Literary Novels from my Stacks

Wendy, at Caribousmom, wrote a post a couple days ago about themed reading. She tends to collect literary prize winners and then they sit on her TBR pile. I always pay particular attention to the Canadian Award Winners. In November she is planning to read the Giller winners/nominess that she owns and in December the Governor General Awards. My reading tends to slow down near the end of the year, but should I be able to stick with it, I thought maybe I would join in. These are the books I have on my TBR pile that would fit:

Giller Awards:

(I only went with winners & the short list. If I included long-list we could be here for a while.)
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
The Piano Man's Daughter by Timothy Findley
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Cure for Death by Lightening by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
A Recipe for Bees by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
A Good House by Bonnie Burnard
Pilgrim by Timothy Findley
A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay
The Russlander by Sandra Birdsell
Martin Sloane by Michael Redhill
Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart
The Polished Hoe by Austen Clarke
The Navigator of New York by Wayne Johnston
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji
The Island Walkers by John Bemrose
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
The Time in Between by David Bergen
The Assassin's Song by M.G. Vassanji
Effigy by Alissa York
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels

Governor General Awards:

Fiction:

(Winners and the Short List.)
The Origin of Species by Nino Ricci
Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
Nights Below Station Street by David Adam Richards
The Wars by Timothy Findley
The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen
The Last Highway by David Adams Richards
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley

Non-fiction:

(These are just the winners. I will have to find the short lists because I know I own more...)
Christie Blatchford, Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army
Karolyn Smardz Frost, I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Pierre Berton, The Last Spike

Some Progress Reports

I have been paying attention to some of the reading awards this year. Here is a progress report of sorts of how successful I am. I was concentrating on the Giller, but since I own all the Governor General nominees in fiction, I will likely end up reading those too. The Booker, at this point I will read the few I have and maybe the rest of the short list. I plan to read the winner but the bookstores do not seem to have it.

Booker Awards:

• Darkmans by Nicola Barker (4th Estate) - Getting for Christmas
• Self Help by Edward Docx (Picador)
• The Gathering by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Waiting for the bookstore to get it back
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Hamish Hamilton)
• The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies (Sceptre)
• Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (John Murray)
• Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)
• On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape)
• What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (Tindal Street)
• Consolation by Michael Redhill (William Heinemann) - Own but have not read.
• Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (Simon & Schuster) - Still need to track down a copy.
• Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (Myrmidon)
• Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson (Hutchinson)

Giller Award:

• David Chariandy for his novel "Soucouyant" (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Sharon English for her short-story collection "Zero Gravity" (The Porcupine's Quill)
• Barbara Gowdy for her novel "Helpless" (HarperCollins Canada)
• Elizabeth Hay for her novel "Late Nights on Air" (McClelland & Stewart)
• Lawrence Hill for his novel "The Book of Negroes" (HarperCollins Canada) - Own
• Paulette Jiles for her novel "Stormy Weather" (HarperCollins Canada) - Own
• D.R. MacDonald for his novel "Lauchlin of the Bad Heart" (HarperCollins Canada) - Own
• Claire Mulligan for her novel "The Reckoning of Boston Jim" (Brindle & Glass Publishing)
• Mary Novik for her novel "Conceit" (Doubleday Canada) - Own
• Daniel Poliquin for his novel "A Secret Between Us," translated by Donald Winkler (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Michael Winter for his novel "The Architects Are Here" (Penguin Books Canada)
• Alissa York for her novel "Effigy" (Random House Canada) - Own
• Richard Wright for his novel "October" (HarperCollins Canada)
• Michael Ondaatje for his novel "Diversadero" (McClelland & Stewart)
• M.G. Vassanji for his novel "The Assassin's Song" (Doubleday Canada)

Governor Generals Award:
Fiction:
David Chariandy, Vancouver, for Soucouyant
Barbara Gowdy, Toronto, for Helpless
Michael Ondaatje, Toronto, for Divisadero
Heather O’Neill, Montreal, for Lullabies for Little Criminals - Own
M.G. Vassanji, Toronto, for The Assassin’s Song - Own

Non-fiction:
Rodrigo Bascuñán and Christian Pearce for Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent
John English for Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968
Stephanie Nolen for 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa
Karolyn Smardz Frost for I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
Bridget Stutchbury for Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World’s Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them