Category: Awards

NBCC Awards Finalists

The National Book Critics Circle have announced the finalists for their annual book awards.  I’m always interested in this list because (a) I’m a member of the NBCC (but my nominations rarely make the cut), and (b) the list always includes books I’m not remotely familiar with.   Here are the finalists in Fiction and Nonfiction:

Fiction

Nonfiction

Other categories include: biography, autobiography, poetry, and criticism.

For an idea of what my voting looked like, see my year-end favorites.  Check out the NBCC website for the full list of finalists.

My favorites of 2011

Yikes! This year is drawing to a close way too quickly. I guess it’s time to get my year-end favorites posted.  Here are my top 10 favorite reads of 2011 by category:

Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson is my overall favorite read of 2011.  From my review: “Ten Thousand Saints has been called this year’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.  While both deal with some of the harsh realities of the music business, I think that Ten Thousand Saints is clearly the better book.  Saints is cohesive, where Goon Squad is disjointed. More importantly, Ten Thousand Saints is a novel with heart.  I loved it.”

My favorite came-from-nowhere read of 2011 is  Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion by Johan Harstad. From my review: “This is an amazing first novel that rarely takes you where you think it is going to go.  It’s an inventive narrative that repeatedly surprises the reader.  I will read anything by Johan Harstad that is translated into English.”

Lev Grossman’s The Magician King is my favorite sequel that was in many ways better than the original.  From my review: “The Magician King is an excellent novel that works on many levels.  It’s an homage to classic fantasy novels,  it’s top shelf social commentary, and, most importantly, it’s a ripping good story.”

My favorite non-fiction science meets art book that actually came out at the very end of 2010 is  Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie – A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss.  From my review:  ”For a book about the work of two famed scientists, it is Redniss’s non-scientific approach to telling the story that really drives her themes home and gives the book depth, warmth, and humanity.  One of the great things about this strange and wonderful book is that it firmly affirms the role of the book as a story-telling medium.”

My favorite in the why did it take so long to get around to reading this book is Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding. From my review: “Any book that is not only a cracking read in its own right but sets the reader off on a journey of additional reading is about as good as it gets.”

My favorite book by an author that is most likely to be asked for her ID at the bar is Téa Obreht’s debut novel The Tiger’s Wife.  From my review: “Stories and fables, Obreht seems to suggest, are essential not just for understanding, but also for survival.  This is a fantastic novel.  Obreht is very deserving of all the pre-publication hype, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”

The novel that was the most fun to read this year was easily Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One.  From my review:  ”Ready Player One is a retro-future-techno-thriller and is way more fun a read than I would have thought.  If you’re the kind of person who appreciates the joke when someone says, “Answer the question, Claire” and isn’t talking to anyone named Claire, then run don’t walk to pick this one up.  Dorks, dweebs, nerds, and other misfits of a certain age will also love it.”

My favorite big sprawling novel that weaves storylines of the old west and modern-day life is Jonathan Evison’s West of Here. From my review: “Like its setting, West of Here gives its characters room to spread out and breath.  The epic scope is ambitious, but the skilled story teller never loses his way.  Port Bonita’s transformation from a lush idyll to a strip mall anytown is heartbreaking, but the removal of its dam holds the promise of the return of the town’s former glory and new beginning for its residents.”

My favorite read about fake indians is Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! From my review: “Swamplandia! is a disarmingly charming novel that packs a big punch.”

My favorite literary mystery/antarctic thriller/art scene satire that doubles as scathing social commentary is Mat Johnson’s Pym.  From my review: “Johnson’s sharp wit, ironic distancing, and gripping story help to soften the blows of what is  a serious and deeply biting satire of racial conflict and self-identity in quote unquote post-racial America.”

Booker Short List

The Booker Prize Short List has been announced.  The final six novels are:

Only two are not available in the US yet.  Progress?  Galleycat posted links to excerpts from some of the nominees for your convenience.  Of these, I’m most intrigued by The Sisters Brothers.   Looks my to read stack is now +1.

Indie Book Awards

Next by James Hynes has won the 2011 Believer Magazine book award.  Michael Schaub of Bookslut calls it “the best novel I’ve ever read about terrorism in America.”  It’s been on the bubble of my reading list for months.  In light of recent world events I may need to check it out.  Also worth checking out – the Believer’s reader’s survey of best novels of 2011.

