Looking for another Pulitzer Prize Winning Book?

Are you looking for more Pulitzer Prize Winners or Finalists to read? Remember that there are Pulitzer Prize Awards for books in categories other than fiction. 

One of the more interesting book categories is General Nonfiction which is awarded to “a distinguished and appropriately documented book of nonfiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.” As this is the "other" category, the winners and finalists are quite eclectic and include interesting topics such as science, culture, finance, crime, politics, death, civil rights, and more. Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists in this category include past Donnelly Library reading group selections such as The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize Winner in General Nonfiction, and Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History, by S.C. Gwynne, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in General Nonfiction.

You can read about all of the General Nonfiction winners and finalists at the Pulitzer Prizes' website here: http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/223 or you can visit the book display on the first floor of Donnelly Library and check a winner or finalist out for the winter break!

Another Pulitzer Prize category for books is Biography or Autobiography which is awarded to “a distinguished and appropriately documented biography or autobiography by an American author.” The subjects of these biographies include figures such as John Adams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Edith Wharton, and more. You can read about all of the Biography or Autobiography winners and finalists at the Pulitzer Prizes' website here: http://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-category/222.

So, if you are looking for more to read, check out our Pulitzer Prize Winners and Finalists in General Nonfiction book display and the Pulitzer Prize Winners and Finalists in Biography or Autobiography book display on the first floor of Donnelly Library next to the Popular Reading section.

Donnelly Library's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its fifth meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, December 01, 2016 when we got together to discuss Junot Díaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

This was our reading group’s final meeting and discussion focused on several different themes from the novel. Discussion highlights included the below.

• The style of the book. Díaz’s novel is full of 1980s popular culture references. Reading group members who grew up around the 1980s understood most of these references, but reading group members who grew up before or after this time period mostly missed them. This could be Díaz’s way of disorienting many of his readers and making them feel like outsiders to the characters’ lives and cultures.
• The shifting tone of this novel also made for interesting discussion. The story starts out being very funny and then shifts to being a very serious tale. This causes a complex response in the reader as she or he follows the various characters through the different strands of the narrative.
• The title of the novel was another highlight of the discussion. Reading group members could agree that Oscar’s life is certainly brief, but it is up for debate if his life could be called wondrous.
• The reading group scholar brought up the parallels in Oscar’s desire for women and the dictator Trujillo legendary womanizing. This led into a discussion of whether or not the reader is supposed to find the title character Oscar likable or not. Most reading group members did not find him likable, but rather found the narrator the more sympathetic character.

What did you find most interesting about the fifth meeting’s discussion or about the novel? Please post in the comments below.

Questions for Donnelly Library's Discussion of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

Donnelly Library’s Pulitzer Prize Challenge reading group has its fifth and final meeting on Thursday, December 01. Below are a few questions to think about for the upcoming discussion of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz.

Take a look at the questions and please post your own questions or discussion points for this novel in the comments below. 

• What does Díaz reveal about Dominican history and culture in this novel?

• From the Fantastic Four epigraph at the beginning of the book to allusions to Lord of the Rings, comic books, fantasy, and science fiction references pervade the novel. What is the role of popular culture in the novel?

• The narrator Yunior believes that Oscar and his family are suffering from a family curse, “a high-level fukú” (152). What does Díaz show as the source of the family’s troubles? Are they indeed cursed?

• The title of the book places Oscar as the main character, but the women of his family (La Inca, Beli, Lola) are some of the strongest characters. What is the role of women in this novel?

Donnelly Library's Lovely, Dark, Deep Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its fourth meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, November 10, 2016 when we got together to discuss Joyce Carol Oates’s short story collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep.

This was our reading group’s second time to meet and discuss a short story collection; at the third meeting, we had discussed Cheever’s short story collection. Oates is a divisive author. Some reading group members love Oates and some hate her writing. However, no matter how participants felt about the stories, there was dynamic discussion at our meeting. Some of the highlights from the discussion include the below. 

• The stories focus on the relationship between the sexes and often include fragile women characters who depend on male approval, often the approval of a husband or father. The group discussed if Oates’s portrayal of women is old fashioned or if many American women today still define themselves in relation to the men in their lives.

• Group members noted a lack of dialog between the characters in these stories or at least a lack of serious discussion between the characters. Participants observed that a lot is communicated between the characters without being said. This was seen in the first story of the collection, “Sex with Camel,” where the grandson and grandmother joke around with each other, but Oates still lets the reader know how much the characters care about each other and how ill the grandmother is.

