FIRST ANNUAL FOURTH RATE WISCONSIN BOOK AWARDS

The First Annual Fourth Rate
Savage Press/Daily Telegram
Wisconsin Book Awards

A Welshman named Stan Barstow, who wrote eleven pretty good books once said, “The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it’s also full of fourth-rate readers.”

The old saying, “Everyone has a book in them,” was never truer than today when desktop publishing and Internet publishing make it easy to get a book (be it good or bad) published. This plethora of publications makes the pretty good, fourth rate book award a positively pregnant possibility. So, here we go…

The number one best nonfiction book of 2007 that was read by me was: The History of Sniping and Sharpshooting by John Plaster. This big bazooka of a book is in the “big” category because it weighs about 11 pounds and was published by a big-time outfit from Boulder, Colorado called Paladin Press.

BTW, the gigantic trophy for best nonfiction book of the year will not be sent to Mr. Plaster. As this is the first year of the awards, there is no budget for trophies yet. But in the coming years as the Mike Savage/Daily Telegram Fourth Rate Wisconsin Book Award becomes immensely popular…and well funded, a plaque or trophy may well become a possibility… if there’s any cash left over from the month-long luxury book cruise to the Caribbean that will afford me the time to read all the submissions.

Also, another BTW, the Autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant was a very close second and could have won first place easily, but I deferred to a local writer for the top slot. If you have any interest in reading a true anti-war book, read Grant’s autobiography. For the sheer massive scope of mayhem, the catastrophic carnage and boundless bloodletting on a colossal scale, Grant’s descriptions of his Civil War experiences are impossible to forget.

The number one best LOCAL nonfiction book of the year, as read by me, was Patrick Dorin’s, Great Lakes Ore Docks and Ore Cars. A genius little book that is quirky enough to be truly unique, but straightforward enough to be educational and entertaining simultaneously.

Ellen Baker’s, keeping the house clearly has to be the winner for BEST FICTION. I call this the “Big Fiction” award, because it is a big book, written by a big-time writer and published by a big-time New York publisher, Random House.

The best “small fiction” award goes to Joe Reasbeck for his, Nearfall. I had some quibbles with the book, but all in all, it was the best “local” fiction by a smaller press and a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time author who knows how to spin a dang good yarn.

Second place in small-time fiction goes to Enkay D. Durand for her book Moonstruck. Again, I had some issues with the quality of publication, but, all in all, it deserves a “pretty good book” award.

The clear winner in the Children’s book category is Storm Codes by Tracy Nelson Maurer. Illustrated by Christina Rodriquez, I call this succulent work of art, “the-little-ore-boat-book-that-could” because it manages to convey both emotion and information equally powerfully.
The Best Picture Book Award goes to Lonnie Dupre for his stunning Greenland Expedition, Where Ice Is Born book. Ya can’t get better than stunning, so, ‘nuff said.

The, BEST BOOK AS YET UNPUBLISHED award goes to Mark Hobson of Madison, Wisconsin, a writer of staggering virtuosity whose book, Fire Team about the misadventures of a bunch of drugged out Vietnam soldiers gone AWOL in the jungle to get rich quick, is one of the best wartime adventure novels I’ve ever read. Hobson’s other two books, The Marksman and L5 are simply delicious too. Hobson is as good as any writer on the planet.

That’s it folks. The short happy life of the First Annual Fourth Rate Wisconsin Book Awards is over. If you know of any Hemingway wannabes out there who want to submit their tomes to the rigors of the 2008 competition, send them to me in care of the Daily Telegram and I’ll be sure to at least open the envelope please.

Life is good. Books are important. I’m Mike Savage, and I’m done.