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 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...

The backstory: The Tiger's Wife won the 2011 Orange Prize . Tea Obreht is also one of The New Yorker 's 20 Under 40. The basics: Part exploration of grief, part war novel, and part fairy tale, The Tiger's Wife defies a basic synopsis. My thoughts: I really wanted to love The Tiger's Wife . Initially, I did love it. I was captivated by Natalia, a young doctor who travels with a friend to inoculate children in an orphanage in the war-torn Balkans. I think if the novel would have stayed with Natalia and her personal quest to understand why her grandfather left home to die, then I would have loved it. As an exploration of grief, I was moved. I lost interest, however, in the rampant side stories and symbolism. I fully acknowledge for every symbol I got, there were likely many more I missed. Still, the novel lost me when the magical realism veered too far to the magic rather than the realism. I don't have anything against magical realism, per se, but I struggled w...

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine to highlight an upcoming release we can't wait to read. My pick this week is The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. This summer, the New Yorker named Tea Obreht one of their 20 Under 40. This month, the National Book Award Foundation listed The Tiger's Wife as one of their 5 Under 35 picks. Novelists are already praising her too. Colum McCann, who won the National Book Award in 2009 says, "Tea Obreht is the most thrilling literary discovery in years." Ann Patchett calls her "tremendously talented." T.C. Boyle says The Tiger's Wife is "a novel of surpassing beauty, exquisitely wrought and magical.  Téa Obreht is a towering new talent." Here's the publisher's description: The time: the present. The place: a Balkan country ravaged by years of conflict. Natalia, a young doctor, is on a mission of mercy to an orphanage when she receives word of her beloved grandfa...