Book Awards Reading Challenge

The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Publication Date: 2002 (Mass Market)
ISBN: 978-0440237686
192 Pages
Fiction: Young Adult


Summary (from the publisher):

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.


My Opinion:

The Giver is an amazing novel that lays out the details of a whole world in only 192 pages. It is so well crafted that every sentence and section work together not only to explain this strange world, but also to create an emotional impact upon the reader.

Jonas seems like any normal boy from our day and age, but the main difference lies in his surroundings. But not all is as it seems, and one by one the reader's assumptions of what is normal are stripped away as different aspects of the society are revealed.

At first those differences don't seem that strange. Things like yearly ceremonies where each age group advances to the next level of learning are similar enough to modern graduation ceremonies that they wouldn't raise an eyebrow. Other aspects (which I won't list here because I don't want to spoil it for anyone) are more surprising.

What I liked the most about this book was that it encompassed a whole world in such a short span of pages, and it made me feel deeply about the people of that world. I was hopeful for Jonas and his friends, and heartbroken over the lot of the Giver.

There were some aspects of the story that were not fully explained and so the reader is left to wonder how certain processes work (such as the transfer of memories). As long as you are able to accept that some things work a certain way without having an explanation of why they work that way, then it is no obstacle to enjoying the plot.

I highly recommend this book to everyone! It is going on my list of all time favorites. When I finished it I found myself thinking about it for days; pondering the ending and what it really meant. I found out that there are two sequels called Gathering Blue (which is a story with all different characters) and Messenger (which ties all of the books together) that clear up some of the ambiguity about the ending. I'm sure I will read them at some point, but right now I'm still mulling over and savoring the story of The Giver.

Rating: 5/5


Awards:

WINNER 1994 - Newbery Medal Winner
WINNER 1994 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
WINNER 1994 - ALA Notable Children's Book
WINNER 1996 - New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award
WINNER 1995 - Virginia Young Readers Program Award
WINNER 1995 - Arkansas Charlie May Simon Master List
NOMINEE 1995 - Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
WINNER 1996 - Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award
WINNER 1996 - Kansas William White Award
WINNER 1995 - Kentucky Bluegrass Master List
WINNER 1994 - Maine Student Book Award
NOMINEE 1997 - Colorado Children's Book Award
NOMINEE 1998 - Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award
FINALIST 1994 - Massachusetts Children's Book Award


Author Information:

For information about Lois Lowry and her writing please visit her website.

Schindler's Ark
Thomas Keneally
428 pages

Oskar Schindler was a German industrialist who saved thousands of Jewish people from death in World War II Poland. His story is well known, thanks to the film adaptation of this book. The book is a realistic, factual, stark portrayal of real human drama. Keneally portrays Oskar as a compassionate savior, but not a saint. He was a womanizer and a heavy drinker. After witnessing violence in a Polish ghetto, he was moved to establish a camp on the premises of his factory, with better conditions for his workers. Still, his workers were not immune to the random acts of violence and murder. During the last year or so of the war, through deft negotiation and subterfuge, he managed to transport thousands of Jews to safety, ensuring their liberation when the war came to an end.

Even though I've read several books about the holocaust, I've been able to distance myself from the reality -- not denying these events occurred, but not facing the brutality, either. This book was different. I'm sure my mind was not as graphic as the film, and I unconsciously protected myself from the worst of it, but I still had to take frequent breaks. There were so many individual, heartbreaking stories; I found myself wondering how it could be classified as fiction. The author's note reads,
I suspect this book won the Booker Prize more on the basis of Schindler's story; the writing itself was not as fine as I'd hoped. And Keneally was rather repetitive regarding Schindler's appetite for women and alcohol. Was he portraying him as "merely human," or admiring him? I found it tiresome, so a book I would normally have rated 4 stars ended up with only 3. ( )

My original review can be found here.

This 1990 Booker Prize winner was second only to LOTR on the poll of what books I should take. It seemed to be popular with the visitors and I can understand why. I read this during my unfortunate delay before departure. It was absorbing and while a bit lengthy at over 500 paperback pages, enjoyable. It is complex, literary, stylistically varied, and meta. There are various writing styles employed from poetry, critical academia, memoir writing, fairytales, to epistolary writing. While I found the ending just a tad too maudlin and the modern characters Maud and Roland not as well drawn out as Ash and Christabel, I liked the book overall. Byatt obviously took care in tracing the mystery aspect, and it is certainly not a conventional romance (or romances). It has many themes and interesting implements. It has academics writing not about poets, but also other academics. There's a definite sense of meta literary and commentary beneath the surface. The idea of not only romantic possession, but that which possesses us from the long gone writers. It reminds me of Shakespeare academia and the sheer obsession academics have about him whoever he may be. Just a little thing could just how history views people and how we are enthralled, or "possessed" with the dead and ideas from and of them. I am glad to own this novel as I find that it will be immensely rereadable.

