Book review: The Prize
Once upon a time in Hay-on-Wye, a girl bought a book called ‘The Writing of One Novel’. This book is about how Irving Wallace wrote his novel The Prize. This girl decided that she should read the novel first so that she’d have a better idea of what was going on in the process of writing it.
She tried very hard to get hold of it through bookmooch, and eventually someone sent it to her from America. The girl was astounded to find that it is actually an 800 page hardback and not the rather slimmer volume she had been expecting! Still, she put it on her TBR pile, where it began to gather dust, until one day she decided to open the covers…
This book is about a fictitious set of winners of the Nobel prize. It is skilfully interwoven with snippets of information about real winners and the genuine events of Nobel Week, which makes it a very convincing read.
In the first part of the book, we get to learn about the characters and their work. Each of the characters has a well-developed personality and we learn quite a bit about their lives and motivations, which really helps to flesh out the story. I really enjoyed this part: the narrative dealt largely with everyone finding out that they’d won the prize and getting them to Stockholm, which wasn’t amazingly interesting in itself, but the characters themselves held my attention.
The second part of the book, to me, seemed like a rather awkward vehicle for building relationships between the characters, who of course had not met each other previously. It deals with the activities that they undertake during Nobel Week.The characters were still what held the book together, but this section was more hard-going and I didn’t find it as enjoyable as the others.
The final section is less character-orientated and is where the plot (which took its time in appearing) finally comes into its own, with lots of deceit and double-crossing. I would have liked to see even more on the characters (not that there wasn’t plenty already!) but this part was very enjoyable as well and the book came to a satisfactory resolution: all the loose ends from the events of Nobel Week were tied off, but we were still left withthe sense that the characters were going to continue their lives after the book. I for one would have loved to know how events panned out for them as lots of things happened in the book that could potentially have changed their whole lives. What a pity he didn’t write a sequel!
One of the brilliant things about this book is how seamlessly fact is woven into fiction. It’s almost impossible to tell which characters and events are real and which are not (though there is an afterword which explains most of this), so get ready for some heavy googling to satisfy your curiosity!
This book has also been made into a film, which I’d like to watch.
This is a big book but it’s well worth reading. Definitely recommended.
(Have you reviewed this book? If so, post a comment and I’ll link to your review!)
Books from my trip
I just got back from a trip to Norfolk. We left on Thursday, drove up to Yorkshire to visit family, then back down to Norfolk to stay a night in an old mill workers’ cottage. On Friday, we spent part of the day in Norwich, then continued on to our second cottage, which was on the seafront in Bacton. Saturday, we walked along the beach and then spent the afternoon getting lost on the way to Cromer (thanks GPS!). Then today, we took one last stroll along the sea wall before beginning the trip home, stopping off in Thetford on the way.
That’s quite a bit of driving, so of course, I had to make sure I had plenty of books with me for amusement!
When going away, I have a rule about which books I take: they must be from my TBR pile and if possible, they should be ones that have been sitting there a while without being read. If I only take the books I’ve been putting off, then I have no choice but to get round to them.
Here’s what I took with me and read:
- Night and the City by Gerald Kersh. I was halfway through this so I decided to take it and finish it offf. I enjoyed it a lot: the characters were really vibrant and I got very caught up in their lives, however inconsequential most of the book was. Hopefully I’ll find the time to write up a proper review soon.
- Any Human Heart by William Boyd. This was completely not what I was expecting. Firstly, I didn’t think it would be in diary form. Secondly, it was more…well, I know this sounds a bit silly given the title, but it was more human than I thought it would be. I enjoyed the read and especially appreciated the fact that the diary was realistic. I’ve read far too many books where people (a) write down every word that is said to them in ludicrous detail, (b) write at ridiculous times or in ridiculous places or (c) include all sorts of mindless detail that simply wouldn’t be included in an actual journal. In this book, though, the entries were irregular (even including large gaps where the ‘editor’ had to fill in with a brief summary of what happened in the intervening months), written as if to himself and also very readable. Another good thing was how Logan Mountstuart’s life was integrated with real characters such as Evelyn Waugh and Virginia Woolf. A good read; glad I got round to it.
- A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice. I gave up on this one. Main characters disappeared for chapters on end without explanation while minor characters suddenly hogged the action. The timescale appeared to flip all over the place without warning. None of the characters were particularly developed and I often found myself getting confused (which was made worse by the fact that I had no idea which characters were supposed to be at the centre of the story). And what’s more, this book fell into the trap of having far too many ‘afflicted’ characters. Almost every character in the book is an alcoholic or homosexual. I don’t have a problem with alcoholics or homosexuals, but when they make up the vast majority of a population, things start to get a little weird. I’ve put this one up on bookmooch: someone else can have it.
