And the Award Goes to…

My picks for best plot, best character, best writing, and best overall book.

Awards season is upon us, and soon there will be numerous accolades bestowed upon artists for their movies, shows, and albums. But as someone who often reads for entertainment, I have to wonder: Wouldn’t it be fun to have a glitzy televised event for books? Like a proper awards ceremony, where there’s a superstar host, famous authors dressed up in designer wear, and statuettes presented in various literary categories.

National Book Awards

Well, guess what … this exists! It’s called the National Book Awards, and last year’s ceremony – complete with superstar host – can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. (Spoiler alert: The host was Padma Lakshmi!) I watched a bit of the ceremony, but soon grew bored. I guess there’s a reason why book awards haven’t made it to primetime television. But I did fast-forward to the best fiction category to see if I agreed with the slate of candidates – only to discover that I’d never heard of any of the contenders, much less the winner! 

This was a bit of a wakeup call for me. I realized I typically choose books that are either (a) well-reviewed by a blog, magazine, or newspaper, (b) selected as a celebrity book club pick, or (c) recommended by a friend – who probably gravitated toward the book by means of (a) or (b). I started to think about this limiting selection criteria and how I should probably spice up the way I source reading material … perhaps by going the critically acclaimed route? I decided to at least commit to reading last year’s winner in the best fiction category, The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

In the meantime, I’ve been fantasizing about what an awards show starring my favorite books of the past year might look like, and came up with my own list of winners. So, without further ado, I present my picks in each of the following categories…

Best Plot: The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the author of 2021’s The Plot would win my award for best plot, even though it’s her latest book, The Latecomer, that really had me enthralled. There were so many twists and turns throughout the story that I couldn’t even begin to fathom how it was going to end. I was on a dream vacation in Switzerland when I read this, and as I approached the climax of the tightly woven story, not even the call of the alps could distract me from finishing it.   

Best Character: Marx Watanabe of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

There’s so much to love in Zevin’s groundbreaking book, including its two deeply flawed main characters, but it’s the not-quite-so-main character of Marx Watanabe that stole my heart and made me both cheer and weep. Marx is such a genuine and generous human being that I found myself falling in love with a fictional character. I also appreciated how, while Marx is of Japanese descent, this was never a focal point of his story. Instead, Marx was Marx, and he just happened to be Japanese-American. I found this approach by the author (who is half-Korean) to be refreshing.

Best Writing: The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

While plot and characters are certainly important elements of a good book, it’s the author’s writing style that often wins me over first. That’s why I love authors like Anne Tyler, Jhumpa Lahiri, Alexander McCall Smith, and Ann Patchett, to name just a few of the greats. I know it’s good writing when I start reading certain lines out loud to my husband. To be honest, I don’t even recall that much about The Candy House’s intricate plot, but what I do remember is the spot-on, evocative descriptions of scenes, interactions, and feelings.  

Best Book: The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier 

This book has it all: a twisty, compelling plot, loads of interesting characters, and scintillating writing. It kept me turning its pages late into the night, and the next day I looked up all I could find about the author in an effort to intuit how he managed to craft such a remarkable story. It’s a book that’s hard to explain and at times dizzying in its pace and revelations, yet the writing is so clear and accessible that it’s easy to fall into Le Tellier’s bizarre world. All I can say is: Read it!