After I finished the list of the 52 best romances of the last three years, I was looking for another long-term list project and I stumbled upon the Women's Prize for Fiction, which has only been awarded since 1996, so I thought it was a doable list in size and scope. I'd also already read a handful of them and had liked/loved/enjoyed most of them, so I decided to dive in.
2023: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - Beautiful, lyrical writing. The ending dragged a bit for me, but I can see why this was a winner. 4/5 stars
2022: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki - Ozeki's writing is quite good, but I DNFed this about 45% of the way through because the theme of childhood mental illness was just too hard for me. This is on me, not Ozeki.
2021: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - I really loved this book. Great book club discussion. 5/5 stars
2020: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell - I was not in for a plague book in the middle of a pandemic, so perhaps that's why I didn't care for this as much as other people in my life did. 3/5 stars
2019: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - The writing here is astounding. Our book club had a great talk about it. 4/5 stars
2018: Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie - Good, but really hard to read with its tough subject matter. 4/5 stars
2017: The Power by Naomi Alderman - I didn't love it, really, but it sparked some interesting thoughts at book club. 3/5 stars
2016: The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney - DNF at 21.3%. Too dark for the likes of me.
2015: How to Be Both by Ali Smith - Experimental fiction that didn't quite hit the mark for me. 3/5 stars
2014: A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride - DNF at page 5. I'm not into stream of consciousness, particularly when the character is a child.
2013: May We Be Forgiven by A.M. Homes - Weird book. Just weird. 2.5/5 stars
2012: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - Such a snooze. Interesting premise, terrible execution. 2/5 stars
2011: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht - I was not smart enough for this book. Also, the word "hat" appeared 39 times, which seems like a lot. 3/5 stars
2010: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver - DNF at 6%. This starts with pages and pages of child abuse. I don't need that in my life.
2009: Home by Marilynne Robinson - DNF at 37%. I tried, but this book was too quiet and I kept falling asleep.
2008: The Road Home by Rose Tremain - Meh. 3/5 stars
2007: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - This author writes vividly and wonderfully. 4.5/5 stars
2006: On Beauty by Zadie Smith - DNF at 11% in August 2023. I'm not patient enough to wade through this.
2005: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - Very long. Interesting perspective and an important topic. 3.5/5 stars
2004: Small Island by Andrea Levy - DNF at page 52 in May 2023. I couldn't get into it and it kept changing POVs so quickly. Just not my jam, but obviously some people loved it.
2003: Property by Valerie Martin - Powerful little book. I think about it a lot. 4.5/5 stars
2002: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - I have no idea what the take home point of this book was. So confusing. Still, by the end of the book I was absolutely invested. 3.5/5 stars
2001: The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville - Beautiful writing, vivid descriptions of the physical nature of characters, but not really all that compelling in the end. 3/5 stars
2000: When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant - Interesting setting and time period; not as sold on the character. 3.5/5 stars
1999: A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne - What a weird book for this list. I'm not entirely sure why it won this award because it seems like a pretty standard coming of age story. 3.5/5 stars
1998: Larry's Party by Carol Shields - Eh. I didn't love this one, but I did appreciate the observational writing. 3/5 stars
1997: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels - Well-written historical fiction about the impact of the Holocaust on survivors. Tough read. 4/5 stars
1996: A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore - Literary Flowers in the Attic. Not good exactly, but I couldn't stop reading to see what other insane things the author would throw into this novel. 3/5 stars
TL;DR - Here's a table.
|
5 stars |
4-4.5
stars |
3-3.5
stars |
Less than
3 stars |
DNF |
|
Piranesi |
An
American Marriage |
A Crime in
the Neighborhood |
May We Be
Forgiven |
A Girl is
a Half-Formed Thing |
|
|
Demon Copperhead |
A Spell of
Winter |
The Song
of Achilles |
The Book
of Form and Emptiness |
|
|
Fugitive
Pieces |
Bel Canto |
|
The
Glorious Heresies |
|
|
Home Fire |
Hamnet |
|
Home |
|
|
Half of a
Yellow Sun |
How to Be
Both |
|
|
|
|
|
The Idea
of Perfection |
|
The Lacuna |
|
|
|
Larry’s
Party |
|
On Beauty |
|
|
|
The Power |
|
Small
Island |
|
|
|
Property |
|
|
|
|
|
The Road
Home |
|
|
|
|
|
The Tiger’s
Wife |
|
|
|
|
|
We Need to
Talk About Kevin |
|
|
|
|
|
When I
Lived in Modern Times |
|
|
What's your favorite from these books? What list of books should I start working on next? Do you have a favorite literary award?
I'm surprised how few of these I have read given that women's fiction is what I read at least 75% of the time. The other 25% is women's nonfiction, minus maybe 5 books a year written by a man.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, there are quite a few of these I'd never even heard of before I started in on this list, so I don't think it's too surprising. Some of these seems like deep cuts!
DeleteMe too! I read a lot of books by women (probably mostly), and I have only read a handful of these.
DeleteI have read so few of these, but I primarily read NF. I couldn't do Hamnet. Just. couldn't. do. it. I made it about 1/4 of the way through the book before abandoning it. TOO SAD!
ReplyDeleteYou're not missing a lot by not reading Hamnet, I don't think. It just wasn't my jam.
DeleteI liked A Spell of Winter! I really need to read more by Helen Dunmore. I also loved Piranesi. Most of the other I haven't read, but for some strange reason I own An American Marriage but haven't read it! It's going on my TBR, duh.
ReplyDeleteTayari Jones is SO GOOD. Her writing is beautiful.
DeleteMy son and his wife are reading Demon Copperhead right now and enjoying it. They keep telling me I should read it. I read several pages of a preview and, honestly, hated it. The style seems ranty and crowded with SO MANY pop cultural references for that time period. I felt bombarded.
ReplyDeleteHamnet continues to be my favourite book of the 2000s. Incredibly beautiful writing.
Ha. It took me a few chapters to get into the writing style of Demon Copperhead, but then it was just so good. That being said, I don't recommend it widely because it's a tough read and the voice is challenging.
DeleteI thought the writing in Hamnet was overwrought and overwritten. LOL. Clearly we have a different taste in writing styles. I'm glad you liked Hamnet!
Did you ever read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Wroblewski? That's another book that I really loved and that stuck with me. It was published in 2008. I think I might have to read it again.
DeleteNo, I've never even heard of it! It's available for Kindle, though, so I downloaded it.
DeleteI haven't read any of these books! But I don't read too many award-winners. I find they don't typically jive with my reading taste.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. My book club tends to pick award winners, so I read a fair number by default. They're not always my favorite, but I do usually understand why they are winners.
DeleteI loved 'Half of a Yellow Sun', 'Bel Canto', 'An American Marriage', and 'Demon Copperhead'. I wanted to love 'Hamnet' but I couldn't get there. I'm going to have to read 'Piransei'
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised at how controversial Hamnet is. For a long time, I thought I was the only one who had criticisms of it!
DeleteI loved Hamnet - I thought the ending was stunning, though it was really sad getting there.
ReplyDeleteBel Canto and Half of a Yellow Sun I've listened to on audio. I liked Bel Canto well enough, even though the narrator kept pronouncing the names of opera characters wrong and that seemed just sloppy to me. Half of a Yellow Sun was hard to follow on audio - I probably would have liked it better reading it. I just remember it being really sad and hard.
I read On Beauty years ago, when it first came out, because Howards End is one of my favorite books. I remember thinking, "This is what well read people are supposed to read," and then I was disappointed that the book felt *too* literary for me.
I haven't read The Book on Form and Emptiness, but I did read Ozeki's book My Year of Meats and while I was very amused by much of the book, I was also repulsed (and not in a good way) but a lot of it and I've decided maybe Ozeki is just not for me either.
Piranesi is on my list of books I want to read, but it just never makes it to the top of my TBR.
Does anyone ever win one of these prizes by writing something uplifting? Everything on this list just seems so so so bleak!
I think May We Be Forgiven was sort of satire, so maybe people could think it was funny?! But, you're right. Most of these books are real downers!
DeleteThere are a couple of pages in Hamnet where the author talks about a flea with the plague and how it travels from one place to another that were simply brilliant, so I think there were flashes of brilliance in Hamnet, but I certainly didn't love that book.
Hamnet, Demon Copperhead, An American Marriage, Home Fires, On Beauty, Small Island (something from each of your columns :)!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun game for you to play! Pick a book you like from each column. Does Small Island get better? I DNFed it, but could be convinced to go back to it.
DeleteI nearly DNFed Demon Copperhead, but slogged through it and ended up giving it three stars. It was not my favorite book of hers. I read Bel Canto about 20 years ago and remember liking it okay, but Patchett is known for more character driven novels, so when you ask what the point was, it was likely nothing! I actually prefer her non-fiction over her fiction.
ReplyDeleteAs far as lists go, I have found most times that I try to tackle a list, the books are hit and miss. I once wanted to read the 100 best classics, and I got about 4 books in and realized that I loved none of them and I did not want to read 96 more. I also am not always a huge fan of the Pulitzer prize winners... I guess it just goes to show that everyone likes different things and the judges are all sorts of people!
I do find that the lists end up having very mediocre averages, but I also find real gems in lists, so I continue going through them. It's always a chance, though.
DeleteIt's easy for me to pick my favorite on this list since I've read exactly one of these titles. Let's hear it for "the weird little book about incest" aka A Spell of Winter!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think that if I tried to do something like this my DNF rate would be much higher. But I have enjoyed movie challenges (lookin' at you AFI 100!). It's true that some of those movies were stinkers, but I saw many great movies that I wouldn't otherwise have watched and got a better exposure to movies in general, so it was well worth it.
Hey, the weird little book about incest really picks up steam on page 104. I love that I still remember the exact page when my head spun around.
DeleteI normally DNF with reckless abandon because there's no need to read books that aren't amazing, but I feel terrible when I DNF a list book. But I did have a 25% DNF rate here, so I guess I didn't feel too badly about it!
I haven't read any of these, or, actually, heard of any of them (I don't think?) But I do love the idea of a reading project. I haven't done one lately but would like to again sometime. I think my only "project" of sorts for this year is to read up some of the books I own that I haven't read yet! I have received books as gifts, etc in the last couple years but then I sometimes get pulled into something new or a certain non-fiction that's popular... and then I lose track of these other ones I already have. I checked though and I think I have some good ones just sitting here waiting for me!
ReplyDeleteHey, doing a good cleaning of the TBR books you already own is a great project! And if you don't read them by the end of the year (or whatever your time limit is), you can donate them. Declutter!
DeleteHamnet: I thought the writing was exquisite but I could not finish it because the plague in the book and the pandemic at our door - it was too much for me. I am relieved to know that I am not the only one who abandons books because the subject matter is too much.
ReplyDeleteOh, I will opt out ASAP if something is too hard for me emotionally. I don't need that in my life!
DeleteThanks for sharing this. I grabbed a few off your list for my TR file.
ReplyDeleteI finished Bel Canto a few weeks ago; it was different. I didn't love it all the way through, but like you, I was invested enough to see where it landed at the end.
Right? I found Bel Canto absolutely fascinating. At first I was rolling my eyes and then all of a sudden I had to know what was going to happen to all those people!
DeleteIve only read one of these... Wow.
ReplyDeleteThere's some good ones in there!
Delete