I've seen a lot of postings wondering where the top 100 American Lit list came from. I used a wide variety of lists to come up with ... including a list of the Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction. Lets see how I stack up with this list, I don't think it will be pretty. X for books read, M for movies watched, O for read other books by this author, S for on my shelf not read yet.
1. 2009 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. 2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
3. 2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (X)
4. 2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (X)(O)
(bonus based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott X, M,O, S)
5. 2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
6. 2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (X)
7. 2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (X)
8. 2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo
9. 2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
10. 2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (O)
11. 1999 The Hoursby Michael Cunningham (X)
12. 1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth (O)
13. 1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
14. 1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
15. 1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (S)
16. 1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
17. 1993 A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
18. 1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (X) (M)
19. 1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (O)
20. 1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
21. 1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (O)
22. 1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison(O)
23. 1987 A Summons To Memphis by Peter Taylor
24. 1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry Mcmurtry
25. 1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
26. 1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy
27. 1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (X) (M)
28. 1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (O)
29. 1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
30. 1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
31. 1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
32. 1978 Elbow Room: Stories by James Alan Mcpherson
1977 No award was given.
33. 1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
34. 1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1974 No award was given.
35. 1973 The Optimist's Daughter (large Print) by Eudora Welty
36. 1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Earle Stegner
1971 No award was given.
37. 1970 The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
38. 1969 House Made of Dawn by N Scott Momaday
39. 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
40. 1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
41. 1966 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (X)
42. 1965 The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1964 No award was given.
43. 1963 The Reivers: A Reminiscence by William Faulkner (O)
44. 1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
45. 1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (X) (M)
46. 1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
47. 1959 The Travels of Jaimie Mcpheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
48. 1958 A Death in the Family by James Agee
1957 No award was given.
49. 1956 Andersonville by Mackinlay Kantor
50. 1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (O)
1954 No award was given.
51. 1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (O)
52. 1952 The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II by Herman Wouk
53. 1951 The Town by Conrad Richter
54. 1950 The Way West by A B Guthrie
55. 1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
56. 1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
57. 1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1946 No award was given.1945
58. A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
59. 1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
60. 1943 Dragon's Teeth I by Upton Sinclair
61. 1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow1941
No award was given.
62. 1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (X) (M) (O)
63. 1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
64. 1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
65. 1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (X) (M)
66. 1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold Lenoir Davis
67. 1935 Now in November by Josephine W. Johnson
68. 1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
69. 1933 The Store by Thomas Stribling
70. 1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (X) (O)
71. 1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
72. 1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge
73. 1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
74. 1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (S)
75. 1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
76. 1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (O)
77. 1925 So Big by Edna Ferber
78. 1924 The Able Mclaughlins by Margaret Wilson
79. 1923 One of Ours by Willa Silbert Cather (O)
80. 1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
81. 1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (X) (O) (M)
1920 No award was given.
82. 1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (X) (M)
83. 1918 His Family by Ernest Poole
Books Read = 15
Movies Watched = 8
Other Books Read by author =16
On my Shelf to read = 2
This is pretty sad. It's interesting how the Pulitzer Prize often goes to lesser known works by famous authors. Almost an ...well we really should have given Willa Cather an award by now. . .lets give her an award for this inferior patriotic book. What are your thoughts? If you post this list, please post a link back here on my comments. I love to see what other people are reading and learn their thoughts!
Top five reads from this list:
1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
3. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
4. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Top five I would like to read:
1. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
2. Empire Falls by Richard Russo
3. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
4. Beloved by Toni Morrison
5. So Big by Edna Ferber
I've only read 5!! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteI've only read 4!!! I will have to add more books to my list now!! :)
ReplyDeleteWithout even trying to read Pulitzers, I've read 7 of the latest 11! Many of these are on my wishlist.
ReplyDelete