In other award news, The Independent Booksellers Choice Awards have narrowed their field to 13 novels:

The Black History of the White House by Clarence Lusane  (City Lights)
Contingency Plan by David K Wheeler  (TS Poetry)
The Instructions by Adam Levin (McSweeney’s)
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall (W.W. Norton)
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes  (Grove/Atlantic)
Nox by Anne Carson (New Directions)
The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich  (Two Dollar Radio)
Orion You Came and Took All My Marbles by Kira Henehan (Milkweed Editions)
The Report by Jessica Francis Kane (Graywolf)
The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel (Unbridled)
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns (Dorothy)
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
Wingshooters by Nina Revoyr (Akashic)

Pulitzer

Weird.  The 2011 Pulitzer Prizes have been handed out.  In a frist, I have read all three books nominated for the fiction prize:

I was lukewarm on Goon Squad and was depressed for weeks after Surrendered.  I would have had to go with Priviledges on this list, but they didn’t ask me.

Check out all of the finalists here.

 

Indie Booksellers Award Longlist

Melville House publishers have announced the longlist for the first Independent Booksellers Choice Award.  A quick read shows that this award, in a crowded field of book awards, will be different.  Most of the books are from small, independent presses.  Of the 30 books nominated, I have only heard of 10 of them.  I like to think that I keep up with this sort of thing, so it’s a humbling list.  The two that I’ve read, Orion You Came and Took All My Marbles (review) and The Windup Girl (review) definitely qualify as off-kilter titles.   I’m looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.  I’ll have to read the winner on principle.

National Book Awards

The National Book Awards were announced last night.

Patti Smith won the award for non-fiction for her fantastic Just Kids.  I’m on the verge of over-selling it, but really, this is an amazing book.  You can read the BGB reviews here and here.

The fiction award went to Jaimy Gordon’s Lord of Misrule — a book that no one has read because it came out last week.

Award Season

While we were busy processing the DBF,  award announcements have been rolling in this shortened week.

The Hugo Award (Science Fiction) winners were announced.  The best novel award was an unheard of tie between China Miéville’s The City and The City and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl.  Even rarer still, I managed to read both of these fantastic novels.  (Check out my reviews for The City and the City and The Windup Girl.) I enthusiastically recommend both.

Bringing me back to reality – the Booker prize shortlist has been announced, and I have read none of the finalists. The chosen few:

I love the UK cover for Parrot and Olivier in America. Want. (UK on the left, US on the right)

25 Books All Young Geogians Should Read

Last night the Georgia Center for the Book unveiled its inaugural selection of the top 25 books all young Georgians should read.  You may recall that in May, they announced the fourth list of 25 books all Georgians should read.  Says The Center:

The list, selected by the writers, educators, librarians, and media representatives who comprise the Center’s advisory council, represents the first time a compilation of some of the best of children’s literature by Georgia writers and artists has been made available. Many of the authors and illustrators on the list will participate in free public readings throughout Georgia libraries and schools over the next two years.

The Young Georgians List, includes the following honorees:

From Georgia Center for the Book

Picture Books (Pre K+)

Early Readers (grades K – 3)

Graphic Novel (grades 4+)

  • Andy Runton – Owly

Middle Readers (grades 4-8)

Young Adults (grades 7+)

Booker Longlist

The longlist for the 2010 Booker Prize was announced today.  Behold:

Of the 13 titles nominated, just over half are not available in the US (*).  I’ve only read one title so far, an ARC of Skippy Dies .   I know that  The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and Parrot and Olivier in America will appear soon in my “to be read” stack.  Anyone else read any of these yet?

25 Books All Georgians Should Read

Last Thursday night, the Georgia Center for the Book (new snappy looking web site!) hosted a special event at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur.  The occasion was the unveiling of the latest list of the 25 books that all Georgians should read.  This is the fourth list compiled by the Georgia Center for the Book.  The purpose of the list is to promote quality literature by authors living in or born in the State of Georgia.  It was an excellent event, and I am very thankful to have been invited.  Many of the honored authors were in attendance, and it was especially thrilling to meet Senator Max Cleland.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The 25 books that all Georgians should read are:

Fiction

James Braziel, Snakeskin Road, a novel shortlisted for the Townsend Award for Fiction and the British Fantasy award, is the author’s second novel after Birmingham 35 Miles. Braziel grew up in Pitts and teaches creative writing at the University of Cincinnati.

Jeff Fields, A Cry of Angels, a novel. Fields was born in Toombs County and grew up in Elberton, now lives in Atlanta.

John Holman, Luminous Mysteries: A Novel. Holman teaches fiction writing at Georgia State University and is the author of a short story collection, Squabble and Other Stories.

