The Women's Prize--A Winner!!!

Congratulations to A.M. Homes for winning The Women's Prize for her novel May We Be Forgiven.  This book has just moved up to the top of my TBR pile!  For more info, click here.

Summer Reading Suggestions!

As Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial kick-off to summer (and that was a whole week ago!), I thought I would post some summer reading suggestions--brought to you by none other than the most fabulous readers ever: my Literary Masters book group members!  Here's wishing you all a wonderful summer--may you turn all the pages you wish to, both literally and figuratively!

In no particular order, enjoy these books this summer:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (there is another book by the same title written by a different author, which is supposed to be quite good, too)

Speedboat by Renata Adler

The Submission by Amy Waldman

A Hundred Flowers by Gail Tsukiyama

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Enchantments: A novel of Rasputin's daughter and the Romanovs by Kathryn Harrison

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan










Open City by Teju Cole

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

Let me know if you read anything that is absolutely un-put-down-able!

Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award--the Shortlist!

I want to read a collection of short stories with my Literary Masters book groups this coming season.  We are absolutely spoiled for choice!  Do we read something from Lydia Davis, the most recent International Man Booker Award winner?  Or perhaps we catch up on one of Alice Munro's collections?  She, too, is an International Man Booker Award winner.  Or perhaps we'll read the collection from the winner of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.  The shortlist has been announced:

• Tea at the Midland and other stories – David Constantine 

• Siege 13 – Tamas Dobozy

• Black Vodka – Deborah Levy

• Black Dahlia & White Rose

• We’re Flying - Peter Stamm

• Battleborn - Claire Vaye Watkins

Congratulations to these authors!  The winner will be announced in early July.  For more info, click here.

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize--We've Got a Winner!

Congratulations to Dutch author Gerbrand Bakker for winning the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for his novel The Detour.  Bakker has won prizes before; indeed, his novel The Twin is one of my favorites--you'll remember how I gushed about it in an earlier blog post (click here) as a quiet book that just stayed with me for the longest time after I finished it.

I can't wait to get my hands on The Detour--race you to the library!

The Ondaatje Prize--a Winner!

Congratulations to Philip Hensher for winning the 2013 Ondaatje Prize for his novel Scenes from Early Life.  For more info on this prize, click here.

2013 Best Translated Book Award: And the Winner is:

Satantango by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes (New Directions; Hungary)

Let me know if you read it!  

2013 Best Translated Book Award--the Finalists for Fiction

Save the date!!!  Tomorrow the winner of the 2013 Best Translated Book Award will be announced.  Here are the finalists for the fiction category:

The Planets by Sergio Chejfec, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary (Open Letter Books; Argentina)

Prehistoric Times by Eric Chevillard, translated from the French by Alyson Waters (Archipelago Books; France)

The Colonel by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Tom Patterdale (Melville House; Iran)

Satantango by László Krasznahorkai, translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes (New Directions; Hungary)

Autoportrait by Edouard Levé, translated from the French by Lorin Stein (Dalkey Archive Press; France)

A Breath of Life: Pulsations by Clarice Lispector, translated from the Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz (New Directions; Brazil)

The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller, translated from the German by Philip Boehm (Metropolitan Books; Romania)

Maidenhair by Mikhail Shishkin, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz (Open Letter Books; Russia)

Transit by Abdourahman A. Waberi, translated from the French by David Ball and Nicole Ball (Indiana University Press; Djibouti)

My Father’s Book by Urs Widmer, translated from the German by Donal McLaughlin (Seagull Books; Switzerland)

I haven't read even one of these books--and I read a lot!  How about you?  For more on each book, click here.  And don't forget to check in tomorrow and I'll let you know which title won!