A Word About Awards

JAMES by Percival Everett   Awards: Carnegie Winner 2025, Kirkus Winner 2024, National Book Winner 2024, Pulitzer Winner 2025   Nominations: Aspen Words Finalist 2025, Booker Finalist 2024, BookTube Finalist 2025, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2025, Dublin Finalist 2025, Goodreads Finalist 2024, LA Times Finalist 2024, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2024, NY Times Finalist 2024, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2025, PEN/Jean Stein Longlist 2025   Date Read: March 19, 2025   From Kirkus Reviews: “ Mark Twain's  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn  as told from the perspective of a more resourceful and contemplative Jim than the one you remember. This isn’t the first novel to reimagine Twain’s 1885 masterpiece, but the audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain’s epochal odyssey, shifting the central viewpoint from that of the unschooled, often credulous, but basically good-hearted Huck to the more enigmatic and heroic Jim, the Black slave wit...

COLORED TELEVISION by Danzy Senna   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2025, National Book Critic’s Circle Longlist 2024, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2025   Date Read: February 24, 2025   From Kirkus Reviews: “ When her second novel hits a wall, a biracial California writer makes a desperate attempt to start a TV career. One of the funniest scenes in this brilliant, of-the-moment, just really almost perfect book happens early on, in a flashback to the party in Brooklyn where Jane met Lenny, her husband and the father of their two kids. Feeling that she’s aging out of the dating game, Jane has recently consulted an “intuitive psychodynamic counselor with a specialty in racial alchemy,” aka a psychic, who told her she’s about to meet her future husband, a funny, tall, handsome Black man who would be wearing “West Coast shoes.” But when she meets Lenny, who seems to perfectly fit this description, he’s with a very possessive white girlfriend. “Ebony and ivory, together in disharmony.....

CLOUDSPLITTER by Russell Banks   Nominations: NY Times Finalist 1998, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1999, Pulitzer Finalist 1999   Date Read: December 30, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “An inordinately ambitious portrayal of the life and mission of abolitionist John Brown, from the veteran novelist whose previous fictional forays into American history include The New Worm (1978) and The Relation of My Imprisonment (not reviewed). Banks's story takes the form of a series of lengthy letters written, 40 years after Brown's execution, by his surviving son Owen in response to the request of a professor (himself a descendant of William Lloyd Garrison) who is planning a biography of the antislavery martyr. Owen's elaborate tale, frequently interrupted by digressive analyses of his own conflicted feelings about his family's enlistment in their father's cause, traces a pattern of family losses and business failings that seemed only to heighten ""the Old Man's""...

RADIANT FUGITIVES by Nawaaz Ahmed   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2022, Center For Fiction Longlist 2021, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2022   Date Read: June 6, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “ Muslim Indian family, splintered by forces from within and without, attempts to reconnect over one fateful week in San Francisco. "Oh, Grandmother, you’re not asleep yet. The voices from the kitchen are no lullaby. Your daughters are fighting, and you blame yourself. There must have been something you could have done, before the rifts widened to such chasms." Ahmed's complex, ambitious debut is narrated by a fetus who—like his literary cousin in Ian McEwan's  Nutshell —has narrative art to spare. Having just emerged from his mother's lifeless body in the delivery room, he unfolds a tragedy of classic proportions, fluently incorporating the poetry of Wordsworth, Keats, and the Quran and including masterful descriptions of the skies of San Francisco, of Muslim ritual, of LGBTQ+ pro...

THE PRESIDENT & THE FROG by Carolina De Robertis   Nominations: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2022, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2022   Date Read: February 22, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  former Latin American president reminisces on his remarkable life.   In Kirkus Prize finalist De Robertis’ new novel, the unnamed former president of a Latin American country is interviewed by a journalist. Inspired by the life of José Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, the novel’s 82-year-old protagonist—affectionately dubbed the “Poorest President in the World”—lives in a humble home with his wife and dogs and tends his infamous garden. As he sits down with the Norwegian interviewer, the former president finds himself drawn to her and wonders if he should share the deepest secret of his life, which he dubs “the story of the frog.” The narrative oscillates between the present-day interview (set shortly after the 2016 U.S. election) and memories of his past. A former guerrilla...

