Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Lukas Prize Winners

The winners of the 2011 Lukas Prizes, which "recognize excellence in nonfiction that exemplify the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern that characterized the work of the awards' Pulitzer Prize-winning namesake, J. Anthony Lukas," are:

J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize ($10,000):

Winner: Eliza Griswold for The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam

Finalists:
Jefferson Cowie for Stayin' Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class
Paul Greenberg for Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food
Siddartha Mukherjee for The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

Mark Lynton History Prize ($10,000):

Winner: Isabel Wilkerson for The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Finalist: Patrick Wilcken for Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in His Laboratory

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Lukas Prize Winners

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