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Book Award Winners
September 2026 |
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Our 2026 On The Same Page selection is Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. From Sept. 21-Oct. 18 all Forsyth County Public Library branches will host discussions, events, and activities highlighting the book and its themes. Review the full schedule of On The Same Page events, information about the book, and more on forsythlibrary.org. |
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 "Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying." ― Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book Welcome to our newest issue of the Book Award Winners newsletter. This quarterly newsletter provides reading suggestions of celebrated titles both new and old. All titles are available in print through the Forsyth County library system, and some are available for immediate download in e-book or audiobook format on your phone or tablet. Download the Libby and Hoopla apps or ask a librarian about our NC Digital Library for more information. |
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Angel Down by Daniel KrausPrivate Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man's Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell. Angel Down plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.
2026 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction |
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We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitutionby Jill LeporeThe U.S. Constitution is among the oldest constitutions in the world, but also one of the most difficult to amend. Jill Lepore, Harvard professor of history and law, explains why in We the People, the most original history of the Constitution in decades -- and an essential companion to her landmark history of the United States, These Truths.
2026 Pulitzer Prize for History
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The Everlasting by Alix E. HarrowSir Una Everlasting was Dominion's greatest hero: the orphaned girl who became a knight, who died for queen and country. Her legend lives on in songs and stories, in children's books and recruiting posters, but her life as it truly happened has been forgotten. Centuries later, Owen Mallory--failed soldier, struggling scholar--falls in love with the tale of Una Everlasting. Her story takes him to war, to the archives, and then into the past itself. Una and Owen are tangled together in time, bound to retell the same story over and over again, no matter what it costs. But that story always ends the same way. If they want to rewrite Una's legend and tell a different story, they'll have to rewrite history itself.
2026 Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel
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Dead Money
by Jakob Kerr
As the unofficial problem solver for Silicon Valley's most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde's an expert at wrangling tech bros and their multimillions--even as her own shot at a windfall remains just out of reach. But now she's playing for higher stakes. The lightning-rod CEO of tech's hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in dead money frozen in his will--and Mackenzie's boss is the company's chief investor. With a fortune on the line and the official investigation going nowhere, it's up to Mackenzie to step in and resolve things, fast. Mackenzie's a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who's-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league. Except Mackenzie's used to being underestimated. In fact, she's counting on it.
2026 Edgar Award for Best First Novel
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The Vanishing Half by Brit BennettThe Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white while her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing.
2020 Goodreads Choice Award for Historical Fiction
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The Luminariesby Eleanor CattonIt is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous cache of gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.
2013 Man Booker Prize Winner
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A Song for a New Day by Sarah PinskerAfter terrorism and a deadly pandemic make public gatherings illegal, musician Luce Cannon refuses to surrender the communal power of live music, performing secret concerts for those willing to risk attending. Rosemary Laws, raised in a world of virtual connection, leaves home to recruit musicians for a powerful entertainment corporation. When their paths meet, both women must question who controls art and what is lost when safety replaces human connection. A Song for a New Day is a hopeful, music-filled novel about creativity, resistance, and community.2019 Nebula Award for Best Novel |
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The Lacunaby Barbara KingsolverBorn in the United States, raised in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd lacks a sense of home in either. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen; from errands he runs in the streets; and, one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There, in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own.
2010 Orange Prize for Fiction
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Forsyth County Public Library
660 W. Fifth St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101
336-703-2665forsythlibrary.org |
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