Thursday, October 15, 2009

National Book Awards

I saw a piece in today's Strib about this year's National Book Award finalists. Of course, we're happy to see a couple of MN connections, but I was pleased to see a Carleton connection with the inclusion of TJ Stiles. I knew him via my Carletonian days and even checked out his Jesse James book a few years ago when I saw it in the Voice. I bet we can all guess where his interest in that figure may have begun!

I'm always surprised by some of these lists, there are so many titles I don't really know. In fiction, I only know of two titles very well and in the young adult literature, I only recognize a couple of the authors, not the works. It's humbling, because between libraries, bookstores, print sources, you guys, goodreads etc, I feel like I have a pretty wide area in which to pull my reading choices!

3 comments:

julienj said...

Well, you're ahead of me on the YA finalists, since I don't think any of their names ring a bell!

I hadn't know than Adrienne Mayor was a Minnesotan. She is free-lance classics researcher, not a very common title, and has written some really interesting books, including The First Fossil Hunters.

Medical Librarian said...

There are still, even with the current publishing crisis, so many choices for reading. I'm always amazed when someone recommends a book to me that I've actually already read instead of having to say, "I've never even heard of that one."

And I don't think a lot of the acclaimed titles are necessarily widely-read, either.

Don't feel bad that you weren't familiar with more titles, in other words!

Gaby317 said...

Hi JHolden,

You won Breaking The Bank on my blog. Pls send me your mailing address and I'll have the publisher send you the book directly.

Thanks & congratulations!
Gaby