Booker Prize Longlist 2006

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August 14, 2006 | 15 books mentioned 6 3 min read

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The Booker Prize longlist has arrived. I’ll do another post with some articles analyzing the list once the pundits across the pond have weighed in.

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created The Millions and is its publisher. He and his family live in New Jersey.

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IMPAC shortlist

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April 6, 2006 | 15 books mentioned 2
The IMPAC shortlist is in. If you don't know about the IMPAC, it's very unique prize with a very long longlist. The longlist is composed of nominees from over 150 libraries around the world. Those picks are then whittled down to a shortlist via a panel of judges. As you'll see from the shortlist, since the process leading up to this award takes so long, some of the books aren't exactly new. I think involving libraries makes the IMPAC unique compared to a lot of other awards out there. It seems a lot more egalitarian than, say, the Booker or the National Book Award, and I appreciate the international flavor as well. That's why I included it in my prizewinners post last year. There's more info about the award at the IMPAC site. Now, here's the shortlist with some comments:Graceland by Chris Abani - This book about Nigeria was nominated by a library in Sweeden. - excerptMaps For Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam was an LBC nominee - we wrote about it for five posts sarting with this one. Another example of the multiculturalism of the IMPAC: this book about Pakistanis living in England was nominated by libraries in Belgium and South Africa. - excerptHavoc in Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett - I've been wanting to read this book ever since I first heard about it. Was read and loved at Book World. - excerptsThe Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe - excerptAn Altered Light by Jens Christian Grondahl - excerptBreaking the Tongue by Vyvyane LohDon't Move by Margaret Mazzantini - excerptThe Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra - excerptThe Master by Colm Toibin - excerptThe Logogryph by Thomas Wharton
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| 15 books mentioned 2
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More Awards

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October 14, 2004 | 15 books mentioned 3 min read
Lisa pointed out in a comment on yesterday's post that I neglected to mention the finalists in the Young People's Literature Category of the National Book Award. That'll teach me to cut corners. So here they are (and the poetry nominees as well... they need the love, too):Young People's LiteratureHoney, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti -- excerptGodless by Pete Hautman -- excerptHarlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill -- Hill on the novelThe Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses -- excerptLuna by Julie Anne Peters -- excerptPoetryShoah Train by William Heyen -- a poemCollected Poems by Donald Justice (posthumous) -- obitThe Rest of Love by Carl Phillips -- some poemsGoest by Cole Swensen -- poemsDoor In The Mountain: New And Collected Poems, 1965-2003 by Jean Valentine -- poems (cool website)A Visit from DoctorowE.L. Doctorow described writers as prophets and the act of using a library as a sacrament in an obliquely political and densely literary talk at Northwestern on Wednesday. He decried President Bush, describing his "dismal public conduct so shot through with piety." In his talk, entitled "Apprehending Reality," he used the Bible as a jumping off point citing it as the first appearance of many literary techniques: adaptation, driving a plot with characters and working backwards from conclusion to motivation as a mystery writer might. From his Biblical introduction, he made the leap to the present day divide in America "between the old stories and the new, between the writers of the old and the impertinent writers of the new." The talk was adapted from an essay in Doctorow's book, Reporting the Universe. Doctorow's most recent work of fiction is Sweet Land Stories.
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| 15 books mentioned 3 min read

6 comments:

  2. I haven't read any of them, yet, but if I were going to chose two to start it would be Black Swan Green (which is sitting on my "to be read" shelf) and Seven Lies because I loved James Lasdun's book, The Horned Man. I'd love to hear any informed opinions, though.

  3. I thought Lasdun's was brilliantly good; Lasdun and Mitchell are the only 2 I've read. The two I'm most excited about reading next are Claire Messud and Sarah Waters; both on all accounts very good but the advance buzz on Messud is particularly enthusiastic.

  5. I loved David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, so Black Swan Green is on my list to read even though I hear it's completely different.

    Everyone loves Peter Carey except for me – I don't hate him, I just find him pretty good, not great.

    And yes, Mitchell did get robbed for the Booker with Cloud Atlas.

  6. MacGregor's If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things was one of the best books I read last year. I will certainly read his latest. And I'm reading Waters's Fingersmith now and can't wait to begin Night Watch

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Canadian Short Story Master Alice Munro Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

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October 10, 2013 | 15 books mentioned 5 2 min read
Alice Munro, called by the Nobel committee "Master of the contemporary short story," has won the 2013 Nobel Prize for literature. Munro, 82, is the first Canadian to take the prize. She told a National Post reporter earlier this year that she's retiring from writing. Those looking for an in depth introduction to Munro's work should read Ben Dolnick's "A Beginner’s Guide to Alice Munro," which he introduces thus: Considering which of Alice Munro’s stories to read can feel something like considering what to eat from an enormous box of chocolates. There are an overwhelming number of choices, many of which have disconcertingly similar appearances — and, while you’re very likely to choose something delicious, there is the slight but real possibility of finding yourself stuck with, say, raspberry ganache. Munro is perhaps best represented by the various short story compilations collecting her best works: Selected Stories (1996) Vintage Munro (2004) Carried Away: A Selection of Stories (2006) Munro has published a number of books over her long career: Dance of the Happy Shades (1968) Lives of Girls and Women (1971) Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You (1974) The Beggar Maid (1978) (As close as Munro has ever come to writing a novel) The Moons of Jupiter (1982) The Progress of Love (1986) Friend of My Youth (1990) Open Secrets (1994) The Love of a Good Woman (1998) Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage (2001) (#9 on our Best Books of the Millennium List) Runaway (2004) The View from Castle Rock (2006) Too Much Happiness (2009) Dear Life (2012) (Our review)
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| 15 books mentioned 5 2 min read
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ToB Crowns a Champion

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April 2, 2008 | 15 books mentioned
For those who missed it, Tom McCarthy's Remainder faced Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in the final. The winner was crowned here. If you've got a little time to spare, I encourage you to read all of the judge's decisions and the accompanying "booth" commentaries from Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, as I found them to be quite entertaining. Incidentally, I would have liked to have seen Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End, Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke, and/or Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives, if only to read more people's thoughts on them, but it's hard to complain about such a fun enterprise.Bonus Links:Andrew's review of Remainder.Junot Diaz participates in our Year in Reading.Joshua Ferris participates in our Year in Reading.Garth's review of Tree of SmokeGarth on Bolano
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| 15 books mentioned
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