- The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe. Barely started this one but really enjoying it so far. I’ll keep you updated with how it goes.
Here are the other books I took but didn’t get round to reading:
- Postcards by E. Annie Proulx
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
Physical TBR pile
I have, like many readers out there, a physical TBR pile and also a long list of books I don’t possess but someday want to read. My list of books is stored in my bookmooch account, with books available in my county’s libraries on my save-for-later list and those that aren’t available on my wishlist.
I have a hard copy of my unowned TBRs so that I can take it out with me, but I have no list of what’s on the two shelves of books I own that are waiting to be read, and I thought it would be a good idea to make one so that I can look back at it and see which books aren’t getting picked up. So, without further ado, here is my physical TBR pile as of the end of January 2009:
| Author | Title |
| Colin Bateman | Chapter and Verse |
| Colin Bateman | Wild About Harry |
| Colin Bateman | Shooting Sean |
| Christopher Brookmyre | Country of the Blind |
| Christopher Brookmyre | A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil |
| Christopher Brookmyre | Boiling a Frog |
| Christopher Brookmyre | All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye |
| William Boyd | Any Human Heart |
| Anita Brookner | The Debut |
| Dan Brown | The Da Vinci Code |
| Bill Bryson | A Short History of Nearly Everything |
| Elizabeth Buchan | Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman |
| Jonathan Coe | The House of Sleep |
| Jonathan Coe | The Rotters’ Club |
| Douglas Coupland | Jpod |
| Andrew Crumey | Mr Mee |
| George du Maurier | Trilby |
| Ben Elton | Gridlock |
| Ben Elton | Blast from the Past |
| Ben Elton | High Society |
| Ben Elton | The First Casualty |
| Flaubert | Madame Bovary |
| Jasper Fferde | The Well of Lost Plots |
| Fannie Flagg | Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe |
| Dick Francis | The Sport of Queens |
| James Frey | How to Write a Damn Good Novel |
| John Grisham | The Appeal |
| Sparkle Hayter | The Chelsea Girl Murders |
| Nick Hornby | 31 Songs |
| Gerald Kersh | Night and the City |
| Gavin Lyall | Juday Country |
| Donald Maass | Writing the Breakout Novel |
| Steve Martin | Shopgirl |
| John McCarthy & Jill Morrell | Some Other Rainbow |
| Bridget MacCaskill | Otters on the Swirl of the Tide |
| Victoria Marther & Sue MacCartney | The Appalling Guests |
| Alison Miller | Demo |
| Vladimir Nabokov | Lolita |
| Allison Pearson | I Don’t Know How She Does It |
| E. Annie Proulx | Postcards |
| Christopher Rice | A Density of Souls |
| H. E. Saint | Memoirs of an Invisible Man |
| James Siegel | Derailed |
| Stav Sherez | The Devil’s Playground |
| Lionel Shriver | We Need to Talk About Kevin |
| Joe Simpson | Touching the Void |
| Jerry Spinelli | Milkweed |
| Newton Thornburg | Cutter and Bone |
| Irvine Welsh | Marabou Stork Nightmares |
| Irvine Welsh | Ecstasy |
| Tom Wolfe | The Bonfire of the Vanities |
| Alex Witchel | Me Times Three |
| Kevin Brockmeier | The Brief History of the Dead |
| Willy Lindwer | The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank |
| Irving Wallace | The Writing of One Novel |
Top selling books meme
I’ve stolen this meme from The Book Czar. It features USA Today’s list of bestselling books of the last 15 years. I’m a Brit, but hey, a meme is a meme, and this one looked like fun!
Bold means I’ve read it, italics means I own it and **asterisks** mean it’s on my TBR list (theoretical or physical). There’s quite a few on the list, though (mostly the classics) that, while I will read them someday, aren’t actually on my list or my physical pile, so I haven’t marked them as TBR.
