December PrizeCat - A prize of your choice

December's PrizeCat is for any book that won, or was nominated for, whatever prize you choose.

Was there a prize or a category that you wish had been included in the CAT? A month that you meant to read a book for but didn't get to it? An award-winning book you've been wanting to read? This month is for you.

Enjoy, and let us know what you're reading here and on the wiki!

This was so hard to pick—there are so many choices! I’ve finally decided on Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente, which won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror.

A forgotten reservation has arrived just in time for the December PrizeCAT. The Vegetarian won the International Booker in 2016, and its author, Han Kang, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.

In May this year, Claire Keegan was awarded the Siegfried Lenz Prize, and I have just finished So late in the day. Simply marvelous.

Finished The Vegetarian. It's very strange. And suddenly there's martial law in South Korea, which seems to have come out of the blue.

I just finished I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore, which won the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. This was a potential choice for this month, but I couldn’t count on my hold on Libby arriving in time. I still plan to read Palimpsest too.

I read And What Can We Offer You Tonight? which won the 2022 Nebula for best novella.

I read a debut novel: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters.

Peters’ debut is a heartbreaking story that is very well-written and richly deserving of the many awards it has received. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia go on an annual berry-picking trip in Maine to earn a bit of extra money. One year, their four year-old daughter, Ruthie, goes missing. They search everywhere without success. As a result their lives are forever changed. The story is told alternately by her big brother, Joe, who was the last to see Ruthie, and Norma, the over-protected daughter of a husband and wife who have experienced many miscarriages. It becomes apparent that Norma is Ruthie. It’s a sad family saga beautifully told.

Among other awards and distinctions, Peters won:
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award (Winner – Fiction – 2023)
Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence (Winner – First Novel – 2024)

I just started listening to The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which won the BCCB Blue Ribbon and the Silver Inky (which is an awesome award name) and was nominated for a bunch of others. Good so far.

I have returned to the Nobel Prize and read Han Kang’s Die Vegetarierin.

I read Starter Villain by John Scalzi, winner of the 2024 Winner Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

I finished Palimpsest by Catherine Valente, which won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror.