A Word About Awards

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver   Awards: BookTube Winner 2023, James Tait Black Winner 2022, Oprah Book Club 2022, Pulitzer Winner 2023, Women’s Prize Winner 2023   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2023, Dublin Longlist 2024, NY Times Finalist 2022   Date Read: September 2, 2025   From Kirkus Reviews: “Inspired by  David Copperfield , Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society. Our soon-to-be orphaned narrator’s mother is a substance-abusing teenage single mom who checks out via OD on his 11th birthday, and Demon’s cynical, wised-up voice is light-years removed from David Copperfield’s earnest tone. Yet readers also see the yearning for love and wells of...

THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER by William Styron   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1968   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1968   Date Read: February 13, 2025   From Kirkus Reviews: “ Few first novels promised so much for a new writer as Styron's Faulknerian Lie Down in Darkness; with only one flawed major book in between, now sixteen years later it is difficult to relate this to the early book except for the emotional charge of some of the writing, most effective when descriptive. In the fulminating first person of Nat Turner, Just before he is to be killed, this reviews at black heat the "ruction" he incited—a mass murder and rape in the Virginia of 1831. "Nigger preacher," self-designated prophet, Nat is primarily a man who for the last half of his thirty-one years has nursed a "pure and obdurate" hatred for white men (and a less pure desire for their women). In the language of the law he's just an "animate chattel" although he had acquired th...

THE COLLECTED STORIES OF JEAN STAFFORD by Jean Stafford   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1970   Nominations: National Book Finalist 1970, NY Times Finalist 1969   Date Read: January 26, 2025   MAGGIE MERIWETHER’S RICH EXPERIENCE Maggie Meriwether is on her first trip abroad from Tennessee. She’s alone and her ability to speak French has abandoned her. At a birthday party, at which she was promised everyone would speak English but did not, she finds herself the odd woman out from the other sophisticates present. She encounters wonders she’s never seen such as clothing, food, men walking a tightrope over a swimming pool, a tree house with a nargileh inside. After crying on her way home, she realizes that the experience, when recounted to her friends, actually makes her sound sophisticated and world-wise.   THE CHILDREN’S GAME At a casino in Belgium, the widow Abby is questioning her life abroad. She moved to Europe upon the death of her husband but now finds herself missi...

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN by Louise Erdrich   Awards: Aspen Words Winner 2021, Pulitzer Winner 2021   Nominations: Carnegie Longlist 2021, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2021   Date Read: August 12, 2021   This richly textured, highly detailed and slow novel from Erdrich chronicles the attempt by the U.S. government to terminate the tribal lands of the Chippewa tribe. Largely based on her grandfather’s life, Patrick Gourneau, was a resident of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota in the 1950s when the termination was first proposed.   Knowing that this actually happened in reality is infuriating, realizing that the attacks on Native people and their land is simply ghastly. Had this legislation passed, it would have violated long-standing treaties between Native tribes and the U.S. government. Gourneau was head of the Turtle Mountain Reservation at the time and lead the resistance to the termination.   Erdrich follows numerous peoples that form a web of ...

MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides   Award: Pulitzer Winner 2003   Nominations: Dublin Finalist 2004, James Tait Black Finalist 2003, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2002, NY Times Finalist 2002, Oprah Book Club 2007   Dates Read: April 8, 2006 & July 10, 2021   So beautiful I read it twice, Middlesex delves into the debate about sexual identity, gender identity, and what makes us men and women. Is it genetic? Cultural? Biological? I think the answer is all of the above. This is a debate that is ongoing in the U.S. as some political factions seek to forever identify humans by the gender on their birth certificates while others are embracing they/them pronouns and can comprehend how some humans can be non-binary. I am in the latter camp.    On an aside, I am mystified why some cannot understand that not everyone fits into neatly defined, black and white categories. In the beautiful diversity and vastness of human experience, of course there will be tho...

MARTIN DRESSLER by Steven Millhauser   Award: Pulitzer Winner 1997   Nomination: Dublin Longlist 1998, National Book Finalist 1996   Dates Read: April 15, 2009 & January 10, 2021   Martin is an ambitious young man in 1890’s New York, with a singular gift of vision and the belief that progress is constant and inevitable. He has worked in his father’s tobacco shop since the tender age of 14 and never ceases to contemplate his future and how to increase business at his father’s shop.   In short order, Martin is offered a bell boy position at a nearby hotel at which he quickly advances to clerk and owner of a cigar stand in the lobby. In a couple more years, Martin has the idea and the means to open a combination lunchroom and billiard room in a nearby neighborhood building.   After moving out on his own to the exurbs, Martin meets and begins spending considerable time with the Vernon ladies – Margaret the mother and her two daughters Emmeline and Caroline....

THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead   Awards: Kirkus Winner 2019, Pulitzer Winner 2020   Nominations: Aspen Words Longlist 2020, Carnegie Longlist 2020, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2020, Dublin Finalist 2021, Goodreads Finalist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2019, National Book Longlist 2019, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2019, Rathbones Folio Longlist 2020   Date Read: November 14, 2020   I would love to say that Nickel Boys is heartbreaking, which it indeed is, but brutal seems a more appropriate word. This latest from Whitehead follows the boys of a reform school in Florida and the ways in which they coped with and survived the violent, sadistic and impossible environment they were thrust into.   Elwood is a smart kid with a bright future. In his 15 brief years he proves himself to be trustworthy, intellectually curious and ambitious. His one fatal flaw, however, is that his skin has more melanin. In other words, Elwood is black. I still cannot understand...

