Book Awards – 2021

I finished my 2021 reading list this morning, just in time for the book awards ceremony. The winners have been written down, put in sealed envelopes, and given to Price Waterhouse. In the mean time, they were all copied, placed in other sealed envelopes and slipped under my mattress, which is a safer place for either valuables or information than Price Waterhouse.

Author Who Understands the Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens always gets his own category in these awards so as to give other fictional writers a fighting chance at winning. This year I reread Bleak House (for I believe the third time) and several of his short stories for the Christmas numbers of his magazines. Bleak House gets better every time. The short Christmas stories don’t. But perhaps I should give some of them another go next December now that it’s so easy to read all the other authors’ contributions to the collaborative novellas.

Best New Read in History: Chris DeRose, The Presidents' War
During the Civil War, five ex-Presidents broke the tradition of refraining from political statements. Martin Van Buren was the most supportive of Lincoln's policies but died soon after the war started. Millard Fillmore remained marginally supportive of Lincoln. James Buchanan supported Lincoln, saying that he would have done exactly the same thing, but spent most of the war trying to redeem his own image. Clearly that plan didn’t work. James Pierce criticized Lincoln openly and engaged in Copperhead messaging. But he wasn’t the biggest problem. John Tyler went to the Confederacy, was elected to the Congress, and is the only President to die a traitor to his country. (Hmm.)

Most Disturbing Read: Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Reading Douglas’s arguments from 160 years ago about White America and the need to keep black Americans from citizenship, voting rights, or any basic human right was chilling.

Best New Read in Fiction: John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
Rarely does a book make me laugh on every page. Even more rarely does it do that and leave me with a sense that I understand humanity more deeply.

Most Disappointing Read: Alexandre Dumas, Louise de la Vallière
OK, The Well at the World’s End by William Morris was more disappointing – so disappointing in fact that I gave up on it, something I’ve done to a book only a handful of times in my entire life. But I didn’t expect as much from it as I did from this part of the D’Artagnan series. I’m hoping for a great rebound from Dumas when I read The Man in the Iron Mask next summer.

Best New Read in Poetry: William Cullen Bryant, “November”
I needed Cullen’s love of virtuous life and his love of nature and his understanding that they go together.

Most Uses of the Words “shadow,” “sword,” “delve,” and “precious”: J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
(The category “Best Reread in Fiction” was renamed this year at the suggestion of the Rules Committee.) I needed Tolkien’s love of virtuous life and his love of nature and his understanding that they go together. I also needed some orc killing.

Book Causing the Most Diusruption in the Reading Plan: James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
I’ll be floating a way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun past Eve and Adam’s for each of the next fifteen years now. Joyce said that since it took him seventeen years to write the book, readers should take as long. So I’m just following his advice – give or take a year.

Best Mystery: Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
Read my post about it from earlier in the year, listen to some change ringing, and then read this book!

Best New Read in Biography: Claire Tomalin, Charles Dickens
Tomalin’s work reveals much more about the women in Dickens’s life than have other biographies I’ve read. I’ve come to terms with the fact that the Christian hero and promoter of domestic bliss had an extramarital affair with actress Nelly Tiernan. But now I know more about Nelly. And if Tomalin can still find Dickens a hero even if he was “too complicated to be a gentleman,” so can I. In any case, despite his flaws, he left us Bleak House (which I read this year) and Little Dorrit (which I will read in a couple of months).

I’m looking forward to so many books scheduled for 2022: Capote’s In Cold Blood, Hesse’s Glass Bead Game, Augustine’s homilies on I John, even Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. With everything that’s been happening in the family, I’ve still kept up with the reading, even if I haven’t had time to write about it so much. Will I have time to tell you about all these wonderful books scheduled for next year? Somehow I doubt that I’ll give up entirely on blogging this coming year; if nothing else I’ll be back in December with the annual awards. Until we meet again, whenever that may be, may you have a very Happy New Year of reading!