may be cross-posted with any other challenge.
You may change your list at any time.
Peruse the eligible book lists and reviews from previous years (found on the sidebar at the Decades site). Any book from that decade is eligible; it doesn’t have to be on the list to qualify. A good source to find out when books were published is wikipedia. For example if you follow this link, you will see how easy it is to search books by a particular decade. Another resource is fantasticfiction.co.uk.
Sign up through Mr. Linky. Please use the url of your specific post for this challenge rather than just your blog url.
Come back to the Decades site and post the links to your reviews into Mr. Linky.You don’t have to, but you are encouraged to post all the books you’ve read for that decade if you’re participating in Decades 2010.
Have fun reading your Decades 2010 books, and have a great year!
This year I read 20 books in translation in 10 different languages, and 34 works of English by foreign authors for a total of 54 out of 112 books read. Not bad, but 2008 was actually a better year in world literature for me.
In 2007 I read 79 new-to-me authors which was 90% of my total reading, and in 2008 I read 90 new-to-me authors for 88% of my reading.
This year, for 2009, I read 72 new-to-me authors, which emcompassed 65% of my total reading for the year. Still a lot of new authors, but I went back to some favorites and also kept up with a few series. Looking at all the wonderful authors below, it’s really impossible to say who my favorites were because there were so many. I really enjoy ‘meeting’ new authors, and though I know I always will, I’m also getting to the point where I want to delve deeper into more of my favorite authors’ works as well. Do I have a prediction for 2010? I’ll take a guess that the new-to-me authors will be somewhere around 50-60%.
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson (2006, 368 pp.)
“[Love for Enemies] "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Finally made out my Top 20 list, although I had to make it 21 because I just could. not. remove. any. more. titles from the list. I had already taken off The Age of Innocence, The Help, and Shanghai Girls, which was painful to say the least. I did include some ya/children’s titles as well, though, because they were just that good. Still, I probably left off at least ten 4.5 star books, but what’s the use of a top 30-35 list? It just must be narrowed down somehow.
In 2007 I read 79 new-to-me authors which was 90% of my total reading, and in 2008 I read 90 new-to-me authors for 88% of my reading.