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Archive for February 23rd, 2008
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008National Book Award Project
Sharon from Ex Libris is hosting this perpetual challenge (no time limit) to read from the National Book Award fiction list (winners and nominees). The National Book Award Project allows flexibility in the guidelines. Looking through the list, I’ve discovered I have already read several winners and nominees…so my goal will to keep reading through the list (good thing there is no time limit!). I don’t promise to read all the nominees, but I would like to get through all the winners - and if I do that, I will consider this challenge a success.
I’ll be keeping track of my progress at the official challenge blog; and also here.
You may notice that there are a few DNF’s (Did not Finish). These were books which I disliked so much, I couldn’t make my way through them. I have no intention of trying them again…chalk it up to not enough time in my life to read books I hate.
Below are the lists. Winners are in bold print. Books I’ve read are highlighted in Red with links to my reviews when available.
1950
- Nelson Algren - The Man with the Golden Arm
1951
- William Faulkner - The Collected Stories of William Faulkner
- Brendan Gill - The Trouble of One House
1952
- James Jones - From Here to Eternity (No review)
- James Agee - The Morning Watch
- Truman Capote - The Grass Harp
- William Faulkner - Requiem for a Nun
- Caroline Gordon - The Strange Children
- Thomas Mann - The Holy Sinner
- John P. Marquand - Melville Goodwin USA
- J. D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
- William Styron - Lie Down in Darkness
- Jessamyn West - The Witch Diggers
- Herman Wouk - The Caine Mutiny
1953
- Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man
- Isabel Bolton - Many Mansions
- H. L. Davis - Winds of Morning
- Thomas Gallagher - The Gathering Darkness
- Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea
- Carl Jones - Jefferson Selleck
- Peter Martin - The Landsman
- John Steinbeck - East of Eden (Read October 15, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- William Carlos Williams - The Build Up
1954
- Saul Bellow - The Adventures of Augie March
1955
- William Faulkner - A Fable
- Harriet Arnow - The Dollmaker
- Hamilton Basso - The View from Pompey’s Head
- Davis Grubb - The Night of the Hunter
- Randall Jarrell - Pictures from an Institution
- Milton Lott - The Last Hunt
- Frederick Manfred - The Last Grizzly
- William March - The Bad Seed
- Wright Morris - The Huge Season
- Frank Rooney - The Courts of Memory
- John Steinbeck - Sweet Thursday
1956
- John O’Hara - Ten North Frederick
- Paul Bowles - The Spider’s House
- Shirley Ann Grau - The Black Prince
- MacKinlay Kantor - Andersonville
- Flannery O’Connor - A Good Man is Hard to Find
- May Sarton - Faithful are the Wounds
- Robert Penn Warren - Band of Angels
- Eudora Welty - The Bride of the Innisfallen
- Herman Wouk - Marjorie Morningstar
1957
- Wright Morris - The Field of Vision
- Nelson Algren - Walk on the Wild Side
- James Baldwin - Giovanni’s Room
- Saul Bellow - Seize the Day
- B. J. Chute - Greenwillow
- A. B. Guthrie - These Thousand Years
- John Hersey - A Single Pebble
- John Hunt - Generations of Men
- Edwin O’Connor - The Last Hurrah
- J. F. Powers - The Presence of Grace
- Elizabeth Spencer - The Voice at the Back Door
- James Thurber - Further Fables for Our Time
1958
- John Cheever - The Wapshop Chronicle
- James Agee - A Death in the Family
- James Gould Cozzens - By Love Possessed
- Mark Harris - Something About A Soldier
- Andrew Lytle - The Velvet Horn
- Bernard Malamud - The Assistant
- Wright Morris - Love Among the Cannibals
- Vladimir Nabokov - Pnin
- Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
- Nancy Wilson Ross - The Return of Lady Brace
- May Sarton - The Birth of a Grandfather
1959
- Bernard Malamud - The Magic Barrel
- J. P. Donleavy - The Ginger Man
- William Humphrey - Home from the Hill
- Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
- John O’Hara - From the Terrace
- J. R. Salamanca - The Lost Country
- Anya Seyton - The Winthrop Woman
- Robert Travers - Anatomy of a Murder
1960
- Philip Roth - Goodbye Columbus
- Louis Auchincloss - Pursuit of the Prodigal
- Hamilton Basso - The Light Infantry Ball
- Saul Bellow - Henderson the Rain King
- Evan S. Connell, Jr. - Mrs. Bridge
- William Faulkner - The Mansion
- Mark Harris - Wake Up, Stupid
- John Hersey - The War Lover
- H. L. Humes - Men Die
- Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House (no review)
- Elizabeth Janeway - The Third Choice
- James Jones - The Pistol
- Warren Miller - The Cool World
- James Purdy - Malcolm
- Leo Rostyn - The Return of H*Y*M*A*N*K*A*P*L*A*N*
- John Updike - The Poorhouse Fair
