Review Me Twice: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Nope. Just... nope. Couldn't care less about this book. I don't say that to be mean; it's just not my cup of tea. And I don't even like tea. That might not be relevant.

Let me offer you some of the words and phrases from a summary of this book that are inconsistent with my interest in books: "Enigmatic message." "Terrorist plot." "Crime syndicate." "[He] wonders if his experiences were unavoidable due to fate." None of that falls in line with what I want to read about, so it's a personal thing. Lots of other people like this kind of thing... that's why this book got the Pulitzer.

It's a long book, too. So unless you're really into it, it will seem like it goes on forever.

This book was terrible.  I mean, as the person who suggested we read this book, I feel like I should personally apologize to Alex for forcing her to read it (and, let's be frank, I did.)  I'm not even sure if she read the whole thing.  If she didn't, I wouldn't blame her, because as the person who did it WAS TERRIBLE.

Really, at the end of the day, while I did enjoy the ending of the book, the pay off wasn't enough for the 700 pages of torture I was put through to get there.  I mean, just on and on and on, with this book.  If I'm going to sit through that much book, there better be a freakin' huge awesome ending.  And there wasn't.  There was a 'Meh, that was nice' ending.

So basically, don't bother with this book unless you really like long winded books.

And, just so you know, Goldfinch is the #1 unfinished bestseller.  Which means a ton of people buy it, and then around 80% of them never finish it.

Favorite Pulitzer Prize Winning Book

As you know from yesterday, this week's review book won the Pulitzer Prize this year. So we are picking our favorite books that have won Pulitzer Prizes!

A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer in 1981, which means the author - John Kennedy Toole - won it posthumously, since he died in 1969.

You know how most readers have that one book that they recommend to everybody? Mine, for example, is The Martian Chronicles. My father-in-law will tell you to read A Confederacy of Dunces. I'm pretty sure it came up the first time I had dinner at their house nearly 12 years ago. It took me several years, but I did finally take his suggestion and read it.

Honestly, I don't remember much of the plot or characters or, you know, the book. I do remember that I enjoyed it. It's funny. The title comes from a Jonathan Swift quote: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

We already know that books aren't the only thing to read, and as such, they're not the only thing that can win Pulitzer Prizes.  Proof is probably one of my favorite plays ever.  If ever a book/play were deserving of a Pulitzer, Proof would be it.

The play really addresses if mental illness is hereditary or not, if it incites genius or prevents it.  I like how it really gives to the idea that genius is on the brink of crazy and vise versa.  It's got a A Beautiful Mind kind of feel to it in that way.

I definitely suggest the play over the movie, because the movie butchers one of my most favorite scenes.  Her dad thinks he's gotten his genius back, only to discover, when his daughter reads his work back to him, that he's written a bunch of gibberish.

It's amazing and moving and powerful and I just love the play to pieces.

The Pulitzer

This week, we're reading The Goldfinch, which won the Pulitzer.  So, I'm just going to tell you a little bit about the award.

The Pulitzer isn't just awarded for literature.  There is also one awarded for newspaper, online journalism and musical composition.  There are sub-categories within these categories (for instance, poetry, biography and fiction all fall under the literature umbrella).  Inevitably, there are twenty categories, and twenty winners, all of whom win a certificate and $10,000.

The award was started by Joseph Pulitzer (an Hungarian born American), who famously published the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World newspapers.  Upon his death, he allocated $250,000 to Columbia University to start a journalism scholarship program and the Pulitzer award, which has continued ever since.

Tennessee Williams, Robert Frost and William Faulkner are just a few of the names that have received this award.

Favorite Award-Winning Book

Since Cassy explained the Man Booker Prize yesterday (and we've covered some other book awards on the blog before), today we're picking our favorite award-winning books.

Mine is - unsurprisingly - by Neil Gaiman. It's The Graveyard Book. I like a lot of award-winning books (some of which I'm sure I don't even realize are award winners) but I remember being very excited when this one won the Newbery in America and the Carnegie in Britain. It also won a Hugo, a best novel award for sci-fi and fantasy. Gaiman also got a Hugo in 2002 for American Gods, but it's a big deal when a kids' book wins a Hugo. (Yes, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won, and Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated, but it's not common.) Beyond all that, I also love that the first line of this children's book is "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." I remember Stephen Colbert's interview with Gaiman, and how he made a big deal out of this, and it was funny, but I also remember thinking, "This is how we break out of treating kids like idiots in their own literature."

I've talked about John Green briefly on this blog (remember the favorites that we relate to), but I've never actually brought Looking For Alaska up, which is sad, because it's a FANTASTIC book and probably one of the ones that really cemented my love for YA literature.