THE MAYTREES by Annie Dillard   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2009, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2008   Date Read: November 17, 2023   Dillard deftly explores the complexities of life, love and death. Although Toby Maytree falls in love with Lou Bigelow at first sight, their relationship is fated for the decades that follow. Slowly wooing her over the course of the summer, they eventually marry and have a son, Pete. In their wedded bliss, foresight is blind to the years ahead.   Toby finds himself falling with love Dearie, an old friend. He never thought another woman would turn his head but, alas, here he is moving to Maine to be with her, leaving Lou and Pete behind. They essentially become estranged.   What makes this novel unique is that as Dearie comes to the end of her life, and Toby is too old to care for her on his own, the only person who will take them in is Lou. With the most generous and forgiving heart, she helps Dearie come to the end comforted and cared f...

PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN by Jennifer Clement   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2016, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2015   Date Read: October 25, 2023   The Mexican drug wars have spurred the abduction of thousands of girls, all poor and all beautiful. Ladydi Garcia Martinez and her mother are doing their best to avoid becoming involved. But it seems that everyone, in one way or another, is touched by the atrocities that occur every day.   The women on the rural mountain where the Martinez family lives have done everything they can think of to prevent their daughters from being stolen. They have dug holes for their daughters to hide in. They blacken their daughter’s teeth and rub dirt on them to make them less beautiful. They try their best to hide but word somehow gets out about the beautiful ones. And Paula from Ladydi’s village is stolen. Once a woman is taken, they scar themselves on their wrists so if their bodies are ever found, people will know they were stolen.   Lady...

ST. BURL’S OBITUARY by Daniel Akst   Nominations: LA Times Finalist 1996, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1997   Date Read: September 16, 2023   St. Burl’s Obituary is an odd novel that, for me, went in and out of interest. Burl is morbidly obese, although the author’s ratio of weight vs. girth seemed really off to me. Over his lifetime, he has done everything he could to lose weight until he finally surrendered to the fact that he loves food and he loves to eat.   His resignation flags, however, when his co-worker Norma, who Burl has pined after for years, says that she would fuck him if he lost weight. As would just about any man, he immediately resolves to diet. And he does lose weight. For a time. And in that time, he and Norma fool around but are never consistently physical.   All of this is tempered by the fact that Burl witnessed the tail-end of a hit job at the restaurant he co-owns and can identify the mobsters involved. They know his identity too and begin threa...

DEAR MISS METROPOLITAN by Carolyn Ferrell   Nominations: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2022, PEN/Hemingway Finalist 2022   Date Read: July 10, 2023   Incredibly evocative of the real-life story of the Cleveland kidnappings, Ferrell explores the world that is created among three girls whose lives are stolen for 10 years. Gwin and Fern both come from challenging homes but find refuge, solidarity and family in each other through the tragic circumstances they find themselves in.   Gwin and Fern are held captive for 10 very long years in which they are tortured, kept in chains, starved and raped. Their entire lives are to serve Boss Man (aka Nestor), who looms over every aspect of their lives. After an unknowable amount of time, a third girl, Jesenia, is added to the house and she eventually has Boss Man’s baby.    The novel shifts between each girl’s life before the kidnapping and their lives after, as they attempt to recover from such lengthy and unimaginable trauma. ...

THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers   Awards: Pulitzer Winner 2019   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2018, Carnegie Longlist 2019, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2019, Dublin Longlist 2020, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2019, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2019   Date Read: June 30, 2023   The Overstory is almost a series of short stories that interweave, all outlining the relationship these characters have with nature, specifically trees. At first glance, a reader might think: what kind of profound relationship with trees could occupy over 500 pages of text? The answer is simple. Richard Powers. His “powers,” if you will, should never be underestimated.   Nicholas Hoel is an artist descended from a long line of Iowan farmers. Their property includes one remaining chestnut that has been photographed every month for about 20 years. Nicholas has inherited these photographs and his art is inspired by them. When he connects with Olivia, he has been living in near hibernation after losing...

SONG OF THE SHANK by Jeffery Renard Allen   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2015, Dublin Longlist 2016, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2015   Date Read: September 29, 2022   Song Of The Shank is a complex and detailed novel about Blind Tom and his rise and fall from fame during the Civil War and just after. Tom is a black piano prodigy who can play a song after hearing it only once. Tom is also mentally challenged; his exact affliction is never mentioned but he sounds as if he’s autistic.   There are a series of interlopers that observe Tom’s talent and immediately see dollar signs. His rise to fame is entirely based on others’ ability to exploit him. The first of these is Percy Oliver, who takes many years to save up his money and come up with his plan. He finally achieves a meeting with Tom’s owner, General Bethune, who agrees to releasing Tom to Oliver’s custody in exchange for continuous kick-backs.   The challenge is finding a piano teacher that can hone Tom’s skill....

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER by Jamaica Kincaid   Nominations: Dublin Finalist 1998, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1996, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1997,  Women's Prize Longlist 1997   Date Read: September 21, 2022   Xuela Richardson was born never knowing her mother. She died giving birth to her, leaving her existence a mystery. The little she knows about her mother have been handed to Xuela in small stories and trinkets of her existence.   Xuela’s father, recognizing he wasn’t capable of raising an infant on his own hands Xuela off to his laundress to raise. The laundress treated her as a slave, never honoring her personhood, never offering love or comfort. In this cold environment that focused on survival, Xuela became enchanted with nature, with color, with the deliciousness of the physical world and, most importantly, her changing body.   The one gift Xuela’s corrupt father gave her is the benefit of an education. At a time when only boys went to ...

A DISTANT SHORE by Caryl Phillips   Nominations: Booker Longlist 2003, Dublin Longlist 2005, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2003, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2004   Date Read: August 22, 2022   Two next-door neighbors from very different backgrounds meet and become unlikely friends. Their reasons for ending up in their small village are very different from where they set out to be and their ending is as sad as their pasts.   You can tell from the get-go that Dorothy isn’t quite right in the head. She communes with her parents as if they are still alive and refuses to believe that her sister, Sylvia, has passed away. Not only can she not accept her death, she cannot accept Sylvia’s admission that their father sexually abused Sylvia.   For all of her bizarreness, Deborah manages to conduct several liaisons. After her husband, Brian, abandons her for another woman, Dorothy manages to have an affair with the married owner of her local bodega and with a ma...

DEPT. OF SPECULATION by Jenny Offill   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2016, LA Times Finalist 2014, NY Times Finalist 2014, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2015, Rathbones Folio Finalist 2015   Read: August 15, 2022   In a strange way, the Dept. Of Speculation reminds me of Chemistry in that both novels offer insight and prose in brief observations and vignettes that are pointed and brief. Their brevity releases a kind of insight that perhaps a longer sentence structure might hide. In short, every word matters.   The love letters the husband and wife used to send to each other would always be postmarked “from” the Dept. Of Speculation. Both were well aware that the future was uncertain and their love might not last the test of time. And to that point, the husband has an affair and rather than cut and run, they both stick around to see what’s beyond that betrayal. Is there anything there worth saving?   They have a daughter who understands that their family life is frayed. S...

THE MERCY SEAT by Rilla Askew   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1999, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1998   Date Read: August 10, 2022   At the beginning, The Mercy Seat was captivating as the reader is immersed in a past that is difficult to imagine. The bravery it takes, even when being chased by the law, to pack up one’s entire existence and take off for unknown territory is astounding. And many don’t make the journey, as witnessed by Demaris (?), the matriarch of the Lodi family. Mattie, the young narrator of the novel, believes her mother died of a broken heart, unable to leave behind her native Kentucky for Oklahoma.   What started out as promising, however, quickly became tedious. Askew attempts for a level of spirituality that did not seem to mesh with the story. I understand that the children were made to seem haunted and strange, particularly Mattie, but this side-track – from the black wet-nurse to the native housekeeper – only served to exemplify overt racism, rather...

AMY & ISABELLE by Elizabeth Strout   Award: LA Times Winner 1999   Nominations: PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2000,  Women's Prize Finalist 2000     Date Read: May 12, 2022   Amy & Isabelle is about the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. Isabelle harbors a secret that has influenced her entire life, keeping her closed off and stuck in her life. Amy is navigating the chaotic world of adolescence and establishing an identity outside of her mother. But as a single mom and only daughter, the relationship between these two is fraught.   Isabelle had Amy when she was very young, scandalously getting pregnant by her father’s best friend. Her mother died shortly after Amy was born. Since that time, Isabelle has raised Amy on her own, never finishing college and working in a dead-end job where she isolates herself from her co-workers. Due to a succession of events, Isabelle becomes close friends with two of the women in her office, Dottie and B...

ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2020, BookTube Longlist 2020, Carnegie Longlist 2020, Center For Fiction Finalist 2019, Dublin Finalist 2021, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2020, PEN/Hemingway Longlist 2020, Kirkus Finalist 2019, National Book Longlist 2019   Date Read: October 18, 2021   I cannot remember the last time I read a novel that was so beautiful, so too-the bone honest and real. In a letter to his mother that is never meant to be sent, Vuong brings out the beauty and the complexity of a mother and son relationship made even more complex by the son often assuming the role of parent, helping his mother navigate a world in which she doesn’t speak the language. A lover of all things beautiful, often violent, traumatized by a war she endured as a child, brings home the fact that none of us is perfect and we are all reacting to a past that no longer exists.   “I want to insist that our being alive is beautiful enough to ...