Book Awards III Challenge

Completed! A little late, but oh well. I was all pumped to knock it out December 1, and then so many things got in the way. Better late than never, I guess. I'll have to do better on my other challenges.

This was my first challenge, and I have to say that it was a successful one and a great one to introduce me to the challenge world. I thoroughly enjoyed every single book I picked for this challenge. I definitely would like to participate again in the future.

To see all of the reviews for this challenge, click here. Or, you can click on them individually as listed below.


Read the post here.
Ended: December 1, 2009.


1. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Printz Award) - 11.15.09
2. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley (Newberry Medal) - 7.26.09
3. The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Pulitzer Prize) - 11.29.09
4. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Faulkner Award)- 12.7.09
5. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Booker Prize) - 11.27.09

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Genre: General fiction
Publisher, Year: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2004
Other Works: Housekeeping
Flags: Teen angst
Rating: A+ or Must Read Now!
Challenge: Book Awards III, Countdown
Premise: A loyal preacher comes to the end of his life and writes a journal for his young son to have as a legacy after he's gone.

I’d heard about Marilynne Robinson’s first book Housekeeping from the Books on the Nightstand podcast and became interested in her. So, when I signed up for the Book Awards Challenge, I decided to make Gilead one of my picks. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish on time, but better late than never! I find it fitting that the last book was the one I enjoyed the most.

Gilead is written as a journal from the perspective of Reverend John Ames. John has a heart condition and know he won’t live long. He married late in life, and so has a young son, about six or seven. And so, he wants to leave his son something of himself behind. Throughout the book, John chronicles the lives of his grandfather and father (who were also preachers), a difficult relationship with his best friend’s son (who was named after him), and his own sad first marriage, where his wife and daughter both passed away in childbirth. Set in Iowa, Robinson takes the reader through several generations of small town life in a turbulent world. +/-

I loved this book down to the final words. What’s so wonderful about this book is that it’s simplicity itself. It’s about a simple man who lived a common life and strived for a peaceful and meaningful existence. In that, there is great beauty and wisdom.

Through each generation, Robinson explores the friction that evolves between father and son. Although times change, relationships do not. As long as the world turns, conflicts will arise. And as long as conflicts arise, fathers and sons will have differing opinions and will hurt and disappoint each other. For example, at one point John reminisces about traveling with his father to find his grandfathers grave in another state. The journey was hard and long and they didn’t have enough food. But, the lessons he learned on the trip were what he remembered: that his father loved him and sacrificed for him. Even though he has many disappointments in his life, I think the uplifting moments are more sacred to him than any disappointments can dispel.

Ultimately, I think Gilead is a book about forgiveness—about acceptance. About leaving history in the past and looking forward to a brighter future. About letting our circumstances be what they are and accepting them with quiet and confident resolve. John’s voice is one that resonates in my head, though I’ve turned the last page—a true American treasure.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

Genre: General fiction
Publisher, Year: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2002
Other Works: A Home at the End of the World
Flags: Moderate language, Adult themes
Rating: A or Great Read
Challenge: Book Awards III, Countdown
Premise: Three women go through the events of their day--strangers, yet inexpicably connected.

I think if I’d read Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, it would have enhanced my experience with The Hours, but having that background was not essential in falling in love with this carefully crafted novel. I love how the title is so fitting and significant. Everything about this book was just right for me.

The book focuses on the stories of three women, all which are told chronologically, although each woman lives in a different time: Clarissa, a forty-something woman looking after a dying friend; Laura, a young mother in the 50s; and Virginia herself, writer and tortured soul. Through the events of a single day, each woman goes about her duties—seemingly insignificant acts, daily events, nothing special. Cunningham very adeptly shows us that those menial moments that we plow through everyday reveal something within us, an inner commentary, a million daily decisions that shape and change who we are, how we live—and how we die. +/-

The book begins with Virginia Woolf’s suicide. (And, I have to say, if death is not an interesting literary topic for you, this book may not be your cup of tea.) The thing I really admired about Cunningham’s take is how his exploration of the meaning of death also accentuated, by showing it in relief, an exploration of the meaning of life. And without the push and pull of trying too hard. Our lives are composed merely and simply of hour after hour after hour. Some of those hours are filled with a rapturous joy, more are filled with sadness. How does that rapture measure up in conjunction with our miseries? How do we move from the sad hours to the happy hours, and what happens to us during those hours in between the tug-of-war?

Needless to say, Michael Cunningham is indeed a talented writer of prose. The language in this book took me to another place. I didn’t find it a page-turner, per se, but I was surprised when I turned the final page. That is to say—the story ran and I hardly noticed the speed. It is a somber work, but a delight just the same. A contemplative work of art.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Genre: General fiction
Publisher, Year: McClelland and Stewart, 2000
Other Works: The Year of the Flood, Alias Grace
Flags: Adult themes, Tenuous references
Rating: A or Great Read
Challenge: Book Awards III
Premise: An old woman reflects on her turbulent life and that of her ill-fated sister.

