I do think book prizes are a better-than-average signal but I previously volunteered with a book award. I will caution that pretty much every publisher mass-submits these books for consideration in every remotely relevant prize. It is a cost of doing business (similar to how photographers pay to enter photography competitions to try and win the "award winning photographer" title, or businesses submit dossiers with consideration fees on why they're one of Michigan's top 100 places to work).
There are often so many books and so few willing qualified readers that which books get an award can either be completely arbitrary, or comically easy.
For example, the NCR Book Award in your book corpus faced a big scandal when it was revealed that the judges did not read the books themselves. [1] The PROSE award is so comically large that an ordinary category finalist or win is usually overstated in prestige and value.
Awards are also a product of their time, representing biases among the judges, literary preferences from the readership, and straight up nepotism/favoritisim/elitism. Look at the Hugo/Nebula/Locus and you'll find a lot of so-so winning work throughout the years; especially when you look at the other nominees.
People’s tastes in beer and wine vary so dramatically (and there are so many styles) that it’s not clear to me that you can actually have a “best of.”
The beer and wine I enjoy the best my wife finds completely unpalatable. For wine, I enjoy a dry Grenache; Mas de Gourgonnier is a good one. For beer, I enjoy a beer with body, a malty profile, and balanced hops; there are many mass-produced styles that fit this, but I like Sam Smith Organic Lager, and Leffe Brune. I’ve also brewed many beers myself and one of my all-time favorites was an all-grain formulation of a honey ale [1].
Such is the nature of beer and wine (and HN) that someone is going to “disagree” with me. That’s fine. Just go try some things and see what you like.
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