Saturday, November 13, 2021

The Costa Book of the Year Award -- LIST



THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

The Costa Book Awards "celebrates the most enjoyable books of the year by writers resident in the UK and Ireland." The awards were formerly known as the the Whitbread Literary Awards from 1971 until 1985 when the name changed to the Whitbread Book Awards. Costa Coffee took over over in 2006, changing the name, but not the purpose, of the awards.

There are five categories of Costa Book Awards: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, and Children's Book. The Book of the Year Award debuted in 1985 and is chosen from any of the five categories.

I am not going to keep updating the winners after 2021. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I plan to focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

I'm working my way through the Costa "BOTY" list, but because I'm not much of a poetry reader and I'm no fan of sci-fi, I don't know know if I will ever get through all the books on this list. On the other hand, if they really were "most enjoyable," then maybe reading these prize winners would be the easiest way to expand my reading horizons.

If I've read a book or it is on my TBR shelf, it is noted in the list below. So far, I've read 13 of the winners. 

2021: The Kids by Hannah Lowe

2020: The Mermaid of Black Conch: A Love Story by Monique Roffey ON OVERDRIVE


2018: The Cut Out Girl: A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found by Bart van Es ON OVERDRIVE

2017: Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore 

2016: Days Without End by Sebastian Barry FINISHED

2015: The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge 

2014: H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald FINISHED

2013: The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer FINISHED

2012: Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel FINISHED

2011: Pure by Andrew Miller TBR SHELF

2010: Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott

2009: A Scattering by Christopher Reid 

2008: The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed hereFINISHED

2007: Day by A.L. Kennedy 

2006: The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (reviewed hereFINISHED

2005: Matisse the Master by Hilary Spurling 

2004: Small Island by Andrea Levy (reviewed hereFINISHED

2003: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon FINISHED

2002: Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin

2001: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman ON OVERDRIVE

2000: English Passengers by Matthew Kneale TBR SHELF

1999: Beowulf by Seamus Heaney FINISHED

1998: Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes TBR SHELF

1997: Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes

1996: The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney FINISHED

1995: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson  (reviewed hereFINISHED

1994: Felicia's Journey by William Trevor FINISHED

1993: Theory of War by Joan Brady TBR SHELF

1992: Swing Hammer Swing! by Jeff Torrington TBR SHELF

1991: A Life of Picasso by John Richardson 

1990: Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley TBR SHELF

1989: Coleridge: Early Visions by Richard Holmes TBR SHELF

1988: The Comforts of Madness by Paul Sayer 

1987: Under the Eye of the Clock by Christopher Nolan 

1986: An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro FINISHED

1985: Elegies by Douglas Dunn 



NOTES

This post is a redo of the original Cota BOTY list I posted in 2009. Updated December 28, 2022. 

OTHERS READING THESE BOOKS

If you are working through the books on this list, please leave links to your progress reports or reviews of these books in the comments and I will list them here.


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