The Blind Assassin is the type of reading experience that becomes an event. Although it may seem like chaos at first, it’s actually a perfectly choreographed affair, with every moment accounted for. Atwood brilliantly weaves together several stories, which seem unrelated. It’s as if the author took an old woman’s last memoir, a science fiction book, a private journal, and a bunch of newspaper clippings and threw them up in the air, gathering them into one big mess. Then, slowly, they merge and line up in your mind, and their connections suddenly appear. Then, the jumbledness of the text emerges in sharp focus, and the mismatched accounts seem so correctly in their places.

The book begins with the unfortunate report of the death of a young author, Laura Chase. Then, an abrupt shift to a sort of stream-of-consciousness, third person view into a secret love affair--one of the pair a storyteller. The bulk of the book is told from the perspective of a woman in the twilight of her years, Iris, who feels it’s time to put her memories to paper. +/-

I enjoyed Iris’s voice, accepting yet vigorous and dripping with sarcasm. Although, in the end I hated her. Which is unfair, because the reasons I liked her grew out of the choices she made for which I hated her. I didn’t feel a particular attachment to these characters, but that didn’t take away from my experience with the novel, surprisingly enough. I don’t think the author wanted us to connect with them--it’s like she built a wall there intentionally. So that we could look over it secretly, so we could be conflicted.

I found myself completely sucked in by the science fiction side-story, “the blind assassin,” in a sort of gruesomely creative way. And--what sets Atwood apart from others as one of the greats--she expertly turns something detestable into a tribute of beauty and life and love. However, the main story, Iris’s reflections, proved to be equally as compelling.

Atwood is an amazing connoisseur of language--she wove a web of words for which I’ve never seen the like. She is an unforgettable talent. This book is truly a masterpiece, one I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Genre: Young adult
Publisher, Year: Puffin Books, 2004
Other Works: The Bride's Farewell, What I Was
Flags: Teen angst, Tenuous references
Rating: A+, or Must Read Now!
Challenges: Book Awards, Dystopya, Countdown
Premise: A teenage girl, Daisy, leaves her parents to live with her cousins in England. Soon after she arrives, a war breaks out. Left to their own devices, Daisy and her cousins fend for themselves before they get shipped out in different directions. Daisy and her little cousin Piper fight to survive, hoping to find a way to the ones they care about.

I had heard so many good things about this book, I was excited when it fit right in with a couple of challenges I wanted to do. When I picked it up from the library, I was surprised to see how short it is. But, don’t let that fool you—literary gems come in all shapes in sizes.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this book, but I have to say that I was very pleased with it in the end. I think Rosoff created a very fair and interesting depiction of the delicate and frank, not to mention hormonal, teenage look at the instability of our world. Daisy is a complex character and her voice is strong and resonating. Although she is a flawed character, there’s something pure about her as well, which I found refreshing and puzzling at the same time. +/-

I also enjoyed the author’s writing style, with misplaced capitalization and sans quote marks. Usually things like that add a level of difficulty and confusion (Who’s talking? Where did that that thought end and this one begin? I’m lost!). But I really felt these grammatical liberties enhanced the flow of conversation, provided a bit of levity for such a serious topic, and made the plot altogether easier to follow—which seemed a considerable feat.

I think this is a book every teenager should read. Having said that, there are scenes that my disturb you or offend your moral code. However, I believe Rosoff has approached these subjects in a way that not only faces hard fact but also increases understanding, in a world where very little makes sense. I came away from this book with a new perspective on life, or perhaps an old perspective (my own teenage one) being asked to think about subjects I rarely pondered on at that age—instability and war and pain. And that is the reality for far too many young people today. Rosoff’s book is truly a thing of beauty—highly recommended.

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher, Year: Ace Books, 1987
Other Works: Beauty, The Hero and the Crown
Rating: A, or Great Read
Challenge: Book Awards III
Premise: Harry, a young Homelander woman, finds herself in a new world when the Hill leader, Corlath, kidnaps her in the middle of the night. She soon learns that her new life will lead to her destiny.

I read this book as part of a Book Awards challenge (Newbery Honor). I also loved Beauty by Robin McKinley, so I thought this one would be a slam dunk.

The story begins with a young woman, Harry (short for Angharad), who has recently moved to an outpost of her country (Home) in a foreign land (Daria/the Hills). When Harry has a brief encounter with Corlath, king of the Hillfolk, her life changes forever. A magical force called kelar prompts Corlath to kidnap Harry, take her back to his country, and train her in the ways of his people, as a war is brewing with the North. Harry learns that the many mysteries that lie around her in her new country are nothing compared to the secrets held within her, which she is about to unlock. +/-

It took me a couple of chapters to get “inside” this story. I don’t read a lot of fantasy, so sometimes I have to remind myself to continue to suspend my disbelief, but once you buy into Harry and Corlath and Home and Hills, you will not be disappointed. McKinley takes the reader deep within a magical and mysterious fantastical world, which is so well defined, it feels as if you’ve been there and walked the sands of the Hill country yourself. Harry is a wonderful character: a strong woman, though not without insecurity. As is Corlath: a responsible and humble leader, but not without fallibility. As Harry learns to accept her new land and people and to channel and control her new-found gifts, we see a hesitant girl turn into a dignified woman, embracing her destiny as the hope of not only her adopted people, but her own Homeland as well. An adventure story not to be missed!