2026 Rejects Challenge - Awards and Lists

[NancyJ]

2026 Rejected prompts - Awards and Lists challenge.

You are welcome to join me. You can do as few or as many as you like. Feel free to add to the list. We can share links and ideas.

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton, Orwell, pulitzer.
Dayton: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Orwell: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
I plan to read Martyr! in 2026 or sooner.
The Picnic: A Dream of Freedom and the Collapse of the Iron Curtain

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award
Dublin: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...
Nominees page 3: https://www.goodreads.com/award/show/...

3. A book that won an international literary award -international Booker, women’s prize Aspen, Pen.The Safekeep Enter Ghost, The Beekeeper of Aleppo

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 - martyr, My Friends - Hisham Matar

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists . (The new list is expected in late November or early December.)
NPR: https://apps.npr.org/best-books
There Are Rivers in the Sky
Tell Me everything
Poor deer

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
Land of big numbers
Help wanted
Stolen pride…
Anxious generation
He democracies die

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025.

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year. 2026 list in expected late November

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice. (I might use the Time100.).


=====
I’m also doing Dixie’s challenge and a few more.

Plus just for fun 🎶
A book suggested by one of the song titles from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

A book that deals with REM's It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine). (Light pirate would fit)

[Dubhease]

I will be doing:

1. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026

Possibly:

2. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

3. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists

[GailW]

Well since I already have them in my humongous rejects challenge, I’ll do them all and show separately here. I had a funny feeling this was going to happen. Thanks!

0 / 10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues - Dayton, Orwell, pulitzer.

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award

3. A book that won an international literary award -Booker, Dublin, others??

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists .

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025.

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year.

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice.

[Kathy]

Awards and Lists Challenge
I'm also doing most of these in my Rejects Challenge. I'll record my possibilities here. ✅ = finished
0/10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
There are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak (Orwell)
Dream Count - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Orwell)
The Colony - Audrey Magee (Orwell)
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (Pen/Faulkner)
Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (Pen/Faulkner)
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (Pen/Faulkner)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson (Anisfield-Wolf Book Award)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid (Anisfield-Wolf Book Award)
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)
The Light Pirate - Lily Brooks-Dalton (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)
Go, Went, Gone - Jenny Erpenbeck (Dayton Literary Peace Prize)
I Have Some Questions for You - Rebecca Makkai (Aspen Words Literary Prize)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award (Poll 8)
https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-li...
North Woods - Daniel Mason (2025)
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doer (2023)
Apeirogan - Colum McCann (2021) (Booker Longlist)
The Spinning Heart - Donal Ryan (2014)
Brooklyn - Colm Toibin (2011)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid (2009)
Arthur & George - Sebastian Barry (2007)
The Master - Colm Toibin (2006)
Family Matters - Rohinton Mistry (2004)
Any Human Heart - William Boyd (2004)
The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (2003)
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (2000)
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood (1998)
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (1997)
Away - Jane Urquhart (1996)

3. A book that won an international literary award (Poll 15

Goodreads Choice Awards
The Help - Kathryn Stockett (Fiction 2009)
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking - Susan Cain (Nonfic. 2012)
Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarity (Fiction 2016)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin (Fiction 2022)
The Women - Kristen Hannah (Historical Fiction 2024)
The God of the Woods - Liz Moore (Mystery & Thriller 2024)

Women’s Prize for Fiction
The Tiger’s Wife - Tea Obrecht (2011)
How to Be Both - Ali Smith (2015)
The Power - Naomi Alderman (2017)
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke (2021)
The Book of Form and Emptiness - Ruth Ozeki (2022)
Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan (2024)

Nobel Prize for Literature
The Vegetarian - Han Kang

International Pen Literary Awards

Aspen Words Literary Prize
The Beekeeper of Aleppo - Christy Lefteri (2020)
The Night Watchman - Louise Erdrich (2021)
Enter Ghost - Isabella Hammad (2024)

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
The Years - Annie Ernaux (2019)
Kairos - Jenny Erpenbeck (2024)

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year (Poll 13)

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 (Polls 15, 17, plus more)
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar
Still Alice - Lisa Genova
Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade - Janet Skelien Charles
The Frozen River - Ariel Lawhon
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb
The Moor’s Account - Laila Lalami
The Jackal’s Mistress - Chris Bojalian
The Elements - John Boyne

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists (Poll 14)
Kantika - Elizabeth Graver (2023)
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett (2023)
North Woods - Daniel Mason (2023)
Brotherless Night - V.V. Ganeshananthan

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists (Poll 12)
The God of the Woods - Liz Moore
Martyr! - Kaveh Akbar
Poverty, by America - Matthew Desmond
The Vaster Wilds - Lauren Groff
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
American Spy - Lauren Wilkinson
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice

[NancyJ]

I like the book titles so far! I have a feeling some of the books from these lists will make it to the regular challenge

[Dixie]

Awards and Lists Challenge 0/10

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues (Poll 6)
Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life (Pulitzer)
Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Pulitzer)
The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (Dayton)
The Cat's Table (Dayton)

2. A book shortlisted for a Dublin Literary Award (Poll 8)
https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-li...
All the Lives We Never Lived
Americanah
Exit West
Lincoln in the Bardo

3. A book that won an international literary award (Poll 15)
The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
Three Summers

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year (Poll 13)
Six Wakes
The Test
Crosstalk

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2025 or 2026 (Polls 15, 17, plus more)
A Gentleman in Moscow
Wild Dark Shore
Endling
The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It

6. A book from the NPR “Books We Love” lists (Poll 14)
Women's Hotel
The Stardust Grail
There Are Rivers in the Sky

7. A book on one of Obama’s reading lists (Poll 12)
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
The Glass Hotel
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

8. A book listed in any ‘Best Books’ list of 2024 or 2025
NYPL
Hum
NYT
Godwin
Reboot
The Bluestockings: A History of the First Women's Movement

9. A book that has been long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
The Extinction of Irena Rey
Playground
Help Wanted

10. A book from any widely recognized list of your choice
Hugos
The Tainted Cup
Double Star
The Sirens of Titan
This Immortal

My "just for fun" rejects will be
1. Name/nickname of a professional sports team (Poll 5)
2. Two books, where the second book's title provides a response to or continuation of the first book's title (Poll 4)
3. A book that is related to one of the group’s moderators (Poll 3)

[LeahS]

Thank you for sorting this one, Nancy. I don't read separately for Reject challenges, unless I'm truly stuck; I like to see what I have planned for ATY anyway that fits.

1. A book nominated for an award that values peace, cultural understanding, and related social issues
Smoke and Ashes: A Writer's Journey through Opium's Hidden Histories [British Academy Book Prize 2024]

2. A book long-listed for a Dublin Literary Award
Stone Yard Devotional
(as it's a reject challenge, I've cheated a bit)

3. A book that won an international literary award
Question 7 [2024 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger]

4. A book that was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in any year
The God of the Woods [2024]

5. A book posted in one of the ATY Book of the Month threads in 2025/6
Sandwich [9/2025]

6 A book from the NPR ‘We Love Books’ list
The City and Its Uncertain Walls [2024]

7 A book on one of Obama’s reading lists
Black Cake [2022]

8 A book listed in any best books list of 2024/5
Caledonian Road [Waterstones Best Books of 2024]

9 A book long-listed for the Tournament of Books in any year
Margo's Got Money Troubles [2025]

10 A book from any widely accepted list of your choice
Moon Tiger [Booker prize winners]