1 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
2 Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution – Robert C. Atkins
3 *The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
4 *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
7 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
8 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
9 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling, art by Mary GrandPre
10 Who Moved My Cheese? – Spencer Johnson
11 The South Beach Diet – Arthur Agatston
12 Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom
13 Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
14 What to Expect When You’re Expecting – Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, Sandee Hathaway
15 The Purpose-Driven Life – Rick Warren
16 The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
17 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
18 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
19 Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus – John Gray
20 The Secret – Rhonda Byrne
21 Rich Dad, Poor Dad – Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter
22 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
23 Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … And It’s All Small Stuff – Richard Carlson
24 The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
25 Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
26 Twilight – Stephenie Meyer
27 The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks
28 The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – Kim Edwards
29 The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
30 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
31 A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle
32 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! – Dr. Seuss
33 The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
34 Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
35 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold (I owned this until about 2 days ago, when I mailed it to a bookmoocher)
36 Body-for-Life – Bill Phillips, Michael D’Orso
37 New Moon – Stephenie Meyer
38 Night – Elie Wiesel, translations by Marion Wiesel and Stella Rodway
39 Chicken Soup for the Soul – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
40 The Greatest Generation – Tom Brokaw
41 Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
42 The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield
43 Wicked – Gregory Maguire
44 Good to Great – Jim Collins
45 Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
46 Eragon – Christopher Paolini
47 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells
48 Your Best Life Now – Joel Osteen
49 In the Kitchen With Rosie – Rosie Daley
50 Simple Abundance – Sarah Ban Breathnach
51 A Child Called It – Dave Pelzer (used to own it but the book fell apart)
52 A Million Little Pieces – James Frey
53 *The Testament – John Grisham (at least I think it’s that one)
54 Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger
55 Deception Point – Dan Brown
56 The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
57 Marley & Me – John Grogan
58 Dr. Atkins’ New Carbohydrate Gram Counter – Robert C. Atkins
59 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
60 The Brethren – John Grisham
61 The South Beach Diet Good Fats Good Carbs Guide – Arthur Agatston
62 The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town – John Grisham
63 For One More Day – Mitch Albom
64 The Polar Express – Chris Van Allsburg
65 The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
66 The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
67 What to Expect the First Year – Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, Sandee Hathaway
68 Love You Forever – Robert Munsch, art by Sheila McGraw
69 Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss
70 A Painted House – John Grisham
71 The Rainmaiker – John Grisham
72 Skipping Christmas – John Grisham
73 Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
74 The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
75 Life Strategies – Phillip C. McGraw
76 Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand
77 The Summons – John Grisham
78 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendtt
79 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
80 The Runaway Jury – John Grisham
81 Goodnight Moon Board Book – Margaret Wise Brown, art by Clement Hurd
82 The Perfect Storm – Sebastian Junger
83 Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson – I read half and gave up
84 The Giver – Lois Lowry
85 Embraced by the Light – Betty J. Eadie
86 The Chamber – John Grisham
87 You: On A Diet – Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
88 The Prayer of Jabez – Bruce Wilkinson
89 Holes – Louis Sachar
90 Digital Fortress – Dan Brown
91 The Shack – William P. Young
92The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger
93 Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
94 A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini
95 The Seat of the Soul – Gary Zukav
96 Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
97 The Partner – John Grisham
98 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
99 Eldest: Inheritance, Book II – Christopher Paolini
100 The Broker – John Grisham
101 The Street Lawyer – John Grisham
102 A Series of Unfortunate Events No. 1: The Bad Beginning – Lemony Snicket (used to own)
103 The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
104 Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
105 The King of Torts – John Grisham
106 The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
107 The Horse Whisperer – Nicholas Evans
108 Hannibal – Thomas Harris
109 The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
110 Running With Scissors – Augusten Burroughs
111 The Glass Castle: A Memoir – Jeannette Walls
112 My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
113 The Last Juror – John Grisham
114 The Devil in the White City – Erik Larson
115 Left Behind – Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
116 America (The Book) – Jon Stewart and The Writers of The Daily Show
117 The Red Tent – Anita Diamant
118 John Adams – David McCullough
119 The Christmas Box – Richard Paul Evans
120 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Ann Brashares
121 Sugar Busters! – H. Leighton Steward, Sam S. Andrews, Morrison C. Bethea, Luis A. Balart
122 Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
123 The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
124 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life – Don Piper, Cecil Murphey
125 The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
126 1776 – David McCullough
127 The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller
128 Where the Heart Is – Billie Letts
129 The Ultimate Weight Solution – Phillip C. McGraw
130 Protein Power – Michael R. Eades, Mary Dan Eades
131 Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul – Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, Marci Shimoff
132 Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
133 *Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
134 Three Cups of Tea – Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
135 You: The Owner’s Manual – Michael F. Roizen, Mehmet C. Oz
136 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List – Patricia Schultz
137 Self Matters – Phillip C. McGraw
138 She’s Come Undone – Wally Lamb
139 1984 – George Orwell
140 The Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
141 The Millionaire Next Door – Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko
142 The Other Boleyn Girl – Philippa Gregory – read half, never finished
143 The Zone – Barry Sears, Bill Lawren
144 The Pilot’s Wife – Anita Shreve
145 The Lost World Michael Crichton
146 Atonement – Ian McEwan
147 He’s Just Not That Into You – Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo
148 *Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
149 The World Is Flat – Thomas L. Friedman
150 Cross – James Patterson
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