Perpetual Plans for 2009

I have several perpetual challenges that I’m participating in, and I thought it would be prudent to set out some goals for them ahead of time this year. I’d like to finish at least 6 books in each category, with overlaps allowed. The books listed under each category are the ones I’m most interested in at this time, but I reserve the right to change my list if needed.

Pulitzers (6 titles)

1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (2008)
2. The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973)
3. A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987)
4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1932)
5. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1921)
6. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

• 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)

1. Moon Tiger
2. The Remains of the Day

• 2009 winner
• 1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
• 1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan
• 1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
• 1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
• 1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
• 1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
• 1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer
• 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell

Orange Prize (6 titles)

1. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (1997)
2. Property by Valerie Martin (2003)

• 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
• 2000 When I Lived in Modern Times, by Linda Grant
• 1998 Larry’s Party, by Carol Shields

Newbery Award (6 titles)

1. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
2. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
3. Kira Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
4. The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
5. Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
6. Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
7. Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Nobel laureates (6 titles)

1. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda
2. Thousand Cranes by Yaunari Kawabata
3. A Tale of Two Gardens by Octavio Paz
4. Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer
5. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
6. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
7. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof
8. Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset