A Word About Awards

TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2021, Dublin Longlist 2022, Orange Finalist 2021, PEN/Faulkner Longlist 2021   Date Read: February 22, 2022   Gifty’s family is from Ghana but all she’s ever known is Alabama. Much like her name, Gifty has many gifts that help her survive a chaotic upbringing, full of loss and a reserved love when she longed for open affection. We are able to see Gifty as the vulnerable child she was, growing up in a racist south, and the woman she has become – an intelligent, searching scientist, looking for answers where there are likely to be none.   Gifty’s first loss is that of her father, the Chin Chin Man, who is unable to take the otherness of his black skin in Alabama and retreats back to Ghana with promises to return. Of course, his presence never materializes and he starts another family in Ghana, leaving Gifty, her mother and her brother, Nana, to fend for themselves. What was a meager two-income family dw...

SPINSTERS by Pagan Kennedy   Nomination: Orange Finalist 1996   Date Read: January 1, 2022   Falling in love and falling apart are very much the same thing, muses Frances. For all of her reserved nature, Frances is the only sister who has ever been in love. Doris seems to flee from it like love is going to murder her soul. Until this point in their lives, both Frances’ and Doris’ hearts have been in hibernation as they watched both of their parents slowly wither away.   The girls felt it was their duty to nurse their dad after he fell ill after their mother died/ committed suicide. Her death was never black and white. But for all the pain their family had been through with a mentally ill mother, a Conscientious Objector father who was treated horribly during WWII and nearly broken, the daughters never even questioned their implicit duty to care.   And now they find themselves in the bizarre position of having no one and nothing to answer to. They are no longer t...

STAY WITH ME by Ayobami Adebayo   Nomination: Orange Finalist 2017   Date Read: December 21, 2021   Stay With Me explores the boundaries of marriage, infertility, and honesty against a backdrop of a crumbling Nigeria. Akim and Yejide are relatively happy in their marriage. The only glaring problem is they have no children after 6 years of marriage. While the both of them are learning to live with this fact, Akim’s mother is not having it. She’s not having it to the point of finding him another wife.   This intrusion into their marriage isn’t welcomed by either Akim or Yejide. Yejide realizes the only way to get this interloper out of her marriage is to get pregnant and fast. So she does what any good Nigerian does – she goes to the local shaman. And voila! She looks like a pregnant woman, eats like a pregnant woman, waddles like a pregnant woman. But, alas, so desperate is she to get pregnant that her psyche actually manifests this desire in her physical body.  ...

WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel Awards: Booker 2009, National Book Critics Circle 2009 Nomination: Orange Prize Finalist 2010 Date Read: March 16, 2009 Only on the second attempt was I successful at completing this mighty tome. The first, I became so frustrated with it and quit just about halfway in. The second attempt, I fell in love. Deciding to start anew with a fresh eye and renewed determination, I adored this story and was in awe of the detail, complexity and sheer determination that went into creating this masterpiece. I find Thomas Cromwell to be shrewd, witty and thoroughly self-serving, while still embracing his obligation to those reliant on his favor. I thoroughly enjoyed the banter and found many of the passages outright funny. Mantel has masterfully created an entire world that I felt was not only realistic but relevant. While I agree with many readers that the liberal use of he/she could be quite confusing, once I understood this was entirely from Thomas’ pers...

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Maria Semple   Nomination: Orange Prize Finalist 2013   Date Read: October 16, 2013   Bernadette Fox has vanished. When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.

STATE OF WONDER by Anne Patchett   Nomination: Orange Prize Finalist 2012   Date Read: July 23, 2011   Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett returns with a provocative and assured novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest. Infusing the narrative with the same ingenuity and emotional urgency that pervaded her acclaimed previous novels Bel Canto, Taft, Run, The Magician's Assistant, and The Patron Saint of Liars, Patchett delivers an enthrallingly innovative tale of aspiration, exploration, and attachment in State of Wonder - a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.   Dr. Marina Singh, a research scientist with a Minnesota pharmaceutical company, is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have all but disappeared in the Amazon while working on what is destined to be an extremely valuable new ...