Without any unnecessary introductory comment, here is the second wave of Dead End Follies Awards winners:
BEST NON-FICTION BOOK
David Foster Wallace for THIS IS WATER: SOME THOUGHTS, DELIVERED ON A SPECIAL OCCASION, ABOUT LIVING A COMPASSIONATE LIFE
Once again, this was a very difficult choice to make. But THIS IS WATER is something special. A book that couldn't have been written by anybody else, that couldn't really be copied by another writer. It's a guide to a better living and yet it's not trying to sell you anything. The Kenyon College commencement speech is the last thing Wallace ever published and it gives his words a haunting aura. Short, easy of access, charming and so honest, they are going to resonate with you. I have already went back to THIS IS WATER more than one time since I first read it. Congratulations!
Read my review of THIS IS WATER
Read my review of THIS IS WATER
BEST SERIES
Josh Stallings for The Moses McGuire Series
Moses McGuire took me by surprise in 2011. He's a man who wants to save everybody, but who can never take the right decisions for himself. Throughout BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD and OUT THERE BAD, you can witness him trying to play white knight with damsels in distress, at the very cost of his soul. It's what makes Moses so endearing. No matter how bad he wants to live up this image he made for himself of a benevolent big brother, he just destroys himself (and a part of his world)while doing so. Great series about the fundamental impossibility of being prince charming.There are already two volumes that came out this year and I'm already aching for the third.
Read my review of BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD
Read my review of OUT THERE BAD
Buy BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD here
Buy OUT THERE BAD here
BEST NEW BOOK
Megan Abbott for THE END OF EVERYTHING
Talk about a book that lived up to its promises (as twisted as they were). Megan Abbott's latest novel is a departure from her more traditional noir roots, but don't be mistaken, THE END OF EVERYTHING is not something she "tried", she really knew what she was doing when she wrote it. It's a very powerful novel about the obsession of keeping the appearances, even when there's something fundamentally wrong at the heart of a neighborhood. When real estate and feelings of false security count more than people and their problems, you get a world similar to the one in Megan Abbott's novel. It's so powerful because it echoes of truth.
Read my review of THE END OF EVERYTHING
Buy THE END OF EVERYTHING here
Moses McGuire took me by surprise in 2011. He's a man who wants to save everybody, but who can never take the right decisions for himself. Throughout BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD and OUT THERE BAD, you can witness him trying to play white knight with damsels in distress, at the very cost of his soul. It's what makes Moses so endearing. No matter how bad he wants to live up this image he made for himself of a benevolent big brother, he just destroys himself (and a part of his world)while doing so. Great series about the fundamental impossibility of being prince charming.There are already two volumes that came out this year and I'm already aching for the third.
Read my review of BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD
Read my review of OUT THERE BAD
Buy BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD here
Buy OUT THERE BAD here
BEST NEW BOOK
Talk about a book that lived up to its promises (as twisted as they were). Megan Abbott's latest novel is a departure from her more traditional noir roots, but don't be mistaken, THE END OF EVERYTHING is not something she "tried", she really knew what she was doing when she wrote it. It's a very powerful novel about the obsession of keeping the appearances, even when there's something fundamentally wrong at the heart of a neighborhood. When real estate and feelings of false security count more than people and their problems, you get a world similar to the one in Megan Abbott's novel. It's so powerful because it echoes of truth.
Read my review of THE END OF EVERYTHING
Buy THE END OF EVERYTHING here