Mary Hood, How Far She Went, a story collection that won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Born in Brunswick and now living near Commerce, she is the author of And Venus is Blue and Familiar Heat.

Amanda Gable, The Confederate General Rides North, a first novel shortlisted for the Townsend Award for Fiction. Gable is a native of Marietta now living in Decatur.

Anthony Grooms, Bombingham, a novel. Winner of the Lillian Smith Award for Fiction. Grooms is professor of English at Kennesaw State University and the author of Trouble No More: Stories and a poetry collection, Ice Poems.

Joshilyn Jackson, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, a novel shortlisted for the Townsend Award for Fiction. Jackson, who lives in Atlanta, is the author of several novels including Gods in Alabama and Between Georgia.

James Alan McPherson, Hue and Cry: Stories. McPherson, born in Savannah and now teaching at the University of Iowa, was the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his collection Elbow Room.

Jack Riggs, When the Finch Rises. Riggs is writer-in-residence at Georgia Perimeter College and the author of a second novel, The Fireman’s Wife.

Bailey White, Nothing with Strings: NPR’s Beloved Holiday Stories, shortlisted for the Townsend Award for fiction. White, a native of Thomasville who still lives there, has been a popular commentator for NPR and is the author of Quite a Year for Plums and Sleeping at the Starlite Hotel.

Philip Lee Williams, The Heart of a Distant Forest, a novel which won the Townsend Award for Fiction. Born in Madison and recently inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Williams is the author of many books including The Campfire Boys, Reflections from First Light and A Distant Flame.

Poetry

Coleman Barks, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008. Barks, a renowned and prize-winning poet, taught at UGA for more than three decades and lives in Athens. His books include The Hand of Poetry and The Essential Rumi.

Thomas Lux, New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995. Lux holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and directs their poetry program. He also is the prize-winning author of many collections including Split Horizon and The Cradle Place.

Memye Curtis Tucker, The Watchers. Tucker is a senior editor for Atlanta Review and the prize-winning author of several chapbooks including Admit One and Storm Line.

Nonfiction

Douglas Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Blackmon is a writer for the Wall Street Journal based in Atlanta.

Roy Blount, Jr., Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South. Blount, who grew up in Decatur, is the award-winning author of many books including Be Sweet, First Hubby, Alphabet Juice and Roy Blount’s Book of Southern Humor.

Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. Branch, born in Atlanta, won the Pulitzer Prize for Parting the Waters, the first volume in his “America in the King Years” trilogy. He also is the editor of The Clinton Tapes.

Max Cleland, The Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove. Cleland is a decorated U.S. war veteran, a former U.S. Senator from Georgia and the author of Strong at the Broken Places.

Jessica Handler, Invisible Sisters: A Memoir, a first book. Handler lives in Atlanta and has received several major writing fellowships that led to the writing of her memoir.

Lauretta Hannon, The Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life, a first book. Hannon lives in Atlanta and has been a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Paul Hemphill, Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams. Hemphill, a long-time Atlantan who died in 2009, was the prize-winning author of many books including The Nashville Sound, Leaving Birmingham, and King of the Road.

Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy. Mayes, born in Fitzgerald, is a poet and novelist and memoirist whose books include Bella Tuscany and Swan, a novel set in Georgia.

Deirdre O’Connell, The Ballad of Blind Tom, a first book. O’Connell lives in Australia but spent considerable time in Georgia writing about the 19th century Georgia slave who was a blind musical genius.

Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith. Taylor, A former Episcopal priest in Atlanta, now teaches at Piedmont College and lives in Northeast Georgia. She is the author of Leaving Church.

Virginia Willis, Bon Appetit, Y’All: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking. Willis is an Atlantan who is the former Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television.

Booker Season Opens

The Man-Booker Prize longlist has been announced.  It seems like the winner from last year was just announced.  Anyway, here’s your list:

The Children’s Book, AS Byatt (US publication – October)
Summertime, JM Coetzee (US publication – October)
The Quickening Maze, Adam Foulds (US publication – ?)
How to Paint a Dead Man, Sarah Hall (US publication – September)
The Wilderness, Samantha Harvey
Me Cheeta, James Lever
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (US publication – October)
The Glass Room, Simon Mawer (US publication – ?)
Not Untrue & Not Unkind, Ed O’Loughlin (US publication – April 2010)
Heliopolis, James Scudamore
Brooklyn, Colm Toibin
Love and Summer, William Trevor (US publication – September)
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (US publication – ?)

