Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Challenge: Sunshine Smackdown -- Battle of the Prizes



May 1, 2009 to September 7, 2009
No time like Spring and Summer
to catch up on prize-winners!

This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award. Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three great books!

DETAILS

Chose three books that you have not read before:

1) One that won both the Pulitzer and the National (here is a list of double dippers);
2) One that won the Pulitzer but not the National (Pulitzer winners are here); and
3) One that won the National but not the Pulitzer (National winners are here).

OPTION: For those who have already read all six of the double-dippers, or otherwise do not want to read one of those six, pick two Pulitzer winners and two National winners for a total of four books.

Read all books between May Day and Labor Day. Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged! The Pulitzer Project and The National Book Award Project are logical crossovers. The great thing is, for those working on both these lists, completing the challenge means reading three books, but crossing four items off the lists.

Please sign up here by leaving a link to your post in a comment, or the list of your three choices in the comment. I will add the links to the participant list in this post. As you progress, please let us know with progress reports and reviews.

My three choices are:

1) The Fixer by Bernard Malamud as my choice for double dipper;
2) Advise and Consent by Allen Drury as my Pulitzer winner; and
3) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth as my National.

I chose these three because they have all been on my TBR shelf for quite a while and they all have that Mid-Century feel to them. I plan to "compare and contrast" the three.

PARTICIPANTS

Tip of the Iceberg
half of Hotch Pot Cafe (J.G.'s wrap up post is here)
Book Psmith
Obsessed Reader
Cerebral Girl in a Redneck World
Jenny
Regular Rumination
It's all about me (time)
Cynthia
Joy's Blog
Remember to Breathe
chaotic compendiums
Living Life and Reading Books

REVIEWS
Sophie's Choice on Chaotic Compendiums
The Optimist's Daughter on Joy's Blog
Middle Passage on Living Life and Reading Books
Advise and Consent on Rose City Reader
Empire Falls on Chaotic Compendiums
Gilead on Tip of the Iceberg
Olive Kitteridge by J.G. on Hotch Pot Cafe
The Fixer on Rose City Reader
The Fixer on Hotch Pot Cafe
The Great Fire also on Hotch Pot Cafe
The Magic Barrel on Book Psmith
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter on Chaotic Compendiums
The Fixer on Book Psmith


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Update: Pulitzer Prize

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to Olive Kitteridge, a collection of short stories by Elizabeth Strout. The up-to-date list of winners is here. As always, others working on this list are welcome to send me a link to their progress reports and I will add the link to my list post.

List: Pulitzer Prize/National Book Award Crossovers

A handful of books have won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- the two heavyweights of American literature.

These double-dippers are:

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx;

The Color Purple by Alice Walker;

Rabbit is Rich by John Updike;

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud;

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter; and

A Fable by William Faulkner.

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