Today the Orange Prize longlist was announced, along with some criticism from the chair about the abundance of miserable novels offered up for consideration this year. The shortlist will be announced April 20.
Here is the list — I have read not a one, but some look very good:
- Clare Clark: Savage Lands
- Amanda Craig: Hearts and Minds
- Roopa Farooki: The Way Things Look to Me
- Rebecca Gowers: The Twisted Heart
- M.J. Hyland: This Is How
- Sadie Jones: Small Wars
- Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna
- Laila Lalami: Secret Son
- Andrea Levy: The Long Song
- Attica Locke: Black Water Rising
- Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
- Maria McCann: The Wilding
- Nadifa Mohamed: Black Mamba Boy
- Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs
- Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle
- Amy Sackville: The Still Point
- Kathryn Stockett: The Help
- Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger
The fiction winner for the National Book Critics Circle Award is Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall. I am interested in the book, especially now, and I will read it someday.
The winner of Three Percent’s Best Translated Book is Gail Hareven’s The Confessions of Noa Weber, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu and published by Melville House.
If it’s better than Ghosts and The Tanners, two of my top ten books of last year, then it’s a must read. And as Melville House is one of my favorite publishers (in fact, my next review will be a Melville House book), I wonder why I know next to nothing about this book. Click here for Three Percent’s announcement where you can find links to the press release.
I’m not sure if this award is on your radar. It wasn’t on mine until recently, and in fact I missed the announcement by a longshot (it was February 14). It’s only a few years old, but I like how it was formed. Basically several bloggers who wrote about children’s and YA literature wanted to form a sense of community and highlight what they considered to be the best books in those categories of that year. Despite its humble beginnings, one shouldn’t assume this isn’t a great award. I’ve been pleased with my samples from it in the past, particularly in the children’s books.
Because I see great things happening in YA and children’s literature, and because I’m pleased to present it to my own children, I want to bring it to your attention.
Cybils Awards for Children’s and Middle Grade Books
- Picture Book (Fiction): All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon; illustrated by Marla Frazee
- Picture Book (Non-Fiction): The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton; illustrated by Tony Persiani
- Easy Reader: Watch Me Throw the Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems
- Early Chapter Book: Bad to the Bone (Down Girl and Sit) by Lucy Nolan; illustrated by Mike Reed
- Poetry: Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
- Graphic Novel: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis
- Fantasy & Science Fiction: Dreamdark: Silksinger (Faeries of Dreamdark) by Lani Taylor
- Middle Grade Fiction: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Cybils Awards for Young Adult Books
- Non-Fiction: The Frog Scientist by Pamela S. Turner; illustrated by Andy Comins
- Graphic Novel: Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation by Tom Siddell
- Fantasy & Science Fiction: Fire by Kristin Cashore
- Young Adult Fiction: Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
The only one I’ve read is Watch Me Throw the Ball!, and I’m telling you, these Elephant and Piggie books are wonderful and charming. Chains was a National Book Award finalist in 2008.
I don’t remember the PEN/Faulkner announcing finalists before announcing the winner. Have they done that in the past? I know that last year I only heard about the finalists when I heard who won, as is the case with the Pulitzer. This year they have announced five finalists from which a winner will be announced on March 23, 2010.
- Sherman Alexie: War Dances
- Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna
- Lorraine M. López: Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories
- Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs
- Colson Whitehead: Sag Harbor
I’m afraid I’m not going to be any help here. Not only have I read none of the finalists, but I have no current plans to read one of them. I loved Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, but I have heard that The Lacuna has been a disappointment in comparison, and I’m afraid I would compare. I haven’t heard anything too positive about Moore’s A Gate at the Stairs, even from lovers of Lorrie Moore, and I didn’t like the excerpt I read in The New Yorker. I also didn’t particularly like the excerpt from Whitehead’s Sag Harbor published in The New Yorker in 2008. Which brings up the side point that I rarely like these excerpts when published in The New Yorker (except for David Foster Wallace’s excerpts from The Pale King published in the last year), so perhaps I need to stop judging the novel on the short story. I have heard nothing about López’s Homicide Survivors Picnic. If you go search for it at Amazon, it appears almost no one else has either. There are no reviews of it up there yet, and I haven’t seen any in print or on blogs. I can’t even find a good description of the book except for on the PEN/Faulkner press release (available through a link on this page). It does look interesting, but in this case I’m going to wait for someone else to confirm that for me.
