Pulitzer Fiction, What's My Prediction?

I have read almost no fiction published this past year, but I still have to guess. It's too much fun to miss out on. It's Pulitzer Day! Where's my party frock? Where are my book-shaped earrings? What about cake?

Without really knowing what I'm talking about, here are my two predictions (in no particular order:)

Whether one of these books or another up for consideration wins the fiction award, I'm looking forward to the announcement, then adding the winner to my Pulitzer fiction shelf.

The suspense is so gorgeous, with the always-added tension that the fiction committee might decide not to make an award this year, which happens from time to time.

Monday 2 pm CT can't come soon enough!

What's YOUR (probably much more knowledgeable) Pulitzer fiction prediction?

Some Things to Squeee! About

I had a double attack of squeee! yesterday.  Since it was book-related, I'll share here:

1. The Kindle version of Meg Wolitzer's first novel, Sleepwalking (1983), will be available on Tuesday, March 25.  It's about three classmates at Swarthmore who are known as "the death girls" because they dress in black and always read and try to emulate their favorite dead female poets.  One of them is a Sylvia Plath fan, and one of them worships Anne Sexton.  The protagonist of Sleepwalking, Claire, is obsessed with a (fictional) poet named Lucy Asher, and she takes it pretty far.  The novel has a couple of weak points, but that doesn't diminish my love for it one iota.  I'm looking forward to reading it again, probably during the Readathon.

2. Therese Raquin (1867), the novel that turned me into a true Zola fan, is now a movie!  It's called In Secret (crap title, no?) and came out last fall in limited release.  Now it seems to be working its way overseas, and I've absolutely got to see it.  As I said in a post last year, this novel is like a cool mash-up of Edgar Allen Poe and James M. Cain.  The movie seems promising:  It's got the Olsen twins' younger sister Elizabeth as the title character, Draco Malfoy as her infantile cousin/husband, Llewyn Davis as her lover, and Jessica Lange playing her overbearing aunt/mother-in-law.  Lange as a casting choice is especially cool because she was Cora in the 1981 version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

 I can't wait!

October 2010: Buying

Only three this month. I can restrain if I want to, but it's a hateful business. .

1. True Grit - Charles Portis. My copy -- the 1969 movie tie-in with the folk art painting of the girl and her horse on the front cover and Kim Darby and Little Blackie on the back cover (left) -- is back in Missouri. Impatient to re-read the book before the new movie comes out on Christmas Day in the US, I ordered a newer edition (right) from Amazon. Much to my relief, Mattie, Little Blackie, Rooster, LaBoeuf and the rest of the gang arrived safely on Thursday. I was worried that it would get stolen from my mailbox and flung about like my Flashman books did last summer. I prepared myself. Had it gone missing, I was planning to knock -- no, make that POUND -- on every damn door in this apartment complex. 2. Jazz English Book One Workbook - Gunther Breaux. Only $4.00 (USD) and a steal! Jazz English is my very favorite textbook for English conversation. People borrow it from me and forget to return it and I go out and get another copy. I got to meet Gunther Breaux at the recent (October 16-17) KOTESOL conference, and I hope I didn't totally gawp and burble. Professor Breaux gave such a great motivational talk about how to test speaking ability that I went all the way from wanting to puke if I had to teach another conversation class all the way to raring to get at them and wishing that my schedule could be nothing but conversation classes. 3. Jazz English Book Two Workbook - Gunther Breaux. Yes, I'm a fan! Go Professor Breaux! Yes, I want to apply for a job at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies so I can breathe the same air....okay, gotta stop. I'm starting to remind myself of Annie Wilkes. Not. Good. Atall. . It's a little early to report/confess my buying, but I'm done for October. I'm not going anywhere near a bookstore until early November.

Thinking In Pulitzer

Maybe Joyce Carol Oates might win for My Sister, My Love this year. She's never had a novel win a Pulitzer, although she's been nominated 3 times. She should have gotten it years ago for The Goddess And Other Women, a collection of short stories that was published in the 1970s. C'mon Pulitzer committee. What writer has worked harder than JCO for so many years?

.

I've still got a strong hunch about The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle, though. I saw a first edition of this novel at Yongsan Station on Saturday morning and I was so tempted to go ahead and buy it in case it's the winner, but I held off. Two reasons: I was sure to jinx myself as well as Mr. Wroblewski and I was feeling too damn lazy to cart around a massive Chunkster like that all weekend.

Sigh. Waiting for the announcement is so difficult. It's worse than the Oscars because I don't even know who the finalists are. There's still a cheer or two left in me from the readathon, so...

Go!

Go!

JCO!