nomadreader

Tonight, the winners of this year's National Book Awards will be announced. I mostly follow the fiction category, but I'm always excited to see which authors win across the board. This year in particular, several of the young adult and non-fiction titles sound quite appealing. For the first time, the National Book Foundation is offering a live webcast of the ceremony on its website . It starts tonight at 8 p.m. New York City time. I'll be watching live (perhaps even from my Kindle Fire , which is set to arrive today!) I managed to read all five of the fiction finalists this year, and I can honestly say I would be happy if any of them win . While I certainly have my favorites (more on that soon), the five titles are incredibly diverse and represent a fascinating combination of American voices in fiction . Although I had hopes for other titles to appear on the list, I welcome reading prize lists to discover titles I likely otherwise wouldn't have. It is incredibly...

The backstory: Binocular Vision: New and Collected Stories  is a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award . The basics: This collection of short stories is not connected by a common theme. The stories dart through history and feature numerous locations worldwide. Most stories do, however, feature Judaism or take place in Boston, and sometimes both. My thoughts: Mr. Nomadreader and I are huge fans of The Next Iron Chef,  the reality competition show to pick the next Iron Chef. (Stay with me here.) A recurring theme on the show is the danger of making duos and triples with the secret ingredient because it allows the judges to judge you against yourself rather than your competitors. As the only short story collection to be a finalist for the National Book Award, at times it felt Edith Pearlman is competing against herself, and it wasn't always successful for me. Pearlman is a brilliant writer and storyteller, yet my lack of fondness for short stories came th...

The five finalists for this year's National Book Award in Fiction are: The Sojourn  by Andrew Krivak The Tiger's Wife  by Tea Obreht ( my reveiew ) The Buddha in the Attic  by Julie Otsuka ( my review ) Binocular Vision: New and Selected Stories  by Edith Pearlman Salvage the Bones  by Jesmyn Ward My thoughts I've read two of the books. I thoroughly enjoyed Julie Otsuka's The Buddha in the Attic , and I'm thrilled to see it honored here. Although I think Tea Obreht is brilliant, The Tiger's Wife fell flat for me as a novel. I've heard wonderful things about Salvage the Bones  from both Wendy at Caribou's Mom and Audra at Unabridged Chick . I was in the library holds line for it, but I opted to buy it for my Kindle instead. The other two titles are new to me. The Sojourn  by Andrew Krivak comes from the revered Bellevue Literary Press. Somehow it wasn't on my radar, but it looks outstanding. I ordered it for my Kindle and will li...