I have read exactly zero of these. Of course, only 4 of the 13 are currently available in the US, so I don’t feel like too much of a slacker. I’ve had my eye on Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn for a while but haven’t pulled the trigger.  I’ve got to say that I’m intrigued that Me Cheeta made the list. It purports to be a Hollywood memoir of the 70 year old chimp that played Cheeta in the Tarzan movies. Yes!  It has to be the biggest dark horse on any Booker longlist EVER. (It turns out that Cheeta didn’t write it. Scandal!)

Local Guy Makes Good

Douglas Blackmon, Atlanta Bureau Chief for the Wall Street Journal and dude that lives in my neighborhood, was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction yesterday for his book Slavery By Another Name : The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.  BGB’s Dr J named the book one of the best non-fiction reads of 2008 and wondered why the book was feeling no love from various award committees.  Worry no more, Dr J.  

Here’s Blackmon talking about the book with the WSJ an interview from last year:

Book Awards & Bad Timing

First round action in The Tournament of Books is well underway.  Here’s how the match-ups have gone so far…

As in most year’s, some of the best action takes place in the announcer’s booth with the color commentary by Kevin Guilfoile & John Warner.  Warner has an outstanding rant about the state of the publishing industry that you should read in its entirety.  Here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

…due to the frankly, totally fucked-up nature of the book business, I could not acquire a copy of the book in order to read it…Publishing treats books like they’re the McRib or Shamrock Shake, available for a limited time only before mothballing them…it doesn’t really hit home until one of the (apparently) best books of the year can’t be purchased in a bookstore outside of an initial three-month window. Is there any other industry that treats their product this way?

Anyone who uses a Shamrock Shake reference in a rant wins, as far as I’m concerned.

Meanwhile, the National Book Critics Circle handed out their awards in a ceremony last week in New York City.  Check out all of the winners at the NBCC web site.  I was in NYC a few hours after the nominees read from their works on the 11th. Then I left a few hours before the prize ceremony on the 12th.  Timing is everything.

Kidz Korner

The American Library Association handed out their annual children’s book awards yesterday.  The prestigious Newberry Medal went to Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book. Jen reviewed The Graveyard Book for BGB, and she says she knew it was a special book all along.

In addition to the Newberry and Caldecott honors, the ALA also honored BGB favorite Mo Willems with the Geisel Award honoring the most distinguished book for beginning readers for Are You Ready to Play Outside?

The Alex Awards, which I had never heard of, honor the best adult books for teen readers.  Among the crop selected for recognition are Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound (BGB review), Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow (BGB review and one of my year-end favorites), and The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti.

Speaking of books for kids, I wrote about my household’s love of Oliver Jeffers’ books in my year-end appreciation of kids’ books (which also featured Mo Willems).  The Guardian talks to Jeffers about his new book (excellent), and they have a gallery feature highlighting some of his books.  If you have a small kid around, check it out.

National Book Award Nominees

The nominees for the titular award (2008) have been announced. Winners will be announced Nov. 19th.

Fiction:

Non Fiction:

I’ve read zero of the books nominated, but I did buy Home for my my mom.  She says it’s very good. 

Omnivoracious has a complete list (including Poetry and Young People’s Literature) of the nominees and their current Amazon sale rank.  The Big surprise in fiction seems to be The End.  I may need to check out The Lazarus Project though, based solely on this snippet of the Amazon review: “the novel will remind readers of many great books before it–Ragtime, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Everything Is Illuminated…”

I’ve also been told that The Dark Side is very good by a trusted source.

White Tiger Wins

BGB’s Nitro called it.  The 2008 Booker Prize goes to Aravind Adiga for his novel The White Tiger.


Update:
Some other folks weigh in –

Best in Show

Wordsmiths Books has been voted Best Place for Author Readings/Signings by both the Critics and Readers in Creative Loafing’s annual Best Of Atlanta voting.  Sweet.

Booker Prize Shortlist

The Man Booker Prize folks have announced this year’s shortlist for the 2008 prize.  The shortlist looks like this:

Aravind Adiga The White Tiger
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
Steve Toltz A Fraction of the Whole

I have not read any o fthese books.  I’m feeling slack-ish.  Not making the list?  “Not good enough” Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland – aka the two books that I had heard something about.

Chabon wins – again

Michael Chabon’s alternate history, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, won this year’s Hugo Award for best novel.  The Hugo’s are awarded to writers in the science fiction genre.  The novel also won a Nebula award, another science fiction accolade.  Chabon’s book was nominated for an Edgar Award (mystery genre), but did not win.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is also in pre-production to be filmed by the Coen Brothers.  I am beside myself.

Chabon – is there anything that he can’t do?

My review of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union can be found here.

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