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July 10, 2009

Pick the best of the National Book Award winners

man with the golden armTo mark the 60th anniversary of the National Book Awards, the sponsoring foundation has created an interesting "book-a-day" blog to feature fiction winners. Beginning with Nelson Algren’s The Man With the Golden Arm (1950) and ending with Peter Matthiessen’s Shadow Country (2008), each blog post contains commentary and related links. The National Book Foundation's countdown blog began July 7 and runs until Sept. 21.

But, as they say in infomercials: Wait, there's more! The public will choose the best of the 77 books. On September 21, the foundation will name six finalists, and open public voting (one vote per email address) for a month. Each email address will be entered into a drawing for two tickets to the National Book Awards Ceremony, as well as dinner and two nights at the Marriott near Wall Street.

As they used to say when I lived in Roanoke, Va.: You can't beat that with a stick.

p.s. My crystal ball says the six finalists will be: Invisible Man, The Fixer, Rabbit is Rich, The Color Purple, Cold Mountain and The Wapshot Chronicle. I'll bet an R.C. and a Moon Pie (also Roanoke).

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:24 PM | | Comments (0)
        

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About the bloggers
While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, Nancy Knight grew up reading nearly everything she could get her hands on, including a probably unhealthy amount of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, with the obligatory Jane Austen thrown in. She'll still read just about anything you put in front of her, especially the funny or weird. She lives in the city with her books, cat and drum set.

Dave Rosenthal came to The Baltimore Sun as a business reporter in 1987 and now is an assistant managing editor and Sunday editor. He reads a wide range of books (but never as many as he'd like), usually alternating between non-fiction and fiction. Some all-time favorites: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; and anything by Calvin Trillin or John McPhee. He belongs to a book club with a Jewish theme.
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