Difference between revisions of "Costa Book Awards 2014"

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'''Novel Award'''
 
'''Novel Award'''
 +
 +
'''Winner'''
 +
 +
{{topten
 +
|title=How to be Both
 +
|author=Ali Smith
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Literary Fiction
 +
|summary= There's something which you need to know about this book: if you decide to read it, the book you read might not be the same as the one which I've read and am about to review.  There are, you see, two stories in each copy and half the books published will have the story of Francescho Del Cossa who worked in and around Ferrara in the fifteenth century, followed by the story of George - really Georgia - a teenager who lives with her father and younger brother in twentieth century Cambridge.  The other books will have the stories in reverse order.  The stories are the same, but the experiences of the readers will be quite different.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114521X</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
 +
'''Other books on the shortlist'''
  
 
{{topten
 
{{topten
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|summary= There had been unrest in the Caribbean City of Silk in Sans Amen for some time with people growing increasingly belligerent about the perceived corruption of the government.  Then the day came when The Leader called the Brothers together and told them that they were going to make history: they would take over the House of Power and the television studios and reclaim what was rightfully theirs.  Part of this 'revolution' is Ashes, a quiet, bookish young man who seems to feel most guilty about the lie he told his wife - that he'd be back home for dinner - when he left the house.  He'd been swayed by The Leader's rhetoric and finds himself a part of the rag-tag band of ill-trained but probably over-armed young men and teens who invade the House of Power. It would not go as they expected.
 
|summary= There had been unrest in the Caribbean City of Silk in Sans Amen for some time with people growing increasingly belligerent about the perceived corruption of the government.  Then the day came when The Leader called the Brothers together and told them that they were going to make history: they would take over the House of Power and the television studios and reclaim what was rightfully theirs.  Part of this 'revolution' is Ashes, a quiet, bookish young man who seems to feel most guilty about the lie he told his wife - that he'd be back home for dinner - when he left the house.  He'd been swayed by The Leader's rhetoric and finds himself a part of the rag-tag band of ill-trained but probably over-armed young men and teens who invade the House of Power. It would not go as they expected.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471126668</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471126668</amazonuk>
−
}}
 
−
 
−
{{topten
 
−
|title=How to be Both
 
−
|author=Ali Smith
 
−
|rating=4.5
 
−
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
−
|summary= There's something which you need to know about this book: if you decide to read it, the book you read might not be the same as the one which I've read and am about to review.  There are, you see, two stories in each copy and half the books published will have the story of Francescho Del Cossa who worked in and around Ferrara in the fifteenth century, followed by the story of George - really Georgia - a teenager who lives with her father and younger brother in twentieth century Cambridge.  The other books will have the stories in reverse order.  The stories are the same, but the experiences of the readers will be quite different.
 
−
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114521X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
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'''First Novel Award'''
 
'''First Novel Award'''
 +
 +
'''Winner'''
 +
 +
{{topten
 +
|title=Elizabeth is Missing
 +
|author=Emma Healey
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=General Fiction
 +
|summary=Maud is a little forgetful as the rows of cooling cups of tea will attest.  She also has a cupboard full of peaches for some reason but not to worry.  She has a family who love her and rally round, a home help and her great friend Elizabeth.  Come to think of it, Elizabeth seems to be missing and the notes that Maud writes herself each day keep reminding her of this.  The problem is that no one will listen to her, let alone believe her.  It also reminds Maud of something else; another disappearance a long, long time ago.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241003504</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
 +
'''Other books on the shortlist'''
  
 
{{topten
 
{{topten
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|summary=It is 1944. Tess Lohan's mother has just died at age 40, of tuberculosis. Seven-year-old Tess is one of six children in a rural Irish family. They live at Easterfield, a centuries-old manor house. A teacher later tells Tess the history of her home: built in 1678, it was a famine hospital in the 1840s; there are numerous corpses buried on the land. He hints there may be many ghosts on the property, but the only one that haunts Tess is her dead mother. 'Memories and traces of her mother must linger all over the house – in rooms and halls and landings. The dent of her feet on a rug. On a cup, the mark of her hand.'
 
|summary=It is 1944. Tess Lohan's mother has just died at age 40, of tuberculosis. Seven-year-old Tess is one of six children in a rural Irish family. They live at Easterfield, a centuries-old manor house. A teacher later tells Tess the history of her home: built in 1678, it was a famine hospital in the 1840s; there are numerous corpses buried on the land. He hints there may be many ghosts on the property, but the only one that haunts Tess is her dead mother. 'Memories and traces of her mother must linger all over the house – in rooms and halls and landings. The dent of her feet on a rug. On a cup, the mark of her hand.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782114181</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782114181</amazonuk>
−
}}
 
−
 
−
{{topten
 
−
|title=Elizabeth is Missing
 
−
|author=Emma Healey
 
−
|rating=5
 
−
|genre=General Fiction
 
−
|summary=Maud is a little forgetful as the rows of cooling cups of tea will attest.  She also has a cupboard full of peaches for some reason but not to worry.  She has a family who love her and rally round, a home help and her great friend Elizabeth.  Come to think of it, Elizabeth seems to be missing and the notes that Maud writes herself each day keep reminding her of this.  The problem is that no one will listen to her, let alone believe her.  It also reminds Maud of something else; another disappearance a long, long time ago.
 
