Oct 15
Normally for our featured author post, Book Worm and I feature an author we have both read and then we list our favorite books from that author. This month we thought we’d do something a little different and explore the life and works of the most recent winner of Nobel in Literature: Svetlana Alexievich. Read more
Oct 14
It has been a busy month in the literary world. Last week they announced of the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (we are featuring her tomorrow). Yesterday the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize was announced. Then this morning the finalists for the National Book Awards were announced. All these announcements and awards have wreaked havoc on our blog schedule as BW and I have struggled to read the variety of books and we have moved from 3 times a week to almost daily posting. We will go back to our regular post schedule (3-4 times a week) in the next couple of weeks.
The National Book Awards feature 4 primary categories including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and young people’s literature. Keep reading to see if your favorite books made it onto the list of finalists. Read more
Oct 13
A Brief History of Seven Killings was announced to be the winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize. Marlon James gets to take home £50,000 in addition to the prestige of winning the award.
This year’s judges (Michael Wood (chair), Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne) reviewed 156 books under consideration.
The Shortlist was made up of the following books:
Marlon James is the first Jamaican-born author to be shortlisted for the prize, let alone to win the prize. A Brief History of Seven Killings explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in the late 1970s. It is an examination of Jamaica’s troubled and violent history that spans decades and touches upon a variety of characters including drug dealers, journalist, and many others. It was a recipient of the 2015 American Book Award and was named best book of the year by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Time magazine.
Book Worm liked this book and you can read her review of his book here. We both predicted that he would win the prize. My copy is on its way and I plan to read it as soon as it arrives.
You can purchase your copy here: A Brief History of Seven Killings
Have you read the book? What did you think? Was it worthy of winning the prize? Do you plan to read it?
Oct 13
A few weeks ago, I reviewed the latest Book Riot quarterly box which I found rather underwhelming. This week, I’m happy to announce that I have found the subscription service that may just be perfect for me: Powell’s Indiespendsable subscription. Keep reading to see what I got and find out why this box was so great. Read more
Oct 12
It’s time for the announcement of our second weekly theme and the reveal of the random weekly winner. You can read more about it on our challenge page. Keep reading to find out what it is and to find out whether you won the $10 Amazon gift card. And the weekly theme is…. Read more
Oct 12
Tomorrow they will announce the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize. Between the two of us (thanks mainly to Book Worm), we have read all the books on the shortlist (and all on the long list). We’ve reviewed all the books on here at some point and you can search by book to read our reviews. We wanted to do a Booker wrap up and prediction. See what we thought of all the shortlist books and which one we think will win. Read more
Oct 11
I’m not too brave when it comes to reading scary books. I do like non-gory horror movies but there’s something about reading vs. watching that makes me more sensitive to scary content. This year, with our Halloween challenge, I decided to join in and participate with our readers (although I’m obviously not entering for the prize). Each week for the month of October we will be reading books that fit a specific theme. Tomorrow we announce our winner of the weekly raffle and our next weekly theme. Join in if you haven’t already.
Last week our theme was “dead things.” I picked The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. See what I thought about it. Was I able to sleep through the night? Read more
Oct 9
A while back I made a prediction that The Buried Giant would make the Man Booker Longlist. This was based primarily on the buzz surrounding the book because I hadn’t yet read it. Did my opinion change after I read the book? Read the review to find out. Read more
Oct 8
This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature was announced today at 1:00pm CAT. The Swedish prize was awarded to Svetlana Alexievich. Alexievich is a Belarusian author and investigative journalist who has written many interview-based documentary books depicting life and war in the Soviet Union. Many in the top literary circles were predicting that she would win the award. Congratulations to Ms. Alexievich.
Nominations to the Nobel Prize in Literature are made by a “qualified persons only.” These qualified people include members of the Swedish Academy, Professors of literature and linguistics at universities and college, previous Nobel Laureates in literature, Presidents of literary societies. The process of selection takes a year starting with initial invitation letters to 600-700 individuals. A long list of 10-15 candidates (not revealed to the public) is selected in April then a final list of 5 nominees are selected in May. From June-August the committee members read the works of the final candidates. The names of the nominees are not revealed until 50 years after the prize year.
To check out more information about the prize you can go to their website.
The past 10 winners include:
Patrick Modiano (2014)
Alice Munro (2013)
Mo Yan (2012)
Tomas Tranströmer (2011)
Mario Vargas Llosa (2010)
Herta Müller (2009)
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (2008)
Doris Lessing (2007)
Orhan Pamuk (2006)
Harold Pinter (2005)
I have not read any of her books but I look forward to doing so. I was hoping for a Murakami win but realized that it was a long shot.
What do you think of this year’s winner? Have you read any of her books? Which were your favorites? Least favorites?
Oct 7
Our next stop in our world tour or reading is England, home to Book Worm and Jen’s childhood home from ages 2-12! Join us as we explore a tiny fraction of what England has to offer in terms of literature and find out which book we selected. This will be one destination where we hope you help us compile a list of favorite authors and novels!
jenp27
The Reader's Room 