caracolina

Scarlet Sister Mary is the first Pulitzer winning novel that was not written from a white person’s perspective. Every character in this story is black. White folks are mentioned on occasion in a vague sense but we never meet them. The story unfolds in the South after the Civil War, so people are no longer […]

Read the rest of Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin, Pulitzer Prize Winner of 1929

“Arrowsmith” brings us the life and times of Martin Arrowsmith: from boyhood to College and Medical School, then marriage, and various attempts at finding a good position and making a career. Which makes this a long book. Too long for me. There are so many chapters in Martin’s life and each one is written in […]

Read the rest of Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, intended Pulitzer Winner of 1926 (declined)

“The Bridge of San Luis Rey” was a book I enjoyed a lot. It was refreshingly different from the books I read so far. The first part of the book takes the reader to Peru in 1714. A bridge collapses and kills the five people that happened to cross it at that moment. A monk, […]

Read the rest of The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, Pulitzer Winner of 1928

When I started reading “Early Autumn” my first thought was “‘Age of Innocence’ all over again!’ There are too many similarities. Upper class family – check! Female Cousin returns from overseas after dissolution of marriage – check! Said cousin is considered immoral by conservative family members – check! Love triangle – check! But I read […]

Read the rest of Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield, Pulitzer Winner of 1927

“So Big” was another sojourn into farming life, but this time with none of the nostalgia. After the death of her beloved father in 1888, Selina Peake, an educated but poor 19-year-old woman from the Chicago area, is an orphan with no prospects. To make ends meet she takes the school teacher position in High […]

Read the rest of So Big by Edna Ferber, Pulitzer Winner of 1925

The Able Mclaughlins is a story about several families of devoutly religious Scottish immigrants on the lonely Iowa prairie just after the civil war. Young Wully McLaughlin returns from the war ready to marry his sweetheart Chirstie McNair when he finds out that she has been “shamed” by Wully’s cousin Peter. In other words, she […]

Read the rest of The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson, Pulitzer Winner of 1924

One of Ours was an interesting step into the mind of a Nebraska country boy. Claude Wheeler grows up on a successful farm near Frankfort in the beginning of the 20th century and attends college in a larger town. Claude likes working on the farm but does not see himself as belonging there for the […]

Read the rest of One of Ours by Willa Cather – Pulitzer Winner of 1923

Of the Pulitzers of the 1920s, Edith Warton’s “The Age of Innocence” is probably the best known, because of Martin Scorsese’s film with Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder. Also notable is that this was the first time the prize was awarded to a woman. The story takes place in New York’s high society of the […]

Read the rest of The Age of Innocence – Pulitzer Prize Winner of 1921

I got to skip 1920 because there was no winner chosen that year. 1921’s winner was Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” which I borrowed as audio book, but I am not done with it yet. I did finish “Alice Adams” though, which I managed to snag as a free Kindle download from Amazon.com. It was another story that […]

Read the rest of Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington – Pulitzer Prize Winner of 1922

Some people might be wondering what I’ve been up to. Well, I’ve been working and crafting and just rarely take the time to document what I work on. It seems like I’m always in the middle of a project and not ready to show anything, then I’m done and moving on to the next thing. […]

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