1st Annual KAXE/KBXE Book Awards
· Nearly 60 entries
· In the 1st few categories we did not have a definitive winner, so we’ll list a couple of titles where the reader who nominated the book did a really good job in convincing us that these books were good.
Best Setting:
Notable entries:
The Dovekeepers, by Alice Hoffman (2011) – a tale of 4 women whose lives intersect in ancient Israel, in Masada, a mountain in the Judean desert. Elaine from Chisolm submitted this book as her choice, saying she found this setting so interesting that she sought out a documentary on Masada after reading the book.
Do Not Find Me, Kathleen Novak (2016) – a novel about love and loss set in the Deep quite lakes in the Iron Range in the 50s. Novak is a poet and writer who grew up in the Iron Range.
Best Character:
Notable entries:
Brown Dog, by Jim Harrison (2013) is a collection of novellas surrounding the title character, who is described as a kind of down-on his luck Everyman. Robert nominated this title and says that “Brown Dog just feels like a character we've all met living in the northwoods: perpetually broke, unconventional, true of heart, free, and maybe a little too lusty for his own good.”
Ann from Bemidji nominated People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (2008), her favorite character was Lola, a Jewish teen living in Sarajevo during the Nazi invasion of WW2. After her family is taken away, she moves to the mountains to join the resistance. Ann saw a lot of parallels to current day issues in this book and the importance of strong influential women.
Best Eye Opener:
In his book The Attention Merchants (2016), author Tim Wu argues that there is a battle for our attention and it is part technology and part ongoing expansion in the industries that feed on human attention. Carl nominated this book and says it’s a fascinating and important history of the commodification of our minds. He says, “this book changed some of my opinions about a topic I thought I knew well.“
Sue has nominated Dan Egan’s The Death and Life of the Great Lakes (2017). She says this an Excellent, very readable book about invasive species in the Great Lakes and how Lamprey, zebra and quagga mussels, and more, are entering our lakes through man-made channels in the ballast of ships.
The Handmaid’s Tale – Nancy nominated this book. Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian classic, revived by the recent TV adaptation of it and political climate.
Which brings us to our last category…
Readers Choice: AMY THIELEN - Give a Girl a Knife
Check out the full list on GoodReads.
