The 2003 Dublin winner, Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red is an exciting and rich read.

I like Ginny's idea of choosing from a variety of the awards. The International Awards Directory, which Joan has included in the heading and her post, lists a great number or award organizations to choose from and it includes the winners and the shortlists. The awards give me ideas for reading.

This is a wonderful idea, Joan. There are many works to choose from and we'll be the vanguard of book clubs.

Ginny, I was the person who mentioned the Orange Prize to you. The Orange is limited to women writing in English who are published in the UK. At the time I mentioned it I was thinking that the winners might be suitable for the Women in Literature discussion - recent 'hot off the press' works by and for women. The 2003 Orange winner is Valerie Martin for Property. I read it.

I cannot recommend Property and dithered about even mentioning it here or that I read it. It wasn't a keeper and, so far, I don't find the Orange Prize makes notable selections. This might be because their elibility requirements for consideration are quite restrictive. I'd mention the award to Ginny before I read the 2003 winner. Maybe I'll look at previous winners. Property is a popular novel as far as genre goes and predictable. The writing is so-so.

I'm eternally optimistic, however, and will keep looking at the awards organizations and their lists. After all, I did find My Name Is Red through a search of the awards and it's definitely a keeper.

I also look at the non-fiction awards list. I read the Cuba book, a memoir, that won the National Book Award and it was nicely written but not memorable. Maybe it was a political choice? I enjoyed the NBA shortlisted The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and I recommend that book (which Joan, I think, originally recommended some time ago). From the inside jacket: "Erik Larson... tells the spellbinding true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were linked by the greatest fair in American history: the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, nicknamed The White City" [because all the buildings were painted white]. People who appear in the book include Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Theodore Drieser, and Archduke Ferdinand. I liked the scheme to create an attraction at the Fair that would surpass the Eiffel Tower.

JOAN, I've got Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire and she is a beautiful, somewhat leisurely writer. Very exact. Only read the first 50 some pages but so far so good. At the beginning a man is on a trip and his destination seems important but then, when he arrives, I thought 'is that all there is?' but then something happens in addition that makes it strike home. Can't really explain it any better. She is a subtle writer who doesn't tell you what your feelings should be and the little climaxes creep up on you unaware - rather like life does.

I did read one of the finalists to the fiction NBA, Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins. The premise sounded interesting but the book was a disappointment.

Sorry if my comments are disjointed. Have been down with the flu and not fully recovered. Trying to read the printed page and the computer screen gives me a blasting headache. Will report back after I've read more of The Great Fire.

So far - and my opinion can change - My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk is the best read of the year for me.

The Whiting has nine categories in a wide range of genres with the winners announced in October. The next is a non-fiction award that looks very nice indeed with the longlist released in mid-May and the winner announced mid-June:

Difficult to find non-fiction awards but the NBA and Samuel Johnson Prize seem like good places to start.

Someone somewhere sometime asked SN members, which author(s) attending the Book Fest in Washington DC they'd like to meet and I said 'Richard Powers, absolutely.' I've been dying to ask, did anyone meet him and what was he like, what did he say? He was scheduled to attend but he may have hidden behind an aspidistra.

I keep thinking about the Critics award. I hope Powers wins it but there's a chance for Monica Ali's Brick Lane. I read and liked both works but don't feel Ali's was a standout or memorable. Powers The Time of Our Singing is much the better book IMO but it is long and complex. Ali's novel is nicely written, quite accessible, albeit predictable and safe which might, in the end, be what gives her the award. I don't know on what basis the critics will make their determination. I do think Ali shows promise.

Has anyone read these two books or any of the other nominees? JOAN, do you think that the Critics Award should be in the heading?

I'm having trouble finding someone viable to discuss from the list of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Poets are woefully underpaid and unrecognized in their lifetime so it's wonderful to see that the majority of Nobels go to poets, yet a book of poetry is basically impossible to discuss online due to copyright restrictions. That limits the number of Nobel authors to consider that haven't yet been discussed here at SN. I'm still looking at the list and the various awards have suggested new reads to me.

Also I recommend highly Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red for a discussion - wonderful book with a lot to discuss. I also think the Nobel laureate Albert Camus' book The Stranger might make an interesting discussion.

I found this interesting article about the Dublin IMPAC Award and its broadness geographically as well as with genres.

I was looking up some of the titles on the longlist, trying to locate copies, when I came across the above Guardian article. The centenary of Joyce's Ulysses is causing more press than ever for Joyce and on the left side of the Guardian page are clickable sublinks to various articles on Ulysses. Interesting stuff including one attempt to debunk Joyce's literary reputation. I liked this quote by one of the critics in "Genius or fallen idol?"

Personally, I prefer having both clean underwear and a copy of Ulysses. That way all bases are covered and there's no physical or mental embarrassment when one is run over by a bus.

In one sociology class in college we read - in tandem with Roots - another Hailey book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Hailey. That could make a great discussion although I've already done it once and, because of time restraints, I wouldn't be able to discuss Hailey's work a second time.

There was a 1995 PBS documentary we saw in that same class about Malcolm X that was excellent, called "Make It Plain." The title derived from Malcolm X's terse instruction to anyone introducing him as speaker to 'make it plain' - in other words 'don't fuss about me, don't overly praise me.' This film was a wonderful companion piece to the two Hailey works. Hundreds of relatives, friends, and people who knew Malcolm X were interviewed.

The Hailey books perhaps would be too controversial, such as Malcolm X's treatment of women. Jones' book positively portrays strong women and is more acceptably modern in outlook.

Here's a link on Edward P. Jones where you can read an excerpt of his book, as well as some good sublinks ... a PBS interview with the author; Library of Congress article 'Free Blacks in the Antebellum Period;' and much more:

The other 2004 winners of the National Book Award -
Biography - Krushchev by William Taubman
Poetry - Columbarium by Susan Stewart
Nonfiction - Sons of Mississippi by Paul Hendrickson
Criticism - River of Shadows: Edweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West by Rebecca Solnit

Updike, Wolff in Running for PEN/Faulkner

NEW YORK, March 9 -- Short stories by John Updike, a debut collection by ZZ Packer and the Tobias Wolff novel "Old School" were among the nominees announced Tuesday for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction.

Other finalists include Caryl Phillips's "A Distant Shore," a novel set in England, and Frederick Barthelme's "Elroy Nights," the Mississippi-based story of a college professor's midlife crisis.

The winner, to be announced in April, will receive $15,000. Other finalists receive $5,000. Previous winners include Don DeLillo, Philip Roth and Richard Ford.

Updike was nominated for "The Early Stories," a compilation of fiction written from 1953-1975, while Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" established her as a talented new writer.

Wolff's "Old School" is a story of literary heroism and fakery, set on a New England prep school campus in the early 1960s. Wolff won the PEN/Faulkner prize in 1985 for his novella "The Barracks Thief."

Old School shows how character is formed and reformed throughout one's lifetime, how literature influences a reader and then life further refines that influence, and about picking up the pieces. The book includes some dead-on perfect portrayals of famous writers visiting the school. I don't want to say more in case I give away the plot and the surprises that greet the reader as s/he turns the pages.

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I've been busy reading novels from the longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Award but there're too many titles for me to read each and every one. Will be anxious to see the shortlist, due to be announced on the 24th and then picking up copies of any on the shortlist that I haven't yet read.

JOAN, that's quite a challenge about my remaining books. I recently completed a huge, huge winnowing of books with a lot of time spent thinking about what's important to me. It helped me redefine and shape my library. Here's a list of what remains:

COMPLETE WORKS (as well as reference books about author & works)

SELECTED WORKS (including reference) some I sized down from a complete collection of works - Camus, Cather, Hemingway, Nabokov, Frank O'Connor, Thoreau, Tolstoy, Wharton, Latin American/Spanish writers, Native American writers

CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS - this section fluctuates wildly - currently includes Julian Barnes, Kazuo Ishiguro, Matthew Pearl, Orhan Pamuk, Paul Collins, and many more

BOOKS BY SUBJECT -
Books on Books
Masterpieces of World Literature, ed. Julian Hawthorne
Classical mysteries/Holiday mysteries
Ghost stories
Glassblowing
History & pop culture (select few)
Horticulture
Literary reference
Poetry

Mythology (storytelling, folk & fairy tales, myths)

Science (esp. geography & volcanology)

Philosophy (what's traditionally considered philosophy as well as my own very strange, choice of works which I idiosyncratically label 'philosophy')

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This list may look like a hodge-podge but, believe me, it's much more focused than before I started the winnowing process. I winnowed out tons of books yet I know my library will constantly evolve and there'll be more books added. (Can't stop reading and collecting.)

