NAIBA Book of the Year Awards

The NAIBA Book Awards recognize an author who was born or lived in our region, and/or a book whose story takes place in our region. The book must have been published between June 1 and May 31 (of the award year). There are five categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Picture Book, Children's Literature and Special Interest. The deadline for submissions is June 30 of the award year. (You may make multiple submissions in any category.) Submissions can be emailed to NAIBA at any time during the award year. The awards are presented at the annual NAIBA Fall Conference. (*Publishers are limited to two submissions per category.)

Selection: Nominations are gathered throughout the year from booksellers. Twice a year the long list is reviewed by booksellers and the highest voted titles are placed on the short list after review by the NAIBA Awards Committee. Final voting on the short list is done in July by NAIBA bookstore members.

NAIBA is proud to announce the 2011 Books of the Year winners!
The authors received their awards at the NAIBA Fall Conference Awards Banquet.

Fiction
The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obreht
Random House, March 2011
Weaving a brilliant latticework of family legend, loss, and love, Téa Obreht, the youngest of The New Yorker’s twenty best American fiction writers under forty, has spun a timeless novel that will establish her as one of the most vibrant, original authors of her generation.

Nonfiction
Blood, Bones and Butter, Gabrielle Hamilton
Random House, March 2011
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent twenty fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than one hundred friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became as necessary to her as her own skin. Blood, Bones & Butter follows an unconventional journey through the many kitchens Hamilton has inhabited through the years: the rural kitchen of her childhood, where her adored mother stood over the six-burner with an oily wooden spoon in hand; the kitchens of France, Greece, and Turkey, where she was often fed by complete strangers and learned the essence of hospitality; the soulless catering factories that helped pay the rent; Hamilton’s own kitchen at Prune, with its many unexpected challenges; and the kitchen of her Italian mother-in-law, who serves as the link between Hamilton’s idyllic past and her own future family—the result of a difficult and prickly marriage that nonetheless yields rich and lasting dividends.

Trade Paperback Original
Extra Indians, Eric Gansworth
Milkweed Editions, November 2010
Read Eric's acceptance speech
"Gansworth will surely garner comparisons to Sherman Alexie for his wry wit and compassionate voice, but his ability to dissect multiple hearts in a single pierce, his precise reconstruction of each lost soul into something new and pure, sets him apart. This is familial redemption at its finest, which is to say agonizingly complex and wholly engaging." - Booklist

Picture Book
Children Make Terrible Pets, Peter Brown
Little Brown, September 2010
"Lucy the bear is so excited when she finds a little boy in the woods! She immediately scoops him up, carries him home, and pleads with her mother to be allowed to keep him. But Mama Bear is not so sure about this arrangement -- everyone knows that children make terrible pets! Against her better judgment, Lucy's mother allows the little critter to stay. Squeaker seems to be the perfect pet, until one day he disappears! Lucy frantically searches high and low until she discovers a house not entirely unlike her own, where Squeaker has a family and -- gasp! -- a pet of his very own." - Megan Graves, Hooray for Books!, Alexandria, VA

Middle Readers
Forge, Laurie Halse Anderson
Atheneum, October 2010
"Shortly after Isabel robs and leaves him, an angry and impulsive Curzon re-enters the army and is stationed at Valley Forge to wait out the winter. Through a traumatic series of events Curzon and Isabel are reunited; he's secretly happy, she's not-so-secretly bitter. As they battle the winter and their feelings toward each other they realize they still have a common goal, freedom. Yet another wonderful work of historical fiction, we know why you're a National Book Award Finalist Laurie!" - Sarah Hill, The River's End Bookstore, Oswego, NY

Young Adult
Revolution, Jennifer Donnelly
Random House, October 2010
Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present. Jennifer Donnelly, author of the award-winning novel A Northern Light, artfully weaves two girls’ stories into one unforgettable account of life, loss, and enduring love. Revolution spans centuries and vividly depicts the eternal struggles of the human heart.

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