Crossposted from aquatique.net

Pearl S. Buck's classic story of family and life in pre-revolutionary China. This did not take as long as I thought, and while sad at times, I liked the book. I think the prose is distinct, the story compelling and honest, and the characters very real. I liked the themes of the novel which explored man's relation to the earth, changing fortunes, China at the turn of the century, and women's role in society and family. She writes everything so deftly and without judgment; a very true story teller. I am very familiar with Chinese culture, family, and livelihood. Buck said she wrote about China because it was all she knew. She might have been a foreigner, but there is such an candid and wonderful perspective in her writing. Dare I say it, but this book is very Chinese. It is difficult to describe how she captured the Chinese characters and cultural identity so well. Once again, I found so much honesty in her writing. I liked how she painted the picture of O-Lan and the other women in Chinese society. While I appreciated the writing and the book, I do not think I will continue with the trilogy because I am not particularly attached to the characters beyond this book, and the stories can be rather sad. I would be interested in reading more of Buck's other stories.

Crossposted from aquatique.net.

This Booker Prize winning book by Graham Swift tells of four men on a day trip to scatter their friend's ashes to the sea. The chapters are short and the narratives switches with each chapter. Most are told by Ray, the closest friend of the dead man Jack Dodds. There are numerous flashbacks revealing the lives of all the men and a couple of others in their lives. The dialogue is quite sharp and well written; Swift has a knack for characterisation. The language and changing perspectives makes it evocative. I sometimes managed to feel the bitterness and the anger that some of the characters do when they narrate. It is very English; all the characters have a working class background and there is something very stylistic and true about the way he writes about their livelihood. If anything, it feels sincere even if real working class Londoners do not all the issues these characters did. I liked the book for the most part, but it got bit depressing the further you went. The flashbacks reveal missed opportunities, unsaid things, wrong choices, bad luck, and estranged relationships. The ending, as with life, is open ended. Not a very uplifting read, but Swift does have a good voice throughout the story.

For a review of the film as well, go to aquatique.net.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz



This isn't really a review, it's just a brief post to say I started this book, but it flat out didn't appeal to me at all. I set it aside about a week ago, thinking I might come back to it. But I've decided against it; there's just too much other great literature begging for my attention.

This was my final read for the Book Awards Challenge. I don't feel guilty about not finishing it, because I've read loads of other book award winners above and beyond my challenge list. This one also counts towards the Pulitzer Project: again, I didn't read the whole thing but I can check it off my list: been there, done that.

The Gathering
Anne Enright
261 pages

"There is something wonderful about a death, how everything shuts down, and all the ways you thought you were vital are not even vaguely important. Your husband can feed the kids, he can work the new oven, he can find the sausages in the fridge, after all." (p. 27)

The Gathering is an intimate and painful look at grief. Veronica Hegarty's life has been turned upside-down by her brother Liam's suicide. Throughout this novel Veronica operates in a fog, disconnected from her siblings, her husband, and her children. She is barely able to function. As she reflects on her brother's life, she tries to piece together elements of their shared past, but her childhood memories are fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Liam's death also makes her keenly aware of her own less-than-satisfying adult life: "I was living my life in inverted commas. I could pick up my keys and go 'home' where I could 'have sex' with my 'husband' just like lots of other people did. This is what I had been doing for years. And I didn't seem to mind the inverted commas, or even notice that I was living in them, until my brother died." (p. 181) When did it all go wrong?

As winner of the 2007 Booker Prize, The Gathering has received more than its share of reviews. It seems to be a "love it or hate it" book, mostly because it is so bleak. This is, indeed, a very sad book. Each person seems to be lost in their own island of grief, unable to support one another. Veronica withdraws completely; her siblings are each caught up in their own childhood baggage and destructive behavior patterns. As the book draws to a close, the truth has proven to be elusive, and the future is uncertain. Those looking for neat and tidy endings will be disappointed, but I found The Gathering's stark realism to be both intense and memorable. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Bone People
Keri Hulme
445 pages


"A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart." (p. 242)

Keri Hulme's Booker prize-winning novel is about the healing power of relationships and family bonds. Kerewin is an artist and recluse, unmarried and estranged from her family. Joe is a widowed laborer with a violent temper. Simon, Joe's foster son, lost his parents in a boating accident. Simon's specific identity is unknown, he cannot speak, and he has suffered severe emotional trauma. These three very lonely people come together when Simon breaks into Kerewin's house. Slowly, tentatively, Joe and Simon reach out to Kerewin. Slowly, tentatively, she accepts their attentions. After a long holiday at a seaside camp they are as close to a family as any of them have ever experienced. However, the dark side of each character looms large, and when the inevitable happens each character is shaken to their very core and must choose when and how to begin the healing process.

