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Don’t Miss Out on The Rooster’s Tournament of Books!
Whoops – we have been moving this past week, so there are a few things that have fallen by the wayside, including writing a blog! This week is my annual plug for my favorite bookish award/competition of all time (although I still miss Food 52’s Tournament of Cookbooks, which was also sublime), the Rooster’s Tournament of Books, which is almost 20 years old, and is the perfect mix of bookish fun, light competition, and thoughtful writing about what makes a good book. The Tournament takes a series of about 16 books and pits them against each other in a March Madness style competition. Judges are asked to take on a…
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A Recent Book Award Wrap Up (and I’m Back!)
I’ve fallen off a bit on blogging over the last 6 months, but am making a commitment to myself to start again in 2024! I’m starting with a few BIG blog posts, since not blogging for over 6 months certainly means I have a lot to talk about! Today, I’m looking at recent book awards from the second half of 2023, including some books you likely have heard of, and quite a few that you may have not encountered yet! Next week, I have a look at my reading year in 2023 (and looking forward to March, we have my favorite event of the spring coming up, the Tournament of…
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When Books Win Multiple Awards, Does That Make Them Better? A Book Award Round Up
Hello! Today I have a few books to share with you, including a couple books that seem to have made some waves this year, winning multiple awards. I’m never sure if winning so many awards means books are truly great. Sometimes I really love them, and sometimes I wonder if everyone jumping on the same train has more to to with marketing than with quality? I also feel like authors work so hard for minimal reward, and when one author wins so many cash prizes, it can feel unfair. What do you think? On the other side of the coin, there was a double award for the Pulitzer this year…
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It’s Tournament of Books Time: Enjoy March Madness With Books (and cute pets)!
Hello everyone, This Saturday, I have a fun event to share with you. It’s one I follow almost every year, and it is called the Tournament of Books! This fun competition highlights 16 books that came out in the previous year, and pits them against each-other in a March Madness style bracket. The books are often award winners, but often they include books that have been overlooked or seemed to “genre” to get major attention, so it is a fun mix. Most “face-offs” are a decision made by one reviewer who reads both books and decides which one they connect with most, so the decisions are specific and interesting. What…
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More Award Winning Books: Adaptations, Interesting Narrators and More.
Hello everyone, Today I wanted to share a few books that have come out in recent years and received awards. I am always surprised by the number of books that I have never heard of when I look at award lists, and while it does get a big overwhelming, it also sometimes pushes books I have wanted to read higher up my TBR. Below are some of the ones I am interested in – if you want to learn more about the prospective awards, or find some books you might want to read, you can check out my full database of Current Book Award Winners as well. A Memory Called…
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Recent(ish) Award Winners: New Awards and Weird Books
I recently updated the Current Book Award Winners page of my website, which I try to do every few months (it’s been 2 years now…), and it was fun to see what has been getting the spotlight. Some I had read, some I had heard of, but many were new to me, which was fun! The page linked above looks at your standard mainstream book awards, but it also tracks book awards for specific formats, or that give awards for regional authors, genre book or authors and protagonists who have a typically underrepresented background, and you might have fun exploring some prizes that you didn’t know about! Today, I have…
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30 Interesting Award Winning 2019-2020 Books
Hello Everyone, I recently updated my current book award winners, and wanted to share an eclectic mix of weird and intriguing books with you all. I have worked hard to find book awards that are not as publicized, as that is such a fun way to discover new authors, new genres and especially stories from other places and countries! By all means, please check out the full updated list for your own genres, and check out my list below as well. Recent Award Winning Books I Want to Check Out The Ten Loves of Nishino by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell – This won a…
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Book Award Round Up: Part 1: Latino, Arab and Australian!
You have probably heard the buzziest book award news in the last week as Margaret Atwood and Bernadine Evaristo shared the Man Booker prize for only the 3rd time in the history of the UK’s most prestigious book award. This was fun news and I know that I personally loved seeing two female authors, including an author of color, get such a prestigious honor. However, book awards over the last few months have also highlighted the achievements of many more authors from around the world and I am excited to share them all with you – these awards are such a great way to be introduced to the best work…
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Summer Genre Awards – The Hugos
This is the award I was the most excited for by far! Awarded by the World Science Fiction Society, the Hugo Awards are the Emmys of the Science Fiction and Fantasy community, with awards going to books, TV shows and more and winners being decided by members of the society, who are often readers. They were also the center of a controversy a few years ago in which a group of science fiction readers, self titled as the “Sad Puppies” hijacked the awards in an effort to promote a right-wing, anti-diversity agenda that aimed to remove the “political” and “message-fic” books by diverse authors and women that were “taking over”…
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Summer Genre Awards – The Ritas
Hello again! Today I have a new set of awards to share with you. While you might be inclined to dismiss these, romance novels are some of the most widely read novels in the United States (and with e-readers, it is all the easier to read them unobtrusively!) If you are interested in this at all, the following books have won the award for the best in their category for 2019, and would be a good place to start for high quality fun romps! The Rita Awards: The RITA—the highest award of distinction in romance fiction—recognizes excellence in published romance novels and novellas. Awards are given in many different categories…
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