Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
Weekly Topics 2019
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1. A book that was nominated for or won an award in a genre you enjoy
Miriam Pauline wrote: "My goal is to read all the Newbery award winners. So for this prompt I read Bud, Not Buddy. Started and finished today!"Omg I remember reading this in elementary school! I think it was good?? It was over a decade ago so I don't remember lol.
I'm starting The Song of Achilles tomorrow for this one. I originally found it as the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2012, but apparently it also won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Novel in 2013 (and now I have to read every single winner of that award!).
As for genre, it's a fantasy LGBT romance. What more could I ask for??
Joanne wrote:"This book was really great on audio! "Yes Joanne I have to agree this book was great on audio. I loved that Alan narrated it himself, it made the book come alive just that little bit more!
Mod
Omg I remember reading this in element..."
Song of Achilles is one of my favorite reads that my book club has chosen! It's so good!
i think i might read Less by Andrew Sean Greerit won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and it sounds like smth i might enjoy
Just finished Scythe last night - had been on my TBR pile for a while. It was really good, and I am looking forward to the sequel.
Mom2triplets04 wrote: "Ok already struggling on my first pick. Milkman by Anna burns! Don’t like the writing style her paragraphs are way too long and no dialogue. Read 20 pages and I’m DNFing this! Ugh! Going to pick so..."I read half of Milkman last year and also gave up. I will finish it this year, but only because I already put in so much effort.
Kathy wrote: "Lizzy wrote: "I am reading Still Life by Louise Penny. This is the first in her series featuring Inspector Gamache. It won a number of 1st novel awards, but since I en..."I'm reading Bury Your Dead right now. It's so good.
Mom2triplets04 wrote: "I'm going with Milkman by Anna Burns because I already own it. It was manbooker prize
"I read that a couple of weeks ago for another challenge - I found it hard to get into but worth the effort in the end. Curious to see how you like it.
Mom2triplets04 wrote: "Ok already struggling on my first pick. Milkman by Anna burns! Don’t like the writing style her paragraphs are way too long and no dialogue. Read 20 pages and I’m DNFing this! Ugh! Going to pick so..."It's a tough read for sure and I don't usually perservere but really wanted to read this one. I found I got into the rhythm more about halfway through. But I totally get giving up too ... I came pretty close several times.
I should really post all at once instead of several replies - sorry about that. Since I read Milkman for another challenge last year, I read Snap for this prompt. It was nominated for the Booker last year and is a much more readable book :) It's in the mystery/thriller genre, which made a lot of people surprised when it got nominated since the Booker is usually considered "above" that genre.
I read Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing for the first topic - the winner of the Costa First Novel Award for 2014. I loved it.
I read Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden It was nominated for a RITA Award in 2013.
I light and fluffy read for the start of the challenge.
- What are you reading for this category? Going Postal, a Discworld book- Which award did you choose? Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse award
- Is it a winner or nominee? Winner
- Which genre? Comedic fiction. A book form tone of my favorite series (The Well of Lost Plots) won, so I was looking at other winners. A discworld book is always a safe bet and this was definitely a good one.
Mod
It was phenomenal!"
I'm reading it right now, and I'm about to start teaching it to my English class!
Sabrina wrote: "Miriam Pauline wrote: "My goal is to read all the Newbery award winners. So for this prompt I read Bud, Not Buddy. Started and finished today!"Omg I remember reading this in element..."
It was good, not great, but could just be the time lapse. My almost 14 year old also read it. We agreed it was probably more eye-opening, award-deserving in the sixties when it was written than it seems now. The story was engaging and sweet and had a nice twist.
I read The Famished Road by Ben Okri. This very long, very strange book won the Booker Prize in 1991. I found it in a charity shop a while ago, and decided to get into it because the author is coming to our Writers Festival next month. Glad to have finished it!
Mom2triplets04 wrote: "Hope I’m not in a reading slump because that would be awful I can’t even read the first book."I haven't read Milkman but I'm guessing it's just not your style based on the other authors you listed - Jennifer McMahon, Chevy Stevens, Lisa Gardner, Joe Hill. Those writers are very much popular/contemporary fiction whereas I'm sure Milkman is literary fiction since it won the Booker Prize.
