The County Library discussion

Happy New Year Everyone!

Your challenge for January is to read an award winner. It doesn't matter what award it is, it could be the Man Booker Prize, the Caldecott, it could be a local award like the Beehive Award. Just make sure you state which award your book won when you tell us what you've read for this challenge.

Good luck!

I am currently reading Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman for another group. I wanted to be sure to finish it by the end of the month and having it for this challenge will come as close to ensuring it as anything. It won the Biography Pulitzer for 2004.

Nice. I'm glad we can help you finish it for your other group. :D

I read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, which won multiple awards:

Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
Harvey Award
CYBIL Award
San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
Publisher's Weekly Comics Week Best Comic of the Year
Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel of the Year
Library Media Editor's Choice
Reuben Award Winner
Eisner Award Winner
Booklist Editors' Choice
Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books of the Year
Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award
Michael L. Printz Award

Graphic novels are a departure from the norm for me. My sister made me do it.

Greg,

Did you like it?

Elizabeth wrote: "Greg,

Did you like it?"

Yes, actually. Quite a lot. There was a lot more internal struggle expressed than I thought was possible in the format.

I am reading "The Perfect Nanny" by Leila Slimani.
The #1 international bestseller and winner of France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt.
Thanks, Becky, for your Christmas "gift", especially since it is GOOD, and helps me complete the library challenge. :D

I ended up giving this book 2 stars, mostly because I hated the characters so much! Wackos....
I still so appreciate the gesture, Becky! <3

I just finished “The Power,” by Naomi Alderman—winner of the Bailey Women’s Prize for fiction. Wow.

I decided to check out "The Man in the High Castle," since it's been in the conversation lately. I have mixed feelings about it. Intentionally racist, intentionally sexist, and older than I'd thought it was. (It won the Hugo award back in 1963.) The speculations are kind of fascinating, but overall I didn't love it.

Right now I am going the easy route. I read . It won the 2018 Theodor Seuss Geisel award. If I have time to read another book I might.

Starting Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder for this challenge. Pulitzer winner among other awards. I've had this on my TBR list. Now to avoid getting too distracted by other goodies.

I was inspired by Greg to read some graphic novels. I read the three most recent winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards for this category, Adulthood Is a Myth, Big Mushy Happy Lump, and Herding Cats, all by Sarah Andersen and her "Sarah's Scribbles" collection.

So far, I've read 2.

Artemis - GoodReads Choice Award for Sci-fi

The Hobbit - Keith Barker Millennium Book Award, Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (1997), (I know, I've never heard of these awards either, but still a great book)

I really like the Sarah Andersen collections. She writes some fun comics.

I love that it's only a little past the first week of January and so many of you guys have finished already. Keep it up!

I love that it's only a little past the first week of January and so many of you guys have finished already. Keep it up!"

A book in a week is only 52 a year. The average goal for goodreads members for 2018 was 61, so...

Also, there are those among us for whom 200 a year (4+ per week) is not unheard of, so...

I used to be able to read really fast with high comprehension, up to 200 pages an hour -- even textbooks. But through one thing and another, I got out of practice and haven't been able to rebuild the skill. For the months when Greg reads more than one, I'm enthralled to see the titles fly by and smile remembering when I could do that, too.

I just finished The Snow Child, which was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

I am now reading A Spell for Chameleon, which won the 1978 August Derleth Award from the British Fantasy Society for best novel of the year.

I just finished the The Yearling. It won the Pulitzer Prize. I enjoyed this one.

Debbie wrote: "I used to be able to read really fast with high comprehension, up to 200 pages an hour -- even textbooks. But through one thing and another, I got out of practice and haven't been able to rebuild t..."

wow, 200 pages an hour. I just spend a lot of time with audio books. I try to do 300 pages per day, but that's over several hours!

I read Circe which won the GoodReads Choice Award for Fantasy in 2018.

Just as a heads up, we are doing a giveaway in our United We Read Discussion, so if you're interested head over there!

I listened to The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter and really enjoyed it. It won the 2018 Audie Award for Fantasy.

