999 Challengers with a Pulitzer Prize Category

Hola 999 Challengers!

I have a Pulitzer Prize category for the challenge and I've say hi to two others who do and think I've seen one or two more who do. And I haven't even read most of the individual threads. So I thought I'd post up a topic so that those of us reading Pulitzer winners this year could check out what the others are reading, get recommendations (or non-recommendation) for a specific book, etc. since we'll all be reading from the same "pool" of novels. I haven't pick my selections yet and will be interested to see which ones others enjoy.
If you have an awards category and read any of the Pulitzer winners, please feel free to post about them here too.

Oh and if you could put a link to your challenge thread so we can star each other's or have them all in one place.

Thank you! (In case you can't tell, I'm new at this LibraryThing talk feature. lol)

I'm doing a Pulitzer category! So far, here are the books I'm thinking of:

1. John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
2. Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons (I've got this one from the library already)
3. Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
4. Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth
5. Thornton Wilder, Our Town
6. Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes
7. Eudora Welty, The Optimist's Daughter
8. Norman Mailer, The Executioner's Song
9. Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver: A Few Figs from Thistles: Eight Sonnets in American Poetry

Not sure about the Millay, though, and the whole list is subject to change.

Oh, and my thread's here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/52277. I defintiely think this category will be one of my hardest, but I'm eager to read some of these "classics"!

I've been reading the Pulitzer's for Fiction in order backwards from Oscar Wao for a couple of months now but I think that for the 999 Challenge I may be reading them willy-nilly.

My tentative list is:
i. Empire Falls
ii. The Interpreter of Maladies
iii. The Hours
iv. The Shipping News
v. American Pastoral
vi. Beloved
vii. The Killer Angels
viii. The Fixer
ix. The Grapes of Wrath

(ii, iii, and iv because I own them, and the others simply because they piqued my interest.)

And my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/52271

So yes. Hi everyone!

Hola LadyC

My sister's greyhound is named LadyT so I'll remember you! lol

I've read Angela's Ashes and A Good Earth. Both are great.

Hola Rarm

Loved Beloved. Good choice.

Thanks for opening this thread chrine. My Pulitzer category consists of women prizewinners:

One of Ours by Willa Cather
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Gilead by Marylinne Robinson
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Beloved by Toni Morrison

http://www.librarything.com/topic/47293

Here's my Pulitzer Category :
http://www.librarything.com/topic/47380

Ironweed
The Magnificent Ambersons
Breathing Lessons
The Optimist's Daughter
The Age of Innocence
A Summons to Memphis
March:Geraldine Brooks
Alice Adams
The Stone Diaries

englishrose - I read Foreign Affairs and enjoyed it.

jonesli - I look forward to reading your reviews of The Magnificent Ambersons and The Optimist's Daughter, since I'm reading them too!

You're all giving me ideas that are making me re-think some of my choices. :)

ladyc72385:

I will be curious to see what you think of Our Town and The Executioner's Song if you do in fact decide to read them. I'm trying really hard not to change my list!

Welcome Englishrose

Good to see you here. =)

Hola Jonesli

I've read about 2/3 of March with a book club. I should have to finish the Pulitzer winners that I have and have already started. lol I read less than 1/2 of Gilead too.

Thanks chrine!

Hola to you also chrine! I just put a hold on March at the library, it seems to be out a lot, it must be good!

March is very good jonesli. I gave it 4 stars.

Edited for touchstone.

I finally started reading my first book in this category, The Age of Innocence. I'm about 1/3 of the way in, and so far I love it! I'm kind of surprised, since I wasn't particularly blown away by The House of Mirth (which I thought was okay but not stellar). I'll post a review at my thread when I finish the book - should be within the next few days!

What have other people been reading in this category?

Last month I read the 2004 Pulitzer Prize Winner, The Known World by Edward P Jones which was an engrossing historical novel about slaves owned by free African Americans. I had never heard of this situation before and I was fascinated. I read this book because of a recommendation from another LTer in the Reading Through The Pulitizers group.

#15, I am happy to see that you are liking The Age of Innocence
#16, Someone told me that they had trouble following The Known World did you find that to be the case? I think this person said that they couldn't keep track of the characters.

I hope to get to these soon. I just finished A Summons to Memphis and I am trying to work in The Magnificent Ambersons. It's good, I just keep getting sidetracked.

Finished The Age of Innocence! I've posted my thoughts over at my thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/52277. But if you want the short version - I loved it and would definitely recommend it!

#17 jonesli. I managed to keep all the characters straight in my head, but there is a lot of peripheral characters and I can see how this would put some readers off. Jones would often digress and tell the reader what happened to these characters in the future. For me it added to the book.

Just read The Optimist's Daughter - has anyone else read this yet? What did you think? In my opinion it was beautifully written but too spare for my tastes. I like a good story, and this book was more like a meditation. Still glad I tried it though.