I’m a bit more interested in Alexie’s War Dances. I think Alexie’s a fine writer, and War Dances is apparently a freewheeling collection of stories and poetry and other mixes.
Still, not really compelled to read any of them right now. Perhaps that’s because it is February. I’ve never gotten on with February, and this latest blizzard I’m watching right now does little to lighten my mood. Maybe come spring one of the titles, if not the winner, will call my name.
I’m interested in any thoughts on the titles.
I have an extra brand-new, hardbound, New Directions edition of Roberto Bolaño’s Monsieur Pain, and I’d like to give it away blog style.
That is, if you want to be in the drawing to win, please just say so in a comment below. Will ship worldwide. I will conduct a drawing that considers all comments made before Monday, March 1, noon (according to the time recorded with your comment — so that’s 11:59 a.m. comment time and 10:59 a.m. EST).
Now, I might not conduct the drawing at 11:59 a.m. comment time, but when I have a winner I will email him or her and announce it in a comment below.
When I reviewed Monsieur Pain, I said, “For those of you who have been interested in but wary of Roberto Bolaño, you might find a friendly meeting place (more friendly than, say, 2666, which was my meeting place) in Monsieur Pain.” For those of you who have read and enjoyed Bolaño, you don’t need me to tell you to enter this drawing.
For those of you who have never left comments before, I have to approve your first comment on my blog — my way of stopping the spam that slips through. After I’ve approved you once, any later comments do not need to be moderated. Getting this little moderation-step out of the way is a good thing, because I’d like to ask the winner to return here and leave his or her thoughts on the book (or a link to his or her thoughts, if written elsewhere).
Last night at Idlewild Books, just a short subway ride away from where I was sitting (wish I could have been there), the Best Translated Fiction shortlist was announced. The winner will be announced on March 10.
- Anonymous Celebrity by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão, translated from the Portuguese by Nelson Viera
- The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven, translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu
- The Discoverer by Jan Kjærstad, translated from the Norwegian by Barbara Haveland
- Ghosts by César Aira, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews
- Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, translated from the Russian by Joanne Turnbull
- Rex by José Manuel Prieto, translated from the Spanish by Alfonso González and Stella T. Clark
- The Tanners by Robert Walser, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
- The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker, translated from the Dutch by David Colmer
- The Weather Fifteen Years Ago by Wolf Haas, translated from the German by Stephanie Gilardi and Thomas S. Hansen
- Wonder by Hugo Claus, translated from the Dutch by Michael Henry Heim
I have on my shelf The Discoverer, The Twin, and Wonder. In fact, I’ve already started The Twin, to happy results. Wonder looks phenomenal, and I can’t wait to read it. The Discoverer is part of a trilogy, the first books of which I do not have. I’ve heard that each books stands alone, though, so perhaps I should get over my normal need to conform to that kind of order. I hope to get through these three before the winner is announced, though that would still mean I only read half of the finalists listed, and this looks like an excellent group.
Of the ones on the longlist that I read but that did not make it to this shortlist, I’m not surprised that Death in Spring and The Skating Rink didn’t make it, though either probably could have. I didn’t like and didn’t review There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night, but I do feel I need to give it another look. I was surprised Desert didn’t make it, as that is an excellent book. That said, I think The Tanners and Ghosts are two of the other best books I’ve read in years, so I fully support their spot on the list.
I know, I know — sometimes these celebratory Man Booker awards can seem a bit indulgent. But I love them.
I did not know this, but in 1969 and 1970 the Booker Prize was awarded retrospectively. In 1971 it became a prize for the best novel in the year of publication. From the Man Booker webpage:
At the same time, the date on which the award was given moved from April to November. As a result of these changes, there was a whole year’s gap when a wealth of fiction, published in 1970, fell through the net. These books were simply never considered for the prize.
Now, to correct this, forty years later, a longlist of 22 books “which would have been eligible and are still in print and generally available today” has been chosen. This long (very long) list will be wittled down to six by a three-judge panel: Rachel Cooke, Katie Derham, and Tobias Hill.