• Two of the stories that the discussion focused on were stories about authors: “Lovely, Dark, Deep” and “Patricide.” The group discussed why stories about authors are popular and if they may be especially appealing to authors and awards committees. These two short stories also sparked a discussion about how what we know about an author can color how we view their work. We discussed if literature should be judged entirely separately from the author and if it is possible to divorce a poem or a novel from the image of the creator.

• Short story collections can pose difficulties for reading group discussions as there isn’t one main narrative for the group to discuss together as there is when the group is reading a novel. Reading group participants may all want to discuss different stories. On the other hand, short story collections provide reading groups with the opportunity to explore many different works by an author at one time.

Personally, reading Oates always makes me what to read more Oates (or in the case of this collection, I wanted to read more of Oates’s fiction and to revisit Robert Frost’s poetry).

What did you find most interesting about the fourth meeting’s discussion or about the short stories? Please post in the comments below.

Books truck display of books by Joyce Carol Oates,
Robert Frost's poems, and books about Frost.

Reading Now In Las Vegas!

Las Vegas readers will be discussing Joyce Carol Oates' Lovely, Dark Deep November 10 at 6:00 pm at the Thomas Donnelly Public Library.

Questions for Donnelly Library's Discussion of the Lovely, Dark, Deep

Donnelly Library’s Pulitzer Prize Challenge reading group has its fourth meeting on Thursday, November 09. Below are a few questions to think about for the upcoming discussion.

Take a look at the questions and please post your own questions or discussion points for this short story collection in the comments below.

• A common theme of the books we have read for this reading group is that characters are haunted by their pasts. What events or traumas haunt the characters of Oates’s short stories?
• Oates writes a great deal about the relationship between the sexes in these short stories. What does she have to say about the role of women and the role of men in American society though these stories?
• In the title story of the collection, Oates paints a dark, brutal portrait of beloved American poet Robert Frost. In this story what is Oates criticizing, Frost himself, literary celebrity, literary biographies, biographical interpretations of literature, or a combination of these things?
• Including this short story collection, Joyce Carol Oates has been a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist 4 times (her other finalist books include her novel Black Water, finalist in 1993, her novel What I Lived For, finalist in 1995, and novel Blonde finalist in 2001). Why do you think she continues to be nominated for the prize, and why does she continue not to win?

Donnelly Library's The Stories of John Cheever Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its third meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, October 13, 2016 when we got together to discuss The Stories of John Cheever. 

This was the longest and most daunting of the book selections so far at over 700 pages and including over 60 stories written over the course of Cheever’s career.  During the discussion of the short stories many different things were discussed including the below. 

• The role of the short story in the history of American Literature and how Cheever and the magazine he published the most frequently in, the New Yorker, fit into this history. It was interesting to learn that several MFA (Master of Fine Arts) programs in writing call Cheever’s collected short stories the “Orange Bible,” and consider him to be at the height of short story craftsmanship. It was also interesting to learn from the facilitator that though Cheever is thought of as writing realistic stories, it is his surreal stories like “The Swimmer” or “The Enormous Radio” for which he is best known.

• Several reading group participants noted Cheever’s careful and skillful use of language and imagery in his writing. Together the reading group took a close look at key phrases and sentences in several stories. 

• The group discussed if part of Cheever’s popularity was due in part to a bias toward New York centered fiction from both publishers and literary award committees.

• The group further discussed the literature of the postwar suburbs and how Cheever fit into this tradition. Other important works about the suburbs of 1950s America, such as Sloan Wilson’s The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road, and the New Yorker short stories of John Updike, were discussed and were on the book truck display during the meeting. 

What did you find most interesting about the third meeting’s discussion or about the short stories? Please post in the comments below.

Donnelly Library's Plague of Doves Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its second meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, September 22, 2016 when we got together to discuss Louise Erdrich’s novel Plague of Doves. As with our first meeting, the discussion of the book and the author was lively. Some of the highlights from the discussion include the below.

• Erasure of modern Native American lives and stories in most of American literature and how Erdrich’s novels include tales of contemporary Native Americans. 
• How the landscape of the Great Plains is a character in the stories that comprise this novel. Reading group participants from this region remarked that her stories capture the landscape and its influence on area residents’ lives. 
• Reading group participants also noted that this novel is more a cycle of stories than a traditional novel. It was interesting to learn that sections of the novel had been published separately as standalone short stories. 
• Erdrich’s elliptical storytelling style was also a point of discussion. The characters and their relationships with each other unfold slowly throughout the different stories of the novel much like how we learn about other people in life. 
• Religion and spirituality are important to many of the characters in the novel. These are important to many people, but are not always included in American literature. 

