Updates and Rhymes with Chime

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Okay, so I just want to thank you for all being patient with me.  It's been a rough few weeks and now it is almost finals and I know it is not going to be easy, trying to update this everyday or so.  I just wanted to let you know that I am still here and still working hard to get something posted. 

I've decided one way to help me to post at least once or twice a week, is to get my friends involved.  I have numerous friends who have all agreed to help me with my blog.  So I've decided to do a new feature, almost every week.  Each week will be a new, random topic related to books and my friends and I will give our opinions on the topic.  It will be a great chance to get to see how different our opinions are.  I'm still trying to work on a title for the feature; if you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments.  But welcome, to our first crazy post together.

This event had happened a few weeks ago and still we are pondering on it and freaking out about the topic.  I'm sure you have all heard of this Chime not Shine business.  If you haven't you could always read about it HERE.  If you don't want to click on the link, it is basically that the National Book Award, due to a communication error, contacted the wrong author pertaining to her book being nominated, when the actual nomination was a book with a similar title.

For me, I am shocked.  You have to put yourself in Lauren Myracle's shoes.  It's like when your mother bakes cookies and puts the warm, steaming plate of them right in front of you.  You go to grab one but mom takes it away from you and explains how you have to eat dinner first.  That is a simplified version of what Myracle may be feeling.  Now I haven't read either book, even though they are both on my to-read list.  So I can't really compare the two books, but if it was up to me, I'd rather just leave the nominations with both Chime and Shine in the mix. 

For Emma, I feel that the Shine vs Chime controversy was a total let down. I believe that both books should have stayed as nominations. However, I do appreciate what the committee did for the foundation of the author’s choice.
For Jackie, well if I was the person who was told, “Oh, hey yea, sorry but we accidentally told you your book was nominated…..yea well we take that back, you are actually not a nominee and  we want you to withdraw from the contest too since, ya know, we messed up,”  I would be just a tad bit upset.  Including the fact that they wanted her to withdraw because they wanted to “preserve the integrity of the award and the judges’ work,” I think they already messed that up by saying the wrong book was nominated.  This event was not even Myracle’s (writer of the accidentally nominated book called Shine) fault, but yet they treated her as if she was below the prestige of the award and the judges’.  I think that before telling someone that they should withdraw, to save someone or something’s ‘honor’ that they should reflect on the mistake they made and at least give her a chance in the nomination for the National Book Awards.  But, you know, that just coming from someone who enjoys watching others succeed in life and be given a chance when the odds oppose them. 


I am just wondering how a mistake like this could have been made.  Supposedly, the judges had given their choices of nominees to the Foundation over the phone, so perhaps just miscommunication? But, that begs the question, why would they not check over the nominee choices at least a few times before announcing them for the whole world to know?  Laziness? Did they just forget to check the list?  Were the book names just so close that they figured, oh well?  Guess we will not know, but since her novel, Shine, deals with gay related hate crime, Myracle asked the Foundation to donate $5000 to Matthew Shepard Foundation, which supports the recognition of gay youths. 
So November 16 they will announce the winner of the National Books Award but, who knows?  Will they just choose another haphazard novel?  I know I am awaiting their decision, just to see if they say Shine by accident again. 

So what do you think?  What should have happened with Shine, should they have done what they did?  And my idea of the feature that I am planning on doing, what do you think so far?  Happy reading!





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1 comments

  1. I heard something about this awhile back but not what happened, just that Lauren was offended/something bad had happened. This is really appalling. It was THEIR mistake, not hers. I haven't read either book but I would think to avoid having egg on the "face" so to speak of the committee, both books should have been included as nominations.

    Awesome feature idea!

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