THE SHIPPING NEWS by Annie Proulx   Awards: National Book Winner 1993, Pulitzer Winner 1994   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1996, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1993   Date Read: October 28, 2020   Following tragedy, newly single Quoyle moves himself and his children to the Newfoundland coast, where their ancestral home remains derelict and empty. Quoyle is uncertain what awaits him there or if this is the right move but this small and tight-knit community immediately embraces them and they find what they perhaps need the most - community.   As with all small towns, Killick-Claw is chock full of bizarre and interesting characters. Working at the local newspaper writing the shipping news (hence, the title), Quoyle carves out a life for himself and his daughters that allows them to heal from the loss of Petal, Quoyle’s unrequited love and the daughter of Sunshine and Bunny.   Not only does his heart heal, but he meets a woman named Wavey who he is drawn...

INDEPENDENCE DAY by Richard Ford Awards: PEN/Faulkner Winner 1996, Pulitzer Winner 1996 Nominations: Dublin Longlist 1997, National Book Critics Circle 1995, NY Times Finalist 1995 Dates Read:  February 21, 2009 & July 22, 2020 In Independence Day, we see Frank Bascombe move from his "Fugue Period" to his "Existence Period." Yet, he still remains for me the shallowest deep character I've ever encountered. For all his attempts to "be", Frank still maintains a laissez-faire attitude about his relationships, just letting them play out how they will. He fluctuates from minute-to-minute ready to jump in with both feet to rationalizing why the relationship is doomed to failure. The hardest part is watching this behavior with his son. Frank has such a hard time being real with his son, Paul. They use humor and innuendo to communicate but cannot lay their feelings bare. I think Paul is hungering for real human connection and wants to relate to his father a...

IRONWEED by William Kennedy Awards: National Book Critics Circle Winner 1983, Pulitzer Winner 1984 Nomination: NY Times Finalist 1983, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1984 Date Read: June 21, 2020 Francis, a once successful baseball player with a promising career, has ended up on the streets, confronting his life's mistakes, which continue to mount. His career ended due to injury and slowly, piece-by-piece, he has lost it all - a son who accidentally died by his hands, a loving wife and other children, jobs, casual friendships and a romance that began in the streets. The fact that Francis once had it all provides him the unique understanding that everyone he encounters on the streets - the drunks, prostitutes, petty criminals - all used to be so much more than what they are now. He is able to see that they were once someone's child, someone's love, healthy and whole unlike they are now. He honors those pasts in a way no one else does. Francis also has the unique position of having a ...

HUMBOLDT'S GIFT by Saul Bellow Award: Nobel Prize Winner, Pulitzer Winner 1976 Nomination: National Book Finalist 1976, NY Times Finalist 1975 Dates Read: September 14, 2008 & July 20, 2019 Humboldt was a cantankerous, jealous and mentally ill man, but idealized nonetheless for his art by Charlie Citrine, who at a young age, traveled to New York to pursue Humboldt and learn from him. And learn he did. Humboldt acted as a maniacal mentor, and what initially began as blind admiration, grew into love and all that comes with love - jealousy, competitiveness, intimacy. Humboldt was well-read and even better opinionated and helped to complete Charlie's education. Whether Charlie ever credited Humboldt with his success was never stated, but I believe he understood the influence Humboldt had on his own art. Yet for all the wrongs that Humboldt commits, Charlie ceaselessly extends forgiveness, understanding, and often, amusement. Charlie himself is a questionable char...

RABBIT AT REST by John Updike Awards: National Book Critics Circle Winner 1990, Pulitzer Winner 1991 Nomination: NY Times Finalist 1990 Dates Read: August 31, 2007 & August 30, 2017 And so continues the saga of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, who is now in the sunset of his life. With his body slowly failing him, having suffered a heart attack, Harry is having to confront the limitations of an aging body. He is also thrust into a confrontation with his son, Nelson, who's drug habit is in full bloom and having gained control of the auto dealership, has been embezzling money, causing Harry to lose the business. Tragedy and reckoning continue throughout this novel, as Harry faces up to many past decisions that now haunt him. Fortunately for Harry, on his deathbed, he reconciles with his wife, Janice, and his son. In my opinion, what makes these novels so unique is that Harry is so vividly real, with all the poor decision making and flawed relationships of every hum...

THE KNOWN WORLD by Edward Jones Awards: Dublin Winner 2005, National Book Critics Circle Winner 2003, Pulitzer Winner 2004 Nominations: National Book Finalist 2003, NY Times Finalist 2003 Dates Read: November 4, 2006 & July 1, 2017 The Known World is a beautiful novel that depicts the horrors of slavery by both black and white owners. Set in Virginia, Henry Townsend is a former slave that becomes a slaveholder himself, along with this wife Caldonia. Jones weaves a rich tapestry of vignettes that describes the family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances that make up this strange world.  Toward the end of this novel, there is a poignant scene where a character wishes there were a light of truth in the world, an actual place where people can stand and tell the truth with no retribution. To envision such a place, and to be able to vocalize your soul's truth is powerful. And that truth would be raw and real and not black, nor white but most likely very, very gray....

MARCH by Geraldine Brooks Award: Pulitzer Winner 2006 Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2007 Dates Read: March 8, 2008 & June 24, 2017 March is a lovely novel that expands on Louisa May Alcott's famous novel, Little Women, entirely from the perspective of the father, Mr. March. He leaves his family for the Civil War and they are forced to fend for themselves in his absence. Fighting on the Union side, he writes frequent letters home, yet omits many of the brutalities and horrors he experiences. While recovering from a prolonged illness on a plantation in the south, Mr. March meets Grace, a slave whom he had previously met as a young woman. Eventually, he returns home to his family, although he is forever altered by the war. Brooks' enchanting creation is remarkable as it is well-researched. Modeling Mr. March on Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, she used his letters and journals to create this robust and very likeable character. He is human in every sense of t...