What did you find most interesting about the second meeting’s discussion or about the novel? Please post in the comments below.

Pulitzer Dialogues in Las Vegas

Questions for Donnelly Library's Discussion of the Stories of John Cheever

Donnelly Library’s Pulitzer Prize Challenge reading group has its third meeting on Thursday, October 13. Below are a few questions to think about for the upcoming discussion.

Take a look at the questions and please post your own questions or discussion points for these short stories in the comments below.

Questions

1. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction is awarded to a book "preferably dealing with American life." What do Cheever's short stories say about American life? What parts of the American experience do they draw on?
2. How reliable are the narrators of Cheever's stories? Do they tell the truth about their situations and the other characters in the stories?
3. What do the characters in these short stories want? What is a happy ending in Cheever's stories? What are readers supposed to take away from these stories? 
4. Why do Cheever's stories set in a particular place and time still resonate in 2016? What is the enduring appeal of stories of the suburbs? 

Reading The Stories of John Cheever at Donnelly Library, Las Vegas, NM

Donnelly Library’s Pulitzer Prize Challenge reading group has its third meeting on Thursday, October 13, 2016 to discuss The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever.

The list of my (April's) top ten favorite stories so far is below. Brandon said "The Swimmer" is his favorite Cheever story of all time. What stories stood out to you from the collection? Post your favorite stories in the comments below. 

1. Goodbye, My Brother, p. 3-21
2. The Enormous Radio, p. 33-41
3. The Sorrows of Gin, p. 198-209
4. The Day the Pig Fell into the Well, p. 219-235
5. The Five-Forty-Eight, p. 236-247
6. The Housebreaker of Shady Hill, p. 253-269
7. The Country Husband, p. 325-346
8. The Angel of the Bridge, p. 490-497
9. The Geometry of Love, p. 549-602
10. The Swimmer, p. 603-612

The Beloved Discussion Highlights

Donnelly Library had its first meeting of the Pulitzer Prizes Reading Group on Thursday, September 1, 2016 when we got together to discuss Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Discussion was lively and focused on many different themes. One of the most animated parts of the discussion was whether or not Beloved was a ghost. Reading group participants had different points of view on this issue. Some reading group participants thought she was a ghost, others not, and still others said that they had never thought about the reality of the ghost in the novel. The discussion of the ghost connected with an interesting discussion of how America is haunted by its history of slavery and how Morrison was able to vividly portray the horrors of slavery and its aftermath.

Trauma and recovery was another major topic of discussion. Reading group participants talked about how the characters in Morrison’s novel dealt in different ways with the trauma of their pasts and how they were (and weren’t) able to recover.

The theme of the relationships between mothers and daughters was talked about focusing on the relationship between Sethe and Denver and Sethe and Beloved. The constant presence of past trauma certainly affects the relationships between the generations. Group participants said they felt hopeful for Denver’s future by the end of the novel.

  

Participants also discussed with Dr. Brandon Kempner how the novel fit within the history of American literature, novels about slavery, and Toni Morrison’s place in the canon.

What did you find most interesting about the first meeting’s discussion or about the novel? Please post in the comments below.

First Meeting of the Readng Group

Questions for Donnelly Library's Discussion of Plague of Doves

Donnelly Library’s Pulitzer Prize Challenge reading group has its second meeting on Thursday, September 22. Below are a few questions to think about for the upcoming discussion.

Take a look at the questions and please post your own questions or discussion points for this novel in the comments below.

Questions

1. Although there is no ghost in Erdrich’s novel as there is in Morrison’s Beloved, the past haunts the communities of this novel. What events haunt the characters of Plague of Doves?
2. Erdrich uses multiple narrators in this novel. Why do you think she chooses to use changing perspectives? What do the different narrators reveal about the history of the communities in this novel?
3. How does religion and spirituality effect the different characters’ lives?  
4. What is the role of the murder plot in this novel? Can this novel be called a murder mystery? How would you describe this novel?

Pulitzer Prize Books at Donnelly Library

The Pulitzer Prizes 2016 Reading Challenge is to read five Pulitzer Fiction winners or finalists in five months, but no one says you have to stop there. If you want to read more, come by Donnelly Library and check out our Pulitzer Fiction book display on the first floor.

Want to keep track of how many Pultizer Fiction winners you have read? You can print your own Pulitzer100 bookmark checklist by visiting http://www.pulitzer.org/page/print-your-own-pulitzer100-bookmarks.