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
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.)
I’ve completed this challenge 3 years in a row, so I think I’m done now. It’s just too difficult to do now that I’m running out of X’s, Q’s, and Z’s titles or authors I want to read. It’s been a fun challenge to do, though!
A
Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson
This challenge was a no-brainer for me. I love reading ‘around the world’ so of course I participated. The challenge required 10 books by 10 different authors representing 10 different countries. I managed to read 15.
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith (UK/Scotland)
We had to give 5 book recommendations, and then choose titles from a master list. My goal was 5, and I read 6.
My 5 suggestions were:
The Houskeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (read in ‘09) — Sweet, tender story about mathematics, baseball, memory, and finding family.
The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho (read in ‘09) — I love Coelho, and this book raises an important question on the issue of whether humans are basically good or basically evil.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (read in ‘08) — This was recommended by Dewey last round, and it was one of the titles I read for the challenge and absolutely loved. This one is NOT just for kids!
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (read in ‘08) — Very quirky book that I enjoyed because I felt Galchen had a unique writing style and because I got the inside jokes and references about Argentina. A NYT Notable book.
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman (read in ‘08) — Scarily enough, this book describes the small town I grew up in almost exactly.
A Fatal Grace (aka Dead Cold) by Louise Penny (Agatha)
Bonus reads:
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (Pulitzer) The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (Pulitzer) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (Pulitzer) The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny (Agatha) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer)
Well, I made some goals but failed at others. I’m very happy that I was able to complete my goals for the Pulitzer, Newbery, Notable, and Nobel lists. I’m really disappointed, though, that I only read 2 Bookers, 2 Oranges, and 3 Science in Fiction books. But there’s always next year, right?
My goal was 6 in each category, and here’s how I did:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
