Book Award Tidbits

Here are a few reading suggestions from the ever expanding world of book awards.

Phillis Wheatley Book Award for First Fiction

Antebellum (M)
by R. Kayeen Thomas

“A thought-provoking novel about African-American culture seen through the eyes of a famous rapper who is transported to the days of slavery and forced to experience it firsthand.

When Da Nigga is sent back in time, he finds himself a slave forced to live the life of his ancestors. A rapper in current time, Da Nigga must confront the reality of the African-American experience as slavery challenges everything he holds dear from his fellow rappers and their lyrics, to the executives and their motives.” – publisher

“I am honored to win the Wheatley award for my first novel Antebellum,” Thomas said. “I wrote this book to help bridge the gap between my generation, which is hip-hop, and that of our ancestors who experienced civil rights and slavery.With every recognition Antebellum receives, my hope is that a young person will read it or my latest novel The Seven Days and realize how far we have come as a culture.” – R. Kayeen Thomas

Phillis Wheatley Book Award for Non-Fiction: History and Politics

Guest of Honor : Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House dinner that shocked a nation (M)
by Deborah Davis

“In this revealing social history, one remarkable White House dinner becomes a lens through which to examine race, politics, and the lives and legacies of two of America’s most iconic figures.

In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner at the executive mansion with the First Family. The next morning, news that the president had dined with a black man sent shock waves through the nation. Fueled by inflammatory newspaper articles, political cartoons, and even vulgar songs, the scandal escalated and threatened to topple two of America’s greatest men…” -publisher

Toronto Book Award shortlist

Intolerable : a memoir of extremes (M)
by Kamal Al-Solaylee

” A true story of life in the modern Middle-East spanning the nearly six decades from the nationalism of the 1960s to the Arab Spring of 2011, by a prominent Canadian journalist. In the ’60s, Al-Solayee’s father was one of the wealthiest property owners in Aden, south of Yemen, but when the country shrugged off its colonial roots, his properties were confiscated. As a gay man living in an intolerant country Al-Solayee fled to be able to enjoy his personal freedom.” publisher

Everybody has Everything: a novel (M)
by Katrina Onstad

“Combining a pitch-perfect, whip-smart dissection of contemporary urban life with a fresh and perceptive examination of our individual and collective ambivalence towards parenthood, Katrina Onstad’s “Everbody Has Everything” balances tragedy and comedy with verve and flair. What happens when the tidy, prosperous life of an urban couple is turned inside out by a tragedy with unexpected consequences? After a car crash leaves their friend Marcus dead and his wife Sarah in a coma, Ana and James are shocked to discover that they have become the legal guardians of a 2-year-old, Finn…” – publisher