JOAN, now I offer the challenge to you that you gave me - what does your library contain?

It took two long (exhausting) years to finish the inventory. Now new acquisitions go on a holding shelf until I inventory them and only after will they be placed in the Library. Maintaining the inventory is a cinch.

So, I dare you. How about April 1st to start the inventory of your library?

My hint to achieve the goal - target one shelf a week, inventory it 'by guess and by golly' if necessary, and don't add another book to that shelf until you inventory it as well. Then work your way through your library, shelf by shelf, and tabletop by tabletop. I initially made the mistake of trying to do too much and worrying about what was left. Once I focused on just one shelf at a time, not thinking about what was ahead, it was physically and emotionally doable.

When the inventory is done you'll know what you have; your heirs know what you have; you'll find a focus or pattern to your collection that you might not otherwise have known (this was my case); and I've found that it's easier to pare down/add to a library when working from an inventory list.

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I'll have to take a close look at the shortlist. The link is one long and skinny line (one word or partial word per line). I did notice Paul Auster's book The Book of Illusions which I've read, or tried to read. He's a fine writer but I can't get into fictional writing about writing- the narrator is always sensitive and messed-up and such books (to me) are messed up and uninteresting. I agree with Old School that you can't write about how someone becomes a writer. So Auster's book may be excellent but it doesn't engage me.

That's what I feel about Paul Auster too. Auster's an excellent writer and the book has merit. Yet a fictional work on writing about writing and the sensitive persona doesn't interest me. It's a matter of personal inclinations for I can see where others might enjoy it.

The IMPAC Dublin link in the heading now has the shortlist with descriptions of the books and bios of the authors. Here are the shortlisted titles.

1 - Book of Illusions/Paul Auster
2 - Any Human Heart/William Boyd
3 - Caramelo/Sandra Cisneros
4 - Middlesex/Jeffrey Eugenides
5 - The White Family/Maggie Gee
6 - This Blinding Absence of Light/Tahar Ben Jelioun
7 - Balthasar's Odyssey/Amin Maalouf
8 - Family Matters/Rohinton Mistry
9 - Earth and Ashes/Atiq Rahimi
10 - House of Day, House of Night/Olga Tokarczuk

SN discussed Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex.

Do any titles sound interesting?

There are two books I read on the longlist that, disappointing to me, didn't make the short list - but dang are they good. God's Mountain by Erri de Luca and The Dream Room by Marcel Moring.

NEW YORK, March 29 -- John Updike, already among the most honored of contemporary literary writers, has received yet another prize. He was named the winner of the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction Monday.

Updike was cited for "The Early Stories," a compilation of short fiction from 1953 to 1975. He will receive $15,000.

"Story after story has that moment of a deftly-rendered revelation, subtle and astonishing, that honest recognition of who we are," PEN/Faulkner judge Elizabeth Strout said in a statement.

Previous winners of the PEN/Faulkner include Philip Roth, Don DeLillo and Tobias Wolff, a runner-up this year for his novel "Old School."

Other finalists included ZZ Packer's "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere," Caryl Phillips's "A Distant Shore" and Frederick Barthelme's "Elroy Nights."

The 72-year-old Updike, best known for such fiction as "Couples" and "Rabbit Is Rich," has won numerous awards, including two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Critics Circle award and the National Book Award.

MARYAL, the Updike short story collection is made up of previously published stories, dating from 1953-75.

I almost didn't read Old School because of the private boys school setting but there was some subtle criticism in the book of the system, and this system, after all, was the way for readers to 'meet' famous writers. (So we become privileged too, even if for a short time, through the pages of a book - such is the power of literature.)

The writers' paid visits to the Old School - something not available to students in public school - were marvelous, their portrayals were perfect, and throughout the visits I would laugh and get annoyed and then laugh again. Perfection.

I had to let my impressions of the book 'perk' also, once I'd finished. The reader believes that Old School is going one way and then it changes directions, and changes again, sometimes in unsettling ways, and keeps on changing - meanings, issues, emotions, depth. When I closed the pages of the book, I realized that even the title resonates with meaning. Old School is a keeper IMO.