Yesterday for the first time in a long time, I needed the blazer that I was wearing. When I was standing waiting for the bus, it was chilly. New York Fall weather chilly. And I loved it. It’s hot cocoa evening weather. I’m not a big pumpkin-spice latte drinker. I know a lot of bloggers can’t get enough of the pumpkin drinks. Not me. Just some regular old hot cocoa with some good old heavy books.
In the next few months, I’ll be reading a few Pulitzer prize winning novels to prepare for my own NaNoWriMo month in November. In the meantime, I am looking for inspiration from writers who have done what I want to do.
So these are some of the books I plan to be holding while I sip a warm beverage in the next few weeks:
- The Goldfinch/ Donna Tartt – 2014 Pulitzer winner – A teenage boy survives an accident that kills a parent.
- Interpreter of Maladies/ Jhumpa Lahiri – 2000 Pulitzer Winner – Short stories about immigrant experiences
- The Road/ Cormac McCarthy – 2007 Pulitzer Winner: All about a father and son’s journey.
- Olive Kitteridge/ Elizabeth Strout – 2009 Pulitzer Winner: Short stories about a woman’s hometown.
- Beloved/ Toni Morrison – 1988 Pulitzer Winner – An emancipated slave struggles to inhabit her new life.
- You Should Have Known/ Jean Hanff Korelitz: A thriller where the main character is a female pediatric doctor and a writer.
- And The Mountains Echoed/ Khaled Hosseini Another story about two motherless children in Afghanistan (similar setup to Kite Runner)
My reading list is so, so long! I keep thinking I should pick up The Goldfinch, because I feel like everyone I know has read it over the last couple years except me. And the moment I do, it means that the TBR list is one book longer!
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Haha. I know about the eternally-growing TBR. I am having to be a little more strategic with my choices these days.
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I have made an effort this year to stop reading books that I’m not feeling connected to within a chapter or two. There is only so much time to read, so I want to spend it reading books that I will love. I’ve done OK at it – I sometimes get too far into a book when I realize I am not enjoying it, at which point I don’t feel like I can just put it down without finishing it.
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Yeah there have been quite a few books that didn’t grab my attention and I just had to let it go but usually, I plod through, even just to skim through it to find out how it went
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Everyone in my writers group participate in NaNoWriMo each ear, I am always too busy each year when it comes around Good luck with it, hope you accomplish everything you set out to do during it.
I’m not a pumpkin lover either, I do like hot cocoa but very light on the chocolate and heavy on the cream, LOL with a good book yeah can’t be beat! I’m actually looking forward to taking a trip up north in a couple of weeks and look forward to enjoying some cooler weather!
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I need to read And the Mountains Echoed since I loved his other books. I hope you enjoy all of these!
AngelErin @ Angel Erin’s Book Obsession
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Ooh! I hope you like The Road. I really enjoyed that story. I really want to read The Goldfinch at some point. Great list!
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I’m about to read And the mountains Echoed myself hehe 😀 Hopefully I’ll adore it as much as his other books 😀 http://www.curious-daisy.com/top-ten-tuesday/10-books-on-my-fall-tbr/
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Great choices! I haven’t read And The Mountains Echoed, but I loved The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini is a fantastic writer. Beloved is on my to read list as well 🙂
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I was so psyched when I found this Hosseini hardcover for just a couple dollars. I read the Kite Runner from the library but would love to own all his books. He’s a gifted storyteller for sure
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I love hot cocoa myself, especially the flavored ones. Happy reading! And good luck on NaNo!
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Thanks. Are you NaNo-ing too?
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I’m reading my first Toni Morrison book now (The Bluest Eye), and I can tell that I will definitely be reading more. So, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on Beloved.
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Awesome. I will be sure to add a review when I’m done and look forward to hearing about the Bluest Eye too.
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A few treats ahead! Goldfinch is completely engrossing (just give yourself over to it) and Olive Kitteridge, completely lovely.
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Thanks, Kate. Thanks for the recommendations. Have you read a lot of Pulitzer winners then?
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I’ve read quite a few but I don’t go out of my way to read the winners (or shortlist) specifically. As it’s happened the last few years, I’d read the winning before before the prize was announced. Of recent winners, the one I loved the most was All the Light We Cannot See by Doer.
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Hot chocolate is the BEST! It’s still in the upper 80s-90s here in the Phoenix area, but it’s been overcast for the lat couple of days. It LOOKS like Fall, even if it doesn’t FEEL like Fall, so hot chocolate season it is 🙂
I’ve read startlingly few Pulitzer Prize winners. I read BELOVED in college and remember liking it, although I can’t remember what it was about. Time for a re-read probably.
Thanks for commenting on my blog and good luck with NaNoWriMo!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
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Thank you Susan. When I reviewed the list of Pulitzer winners, I was also surprised how few of them I’d read. In some cases, I’ve read other works by that author but not their winning book. Hence my project to remedy that ASAP.
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The Goldfinch and Beloved are such good books! 🙂
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