Hulme's writing style is unorthodox, yet I found this book difficult to put down. I was completely committed to the characters, despite their often significant flaws. The insights into Maori culture were interesting. Although I was a bit uncertain how the ending came together the way it did, I very much enjoyed the journey. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Set in South Africa, this 1983 Booker Prize Winner by Nobel Laureate (2003) J. M. Coetzee is about a man surviving amidst war, civil unrest, and poverty. There are no chapters, but three sections divide book. The first covers more than 2/3 of the novel. The plot is one of the most depressing I have read in a long time. The prose is stark and observant. Michael K. is a mysterious yet simple character at the same time. The novel makes you ask a lot of questions about the setting, the characters, and the overall meaning and moral of this novel. It was a quick read at 249pages. The writing was bare, but there were some wonderful lines:

I come from a line of children of no end.

Another excerpt:

He is like a stone, a pebble that, having lain around quietly minding its own business since the dawn of time, is now suddenly picked up and tossed randomly from hand to hand. A hard little stone, barely aware of its surroundings, enveloped in itself and it interior life...An unbearing, unborn creature.

There is doubtlessly a lot of criticism and interpretation of this work. There seems to be debates about Michael's race/ethnicity. Is he black or white? There were indications in the book that he goes either way, but Michael himself does not seem to see race. Michael's intelligence or intellectual capabilities are questioned. He does not seem to have much of a sex drive, and his upbringing lacked intimacy or any fun. Finally, the setting is almost dystopian and some critics debate about the actual time of the book. It's hard to say if I liked it or how soon I will pick up another of Coetzee's work again, but it was fascinating read. (Cross posted from my blog Aquatique)

March
Geraldine Brooks
273 pages

"Then what, pray, is the point?" His voice was a dry, soft rattle, like a breeze through a bough of dead leaves.
"The point is the effort. That you, believing what you believed -- what you sincerely believed, including the commandment 'thou shalt not kill' -- acted upon it. To believe, to act, and to have events confound you--I grant you, that is hard to bear. But to believe, and not to act ... That is what would have been reprehensible." (p. 258)

Louisa May Alcott's classic, Little Women, describes a year in the life of a mother and her daughters, while her husband is away serving in the Union Army. The father is absent for most of the book. In March, Geraldine Brooks brings the father's character to life and tells the story of that year from his point of view. Mr. March is a clergyman, so while he does not experience combat directly, he ministers to the wounded and dying. Initially, after a harrowing battle scene, he finds himself on a plantation that he had first encountered as a young itinerant peddler. Old relationships are rekindled, and he is reassigned to another regiment, and transported to a Southern estate under Union occupation. The slaves on this estate were under Union protection, and Mr. March was to provide them with the basics of an education. The novel's pace picks up at this point, and becomes considerably more violent as the horrors of war are revealed. March eventually lands in hospital, is visited by his wife Marmee, and returns home for Christmas just as he does in Little Women. In March we gain much more intimate knowledge of how the war scarred him, both physically and mentally, and how it affected his relationship with Marmee.

I was hooked on this story from page 1. Scenes from the American Civil War were interspersed with narrative describing how Mr. March came to be married to Marmee, their participation in the Underground Railroad, and his motivation for joining the Union army. He wrote letters from the front but, reluctant to burden his family with his daily horrors, he masked the truth. Marmee, on the other hand. felt lonely and resentful: "I am not alone in this. I only let him do to me what men have ever done to women: march off to empty glory and hollow acclaim and leave us behind to pick up the pieces." (p. 211) Their reunion was touched with both sadness and hope.

In letting her imagination run around the edges of Little Women, Brooks has written a memorable novel. Highly recommended. ( )

My original review can be found here.

Amsterdam
By Ian McEwan
Completed January 1, 2008

Amsterdam is a story that could be a course in irony. I realize that many Ian McEwan fans didn't think this novel was up to the writer's standards, but I enjoyed the dark humor and, well, the irony that permeated this short novel.

Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday were friends, attending the funeral of a mutual, former lover named Molly Lane. Molly was no stranger to having lovers, and the prestigious, up-and-coming Foreign Secretary Julian Garmony was among her conquests. With each man, Molly brought out the best in each lover: Clive created beautiful music, Vernon climbed the newspaper editor ranks and Julian was an expert politician. At the time of Molly's death, each man teetered toward the next step of his career - the very wrung that would make him a legend.

However, Molly's death revealed something scandalous about Julian: incriminating photos of him were found in Molly’s private collection and leaked to Vernon's paper. Vernon told Clive about the photos, which Clive recommended not be printed. Because of Julian's despicable politics and the opportunity to move his career to new heights, Vernon dismissed his friend's advice. Without telling you the end, the proverbial house of cards fell down on all three men. Without Molly, they stood to risk their careers, friendships and legacies - all in one foul swoop.

The ending, to me, was fit and proper for this story, carefully foreshadowed throughout the novel. In games of jealousy, egoticism and revenge, McEwan's Amsterdam shows that no one is the winner. ( )

(cross-posted from my blog)

The Giver
Lois Lowry
179 pages

First sentence: It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.

Reflections: Jonas is a 12-year-old boy who lives happily with his parents and sister. He goes to school and plays with his friends, just like kids everywhere. But Jonas' world is unique in many respects. Correct word usage is of utmost importance. Families are made up of two parents, and two children -- always a boy and girl. All children experience their birthday the same day in December, through an elaborate community ceremony. When children turn 12, they are assigned their adult job during the ceremony. And the year that Jonas turns 12, he is assigned a very special role: that of The Receiver, the single member of the community who harbors all the memories of humankind.

Training for The Receiver role requires Jonas to spend time with the current Receiver, whom he now calls The Giver. The Giver is very old, and must transfer all memories to Jonas before he can be released from his responsiblities, and from the community. His gifts to Jonas are unique and special -- memories of snow and colors, for example -- and sometimes the memories are painful, such as war and death. The memories, and the deep feelings associated with them, have long been eradicated from the rest of the community in an attempt to create "sameness" among all people, and therefore harmony. Jonas and The Giver devise a plan to bring those memories back and enrich the lives of others. In carrying out this plan, Jonas himself becomes a true Giver himself.

This book packs quite a punch compared to most young adult literature. Would "sameness" really bring harmony and peace to our world? Or would it bring the emptiness pervading Jonas' community? Should we not then celebrate the differences in our world, rather than fight over them? This powerful, thought-provoking book will linger in my memory for a very long time. ( )

The original review can be found here.

Bridget Jones's Diary
By Helen Fielding
Completed December 13, 2007

Bridget Jones’s Diary is a cute, fluffy novel that had me laughing at many parts and groaning in others. Of the several “chick lit” books I have read, Bridget is as adorable, vulnerable and likeable as her “chick” counterparts. However, what sets her apart, in my opinion, is that she learned from her adventures and came out a wiser person (though, with a sequel, this could have been temporary!).

Bridget Jones is a single thirty-something who can’t find a meaningful relationship, works in a dead-end job and must cope with her mother’s mid-life crisis. She writes about her life in her diary, including a faithful documentation of her daily alcohol, tobacco and caloric consumption. In effect, she gains 74 pounds but loses 72, binges on alcohol (especially when times get tough) and never strikes it rich. Her affair with her boss, Daniel, leaves her feeling miserable and lonely, and by the end of the book, she finally gets her act together to end the year on a positive note.

Thanks to Raidergirl3 (Elizabeth) for recommending that I read Bridget Jones’s Diary around the holidays. It was perfect for this time of year – a light read with short chapters (great for bookmarking in between baking batches of cookies) and some good laughs. It was a fun book. Interestingly, it was awarded the British Book Award (Book of the Year) in 1998. You go girl! ( )

(Cross-posted from my blog)

My experience with cyberpunk has not been large. I have read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age, and liked them well enough. This Canadian novel is the archetypal cyberpunk novel and won the triple crown of sci-fi literary awards: the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. For most of the novel, I was not too enticed. I kept waiting for myself to care, and to feel really invested into the plot. It did not happen, at least not the extent that I wanted it to. As a a result, I have feeling I'll forget the plot of this book fairly soon. I think the blunt and straightforward prose are an advantage, but I was not wholly interested in the story. There are interesting concepts about AI, genetic engineering, cyberspace, and the concepts of the power of the free market to over rule the current world structure. Gibson wrote about all these before it was popular in the mainstream. If only I did not feel I have already read it all before because this fifteen years on. This would probably be a good introduction to cyberpunk as it has all the elements.