It's won a PLUTHERA of awards, the most prevalent (or, at least the one that they put on the front of the book) is the Michael L. Printz award from the ALA.  The Michael Printz award actually awards teen novels based entirely on literary merit, so it's kind of a big deal.  Looking for Alaska has also won the 2006 Top Ten Books for Young Adults award and was a finalist for the 2005 Los Angels Time Book Award.  

There is a lot of controversy surrounding the book, mainly because it's a book marketed towards teens and has a lot of sex, drugs and drinking.  Generally, parents aren't fans, but Green never apologizes for the explicit things in his book, which basically just makes him awesome (he also points out that the book's target audience isn't 12 year olds; it's 15-18 year olds.)  Out of all of Green's books, this is easily my favorite one, and I've read pretty much everything he's written.  The language is beautiful, the characters are genuine and, really, deserves every award that it's gotten.

Man Booker Prize

Since our author this week has been on the short list for this award TWICE, I thought that I should let you know what, exactly, it is.

According to the head of the foundation, the Man Booker Prize has had only one criteria to be one.  To be the best novel in the opinion of the judges.  It has been around for 42 years and in those years, the foundation has made it a point to target intellectual books.  They're not interested in popular books or pressured into choosing someone because of politics.  Their job is to pick the book that is the most engaging, interesting and well-written book.

So what does it take to be a judge?  There aren't any set critieria, but generally poets, novelists, actors, and journalists.  They have been all genders and ages.  So, really, it could be anyone with any sort of background.  

The winner of the Man Booker award (of which the most successful was Schindler's List), get 52,500 pounds (50K for being the winner and 2500 for being on the short list.)  Some other winners have been The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

Originally, it was called the Booker-McConnell prize, named after the publishing company that funded & sponsored it.

Click here to see a list of the winners and the short list for each year.

Newbery Award

This week's review book, Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, is a Newbery Award winner, so I'm going to tell you what exactly that means.

The Newbery Medal was started in 1921, and was the first children's book award in the world. The medal is above on the left. In 1971, the Newbery Honor (on the right) was instituted, to be given to runners-up.

The award was named for John Newbery, who published children's books in the 18th century. (The reason that was a huge deal is a topic for another day, but suffice it to say that children's literature didn't get the respect it deserves back then.)

The Newbery is awarded to the author of "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children" each year by the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). The Newbery and the Caldecott are the two most prestigious awards for children's literature, and are widely celebrated yearly when announced at the ALA Midwinter meeting.

In its first year, the Newbery was awarded to six books. It has been given to anywhere between one and eight books every year since.

There is an equivalent British award called the Carnegie Medal, pictured on the right (and two authors have won both a Newbery and a Carnegie: Sharon Creech and Neil Gaiman). There is an equivalent German award too, called the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, on the left (and two authors have won a Newbery and a DJ: Scott O'Dell and Jean Craighead George).

The Alex Award

I know this post is a little informational for a Tuesday/Thursday; it's more like a Monday post. But I wanted to tell you guys about the Alex Award because it's really awesome, and I had to jump at the opportunity, because The Night Circus was one of the 2012 winners.

No, friends, the Alex Award isn't something I made up to give to books I like. It's a real literary award that was started in 1998, named after a librarian from Baltimore, and have been bestowed by YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Assocation, a division of the ALA or American Library Association) since 2002.

The Alex Award is given to ten books each year. These are books that were published with adults as the intended audience, but have been found to have "special appeal" to young adults (readers between 12 and 18 years old).

It should come as no surprise that I am a huge fan of the award, not because they share my name, and not just because they are for adult books enjoyed by a YA audience, but also because my favorite author, Neil Gaiman, is the only author so far to have won two Alex Awards.

For a complete list of winners, go here. (I know, it's a Wikipedia link, but the ALA page requires member access.)

Lambda Literary Award

This week's book-to-review is Rainbow Boys by Alex Sánchez. He is also the author of So Hard to Say, which won a Lambda Literary Award in 2004 in the children's/young adult category.

The Lambda Literary Award (also known as the "Lammys") was instituted in 1988. It exists to celebrate LGBT literature. (If you're unfamiliar with the acronym, it stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transexual.)

For the 2011 awards, there were 24 categories. A list of winners since the award's inception can be found here. The Pioneer Award (winners listed below Lambda winners at that link) celebrates individuals who have broken new ground in LGBT literature and contribute to the LGBT community in significant ways. The Pioneer Award was started in 1995.

Also, on the Lambda Literary website, you can: donate to their scholarship fund; volunteer; join a book club; or learn a lot more.

(Disclaimer: We aren't associated with the Lambda Literary Award in any way; we're just here to inform.)