NEW YORK _ The stirring memoir “Something To Prove: A Daughter’s Journey to Fulfill A Father’s Legacy” is the winner of the 2011 New York Book Festival, an annual competition celebrating books deserving greater recognition from the world publishing capital.

The sequel to the best-selling “The Ditchdigger’s Daughters,” Dr. Thornton reveals how she ascended to the top of her field as a physician by drawing on her father’s teachings. Despite bias and setbacks, she became a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and a double Board-certified specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and maternal-fetal medicine.

The book’s clear-eyed look at a complicated field, combined with its introspective and very human look at parenting and the working world, charmed the judges for the competition. Thornton will be honored at an awards ceremony June 10 at the Algonquin Hotel.

Other winners in the competition:

NON-FICTION

WINNER: No One Would Believe It – Evelyn Kelly Norman

• Afriats: Understanding Forced Interpersonal Interactions – Richard Bird Baker
• Atlas of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – David Eltis/David Richardson
• A Man From Another Land – Isaiah Washington/LaVaille Lavette
• Raised by the Courts – Judge Irene Sullivan
• Shift Happens – James De. Feldman
• The Big Scare – Anthony Horan, MD
• When Cancer Hits Home – Patrick Maguire
• The Consulting Room and Beyond – Therese Ragen
• Raising a Successful Child (The Manual) – Dr. M. Mark McKee
• You Can’t Take the Bronx Out of My Dad – Kenneth M. Hand
• Puritan Parker – Bernard S. Parker
• Get the Best Medical Care – Donna Maldonado-Schullo
• Delicate Courage – Jim Geary
• Hell on Two Wheels – Amy Snyder
• Tales of New York – John Keatts
• The Accidental Activist – Alon Shalev

FICTION

WINNER: Marvin Piersoll – Bernard Mendillo

What the Torah Teaches Us About Spirituality – Laura Weakley