Via the New York Times, here are the 2011 Pulitzers for Letters, Music, and Drama:
FICTION – “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A. Knopf)
DRAMA – “Clybourne Park” by Bruce Norris
HISTORY – “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” by Eric Foner (W. W. Norton & Company)
BIOGRAPHY – “Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow (The Penguin Press)
POETRY – “The Best of It: New and Selected Poems” by Kay Ryan (Grove Press)
GENERAL NONFICTION – “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)
MUSIC – “Madame White Snake’” by Zhou Long, premiered on Feb. 26, 2010, by the Boston Opera at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.
Oh dear, and I haven’t read any of the written stuff. Have you?
Read, Hell — I haven’t even heard of any of it.
Seriously — I saw the name of a playwright and did a double-take, wondering how a third-rate Evangelical action actor and martial “artist” could possibly win a Pulitzer….
Cheers,
b&
I just had the pleasure of seeing Eric Foner make a presentation about his book at the University of Edinburgh a couple weeks ago. He was actually a terrific speaker; very entertaining and informative! Civil War history isn’t really my thing, but if I were to buy a book on it, his would be my first stop.
Read the fiction and the general non-fiction. I like this year’s pick in fiction much better than last year’s.
I very much enjoyed “The Emperor of Maladies”, a nice mixture of history, science and personal experience.
Kay Ryan’s poetry is great—precise, accessible poems that tend to be very short. She won for New and Selected Poems, but I prefer The Niagra River, which is from a few years ago.
I checked two of them out of the library, but I never got around to reading them.
I am sure that counts!
Yay Eric Foner! He rocks.
The credit card statement with recent Kindle charges came yesterday.
*sigh*
More reading to… put off:-(
“The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” by Siddhartha Mukherjee is certainly next on my must-read list. Dr Mukherjee recently wrote a terrific article in NYT on the possible link between cellphone radiation and cancer :
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17cellphones-t.html?_r=4&scp=2&sq=siddhartha+mukherjee+do+cell+phone+cause+cancer&st=cse
Thanks for the link–excellent article! Very interested in his book now…
Reading The Fiery Trial. I’m worried it will be recalled now.
I’m in the midst of The Emperor of Maladies. Mukherjee is an excellent writer. He puts just the right touch on the subject, both informative from a laboratory scientist’s perspective, yet told with genuine empathy for both the patients and the doctors.
(subscribing)
Nope; but Chernow and Mukherjee are on my list.