- Robert Penn Warren - The Cave
- Morris West - The Devil’s Advocate
1961
- Conrad Richter - The Waters of Kronos
- Louis Auchincloss - The House of Five Talents
- Kay Boyle - Generation without Farewell
- John Hersey - The Child Buyer
- John Knowles - A Separate Place (no review)
- Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird (Read March 21, 2007; rated 5/5; read my review)
- Wright Morris - Ceremony in a Lone Tree
- Flannery O’Connor - The Violent Bear It Away
- Elizabeth Spencer - The Light in the Piazza and Other Italian Tales
- Francis Steegmuller - The Christening Party
- John Updike - Rabbit, Run
- Mildred Walker - The Body of a Young Man
1962
- Walker Percy - The Moviegoer
- Hortense Calisher - False Entry
- George P. Elliott - Among the Dangs
- Joseph Heller - Catch 22 (DNF)
- Bernard Malamud - A New Life
- J. D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
- Isaac Bashevis Singer - The Spinoza of Market Street and Other Stories
- Edward Lewis Wallant - The Pawnbroker
- Joan Williams - The Morning and the Evening
- Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road
1963
- J. F. Powers - Morte D’Urban
- Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire
- Katherine Anne Porter - Ship of Fools
- Dawn Powell - The Golden Spur
- Clancy Sigal - Going Away
- John Updike - Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories
1964
- John Updike - The Centaur
- Bernard Malamud - Idiots First
- Mary McCarthy - The Group
- Thomas Pynchon - V
- Harvey Swados - The Will
1965
- Saul Bellow - Herzog
- Louis Auchincloss - The Rector of Justin
- John Hawkes - Second Skin
- Richard Kim - The Martyred
- Wallace Markfield - To an Early Grave
- Vladimir Nabokov - The Defense
- Isaac Bashevis Singer - Short Friday
1966
- Katherine A. Porter - The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter
- Jesse Hill Ford - The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones
- Peter Matthiessen - At Play in the Fields of the Lord
- James Merrill - The (Diblos) Notebook
- Flannery O’Connor - Everything that Rises Must Converge
- Harry Petrakis - Pericles on 31st Street
1967
- Bernard Malamud - The Fixer
- Louis Auchincloss - The Embezzler
- Edwin O’Connor - All in the Family
- Walker Percy - The Last Gentleman
- Harry Petrakis - A Dream of Kings
- Wilfrid Sheeds - Office Politics
1968
- Thornton Wilder - The Eighth Day
- Norman Mailer - Why Are We in Vietnam?
- Joyce Carol Oates - A Garden of Earthly Delights (Read September 22, 2008; Rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- Chaim Potok - The Chosen
- William Styron - Confessions of Nat Turner
1969
- Jerzy Kosinski - Steps
- John Barth - Lost in the Funhouse
- Frederick Exley - A Fan’s Notes
- Joyce Carol Oates - Expensive People
- Thomas Rogers - The Pursuit of Happiness
1970
- Joyce Carol Oates - Them
- Leonard Gardner - Fat City
- Leonard Michaels - Going Places
- Jean Stafford - The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford
- Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five (Read December 2006; rated 4/5; no review)
1971
- Saul Bellow - Mr. Sammler’s Planet
- James Dickey - Deliverance
- Shirley Hazzard - The Bay of Noon
- John Updike - Bech: A Book
- Eudora Welty - Losing Battles
1972
- Flannery O’Connor - The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
- Frederick Buechner - Lion Country
- E. L. Doctorow - The Book of Daniel
- Stanley Elkin - The Dick Gibson Show
- Tom McHale - Farragan’s Retreat
- Joyce Carol Oates - Wonderland
- Cynthia Ozick - The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
- Walker Percy - Love Among the Ruins
- Earl Thompson - A Garden of Sand
- John Updike - Rabbit Redux
1973
- John Barth - Chimera
- John Williams - Augustus
- Brock Brauer - The Late Great Creature
- Alan Friedman - Hermaphrodeity
- Barry Hannah - Geronimo Rex
- George V. Higgins - The Friends of Eddie Coyle
- R. M. Koster - The Prince
- Vladimir Nabokov - Transparent Things
- Ishmael Reed - Mumbo Jumbo
- Thomas Rogers - The Confession of a Child of the Century
- Isaac Bashevis Singer - Enemies, A Love Story
- Eudora Welty - The Optimist’s Daughter
1974
- Thomas Pyncheon - Gravity’s Rainbow
- Isaac Bashevis Singer - A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories
- Doris Betts - Beasts of the World and Other Stories
- John Cheever - The World of Apples
- Ellen Douglas - Apostles of Light
- Stanley Elkin - Searches and Seizures
- John Gardner - Nickel Mountain
- Tom McGuane - Ninety-Two in the Shade
- Wilfrid Sheed - People Will Always Be Kind
- Gore Vidal - Burr
- Joy Williams - State of Grace
1975
- Robert Stone - Dog Soldiers
- Thomas Williams - The Hair of Harold Roux
- Donald Barthelme - The Guilty Pleasures
- Gail Godwin - The Odd Woman
- Joseph Heller - Something Happened
- Toni Morrison - Sula
- Vladimir Nabokov - Look at the Harlequins!
- Grace Paley - Enormous Changes at the Last Minute
- Philip Roth - My Life as a Man
- Mark Smith - The Death of a Detective
1976
- Wiliam Gaddis - JR
- Saul Bellow - Humboldt’s Gift
- Hortense Calisher - The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher
- Johanna Kaplan - Other People’s Lives
- Vladimir Nabokov - Tyrant’s Destroyed and Other Stories
- Larry Woiwode - Beyond the Bedroom Wall
1977
- Wallace Stegner - The Spectator Bird
- Raymond Carver - Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
- MacDonald Harris - The Balloonist
- Ursula K. Le Guin - Orsinian Tales
- Cynthia Propper Seton - A Fine Romance
1978
- Mary Lee Settles - Blood Ties
- Robert Coover - The Public Burning
- Peter De Vries - Madder Music
- James Alan McPherson - Elbow Room
- John Sayles - Union Dues
1979
- Tim O’Brien - Going After Cacciato
- John Cheever - The Stories of John Cheever
- John Irving - The World According to Garp (Read multiple times; rated 5/5; no review)
- Diane Johnson - Lying Low
- David Plante - The Family
1980
- William Styron - Sophie’s Choice
- James Baldwin - Just Above My Head
- Norman Mailer - The Executioner’s Song
- Philip Roth - The Ghost Writer
- Scott Spencer - Endless Love
1981
- Wright Morris - Plains Song
- Shirley Hazzard - The Transit of Venus
- William Maxwell - So Long, See You Tomorrow
- Walker Percy - The Second Coming
- Eudora Welty - The Collected Stories
1982
- John Updike - Rabbit is Rich
- Mark Helprin - Ellis Island and Other Stories
- John Irving - The Hotel New Hampshire (Read multiple times; rated 5/5; no review)
- Robert Stone - A Flag for Sunrise
- William Wharton - Dad
1983
- Alice Walker - The Color Purple (Read January 12, 2007; rated 4.25/5; read my review)
- Gail Godwin - A Mother and Two Daughters
- Bobbie Ann Mason - Shiloh and Other Stories
- Paul Theroux - The Mosquito Coast
- Anne Tyler - Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (Read January 24, 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
1984
- Ellen Gilchrist - Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories
- Alison Lurie - Foreign Affairs
- Philip Roth - The Anatomy Lesson
1985
- Don DeLillo - White Noise
- Ursula K. Le Guin - Always Coming Home
- Hugh Nissenson - The Tree of Life
1986
- E. L. Doctorow - World’s Fair
- Norman Rush - Whites
- Peter Taylor - A Summon to Memphis
1987
- Larry Heinemann - Paco’s Story
- Alice McDermott - That Night
- Toni Morrison - Beloved
- Howard Norman - The Northern Lights
- Philip Roth - The Counterlife
1988
- Peter Dexter - Paris Trout (no review)
- Don DeLillo - Libra
- Mary McGarry Morris - Vanished
- James F. Powers - Wheat That Springeth Green
- Anne Tyler - Breathing Lessons
1989
- John Casey - Spartina
- E. L. Doctorow - Billy Bathgate
- Katherine Dunn - Geek Love
- Oscar Hijuelos - Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
- Amy Tan - The Joy Luck Club
1990
- Charles Johnson - Middle Passage
- Felipe Alfau - Chromos
- Elena Castedo - Paradise
- Jessica Hagedorn - Dogeaters
- Joyce Carol Oates - Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
1991
- Norman Rush - Mating
- Louis Begley - Wartime Lies
- Stephen Dixon - Frog
- Stanley Elkin - The MacGuffin
- Sandra Scofield - Beyond Deserving
1992
- Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses
- Dorothy Allison - Bastard Out of Carolina (Read August 1, 2007; rated 3/5; read my review)
- Cristina Garcia - Dreaming in Cuban
- Edward P. Jones - Lost in the City
- Robert Stone - Outerbridge Reach
1993
- E. Annie Proulx - The Shipping News (no review)
- Amy Bloom - Come to Me
- Thom Jones - The Puligist at Rest
- Richard Powers - Operation Wandering Soul
- Bob Shacochis - Swimming in the Volcano
1994
- William Gaddis - A Frolic of His Own
- Ellen Currie - Moses Supposes
- Richard Dooling - White Man’s Grave
- Howard Norman - The Bird Artist
- Grace Paley - The Collected Stories
1995
- Philip Roth - Sabbath’s Theater
- Madison Smartt Bell - All Souls’ Rising
- Edwidge Danticat - Krik? Krak!
- Stephen Dixon - Interstate
- Rosario Ferre - The House on the Lagoon
1996
- Andrea Barrett - Ship Fever and Other Stories
- Ron Hansen - Atticus
- Elizabeth McCracken - The Giant’s House
- Stephen Millhauser - Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
- Janet Peery - The River Beyond the World
1997
- Charles Frazier - Cold Mountain
- Don DeLillo - Underworld (DNF)
- Diane Johnson - Le Divorce
- Ward Just - Echo House
- Cynthia Ozick - The Puttermesser Papers
1998
- Alice McDermott - Charming Billy
- Allegra Goodman - Kaaterskill Falls
- Gayl Jones - The Healing
- Robert Stone - Damascus Gate
- Thomas Wolfe - A Man in Full
1999
- Ha Jin - Waiting
- Andre Dubus III - The House of Sand and Fog
- Kent Haruf - Plainsong
- Patricia Henley - Hummingbird House
- Jean Thompson - Who Do You Love
2000
- Susan Sontag - In America
- Charles Baxter - The Feast of Love
- Alan Lightman - The Diagnosis
- Joyce Carol Oates - Blonde
- Francine Prose - Blue Angel
2001
- Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
- Dan Chaon - Among the Missing
- Jennifer Egan - Look at Me
- Louise Erdrich - The Last Report on the Miracle at Little No Horse
- Susan Straight - Highwire Moon
2002
- Julia Glass - Three Moons
- Mark Costello - Big If
- Adam Haslett - You Are Not A Stranger Here
- Martha McPhee - Gorgeous Lies
- Brad Watson - The Heaven of Mercury
2003
- Shirley Hazzard - The Great Fire (Read August 9, 2007; rated 4/5; read my review)
- T. C. Boyle - Drop City
- Edward P. Jones - The Known World
- Scott Spenser - A Ship Made of Paper
- Marianne Wiggins - Evidence of Things Unseen: A Novel
2004
- Lily Tuck - The News from Paraguay
- Sarah Shun-lien Bynum - Madeleine is Sleeping
- Christine Schutt - Florida
- Joan Silber - Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories
- Kate Walbert - Our Kind
2005
- William T. Vollman - Europe Central
- E. L. Doctorow - The March
- Mary Gaitskill - Veronica
- Christopher Sorrentino - Trance
- Rene Steinke - Holy Skirts
2006
- Richard Powers - The Echo Maker (Read September 6, 2007; rated 4.5/5; read my review)
- Mark Z. Danielewski - Only Revolutions (DNF)
- Ken Kalfus - A Disorder Peculiar to the Country
- Dana Spiotta - Eat the Document (Read May 22, 2007; rated 3.5/5; read my review)
- Jess Walter - The Zero
2007
- Denis Johnson - Tree of Smoke
- Mischa Berlinski - Fieldwork
- Lydia Davis - Varieties of Disturbance
- Joshua Ferris - Then We Came to the End
- Jim Shepard - Like You’d Understand, Anyway