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Oct 13

Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

dylan

Singer songwriter, Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for literature. The Swedish Academy stated that Dylan won the prize for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Dylan is the first American to win the prize since 1993 when it went to novelist Toni Morrison.

While the prize has gone to a range of stylistically diverse writers, the announcement was a surprise to many in the literary community since Dylan’s work doesn’t fit traditional literary canons generally recognized by the award. Past winners include Svetlana Alexievich (2015), Patrick Modiano (2014), Alice Munro (2013), Mo Yan (2012), Tomas Transtromer (2011), Mario Vargas Llosa (2010), Herta Muller (2009), Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (2008), Doris Lessing (2007), and Orhan Pamuk (2006).

I do love Dylan and think he’s a brilliant songwriter, but I can’t deny that I was surprised by the decision. I’m not entirely convinced that Dylan’s body of work can compare to the likes of some of the favored names who were mentioned as candidates this year — authors like Don DeLillo, Murakami, Ngugi wa, Ismail Kadare, or Javier Marias. Dylan is the first songwriter to be awarded the Nobel Prize. However, it’s an interesting decision and one that will likely lead to some interesting discussion about what constitutes literature. Many congratulations to Mr. Dylan.

Dylan is trending on twitter. Here are a few reactions:

From Orpheus to Faiz,song & poetry have been closely linked. Dylan is the brilliant inheritor of the bardic tradition.Great choice. #Nobel

— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) October 13, 2016

https://twitter.com/RichardAbowitz/status/786551753831387136

Folks: Songwriting is writing, and Bob Dylan is one of the most influential writers in the last 100 years. It's a defensible Nobel pick.

— John Scalzi (@scalzi) October 13, 2016

Now that Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, it opens the door for Pitbull's eventual victory

— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) October 13, 2016

What do you think? Does Dylan deserve to win? Why or why not?

Oct 11

12 Comments

2016 Man Booker Shortlist: Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

hot milk

Next up on our list of Man Booker candidates is Hot Milk by Deborah Levy. Once again, all five of us read this book and most of us loved it. Here are our thoughts on its chances of taking home the big prize. Read more

Oct 10

11 Comments

2016 Man Booker Shortlist: The Sellout by Paul Beatty

the sellout

With the date for the finalist looming (winner will be announced October 25), our panel of 5 judges has decided to feature each of the 6 finalists. In each of the 6 posts we’ll give our thoughts about the pros and cons of each book taking home the prize. We hope you chime in and let us know what you think of each book. First up is a book that all of us liked: The Sellout by Paul Beatty. Read more

Oct 1

15 Comments

September Monthly Recap

pile-of-books

It is finally time for our September Monthly recap! Find out which books were favorites and which were duds. We’ll end our wrap up with a a list of books due out in October and a glimpse of our upcoming content. We also want to hear from you so let us know what you read this month and what you look forward to reading next month.
Read more

Sep 30

13 Comments

Terrible Reviews of Great Books: Catch-22 by Heller

catch

There is no such thing as a universally loved book. Each month, we’ll feature a book from Time’s list of the best 100 English language novels of all time. From the nasty to the snarky to the downright absurd, we’ll highlight some of the strange reasons why some people hate these great reads. This month we’ll be taking a look at reviews for Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Summer Olympics Reading Challenge Update

Those of you who are regular followers of our blog know that we’ve been hosting a summer reading challenge based on the 2016 summer Olympics. With only four more days left in the challenge, we thought we’d post an update. Five teams of 5 people have been competing for a chance to win cool bookish prizes. Here’s how things are going… Read more

Sep 15

12 Comments

National Book Award for Fiction Nominees

‘Tis the season for literary awards. Earlier this week The Man Booker judges released their shortlist while the National Book Foundation released their nominees for poetry, nonfiction, and young peoples literature. Today they released their nominees for fiction. Interestingly, there is surprisingly little overlap between the awards (Bailey’s prize, Man Booker, and National Book Awards) proving once again that judging books is completely subjective. Here is the list of fiction nominees for the National Book Awards. Read more

Sep 13

16 Comments

2016 Man Booker Shortlist

man booker

It official. The 2016 Man Booker shortlist was announced this morning. Yesterday we made our predictions. How did we do? Here are the 6 books that made the cut: Read more

Sep 12

6 Comments

2016 Man Booker Shortlist: Our Predictions

Combined our shadow panel of 5 judges managed to read all 13 books. We rated all the books on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) enjoyment. Unlike some of the other shadow panels and reviewers out there (you should read the (Wo)man Booker shadow panel reviews if you haven’t already done so), our consensus about the list was that it was pretty strong. Keep reading to find out how each book was ranked and which books we predict will make the list. Read more

Sep 9

10 Comments

Our Man Booker 2016 Longlist Musings

Those of you who have been following our blog know that we’ve been doing a shadow panel for the Man Booker longlist books. Our 5 judges (myself included) have been reading through the longlist and tomorrow we will be making our predictions for which books we think will make the shortlist. However, before we get to the shortlist, we wanted to share some of our thoughts about the longlist books. Want to know which author we’d like to have dinner with, which cover we liked best, which book gave us nightmares? Keep reading to find out.