WRAP UP: Book Awards Reading Challenge

I actually finished up with a little time to spare so hopefully I'll be able to add a few extras to the list. Unfortunately, I did not consider keeping my original list completely intact so some of my first intentions have disappeared. Others have not!

Booker Prize
1. 1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 4.2.08 REVIEW
2. 2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood 5.12.08 REVIEW

Gold Dagger Award
3. 1993 Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell 3.16.08 REVIEW

National Book Award
1990 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
4. 2003 Three Junes by Julia Glass 8.5.07
5. 2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers 11. 26.07 REVIEW

Pulitzer Prize
6. 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 1.26.08 REVIEW

PEN/Faulkner Award
7. 2002 Bel Canto by Patchett 4.30.08 REVIEW

PEN/Hemingway
1988 The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

Newbery Award
8. 1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry completed REVIEW

Bram Stoker Award
9. 1992 The Blood of the Lamb by Thomas F. Monteleone 2.2.08 REVIEW

World Fantasy Award
1989 Koko by Peter Straub

British Children's Book of the Year
10. 2007 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne) 3.20.08 REVIEW

• 3 Irish Book Awards: the Novel of the Year, the People's Choice Book of the Year, and the Children's Book of the Year. It won 2 awards

Nebula Award
11. 1966 Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) 3.8.08 REVIEW

Panorama Literario Award: Chile
12. 1983 The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) 4.26.08 REVIEW

• Best Novel of the Year, Chile 1983

Alternates on my Bookshelf(those that I have picked for other challanges--i colored reddish)

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lamb

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Holes by Louis Sachar

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Throat by Peter Straub

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

There were three books I originally set out to read and did not. There was Sophie's Choice, which I will still be reading for The Decades Challenge. Koko is the second. I'm still interested in reading it. It is VERY long but still looks very good. I went to pick up the Book of Ruth the other night and after reading the back and some reviews I decided i would rather stick sharp objects in my eyes than read this book. It sounds so depressing and miserable. I have no idea what motivated me to add it to my list the fist time. Probably the fact the I owned it.

My Favorite Books from this Challenge? This is tough there were some really good one. I would have to pick

• Bel Canto
• The Giver

With the Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Flowers for Algernon coming in close behind.

Those I didn't like so much from this Challenge?

• House of the Spirits--I hated it.

I was also disappointed in Middlesex but not nearly the way I hated House of the Spirits.

BOOK AWARDS READING CHALLENGE

Book Review: The Blind Assassin

Author: Margaret Atwood

Pages: 521

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating 4/5

Awards: Booker Prize

From the back cover:

The Booker Prize -winning sensation from the incomparable Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin combines gothic drama, romantic suspense and science fiction yarn in an entrancing novel of uncommon intricacy and grace.

The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist

What makes this novel Margaret Atwood's strongest and most profoundly entertaining is the way in which the three wonderfully rich stories weave together, gradually revealing through their interplay the secrets surrounding the entire Chase family--and most particularly the fascinating and tangled lives of the two sisters. The Blind Assassin is a brilliant and enthralling book by a writer at the top of her form.

I think to truly appreciate this book it needs to be read more than once. However, I enjoyed it immensely. The reason I say it needs to be read more than once is that the Blind Assassin involves three different stories, that all interweave. The novel jumps back in forth in time from the main characters present to the past. It is written in a very clever fashion. It kept me guessing right up until the very end what had actually happened. I kept thinking I had figured it out, but then I would get a tidbit of information that would make me change me mind. I think Atwood did a fantastic job with the writing.

Knowing now what actually happens I think I would pick up a lot of new information with a reread that I missed the first time through. We all know that there are a lot of books to read out there so I won't be rereading The Blind Assassin just to see what I missed.

It was a little difficult to keep track sometimes of who was actually narrating the story. I wondered sometimes though if that was Atwood's intent. If it was supposed to be confusing and unclear...I'm not sure.

Even though everyone might not like this story I think most people will appreciate that The Blind Assassin is well written. How the three separate, and sometimes confusing, stories end up coming together was impressive and satisfying. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is that I don't want to have to reread novels to "fully understand them" and I think it started slowly.

Do I recommend picking it up? Definitely!

ALSO REVIEWED BY:
Rhinoa at Rhinoa's Ramblings
Tammy at Tammy's Book Nook


If you have reviewed this book and would like me to link to your review please let me know in the comments!

The God of Small Things

Author: Arundhati Roy

Pages: 321

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating: 2.5

Awards: Booker Prize

From the back cover:

The story of the tragic decline of an Indian family whose members suffer the terrible consequences of forbidden love, The God of Small Things is set in the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India. Armed only with the
invincible innocence of children, the twins Rahel and Esthappen fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family — their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin and her mother arrive on a Christmas visit, the twins learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

Well, unfortunately I've read another prize winner that has left me shaking my head. While I do admit Roy writes beautifully, I also found her writing tedious and confusing. She often jumped back and forth in time, making it difficult to tell what was going in. In one paragraph Ammu is alive and a few paragraphs later she has been dead for a long time. I found this novel difficult to read. After several chapters I found her writing style to be annoying. "She told me to 'stop it' so i 'stoppited it'". To me she came across as trying to hard to write uniquely.

There were many characters. I didn't really care about any of them. I don't feel Roy developed any of them enough to allow that. Or she jumped around so much you couldn't develop a bond with them. Plus there names were very confusing. Now this may partially be my fault. I started this book over a week ago out of town at a funeral. I got a chapter or two in and put it down in disgust. I re-injured my foot yesterday so I picked it back up for a marathon finish. I was determined to finish it so i could move onto a book I would enjoy more.

It's a little funny, I just went and read a few 5 star reviews and a lot of them even admit they initially had trouble staying interested or found it slow going.

Must read? I don't think so. With so many other books about India out there I would grab something else. Oh yeah, the story line overall is just plain depressing.

ALSO REVIEWED BY

Rebecca at The Inside Cover

Book Review: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Author: John Boyne

Pages: 216

Genre: Fiction/YA

Personal Rating: 4

Awards: Shortlisted for British Book Awards: WH Smith Children's Book of the Year Award 2007 and Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award: Children's 2007.

From the back cover:

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

I'll admit until the last few chapters of this novel the book was fair. It was well written and a nice little story, but I couldn't understand what the big "fuss" was about. Well, you will when you get to the end. The end MADE this book. It took everything I had previously read and put it into a whole new perspective. This may not make a lot of sense to you, but I really do not want to give away the ending.

Bruno is a naive little boy (9 years) who returns home one day to to find everything being packed up. They are moving. The "Fury" has instructed them to move and this is a great honor for his Father who is now to be called Commandant. (this sentence style is how the book is written) He hates his new house since it is smaller, doesn't have a banister he can slide all the way down, he misses his friends and he doesn't like the mean soldiers who come in and out of his house like they own it.

On the first day in his new house he looks out the window of his room .

"He put his face to the glass and saw what was out there, and this time when his eyes opened wide and his mouth made the shape of an O, his hands stayed by his side because something made him feel very cold and unsafe."

Bruno has moved to "Out-With" with his family for his Father's new prestigious job. He goes to talk with his sister about the children who live outside in dirt and small huts and they draw the conclusion that perhaps they have moved to the countryside. Neither of them understand what is going on. When they both return to look out the window they realize that the people they see aren't all children, but men who are very small (for some reason they can't figure out). Bruno then realizes they are all wearing striped pajamas.

One day Bruno decides to explore along the fence and found The Dot The Became a Speck That Became a Blob The Became a Figure That Became a Boy. This is the boy in the striped pajamas on the other side of the fence who will become Bruno's friend.

My suggestions is to stick with reading this book even if it seems average for the first three quarters. it will quickly catapult itself to spectacular. I would have rated it higher but for me it really was a little slow going in the beginning.

ALSO REVIEWED BY:

alisonwonderland

Book Review: The Reckoning (Blood of the Lamb)

Author: Thomas Monteleone

Pages: 419

Genre: Fiction/Thriller

Personal Rating: 3.5/5

From the back cover:

Reeling from the sudden death of the Pope during an international celebration, the Archbishophs of the Roman Catholic Church unanimously elect Peter Carenza, a charismatic young priest from the United States, to be the next Pontiff. Carenza has revitalized the Church in America, attracting new worshippers in droves to his scandal-free, countrywide congregation.

Carenza remakes the Church in his new image, allowing priests to marry, giving power to women, and preaching of the power of God in man - which Carenza himself seems to wield. He can heal the sick, summon lightning from a clear sky, even raise the dead.

Is Peter Carenza the long prayed-for Second Coming?
Or do his powers come from a darker Master?

As you read through the book you come to learn the Peter Carenza has been cloned from blood taken from the Shroud of Turin. He was implanted into a virgin nun who plays an important role as the story unfolds. High ranking officials in the Vatican have been trying to play God and now they are unsure whether Peter is falling to the side of good or evil.

Peter’s mother (the virgin nun), his “fiancé”, and a few dissident officials, flee the Vatican in an attempt to literally save the world. Apparently there are seven “righteous” people, and as long as one of those people lives, the world can never end. However, to show God that the human race wants to continue they, the 7 righteous, must open a set of seals that are in 7 locations all over the world. Peter has set out to destroy them.

This book is not a literary masterpiece but it was a page turner and interesting to watch the interaction of the inherently good and the inherently evil. I also enjoyed see how the Bible and different cultures were incorporated. Although the ending was predictable (to a certain degree) there were definitely surprises on the way to it!

Book Review: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Pages: 179

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult

Personal Rating: 5/5

Awards: NEWBERY

From the back cover:

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community.

When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

After my disappointment with my last book, I was hesitant about reading The Giver. I had once again heard very good things about this book and I didn’t want to be disappointed again. I wasn’t. This book was brilliant, for a young adult or adult. As I was reading this book my husband asked me “Are you going to put that book down tonight?” Of course the answer was no. I read it in one sitting (it is pretty short).

Jonas lives in a very structured community/world where one has very few choice and no choices about anything important, such as who you will marry, who will be your child, your job, when you will die…etc. Every year there is a special ceremony and each age group of children “advances” in the community. One year they get jackets with pockets (they can now be trusted to take care of their own things), one year they get bicycles, and at year 12 they are assigned the job they will have for their entire lives. The years leading up to they year 12 ceremony they are observed by Elders who always choose the correct job that “fits” the child. Some will be labors, others doctors, birthmothers, or lawyers.

At the year 12 ceremony it is announced the Jonas has been SELECTED to be the Receiver of Memory, a very great honor but that requires great courage since he will feel physical pain, something no one else will ever do. Jonas was selected by the current Receiver of Memory who is old and must pass on all the memories to Jonas. He asks Jonas to call him The Giver. The Giver literally has all the memories leading up to the current community (going back hundreds of years?) when people actually had choices & free will. If there is not one person to “hold” the memories they would be released back into the community and cause great suffering and pain to everyone.

What I’ve mentioned has just skimmed what this book is about. There isn’t much text, but the book says a lot (does that make sense?). Unfortunately, it ends up on banned and challenged book listed for some of the situations that occur in the book (euthanasia for example). In my opinion this book should be read because of those situations. They can open up doors for discussions about the freedoms and choices we have and what were to happen if we didn’t.

Book Review: Middlesex

Author: Jeffrey Eugenide

Pages: 529

Genre: Fiction

Personal Rating: 2.5/5

Awards: Pulitzer Prize

From the back cover:

Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

I’m sorry to say I was disappointed and unimpressed with this book. It just didn’t do it for me. Calliope has Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. So even though she is an XY male, she looks and therefore was raised as a female. It wasn’t until she was 14 that it was discovered she was not a girl. As a biology teacher and psychology major I was very excited to read this book to watch how the bio and psych interacted with each other. Perhaps I expected too much.

The majority of the book is devoted to Calliope’s ancestors and parents. While they play a pivotal role in her situation I didn’t feel it was necessary to devote so much time to them. I found it boring. I wanted to learn about Calliope. It seemed that just when you were finally starting to get to know Calliope the book was over.

There were fantastic parts of the book. The first two paragraphs for example; they hooked me in and I was ready to go. I wish I still had the book here so I could type them out. The writing is very good, but to describe the book as thrilling??? Umm…I’m not sure where that would be.

Many people loved this book and of course it won a Pulitzer so I’m in the minority here. From other reviews I’ve read people have seemed to either loved it or hated it. I didn’t hate it, it just wasn’t as good as it could have been. I thought Virgin Suicides was better.

Book Awards Reading Challenge

Yes, another challenge. I’m still narrowing down my list. The books I’ve put in italics are still tentative.

8 / 12

Booker Prize
1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Gold Dagger Award
1993 Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell

National Book Award
1990 Sophie's Choice by William Styron
2003 Three Junes by Julia Glass completed 8.5.07
2006 The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

Pulitzer Prize
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

PEN/Faulkner Award
2002 Bel Canto by Patchett

PEN/Hemingway
1988 The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton

Newbery Award
1994 The Giver by Lois Lowry

Bram Stoker Award
1992 The Blood of the Lamb by Thomas F. Monteleone

World Fantasy Award
1989 Koko by Peter Straub

British Children's Book of the Year
2007 The Boy in the Striped Pajams (John Boyne) completed 3.20.08

• 3 Irish Book Awards: the Novel of the Year, the People's Choice Book of the Year, and the Children's Book of the Year. It won 2 awards

Nebula Award
1966 Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) completed 3.8.08

Panorama Literario Award: Chile
1983 The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)

• Best Novel of the Year, Chile 1983

Alternates on my Bookshelf

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Plague’s Progress by Arno Karlen

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lamb

Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

Holes by Louis Sachar

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Throat by Peter Straub

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

BOOK AWARDS READING CHALLENGE