Checking Out Award Winners

Hello All!

There are all sorts of book awards out there, and if you only read award winners, you quite possibly wouldn't read anything else. I do try to sample here and there, in other fiction genres than my usual mystery one, and I've found wonderful books that way, and also terrible books (like Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee, which won the Booker Prize--I personally did not get why it won an award but it did make for a terrific book discussion!).

On to some good stuff, according to me :) :

A recent wonderful find was 2006 Spur Award Winner (from the Western Writers of America) was Willard Wyman's High Country. This title won two awards that year, Novel of the West, and Best First Novel; I think that's why I chose to read it. The writing in this book is cinematic--you are there in the Montana mountains of the 1930s, as a boy becomes a man as he learns how to run mule trains into the wilderness. Mistakes are made, WWII comes and goes, and one's mentor passes on, but the story of the West, despite changes, remains a big story and a vast place. Highly recommended

Another find was Beth Ciotta's All About Evie, which won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Contemporary Romance. I chose this title as I had read another book by her, and because I thought it was a standalone. Several bonuses were found in this book for me--it's screwball romance, which is my favorite kind, the main character is over 40, and it's not a standalone! The second title just came out in February, and is called Everybody Loves Evie. I had a lot of fun reading this, and I also definitely recommend All About Evie--I'll read the second one soon.

Happy Reading!
Patti