
one thing i would really like to do is read more award-winning books from my lifetime. in 2016 i decided i would read all the booker winners until i realized i didn’t really like many of the booker winners. late in 2017 i realized i was drawn to winners of other awards, like the national book award and the newbery medal, to name a few. armed with that knowledge i compiled a list of various award winners, figuring i could find at least one book from each year that piqued my interest.
the lists i pulled from:
- the national book award
- the pulitzer prize for fiction
- the john newbery medal
- the printz award [awarded since 2000]
below are the ones i chose to read* with links to my reviews:
1983 – the color purple, alice walker [national book award; pulitzer]
1984 – dear mr henshaw, beverly cleary [newbery medal]
1985 –
1986 –
1987 –
1988 – beloved, toni morrison [pulitzer prize]
1989 –
1990 – number the stars, lois lowry [newbery medal]
1991 –
1992 –
1993 –
1994 – the giver, lois lowry [newbery medal]
1995 –
1996 –
1997 –
1998 –
1999 –
2000 – interpreter of maladies, jhumpa lahiri [pulitzer prize]
2001 –
2002 –
2003 –
2004 – the tale of despereaux, kate dicamillo [newbery medal]
2005 –
2006 –
2007 –
2008 –
2009 – the graveyard book, neil gaiman [newbery medal]
2010 – just kids, patti smith [national book award]
2011 –
2012 –
2013 –
2014 – the goldfinch, donna tartt [pulitzer]
2015 – all the light we cannot see, anthony doerr [pulitzer]
2016 – the underground railroad, colson whitehead [national book award; pulitzer 2017] / the sympathizer, viet thanh nguyen [pulitzer prize]
2017 – sing, unburied, sing, jesmyn ward [national book award]
2018 –
and as a note: some of the books i have read and written about it recent years, so i linked to those earlier posts.
have you read any of these? which were your favorites?
xx
*i’m not reading chronologically, so they’ll be filled in as and when i read them.