Good luck with finding a book that is more something you enjoy!
MN wrote: "I read Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing for the first topic - the winner of the Costa First Novel Award for 2014. I loved it."I read Elizabeth is Missing last year and really liked it! The author's second book - Whistle in the Dark - was recently published and is also quite good (though I didn't like it quite as much as Elizabeth is Missing).
- What are you reading for this category? In the Valley of the Sun, by Andy Davidson- Which award did you choose? Bram Stoker (for best first novel, 2017)
- Is it a winner or nominee? Nominee
- Which genre? Horror
I enjoyed this book a fair bit. It took me a minute to get into it and because of that I almost didn't read it through, but I'm glad I did.
What are you reading for this category?
by Belinda BauerWhich award did you choose? CWA Dagger Award
Is it a winner or nominee? Runner-up 2013
Which genre? Crime
Done - quite liked it.
What are you reading for this category?I read Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre.
Which award did you choose?
The Hugo Awards.
Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner for Best Novel, 1979.
Which genre?
Science fiction.
I really enjoyed it. 🙂
Lucinda wrote: "I'm reading The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari and translated by Shaun Whiteside. It is a 2007 honoree for the Batchelder Award and won the Italian prizes Premio Bancarellino and Premi..."Finished and thoroughly enjoyed. This fun and uplifting story was an excellent start to the year. I recommend it to anyone who likes children's chapter books and fantasy.
I read Olive Kitteridge for this one. It was winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Genre was Literary Fiction. I saw that’s there going to be a sequel so looking forward to reading it when it comes out.
For this category, I read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - the screenplay by J. K. Rowling. I took up someone else’s idea from the comments as it won a Goodreads choice award for best fantasy in 2017. I loved it and rated it 4 stars.
I read
I forget what prizes it won but most of the book was a 3 star read, the end was 5 stars so I averaged it out to 4 stars
What are you reading for this category? The Last Child by John HartWhich award did you choose? The Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America
Is it a winner or nominee? It was the winner in 2010.
Which genre? Mystery
What are you reading for this category?A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
Which award did you choose?
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Is it a winner or nominee?
It won the award in 2011
Which genre?
Literary fiction
What are you reading for this category?Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Which award did you choose?
The Kitschies
Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner of Best First Novel in 2012
Which genre?
Speculative fiction
What are you reading for this category?Special, by Bella Bathurst
Which award did you choose?
The Orange prize (which is now the Women's Prize for Fiction).
Is it a winner or nominee?
Longlist nominee, 2003
Which genre?
Fiction. Some have said YA, but I think this is about teenagers and not necessarily for (all of) them.
This book was as if someone took my early teenage years and acted them out on the island from Lord of the Flies. I knew girls like these, and parts of me was like these girls too. The close quarters that these girls inhabit acts as a catalyst to push the familiar bullying, mental health issues and experimentation typical of that age to much murkier depths. Bella Bathurst has a real talent for crafting characters, particularly their insecurities, jealousies, maliciousness and desperation to grow up and to be wanted. It is the characters that drive this book, although the setting of a residential school trip was such a clever way to tell the story. This was an uncomfortable read, but a compulsive one.
What are you reading for this category?Bury Your Dead
- Which award did you choose?
Agatha Award
- Is it a winner or nominee?
won in 2010
- Which genre?
mystery
For this, I'm reading The Man Who Folded Himself.It was nominated for both a Nebula and Hugo Award as well as a Locus Award for Best Scifi.
This is one of my favourite time travel stories of all time.
I read Schindler's List, the Man Booker Prize winner. This story has a special meaning for me - Svitavy and Brněnec are only few kilometres from my town.
- What are you reading for this category? The Fifth Season- Which award did you choose? Hugo
- Is it a winner or nominee? Winner
- Which genre? Sci-Fi/Fantasy
For nature lovers: Last year I read the Wainwright Prize winner from 2017 - Where Poppies Blow which is a really eye-opening look at the natural world during WWI - horses, dogs, cats, birds all had to muddle through the war as well....
I had already read the winner of 2018 Adam Nicholson's The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers which was one of my favourite books of 2017. So that's two great books that prize has picked and I will read whatever the winner is this year:
https://wainwrightprize.com/
What did you read for this category?The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Which award did you choose?
Audie Award for Fiction
Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner in 2016
Which genre?
Historical Fiction
What are you reading for this category?A Trick of the Light, the 7th book in the Armande Gamache series by Louise Penny.
Which award did you choose?
Macavity Award and Agatha Award for best novel
Is it a winner or nominee?
Nominee for both awards
Which genre?
Mystery
First ATY read of the year done :-)- What are you reading for this category?
The Marrow Thieves
- Which award did you choose?
I really didn't, I think my approach was to look at listopias for award winning YA/ dystopians and choose one that I wanted to read.
- Is it a winner or nominee?
Both!!
*Sunburst Award for Young Adult (2018)
*American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Young Adult Book (Honor Book) (2018)
*Governor General's Literary Awards / Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général (2017)
*CBC Canada Reads Nominee (2018)
*Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2017)
- Which genre?
YA/ Dystopian
- What are you reading for this category?In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
- Which award did you choose?
National Book Award for Nonfiction 2000
- Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner
- Which genre?
Narrative Non-fiction
I read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. It was nominated for a National Book Award in the Fiction category in 2014. What a let-down of a read...Hard to believe I feel let down by a book! Bored or irritated, yes, but never felt let down before. Cloud Atlas did just that. Felt that something amazing would tie things together - but nothing ever did. I had a severe lack of interest in any of the characteters and only finished because I read as part of a book challenge. Considering I loved The Bone Clocks by the same author, this is confusing.
Okay so I'm going to interpenetrate this one a bit differently. I read a book by an award winning author that should be nominated for an award but hasn't been. It is.
The Upside of Unrequited
If it has won an award I stand correct but I couldnt find any evidence of that.
I have already read Love Simon ( which is award winning/nominated) and What if its us.
So i hope my loose interpretation is okay but this was the best place to slot this book in without getting behind or sending it was down my list.
For this topic I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. This book received an Honorable Mention from the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. I have enjoyed other books by Lisa See in the past.
I read Sharp Objects and it won the New Blood Fiction Dagger award in 2007. I mainly read fiction and tend to read crime and that is what this award is for.
What are you reading for this category? American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I'm excited to read this one as I've been meaning to for a while, plus I received an "Ideal Bookshelf" mug for Christmas with this one on it and I need to complete the bookshelf, of course :)
Which award did you choose?
American Gods won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, among others.
Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner!
Which genre?
Science fiction/fantasy
I used this to finally finish Leviathan Wakes, which my brother recommended a long time ago and I kept putting down a few chapters in. It was nominated for a Hugo.
What are you reading for this category?The Liars' Club by Mary Karr
Which award did you choose?
PEN/Martha Albrand Award
Is it a winner or nominee?
Winner
Which genre?
Nonfiction
I read Strange the Dreamer. It was nominated for the 2018 Michael L. Printz award for young adult literature and nominated for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Of Mice and MenWon the Nobel prize for literature. Have been meaning to read it for years but just haven't. Also going out of order as I just found it.
- What are you reading for this category? I am listening to The Song of Achilles- Which award did you choose? Orange Prize
- Is it a winner or nominee? Winner. It also won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award (honors works in science fiction, fantasy and horror which include positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes, or issues.) The Orange Prize is one I am familiar with but the Gaylactic Spectrum Award is one I've never heard of before!
- Which genre? Fiction
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Black Prince (other topics)The Song of Achilles (other topics)
Hello, Universe (other topics)
Autonomous (other topics)
The Road (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Iris Murdoch (other topics)Madeline Miller (other topics)
Erin Entrada Kelly (other topics)
Jessica Townsend (other topics)
August Wilson (other topics)
More...
Glad you're enjoying Still Life, Lizzy. I just read the 6th in the Armand Gamache series, Bury Your Dead, and loved it. I just love the characters and the sense of place - this time in Quebec City.