I read The Outsider. It won the GoodReads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller 2018

I have finished Khrushchev: The Man and His Era William Taubman which received the 2004 Pulitzer for Biography. It was an arduous read and quite a lot toward the end was boring. But when you've only 100 pages left of a 650 page book you dog on. One thing in the epilogue surprised me and made me smile:
"In 1991, Sergei Khurshchev (K's son) moved to Providence Rhode Island where he has since been a fellow at ... Brown University, teaching.... Sergei and his wife, Velentina, obtained American citizenship in 1999, an act that outraged many Russians. Even those who aren't nostalgic for communism are chagrined at how empty Nikita Khrushchev's boasts turned out to be. Khrushchev crowed that grandchildren of Americans he met would live under communism. Instead his own son is living under capitalism." What a hoot!

I also read Wolf Hollow, which has won numerous awards including being a Newbery Medal nominee.

My second award winning book this month is Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which won the 2010 BBC Samuel Johnson prize. It was an excellent book.

I'm not going to get finished with Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder this month, so I looked through the Caldecott list and found some I happened to have. I read Make Way for Ducklings (Caldecott Winner 1942) and Blueberries for Sal (Caldecott Honor Book 1949), both by Robert McCloskey. These copies were souvenirs purchased at a book store in Bar Harbor, Maine. A couple days prior on the same trip, a tour I was on drove by the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues in Boston.

I've read Prairie Fires with my Pulitzer Non-Fiction group. Rose is a piece of work, isn't she. Everyone struggled with it, so I understand you not finishing it. Good alternate titles!

I love the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues in Boston - and the book. :D

Debbie wrote: "I've read Prairie Fires with my Pulitzer Non-Fiction group. Rose is a piece of work, isn't she. Everyone struggled with it, so I understand you not finishing it. Good alternate titles!"

I plan to finish it sometime, but I decided after I awhile I was more in the mood for something else.

It totally doesn't count because it's only a nominee for the Beehive, but a kiddo and I read What To Do With a Box and it was adorable!

I read Train I Ride by Paul Mosier which won the 2018 ILA Children's and Young Adults' Book Award for Intermediate Fiction. I absolutely loved this book! It was a very rewarding read, and had me crying through the last 20 pages.

I have finished another book that qualifies for this challenge. The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly was the 1929 Newbery Medal winner. If you would like to read my review of it, you can find it at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

If you would like to read the review for the other prize winner I read, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, you can find it at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I have one more:

Nice Dragons Finish Last
--this won an Audie award for Fantasy in 2016
---and it was fun to listen to this.

Just finishing up Brandon Sanderson's THE WAY OF KINGS. Excellent story, although a very large book. If you are into Fantasy fiction, and have many days of nothing but a book and cocoa, I highly recommend it.
Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (2011), David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel (2011), Whitney Award for Best Novel (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author, Favorite Book, Fantasy (2010)

The Way of Kings is excellent! Book 2 is even better.

I read An Ember in the Ashes, which won the People’s Choice Awards in 2016 for Best Fantasy. (It’s a terrible book.)

I just finished listening to "The Trouble with Goats and Sheep," which won the Woman & Home Reader's Choice Award for Best Debut Novel Of The Year (2016). It was odd, and funny, and creepy, and a bit more open-ended than I prefer...

Audrey wrote: "The Way of Kings is excellent! Book 2 is even better.

I read An Ember in the Ashes, which won the People’s Choice Awards in 2016 for Best Fantasy. (It’s a terrible book.)"
I look forward to book #2. I really liked how the first one wrapped up.
Sorry about the crappy Embers book. :/

Jackie wrote: I look forward to book #2. I really liked how the first one wrapped up.
Sorry about the crappy Embers book. :/ “

I knew what I was getting into. Compared to Sanderson, it was really, really bad.

My last book is Never Let Me Go

this won the ALA Alex Award in 2006

Tanya is our prize drawing winner for January 2019’s reading challenge. They read The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

Congratulations!

Yay, Tanya! Congrats! ♥

Hooray, Tanya!

Congrats, Tanya!