−
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241003504</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
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'''Biography Award'''
 
'''Biography Award'''
 +
 +
'''Winner'''
 +
 +
{{topten
 +
|title=H is for Hawk
 +
|author=Helen Macdonald
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Biography
 +
|summary= When I saw Helen Macdonald speak at a nature conference, she recounted a conversation with a Samuel Johnson Prize judge. S/he had remarked that Macdonald's was three books in one: a memoir of grief after her father's unexpected death, a biography of T. H. White, and an account of falconry experiments with Mabel the goshawk. Macdonald quipped that the description made her book sound like washing powder, but it's accurate nonetheless, and explains why the book won the Samuel Johnson Prize (the first memoir to do so) and is shortlisted for the Costa Biography award.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097008</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
 +
'''Other books on the shortlist'''
  
 
{{topten
 
{{topten
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|summary= 'Something has happened. A piece of news. We have had a diagnosis that has the status of an event. The news makes a rupture with what went before.' With these plain, unsentimental words Coutts begins her devastating yet mysteriously gorgeous account of her husband Tom Lubbock's decline and death from a brain tumour. Shortlisted for the Costa Biography award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, it was also a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
 
|summary= 'Something has happened. A piece of news. We have had a diagnosis that has the status of an event. The news makes a rupture with what went before.' With these plain, unsentimental words Coutts begins her devastating yet mysteriously gorgeous account of her husband Tom Lubbock's decline and death from a brain tumour. Shortlisted for the Costa Biography award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, it was also a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782393501</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782393501</amazonuk>
−
}}
 
−
 
−
{{topten
 
−
|title=H is for Hawk
 
−
|author=Helen Macdonald
 
−
|rating=5
 
−
|genre=Biography
 
−
|summary= When I saw Helen Macdonald speak at a nature conference, she recounted a conversation with a Samuel Johnson Prize judge. S/he had remarked that Macdonald's was three books in one: a memoir of grief after her father's unexpected death, a biography of T. H. White, and an account of falconry experiments with Mabel the goshawk. Macdonald quipped that the description made her book sound like washing powder, but it's accurate nonetheless, and explains why the book won the Samuel Johnson Prize (the first memoir to do so) and is shortlisted for the Costa Biography award.
 
−
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097008</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
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'''Poetry Award'''
 
'''Poetry Award'''
−
{{amazonurl|isbn=144726343X|title=The Whole and Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce}}
+
 
 +
'''Winner'''
  
 
{{amazonurl|isbn=1781721629|title=My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards}}
 
{{amazonurl|isbn=1781721629|title=My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards}}
 +
 +
'''Other books on the shortlist'''
 +
{{amazonurl|isbn=144726343X|title=The Whole and Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce}}
  
 
{{amazonurl|isbn=057128454X|title=A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde by Lavinia Greenlaw}}
 
{{amazonurl|isbn=057128454X|title=A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde by Lavinia Greenlaw}}
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'''Children's Book Award'''
 
'''Children's Book Award'''
 +
 +
'''Winner'''
 +
 +
{{topten
 +
|title=Five Children on the Western Front
 +
|author=Kate Saunders
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|summary=Nearly ten years after Squirrel, Panther, Bobs and Puss last saw the Psammead, the sand fairy returns. But the world is in a state of upheaval, and with the now grown-up children contributing to the war effort, it's left to The Lamb, a teenager, and new arrival 9-year-old Edie to look after their visitor and save him from prying eyes. In addition to the horrors of the war, there are revelations for the six siblings about their old companion's past - why has he returned, and is there a reason he can't grant wishes any longer?
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571310958</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
 +
'''Other books on the shortlist'''
  
 
{{topten
 
{{topten
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When Alfie and his father are out fishing one day, they hear a child's cries. On one of the archipelago's uninhabited islands, they find a half-starved little girl, abandoned and in a terrible state. She can only speak one word: ''Lucy''. Who is this foundling? Is she a ghost? A mermaid? Or, more worryingly, could she be a German spy? The name Wilhelm is on the label of her blanket, after all. And why does she gaze at the moon with such longing in her eyes?
 
When Alfie and his father are out fishing one day, they hear a child's cries. On one of the archipelago's uninhabited islands, they find a half-starved little girl, abandoned and in a terrible state. She can only speak one word: ''Lucy''. Who is this foundling? Is she a ghost? A mermaid? Or, more worryingly, could she be a German spy? The name Wilhelm is on the label of her blanket, after all. And why does she gaze at the moon with such longing in her eyes?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007339631</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007339631</amazonuk>
−
}}
 
−
 
−
{{topten
 
−
|title=Five Children on the Western Front
 
−
|author=Kate Saunders
 
−
|rating=5
 
−
|genre=Confident Readers
 
−
|summary=Nearly ten years after Squirrel, Panther, Bobs and Puss last saw the Psammead, the sand fairy returns. But the world is in a state of upheaval, and with the now grown-up children contributing to the war effort, it's left to The Lamb, a teenager, and new arrival 9-year-old Edie to look after their visitor and save him from prying eyes. In addition to the horrors of the war, there are revelations for the six siblings about their old companion's past - why has he returned, and is there a reason he can't grant wishes any longer?
 
−
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571310958</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  

Revision as of 11:53, 6 January 2015

The category shortlists were announced on 19 November and the individual category winners will be announced on 5 January: they each won £5,000. The overall winner (who will receive £30,000) was announced on 27 January 2015.

Novel Award

Winner

Template:Topten

Other books on the shortlist

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

First Novel Award

Winner

Template:Topten

Other books on the shortlist

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Biography Award

Winner

Template:Topten

Other books on the shortlist

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Poetry Award

Winner

My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards

Other books on the shortlist The Whole and Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce

A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde by Lavinia Greenlaw

The Cartographer Tries to May a Way to Zion by Kei Miller


Children's Book Award

Winner

Template:Topten

Other books on the shortlist

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

Template:Topten

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