Rose City Reader

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version

This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes. (Click here for the American Version.)

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 or four great books!

DETAILS

OPTION ONE: Chose three books that you have not read before:

1) One that won both the Booker and the James Tait Black prizes (here is the short list of double dippers);

2) One that won the Booker but not the James Tait Black (Booker winners are here); and

3) One that won the James Tait Black but not the Booker (James Tait Black winners are here).

OPTION TWO: For those who have already read all three of the double-dippers, or otherwise do not want to read one of those three, pick two Booker winners and two James Tait Black winners for a total of four books.

OFFICIAL RULES

Read all books between February 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012.

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.

You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.

Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged! The Complete Booker is a logical crossover. 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.

As you progress, please let us know by leaving comments with links to progress reports and reviews. Reviews are not necessary, but encouraged. If you do not have a blog, put your reviews or reports in a comment on this post.

You can copy and paste the button. Or, if you want me to send you the code, please leave a comment with an email and I will. I cannot figure out the fancy ways of giving directions.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants are listed in order of signing up. Click on the name to get to the each person's challenge page.

Leave a comment with a link to your challenge post to sign up.

Rose City Reader (this is my sign-up post; my wrap-up post is here)
chaotic compendiums
The Tattered Page
Joy's Blog
Remember to Breath
Hotchpot Cafe (wrap-up post, here)

REVIEWS

Links go to the reviews:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, here on Rose City Reader (Booker)

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd, here on Rose City Reader (Black)

Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben, on Hotchpot Cafe (Black)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, on Hotchpot Cafe (Double Dipper)

IDEAS

The list of last year's participants with links to their reviews is here.

With the completion of G by John Berger for last year's challenge, I have now read the three double dippers, so I'll be reading four this year. As with all challenges, my goal is to read books already on my TBR shelves.

My Booker possibilities include:

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

My Black possibilities include:

White Teeth by Zadie Smith
The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley

NOTE: Last updated on January 13, 2012.

2011 Battle of the Prizes, American Version

This challenge pits winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award in the American Version of the Battle of the Prizes. (Click here for the British Version.)

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.

OFFICIAL RULES

Read all books between February 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012.

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.

You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.

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.

As you progress, please let us know by leaving comments with links to progress reports and reviews. Reviews are not necessary, but encouraged. If you do not have a blog, put your reviews or reports in a comment on this post.

You can copy and paste the button. Or, if you want me to send you the code, please leave a comment with an email and I will. I cannot figure out the fancy ways of giving directions.

PARTICIPANTS

Participants are listed in order of signing up. Click on the name to get to the each person's challenge page.

Leave a comment with a link to your challenge post to sign up.

Rose City Reader (this is my sign-up post; my wrap-up post is here)
The Story Girl
crazy dumbsaint of the mind
Books in the City
Remember to Breath
J.G. at Hotchpot Cafe

REVIEWS

(links go to review pages)

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on The Story Girl (Pulitzer)

Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler on Rose City Reader (Pulitzer)

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier on Rose City Reader (National)

All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren on Rose City Reader (Pulitzer)

The Hair of Harold Roux on Rose City Reader (National)

IDEAS

You can find a list of the 2009 and 2010 participants and links to their reviews here and here.

I finished the 4-book option this year because there are only two double-dippers that I have not read yet -- The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter and A Fable by William Faulkner -- and I do not own either one of them. Since I try to read only books on my TBR shelves for challenges, I chose to read two Pulitzers and two Nationals that I already owned.

NOTES

Last updated on December 5, 2011.

Monday, January 31, 2011

2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version: Wrap Up Post

The 2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, ends today, on January 31, 2011. The 2011 challenge starts February 1.

This challenge pitted winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes.

Thanks to everyone who participated! I hope you sign up for the 2011 challenge. I'll get that post up tomorrow.

Participants could read three books or four -- either one Booker winner, one Black winner, and one that won both prizes; or two Booker and two Black winners.

In theory, the idea was to compare the prizes and the winners, but in practice (at least for me), the point was to read, and hopefully enjoy, three or four books and then scratch them off my lists.

PARTICIPANTS

Rose City Reader

chaotic compendiums

Musings (The first to complete the challenge -- congratulations!)

Oh, So Many Manias . . .

Books in the City

ExUrbanis

J.G. at Hotchpot Cafe (read her wrap up post here)

Birdie's Nest

REVIEWS

If any one else has reviews still to do, no problem. Just give me a link in a comment here and I will add it.

The rest of the reviews, in order of submission, were:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel on chaotic compendiums

G by John Berger on Musings

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro on Birdie's Nest

Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien on Musings

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry here on Rose City Reader

Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby on Musings

The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch here on Rose City Reader

Personality by Andrew O'Hagan on Hotchpot Cafe

Last Orders by Graham Swift on Hotchpot Cafe

Staying On by Paul Scott on Hotchpot Cafe

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen on Books in the City

G by John Berger here on Rose City Reader

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Mailbox Monday and GIVEAWAY

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! I also have a new GIVEAWAY this week and three winners of last week's giveaway. Keep reading through the post to find all the goodies.

It has been a lot of fun to host MM in January. Next week, MM moves to the Library of Clean Reads for February.

MAILBOX MONDAY

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. (Library books don’t count, but eBooks & audiobooks do). Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists!

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Please leave the link to your Mailbox Monday post with Mr. Linky. If you do not have a blog, leave your mailbox list in a comment.

GIVEAWAY WINNER

I had three copies of JOYRIDE: Pedaling Toward A Healthier Planet By Mia Birk with Joe "Metal Cowboy" Kurmaskie (published by Cadence Press). These are finished books, not ARCS.

THE BOOK: This is the inspiring story of pioneering transportation leader Mia Birk's 20-year crusade to integrate bicycling into daily life. With a table scrap of funding, Mia led a revolution that grew Portland, Oregon into the #1 American cycling city. Mia then hit the road, helping make communities across the nation -- even her hometown of Dallas, Texas -- more human, healthy, safe, and livable. While many books today extol the pain of our world's problems, Mia's funny, touching Joyride is the antidote, offering hope to any and everyone interested in changing our world, one pedal stroke at a time.

THE WINNERS:

Wendi at Wendi's Book Corner
Apple Blossom at 4 the Love of Books
Gabe at Reading Local

Thank you to all who participated and congratulations to the winners! I will contact you shortly.

THIS WEEK'S GIVAWAY

This week, I am giving away an ARC of Bering Sea Blues: A Crabber's Tale of Fear in the Icy North by Joe Upton. Thanks again go to Mary Bisbee-Beek, an incredibly diligent book publicist, for providing the bounty.

THE BOOK: This is a white knuckle memoir of a winter season of king crab fishing in the Bering Sea, with relentless 12 to 14 hour days of setting and hauling the pots to catch the crab and searching for elusive pockets on the ocean floor that can yield as much as 70 tons of crab. For the lucky ones there were financial rewards; for others, surviving was the reward. And in the quiet moments, there is reflection on the rich history of the North Pacific, the spectacular empitness of Alaska's remote southwest coast, and nature's maelstrom on the meanest sea on earth.

Joe Upton is a fisherman, journalist, and the author of five books on Alaska. The book is published by Epicenter Press.

THE RULES: The contest is open until Sunday, February 6, 2011. To enter, do any or all of the following, but you must leave a comment for each one:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You must include a way to contact you (email or website address in your comment or available in your profile). If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner. (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway. (Posting the giveaway on your sidebar is also acceptable.) Leave a separate comment with a link to your post. (1 entry)

3. Subscribe to my rss feed, follow me on blogger, or subscribe via email (or tell me if you already are a subscriber or follower). Leave a separate comment for this. (1 entry)

4. Tweet this post on Twitter. Leave me a separate comment with your twitter user name. (1 entry)

5. Stumble this blog, digg it, technorati fave it, or link it on facebook. Leave a separate comment. (1 entry)

There are a lot of ways to enter (maximum of five entries), but you must LEAVE A SEPARATE COMMENT for each one or they will not count. I will use random.org to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is open to entries from the U.S. and Canada only. The deadline for entry is 9:00 PM, Pacific Time, on Sunday, February 6, 2011. I will draw and post the winner's name in my Mailbox Monday post for February 7, 2011.

MY MAILBOX

I got two book last week, both in my mailbox. Mary Bisbee-Beek sent me this one, also distributed by Epicenter Press:

Sunken Klondike Gold: How a Lost Fortune Inspired an Ambitious Effort to Raise the S.S. Islander by Leonard H. Delano.

Even though this is adding to my Guilt List and therefore violating my New Year's reading resolution, I am happy to get it. For one thing, it looks pretty good and is full of cool pictures and drawings. But better yet, my husband's face lit up like a kid at Christmas when he saw it. It is so up his alley.

Oregon State University Press sent me an ARC of the soon-to-be-released Among Penguins: A Bird Man in Antarctica by Noah Strycker.

As fascinating as this looks -- and it really does -- and as much as I liked that penguin movie with the little baby penguins, I'm going to stick with my resolution on this one and will be passing it on to someone who will get to it sooner than I will.

2010 Battle of the Prizes, American Version: Wrap-Up Post

The 2010 Battle of the Prizes, American Version, ends on January 31, 2011. The 2011 challenge starts February 1.

Thanks to everyone who participated! I hope you sign up for the 2011 challenge.

This challenge pitted winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction against the winners of the National Book Award in the American Version of the Battle of the Prizes.

Participants could read three books or four -- either one Pulitzer winner, one National winner, and one that won both prizes; or two Pulitzer and two National winners.

In theory, the idea was to compare the prizes and the winners, but in practice (at least for me), the point was to read, and hopefully enjoy, three or four books and then scratch them off my lists.

PARTICIPANTS