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.)
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil." Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? (1 Peter 3:12-13, ESV)
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.