Their shortlist will be announced March. Then we, the “international reading public” get to pick the ultimate winner with our votes. This time, Salman Rushdie will not win — I don’t think.
Here is the list:
- Brian Aldiss: The Hand Reared Boy
- H.E. Bates: A Little of What You Fancy?
- Nina Bawden: The Birds on the Trees
- Melvyn Bragg: A Place in England
- Christy Brown: Down All the Days
- Len Deighton: Bomber
- J.G. Farrell: Troubles
- Elaine Feinstein: The Circle
- Shirley Hazzard: The Bay of Noon
- Reginald Hill: A Clubbable Woman
- Susan Hill: I’m the King of the Castle
- Francis King: A Domestic Animal
- Margeret Laurence: The Fire Dwellers
- David Lodge: Out of the Shelter
- Iris Murdoch: A Fairly Honourable Defeat
- Shiva Naipaul: Fireflies
- Patrick O’Brian: Master and Commander
- Joe Orton: Head to Toe
- Mary Renault: Fire from Heaven
- Ruth Rendell: A Guilty Thing Surprised
- Murial Spark: The Driver’s Seat
- Patrick White: The Vivisector
I haven’t read a one of them. I haven’t heard of most of them — or several of the authors. I look forward to hearing about them, hopefully picking up a gem, and perhaps I’ll try to make my way through the shortlist when it comes next month.
The NBCC finalists were announced today.
- Bonnie Jo Campbell: American Salvage
- Marlon James: The Book of Night Women
- Michelle Huneven: Blame
- Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
- Jayne Anne Phillips: Lark and Termite
American Salvage and Lark and Termite were finalists for the National Book Award in November, but Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin took that prize. Wolf Hall took the Booker in October. I’ve seen a lot of positive coverage for The Book of Night Women, probably from several of the critics who will choose the final winner. The only finalist I’ve already read is Lark and Termite. I also interviewed Jayne Anne Phillips about the book and a few other things early last year. I wish her the best. The book is fantastic.
So a few book awards have already been announced. These are more in my wife’s specialty, though I like to see what happens here and often find myself really admiring the work.
Newberry:
- Winner – Rebecca Stead: When You Reach Me
- Honors – Phillip Hoose: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice; Jacqueline Kelly: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate; Grace Lin: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon; Rodman Philbrick: The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
My wife read When You Reach Me a few months ago, and she liked it but doesn’t think it’ll be that accessible to children because the ideas are much more prominent than any story. In fact, for most of the book she kept telling me that she had no idea what the point was. I don’t mind that for me — plotlessness can be a great thing — but I see what my wife means when we’re talking about children reading. The Newberry seems to go back and forth on that line, don’t they. One year they pick a book that parents will want their chilren to read and understand (like this year) and another they will pick a rather substance-less book that the children will enjoy (like last year’s The Graveyard Book). I can see each side: on the one hand, let’s immortalized (as best we can) a book with great ideas we want children to consider, even if they won’t do it until they are much older; on the other had, let’s immortalize a book that children can read and love when they are children.
Caldecott:
- Winner – illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney: The Lion and the Mouse
- Honor — illustrated by Marla Frazee and written by Liz Garton Scanlon: All the World; illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski adn written by Joyce Sidman: Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors
Because of its fine illustrations, we’ve had our eyes on The Lion and the Mouse for a while, but we haven’t got it for our boys yet. Maybe soon.
Printz:
- Winner – Libba Bray: Going Bovine
- Honor — Deborah Heiligman: Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith; Rick Yancey: The Monstrumologist; Adam Rapp: Punkzilla; John Barnes: Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance, 1973
The Printz is my wife’s favorite book award. It deals only with young adult literature. With their audience, they seem to succeed where the Newberry fails, meaning they award books that deal with real issues but that do so by approaching the reader. I’ve read two of the nominees: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation:Vol. 1 — The Pox Party (I really need to read Vol. 2, also a Printz finalist, which came out in paperback not too long ago). My wife loved last year’s winner Jellico Road. Also, one of her favorite books of the last year was Northern Light, a YA book that deals with the same case as An American Tragedy.
Recent Comments