Blah Book Awards 2010
For the first time in many many years, this was a year of where fiction overshadowed non-fiction... where I read 3-4 extraordinary works of fiction...where I know my list when I revisit it will look very different in a few years, including a tie for number 1. Anyway here we go....
2010 Top 4: Fiction
1) Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro... haunting and heartbreaking, Ishiguro enters the Hemingway, Rushdie pantheon for me where i will read everything he has written. It's hard to write something so simple and understated and yet so powerful and moving.
Joint 1) The Feast of the Goat: A Novel - Mario Vargas Llosa... structurally a work of genius combined with power and emotion...hard to believe this is based on real events and people... a nation and the nature of dictatorship and democracy captured more effectively than ever before
3) The Road-Cormac McCarthy... I don't know if it's because I'm a father but I have never been more moved by a tale of fatherhood
4) The Quiet American-Graham Greene... A love story? A war story? A spy story? An exploration of colonialism ... I still don't know. But again, haunting and beautiful, some of it is pure poetry and devastatingly powerful.
Honourable mention: Luka and the Fire of Life- Salman Rushdie
2010 Top 3: Non-fiction
1) Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide - Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn... every educated person needs to read this book
2) All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo - Brian Mealer
3) Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime - John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
Honourable mentions:
- Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone- Rajeev Chandrasekaran
- Falling Off the Edge: Globalization, World Peace and Other Lies- Alex Perry
- Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker - Robert Slater
Overall Top 5:
Never Let Me Go, The Feast of the Goat, Half the Sky, The Road, All Things Must Fight To Live
For the first time in many many years, this was a year of where fiction overshadowed non-fiction... where I read 3-4 extraordinary works of fiction...where I know my list when I revisit it will look very different in a few years, including a tie for number 1. Anyway here we go....
2010 Top 4: Fiction
1) Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro... haunting and heartbreaking, Ishiguro enters the Hemingway, Rushdie pantheon for me where i will read everything he has written. It's hard to write something so simple and understated and yet so powerful and moving.
Joint 1) The Feast of the Goat: A Novel - Mario Vargas Llosa... structurally a work of genius combined with power and emotion...hard to believe this is based on real events and people... a nation and the nature of dictatorship and democracy captured more effectively than ever before
3) The Road-Cormac McCarthy... I don't know if it's because I'm a father but I have never been more moved by a tale of fatherhood
4) The Quiet American-Graham Greene... A love story? A war story? A spy story? An exploration of colonialism ... I still don't know. But again, haunting and beautiful, some of it is pure poetry and devastatingly powerful.
Honourable mention: Luka and the Fire of Life- Salman Rushdie
2010 Top 3: Non-fiction
1) Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide - Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn... every educated person needs to read this book
2) All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo - Brian Mealer
3) Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime - John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
Honourable mentions:
- Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone- Rajeev Chandrasekaran
- Falling Off the Edge: Globalization, World Peace and Other Lies- Alex Perry
- Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker - Robert Slater
Overall Top 5:
Never Let Me Go, The Feast of the Goat, Half the Sky, The Road, All Things Must Fight To Live
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