Empire Falls
By Richard Russo
Completed November 11, 2007

Having finished Empire Falls, I have been contemplating what exactly to say about it. It was a good book. It was a long book. It was very well-written.

But so what? I could say that about many books.

I think the thing that differentiates Empire Falls from other books is how Richard Russo is a master at character development. Empire Falls is the story of Miles Roby, a forty-something future divorcee who struggles as a manager of a local greasy spoon. Living in small-town Empire Falls, everyone knows his business: that his wife left him for the owner of the local health club, that the wealthy Mrs. Whiting holds Miles's future in the palm of her hand, that his daughter is struggling with high school, that he is a nice guy with a grumpy father, meddlesome town sheriff and enterprising brother. So many characters - but by the time the novel is over, Russo depicts them all completely. You really get to know them over the course of the 500 pages.

Another interesting aspect of Empire Falls is the mini-crescendos that occur throughout the story. Each tiny apex springs up every few chapters, until the last 50 pages when you get the "mack daddy" twist. The plot movement flowed liked a good TV drama, which is probably why HBO decided to adapt this novel into a mini-series.

Overall, I enjoyed Empire Falls, and I look forward to reading more of Richard Russo's other books. ( )

(Cross-posted from my blog)

The Tenderness of Wolves
Stef Penney
371 pages

First sentence: The last time I saw Laurent Jammet, he was in Scott's store with a dead wolf over his shoulder.

Reflections: In the 1860s, Canada was a northern wilderness with fur traders and native people in tense coexistence. In the village of Dove River, a man is murdered. At the same time, a 17-year-old youth disappears and becomes a prime suspect in the murder. The disappearance rekindles memories of a long-ago tragedy, in which two sisters went off on a picnic and never returned. Local authorites and representatives of the Hudson Bay Company investigate the murder. And the boy's mother, Mrs. Ross, takes it upon herself to search for her son accompanied by a trapper named Parker as her guide.

Stef Penney weaves a character-driven tale of adventure and mystery. The characters are complex, and the story far from formulaic. Penney paints such a realistic picture of the frozen Canadian wilderness, that I actually felt cold and had to snuggle up in a blanket while reading. And while I did figure out one of the subplots early on, it did not mar my enjoyment of the book. This debut novel and 2006 Costa Book of the Year winner was a very enjoyable read. ( )

My original review can be found here.

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields made it on to my Book Awards Reading Challenge by accident, in a way. I was just interested in participating in the challenge so I went through a bunch of award lists and chose titles that seemed interesting to me. I am so glad that I accidentally chose to read this title. It just might make it on to my top ten list, that is, top ten novels I've ever read.

The Stone Diaries is the account of Daisy Stone Goodwill's life, as told by herself. She was born in 1905 and died in the 1990s and, so, her life also tells the story of the tumultuous decades of the twentieth century. I love that each stage of her life offers some truth about the decade in which it occurred. I love that she doesn't let any one event from her life be the whole definition of her life. Yes, she was twice widowed but she doesn't think about herself only in those terms. Yes, she was a mother, an author, a gardener, an aunt, a friend but no one facet of her life describes it all...she is just Daisy.

I'm just so glad I chose to read this book. I'm also glad that I was able to purchase a copy at the Friends of the Library booksale last week! This one is definitely one to be read over and over again.

Also posted on my blog, HERE.

Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri
193 pages

• A Temporary Matter – A couple mourns the loss of a stillborn baby, and begins sharing secrets with one another during a power outage. Their grief, and the void between them, is palpable.
• Sexy – Miranda, an American woman, has an affair with a married Indian man. At the same time, her office mate consoles her cousin in India, whose husband has left her for a young English woman. Miranda meets the cousin on a visit to the US and, while babysitting her son, has a revelation about her own romantic relationship.
• Mrs. Sen’s – An Indian woman has recently arrived in the US, and provides after-school care for a boy while her husband teaches at a local university. She is isolated and lonely, is afraid to drive a car, and longs for friends and comforts of home.
• The Third and Final Continent – A young man, educated in London, comes to the US to work at a university. He is recently married, and waiting for his wife’s immigration papers to be processed so she can join him. For six weeks he rents a room from Mrs. Croft, a 103-year-old woman whose daughter visits once a week to deliver food. He contemplates the woman’s infirmity and isolation, as well as his own emotional uncertainty about life as a married man.