January Awards CAT Challenge -- Oranges and Spurs

Welcome to the first Awards CAT of the 2013 Challenge! For this entirely optional challenge you are invited to read a book that has won or been nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and/or the Spur Award, which is for westerns.

The wiki for this CAT is here:

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2013_AwardsCAT

You can find a list of all the planned awards and months they are scheduled for as well as lots about each of the prizes featured. You can also list your reading for this CAT there.

The Women's Prize for Fiction was, until this year, called the Orange Prize and is described as is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. There's even a LibraryThing group dedicated to reading from the award's lists of winners and nominees:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/orangejanuaryjuly

Lists can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Women%27s_Prize_for_Fiction_winners
http://www.orangeprize.co.uk/archive_pff.html

As for the Spur Award, it is an annual literary prize given by the Western Writers of America. There are currently sixteen categories, including drama and juvenile fiction and the award has been around since 1953, giving us a lot of books to choose from. To my surprise, I found the lists diverse and had read a few of them and have others on my TBR, so don't dismiss it because it's westerns, any more than you should dismiss the Women's Prize for Fiction because the authors are all women. You can find the lists here:

http://westernwriters.org/spur-awards/#a2012
http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Spur+Award

Have a browse through and if there's a book that won or was nominated for one or both of these awards that appeals to you and fits your own 2013 Challenge, please join us. Let us know what you're planning to read, then let us know what you think about what you've read. Add your title(s) to the wiki and let's have some fun! Remember, CATs are optional; if this month's awards don't strike your fancy or fit your own challenge, you are still very welcome to see if next month's awards suit you better. Read from one or both of the lists and enjoy yourself!

So, what are you planning to read?

For the Orange/Women's Prize for Fiction I'm planning to read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It will also count for the AlphaCAT challenge and the monthly CAT since I haven't read this author before. It wasn't a difficult choice since it was already on my list of potential reads for 2013.

For the Spur Award I'm planning to read Danger Along the Ohio by Patricia Willis, also by a new-to-me author.

I have The Song of Achilles lined up for one of my categories.

I just added mine to the wiki. For Orange Prize, Helen Dunmore's A Spell of Winter is in a TBR pile. For the SPUR award, Sandra Dallas' Tallgrass has been sitting on my library list for a long time. I've really wanted to read it, and now I have a really good excuse.

I have two possibles for the Orange/New Author - Tenderness of Wolves and The Bonesetter's Daughter.

ETA - Not sure I can fit them in.

I'm also going to read Tallgrass for the Spur and Case Histories for the Orange. Both are new-to-me authors.

I plan on reading I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn, it was short listed in 1997 for the Orange Prize.

For the Spur Awards, I am going to read the 2012 Best First Novel, Double Crossing by Meg Mims. I may get to another western but will wait and see if I can fit it in before adding it.

I'm going to read Great House by Nicole Krauss. While the book itself hasn't been nominated or won either of the award, Krauss was nominated to the Orange Prize for another of her novels so I'm counting it. It will also work for the RandomCAT as I have never read anything by her before.

Paws, I'm also going to read Great house by Nicole Krauss, it was on the 2011 Orange Prize shortlist.

Oh, I didn't see that. Great, thanks for pointing it out!

I'll be reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel for the Orange Prize and while I have Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose for the Spur Award, I doubt I'll be able to get to it for January.

I have a copy of The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook, which works for the Spur Award and too many to choose from for the Orange. I'll decide when it comes time to start reading it. Both might come later in the month as I'm joining the group read of Lolita and a reading of Infinite Jest in another group. I may choose from the light and short end of the lists by the time I'm finished these!

I'm going to read Ladder of Years for the Orange Prize (1996 shortlist) and for the Spur Award, a book that I didn't even know I had (lol) A Congregation of Jackals (2011 Finalist).

I'm probably going to read The Night Circus, which was long-listed for the Orange. It will also nicely fit nicely into Alpha CATs and Random CATs, and one of my own challenge categories.

I too am planning to read The Night Circus which will fit all the Cats and my own challenge for the Orange award. I'm not sure about the Spur. I have The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman in my TBR pile which would fit (short Novel 2007). I'll have to see how things go in Jan.

ETA: Yeah! I managed to update the wiki.

Got Night Circus too!

Everyone seems to be planning on reading The Night Circus. You're making me want to read it too! I'm going to have to buy a bullet-proof vest if book bullets are going to fly by like this.

I was pleased to see Ned Wynkoop and the Lonely Road from Sand Creek by Louis Kraft listed as a finalist for the Spur. I have just ordered the book and I will read in January. Wynkoop is a man I admire and I already have his autobiography, Tall Chief: The Autobiography of Edward W. Wynkoop on my shelves to read next year.

I do have a copy of The Night Circus but I am not sure if I can fit it in January.

I have added Tallgrass and I Was Amelia Earhart to my wishlist.

17 - Someone (I can't remember who) on his challenge thread described the 2013 Challege Group as the seedy underbelly of Librarything. I never went through a rebellious stage, but I kind of like the feeling of danger that slinks through this group as we dodge (or half-heartedly try to dodge) all the flying BBs.

19. I never had a rebellious phase either, maybe this is my time to walk on the wild side?!

Am now imagining myself as the hero(ine) of a major action movie. I need to put on a long, dark coat and some sunglasses.

>17 PawsforThought: lol I'm the opposite, I feel like I can't look in a single thread w/o seeing that title and it's making me never want to have anything to do with it! hahaha

21, I'm usually like that but in this case I'd heard of the book before and thought it sounded interesting and now everyone is reminding me of that and making it hard for me.

Night Circus was highly popular over a year ago when it was first published, but now the latecomers are choosing it for the Orange prize read.

Half of a Yellow Sun has been in my BD wishlist for a while, so I'll order it and try to read it in January.

I've chosen Damnation Road by Max McCoy, 2011 Spur award winner for best original mass market paperback. Plus it fits in the alpha-CAT challenge and the new-to-me author challenge.

For the Orange/Women's prize, I had already planned to participate in the group read of Swamplandia, longlisted for the 2011 Orange.

I don't know whether I'll be able to read from both award lists every month, but it looks like it will work out in January.

I have just reserved The White Woman on the Green Bicycle at the library, short-listed in 2010 for the Orange Prize. This will also cover the alphaCAT as the author's name is Monique Roffey. Plus, I have never read this author before so it will also be good for the RandomCAT.

I'm not sure about the Westerns though. I will have to put a bit more effort into that search if I decide to read one.

If I am reading the Spur website correctly, Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove won in 1985. So I suppose that would fit into the AwardCAT as well as AlphaCAT!

#27 Yes, and also the randomCAT - new-to-you author - if you've never read McMurtry before. Are you planning to do Lonesome Dove this month?

@ 28 -- Yes, I'm planning to read it this month (if I don't get sidetracked!). And McMurtry is a new-to-me author, so it would be a "CAT trick" for me! :)

#29 I hope you will like it!

#27 Hi Christina:

I remember thinking that I wouldn't really like Lonesome Dove, I didn't think westerns were my cup of tea, but my mom urged me to read it, and I loved it. It remains one of my all time favorite reads.

I had originally intended to read Comanche Moon, thinking it might be shorter than Lonesome Dove (also a Spur Award winner), but (a) it is not and (b) it is the LAST book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, which might get a bit confusing. So darn, I guess I'll have to go back to the library and pick up Lonesome Dove! I just hope I can finish it in January :P

Oh, I envy anyone about to read Lonesome Dove for the first time. It's one of my all time favorite books.

I've started Double Crossing for my Spur Award read, so far I have to say, it's surprising that it won for the 2012 Best First Novel, I am finding it more of a light YA Romance than a western but I am still in the early chapters so it could improve.

Change of plan again: picked up Small Island for my Awards CAT entry. Also hoping to get Lonesome Dove later this month, once I whittle down the library pile a bit.

I'm having trouble deciding on a book -- with the Orange I feel spoiled for choice and have several on my TBR shelf right now!

I finished my Spur Award book this evening. I chose Danger Along the Ohio, a book that won the juvenile fiction category in 1998. It's an entertaining adventure story about 3 children who become separated from their father during an Indian raid while traveling on the Ohio River in 1793. The children continue their journey through the wilderness hoping for a reunion with their father.

I'm getting ready to start my Orange Prize book, Half of a Yellow Sun.

I am reading Alias Grace (1997 shortlist) and The Help (2010 longlist)

I completed a CAT-trick with Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Orange Prize winner by a new-to-me author whose last name begins with 'A'). I can see why it won. As soon as I finished the book I added Purple Hibiscus to the wishlist.

Yay! I finally managed to read a book for this challenge. Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs was shortlisted for the Orange and was also excellent. It would certainly have collected dust on my bookshelf for a while longer were it not for this CAT.

I just finished Ride the Wind, the very worthy 1982 Spur Award Historical Novel Winner. Review here. Highly recommended for those interested in pre-reservation Comanche life (please ignore its ridiculous cover!). This one also qualifies as a January RandomCAT, since it's a new-to-me author.

I finished A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka (Orange Prize Shortlist - 2005) earlier today, which also qualifies as a January AlphaCAT ("M"), and RandomCAT ("New to Me" author).

I finally finished Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove, which won the Spur Award (Western Novel) in 1985. It's also a CAT trick for me!

I read Anna Stothard's The Pink Hotel (Orange Prize Longlist - 2012)--a new author for me, so another CAT trick!

I started reading my choice for this month and just couldn't get into it. I will try again next month.

Yikes! Only a week left to read The Lacuna.

Finished Swamplandia by Karen Russell the other day - longlisted for the 2011 Orange. I'll just say that I'm not surprised that it didn't make the cut.

46. I just finished Swamplandia! also and I'll echo your thoughts. I was not impressed.

I ended up reading 5 Orange books, some I'd had for quite a while.

The Mammoth Cheese
The Colour
Paradise
Beyond Black
Scottsboro

Very different books, I enjoyed them all except Beyond Black, whose subject matter was not my cup of tea at all. It's been good to have a nudge to read these books, especially the ones I liked!

#45 and #46

I agree. If Swamplandia hadn't been a group read for me I would have most likely not finished it.

I managed to fit in another Orange nominee. Minaret by Leila Aboulela was longlisted in 2006. Since she's a new-to-me author and it has both an A and M in the author/title, it's also another CAT trick.

I've just started swamplandia

#51 Hopefully you'll be one of those who love it

I finished the 2008 winner The Road Home and have found me a brand new writer to follow. Review over here.