Year in books: a look back at books that captured our attention.THE AWARDSNational Book Award (NONFICTION) BECOMING A MAN Half a Life Story By Paul Monette In this bittersweet prequel pre·quel n. A literary, dramatic, or cinematic work whose narrative takes place before that of a preexisting work or a sequel. [pre- + (se)quel.] to Borrowed Time, Monette reflects on growing up in the 1950s, coming to terms with his homosexuality, and understanding how it affected his writing. National Book Award (FICTION) ALL THE PRETTY HORSES All the Pretty Horses is a novel by U.S. author Cormac McCarthy published in 1992. Its romanticism (in contrast to the apocalyptic bleakness of McCarthy's earlier work) brought the writer much public attention, spending some time on bestseller charts, earning the U.S. By Cormac McCarthy In the first novel in the Border Trilogy, teenage John Grady Cole and Lacey Rawlins leave their Texas home on horseback in 1948, cross the Rio Grande, pick up Jimmy Blevins, and arrive at a hacienda in Mexico. Pulitzer Prize (GENERAL NONFICTION) THE PRIZE The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power By Daniel Yergin Published just prior to the 1990 Gulf War, Yergin explores oil's relationship to 19th- and 20th-century capitalism, global geopolitics geopolitics, method of political analysis, popular in Central Europe during the first half of the 20th cent., that emphasized the role played by geography in international relations. , and war. Pulitzer Prize (FICTION) A THOUSAND ACRES By Jane Smiley Buried family secrets and sibling rivalries emerge when the elderly patriarch Larry Cook decides to turn over his large Iowa farm to two of his three daughters. Booker Prizes THE ENGLISH PATIENT By Michael Ondaatje Four characters--the young nurse Hana, a nameless English burn victim, the thief Caravaggio, and the Sikh sapper sapper Military engineer. The name is derived from the French word sappe (“trench”), which became connected with military engineering in the 17th century, when attackers dug covered trenches to approach the walls of a besieged fort and also undermined the walls Kip--come together at an Italian monastery during the final days of World War II and cope with their losses. SACRED HUNGER By Barry Unsworth In the 18th century, a cotton speculator's nephew leads a shipboard revolt that strands both crew and slaves in Florida; they attempt to establish a society based on utopian principles and racial equality. Nobel Prize for Literature DEREK WALCOTT (SAINT LUCIA, 1930-) Recognized "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment." Walcott is best known for his poem Omeros (1990), which reworks Homer's epic story for modern Saint Lucia. Edgar Award A DANCE AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE slaughterhouse: see abattoir; meatpacking. A Matthew Scudder Crime Novel By Lawrence Block PI Matt Scudder, finally sober, knows the seedy underbelly of New York best. He must now investigate the rape and murder of the wealthy wife of a television producer--and the sex-for-sale industry. Nebula Award DOOMSDAY BOOK By Connie Willis Kivrin, a history student living in 2048, is accidentally whisked back to a 14th-century English village, whose inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. are suffering from the Black Plague. The 21st century isn't much safer. Hugo Award BARRAYAR By Lois McMaster Bujold Lois McMaster Bujold (born November 2, 1949, Columbus, Ohio) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy works. | Bujold is best known for her series of novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan, a physically impaired interstellar spy and mercenary admiral from the planet In the second novel of the Vorkosigan series (after Shards of Honor), Cordelia Naismith settles down with her husband on the planet of Barrayar. When civil war threatens, Cordelia must fight to save her--and their unborn son's--lives. Newbery Medal SHILOH By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Eleven-year-old Marty Preston faces a dilemma when he finds a mistreated beagle beagle, breed of dog beagle, breed of small, compact hound developed over centuries in England and introduced into the United States in the 1870s. It stands between 10 and 15 in. (25.4–38.1 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs between 20 and 40 lb (9. near his rural West Virginia home: Should he help the dog himself, despite his family's poverty, or return Shiloh to the true owner? OTHER NOTABLES THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY | ROBERT JAMES WALLER DARK FORCE RISING | TIMOTHY ZAHN DOLORES Dolores (or Delores) was a common given name (until the 1960s in the USA); it is cognate with the English word "dolorous" (meaning sorrowful) and equivalent in meaning. CLAIBORNE | STEPHEN KING JAZZ | TONI MORRISON PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA | RODDY DOYLE SHAMPOO PLANET | DOUGLAS COUPLAND SMALL GODS | TERRY PRATCHETT SNOW CRASH | NEAL STEPHENSON STRANGE PILGRIMS | GABRIEL Gabriel (gā`brēəl), archangel, the divine herald. In the Bible he appears to Daniel (twice), to Zacharias, and to the Virgin Mary in the Annunciation (Dan. 8.16; 9.21; Luke 1.19,26,27). GARCIA MARQUEZ THE TALE OF THE BODY THIEF | ANNE RICE THE THIRD CHIMPANZEE | JARED DIAMOND WAITING TO EXHALE exhale /ex·hale/ (eks´hal) to breathe out. ex·hale v. 1. To breathe out. 2. To emit a gas, vapor, or odor. | TERRY MCMILLAN NY TIMES BESTSELLERS FICTION for the entire year of 1992. HIDEAWAY | DEAN R. KOONTZ RISING SUN | MICHAEL CRICHTON THE PELICAN BRIEF | JOHN GRISHAM JEWELS | DANIELLE STEEL GERALD'S GAME | STEPHEN KING |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion