The name of the day: Whitney

For the last couple of years, Segullah has had a vote for the Whitney Awards. Last year, Emily Milner did an amazing job reading the books and voting on our behalf. This year, she asked me if I wanted to share the power (responsibility? burden?) of voting with her. I eagerly accepted, and then quickly realized that along with the power comes the requirement that over the next six weeks, I have to read thirty books. I'm excited about the prospect, because as much as I love reading contemporary fiction, I've barely scratched the surface on Mormon publishing and contemporary fiction for a Mormon audience, and this feels like my baptism by fire. So I unloaded all of the books I'd been planning to read in Hawaii from my suitcase, and filled it instead with Whitney nominees. 30 books in 45 days feels like a huge challenge, but I always love a challenge. The blog will probably become a dumping ground for my thoughts on the Whitney books, so you'll get to take the inside scoop here.