March: A Decade of Prize-Winning Fiction

 

This month will be fun, but also a bit challenging. My focus is on books that have won literary awards and prizes between 2000 and 2009. I've chosen from several genres including literature, science fiction, fantasy and mystery.

Here's what I've planned to read:

Disgrace, by JM Coetzee, Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2000

A Conspiracy of Paper, by David Liss, Winner of the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery in 2001

Spies, by Michael Frayn, Winner of the Whitbread/Costas Award in 2002

Fox Evil, by Minette Walters, Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award, 2003

This Blinding Absence of Light, by Tahar Ben Jelloun, which won the Dublin IMPAC Award in 2004

The Time In Between, by David Bergen, Winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2005

Seeker, by Jack McDevitt, Winner of the 2006 Nebula Prize

The Amnesia Clinic, by James Scudamore, Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 2007

Blood Kin, by Ceridwen Dovey, which won the 2008 South African Sunday Times Literary Award

The Shadow Year, by Jeffrey Ford, which won the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2009.

That's a pretty decent sampling of different award winners, and I'm happy with my choices. Plus, I voluntarily put myself on a 2-month book-buying moratorium, and I had these here at home already.

Why the moratorium? Did you ever reach the point where you feel like you have so many books you can't possibly ever read them all? I  need to at least try to plow through some of the books I own to make myself feel better about spending the money on them in the past. I figure that 2 months is enough time. Plus, I have some preorders I've already done, so it's not like I won't be getting books over that time period, I just won't be buying books over that time period. Hopefully my willpower is strong enough...I don't know about that part!

time to get reading, then....