Books I didn't finish in 2014 and am dragging with me into 2015

Maybe they're emblematic! But probably not.

Ruth Ozeki, A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING -- I really enjoyed this book up until the funeral (I hope that's vague enough to avoid all spoilers), a scene I found so upsetting that it was difficult for me to focus on everything that happened after. I'll probably finish it eventually, I just feel averse.
Jaimy Gordon, LORD OF MISRULE - someone left this National Book Award winner on the free shelf at work, making it easier for me to give it 10 pages before (as previously) I had rejected it as "not for me." I was fairly captivated -- but I was traveling somewhere, and it was a hardcover, so I set it down. As one does.
Sara Paretsky, BLACKLIST (no relation to the James Spader hamfest of the same name) -- started when I was at home over Christmas because my mom is a fan. Honestly, I should probably bump this one up so I don't forget all the clues in the mystery.
Gillian Flynn, DARK PLACES -- my library loan unexpectedly came up on Dec. 30 for this earlier novel by the author of GONE GIRL. So far it's even darker and bleaker -- fun! This is also an upcoming movie

Well, I could have congratulated National Book Award winner Jaimy Gordon on her excellent taste in graduate schools, but she told a crowd in Brooklyn on Wednesday it was the proximity to horse-racing tracks that made her decision, so... In other last-week NBA news, Patti Smith announced she is working on a follow-up to memoir JUST KIDS -- a curiosity since the book covers her whole life, but I can think of some years that might be well fleshed out.

That's National Book Award Winner Patti Smith to you

It's true! Smith nabbed the nonfiction prize at the American publishing fiesta held here in New York for her book JUST KIDS. During her acceptance speech she cried and reminded the audience that she worked in a bookstore when she first arrived in New York.

On the fiction shelf, Jaimy Gordon's LORDS OF MISRULE pulled a surprising upset -- so much so that to all accounts I have seen, she didn't have a speech prepared. Much congratulations also to Kathryn Erskine and Terrance Hayes for taking home the big ones in young-adult fiction and poetry, respectively.

Not to be outdone by some young punk kid, Tom Wolfe sang part of "The Girl From Ipanema" during his speech. Really. He really did that. Do they make white-on-white Hawaiian shirts these days?

National Book Award finalists announced

Stay tuned for the big upset.

Fiction: 
Peter Carey, PARROTT & OLIVIER IN AMERICA (read it, liked it!)
Nicole Krauss, GREAT HOUSE (hear good things)
Lionel Shriver, SO MUCH FOR THAT (hear good things, like the author)
Jaimy Gordon, LORD OF MISRULE (never heard of it
Karen Tei Yamashita, I HOTEL (never heard of it)

Nonfiction:
Barbara Demick, NOTHING TO ENVY: ORDINARY LIVES IN NORTH KOREA (never heard of it)
John W. Dower, CULTURES OF WAR: PEARL HARBOR, HIROSHIMA, 9-11, IRAQ (never heard of it)
Justin Spring, SECRET HISTORIAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAMUEL STEWARD (never heard of it)
Megan K. Stack, EVERY MAN IN THIS VILLAGE IS A LIAR: AN EDUCATION IN WAR (never heard of it)
Patti Smith, JUST KIDS (what!!!!!)

The ceremony's November 17th and Tom Wolfe will be getting a special achievement award. Check out the website if you want to read up on the finalists and the poetry/YA categories.