Category Archives: Prize Winner

Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips

Posted on August 2, 2024 by bseat

Some novels capture a time so vividly that they become seared into our consciousness as if we were actually there. Phillips has managed to do this in this novel about the aftermath of the Civil War with characters so vivid … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner | Tagged | 1 Comment

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Posted on March 8, 2024 by bseat

This book explores the idea of history and by whom and how that history is written. Someone once said that history is written by the victors and, as Diaz points out, history is also written by the wealthy and powerful … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Magician by Colm Tóibín

Posted on November 4, 2022 by bseat

I was intrigued by all the hype about this book and decided to put aside some of my reservations and read it. This is a novel about Thomas Mann, the Nobel laureate and author of A Death in Venice and … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Posted on October 21, 2022 by bseat

Somehow I missed all the hype about this book when it came out in 2020, but I am sure glad I finally found it! There is a little bit of everything in this book- romance, fantasy, mystery and suspense. Yet, … Continue reading →

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Romance | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Posted on May 6, 2022 by bseat

Whenever I find a book about interpreters and translators I want to read it. There really aren’t that many novels about this kind of work, but since I was an interpreter and translator, I am always interested in seeing another … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Romance | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer

Posted on April 8, 2022 by bseat

Stories that intertwine are always fascinating, but often encounter difficulties in their execution. Not only do the stories need to intertwine in a way that makes sense but they need to show that the intertwining has a purpose. Often authors … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Prize winner | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

Posted on December 17, 2021 by bseat

Fatma el-Sha’arawi is an agent for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. Although she is the youngest woman serving in the agency, she already has an impressive track record for preventing magical entities (djinn) from upsetting the carefully … Continue reading →

Posted in Detective novel, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Prize Winner, Series, Suspense | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Posted on December 10, 2021 by bseat

Mr. Richard Smith arrived by boat in the late fall of 1746 to small town of New York.  After disembarking he made his way directly to a counting house on Golden Hill where he presented a written order in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Prize Winner | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Posted on August 20, 2021 by bseat

“Brief and beautiful,” was one reviewers reaction to this 2011 Man Booker Award winner and I tend to agree. I find that award winning books do not always sustain my interest or are particularly readable, but Barnes has written a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Exhalation by Ted Chiang (Books to Read During a Pandemic, Part 55)

Posted on April 9, 2021 by bseat

I am not really a short story person. I like long novels where I can engage the characters and the end comes after a long circuitous path. Then I read an article where they interviewed famous people and asked about … Continue reading →

Posted in Books to Read During a Pandemic, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Prize Winner, Science Fiction, Short Stories | Tagged | Leave a comment