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Booker Prize Other

The Man Booker Long List 2010

The Booker long list was announced yesterday. I was surprised by the number of relatively unknown books on the list and initially frustrated that I had read so few. I’m planning to read the entire Booker long list and so will have to put in a lot of effort if I am to complete them all before the short list is announced on 7th September.

The three I’ve already read:

 

…a light, entertaining read..

The Long Song – Andrea Levy stars41

The graphic sex, abusive language and controversial subject means that this book isn’t for everyone, but it will generate debate and isn’t that a great thing for a book to do?

The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas stars41

 

 

 

 

….the complexity will put off all but the most determined reader.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell stars41

The ten books you’ll hopefully see on this blog soon:

 

  

It will terrify you and disturb you… Book Lust

…not nearly as life-changing as rave blurb quotations suggested. @urchinette

There have been some comparisons to The Lovely Bones but I would say this is better… Writer’s Little Helper

Room – Emma Donoghue

 

 

Some of you will probably ‘get’ it… books i done read

It’s no Oscar and Lucinda, of course, but it’s still pretty good.  Vulpes Libris

Parrot and Olivier in America – Peter Carey

 

  

No blogger reviews, but Scarlett Thomas said:

This is such a page-turner, and is in places so gruesome, that reading it becomes more visceral than intellectual…

The Betrayal – Helen Dunmore

 

 

No blogger reviews, but Jan Morris said:

…through the sadnesses and the pathos, the disappointments and the disillusionments, kindness shines.

In a Strange Room – Damon Galgut

 

 

No blogger reviews, but Twitter was full of love for Howard Jacobson!

..an underrated writer who has thrilled me over and over again. @JonnyBest

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

 

 

Tom McCarthy seems to be dividing opinion:

…the deliberately flattened, almost mechanical characters and the endless technical prose make for joyless reading… Theo Tait

…one of my top 5 novel’s of the year so far… @rbertsindelar

C – Tom McCarthy

 

 

The book is very striking without being a sob-fest. Monniblog

Please, do me a favour and read this book. Sasquatch Radio

February – Lisa Moore

 

 

….there is so much energy that it explodes out in unexpected directions. Asylum

It’s a rich, immersive read that you shouldn’t miss. Follow the Thread

Skippy Dies – Paul Murray

 

 

The style and the themes hit, but for me, the emotional side of the story didn’t. Fleur Fisher Reads

Unfortunately I felt that in comparison to The Road Home, the book was quite slow. Cardigangirlverity

Trespass – Rose Tremain

 

 

You don’t have to have read The Sopranos to make sense of The Stars in the Bright Sky, or to be instantly hooked by it. Thomas Jones

Am delighted Alan Warner made it onto the Booker longlist. Scottish, funny, experimental, searching – what’s not to like? @writercampbell

The Stars in the Bright Sky – Alan Warner

When the long list was announced I initially felt a bit disappointed that I hadn’t heard of more of the books, but having just spent the morning researching this blog post I have regained my Booker enthusiasm. Almost every book now appeals to me and I am very excited to begin my Booker challenge. I’m particularly excited about reading Room, C and Skippy Dies.

Wish me luck!

Are you planning to read the complete long list?

Which books are most appealing to you?

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Booker Prize Other

Who will make the Man Booker Prize Long List 2010?

The long list for the Booker Prize will be revealed on Tuesday 27th July. I’m so excited! I have read a lot of fantastic new fiction this year and so trying to select 13 books for my ‘Booker dozen’ prediction was very hard. In the end I chose:

 

 

I think that Mitchell will win the Booker this year, but it’s probably too early for that sort of prediction!

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Books I’ve read, with links to my reviews:

Rupture – Simon Lelic  

The Birth of Love – Joanna Kavenna 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell stars41

Ruby’s Spoon – Anna Lawrence Pietroni stars41

The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas stars41

Even the Dogs – Jon McGregor  stars41

Solar – Ian McEwan 

Illustrado – Miguel Syjuco 

Books I’ve heard wonderful things about and hope to read soon:

Forgetting Zoe – Ray Robinson

Room – Emma Donoghue

The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell

Parrot and Olivier in America – Peter Carey

The Go-Away Bird – Warren FitzGerald

I plan to read the complete Booker long list this year, but I’m hoping that I’ll have read the majority of them and so this won’t be such a hard task.

What do you think of my selection?

Who do you think will make the Booker long list?

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Other

Book Drum

Book Drum is a great new website designed to bring books to life with the addition of images, historical information, videos and music.

They are initially trying to enhance 500 classic books and I decided to profile my all-time favourite: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry 

I loved researching and explaining all the historical detail and enjoyed the challenge of trying to find appropriate maps, pictures and video clips. I wish that these details had been available when I read the book for the first time as the knowledge has given me a far greater appreciation of the book.

My A Fine Balance profile has been launched on the book drum site today, so please take a look!

Do you think you’d look at a Book Drum profile as you read a book?

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Other

June Summary and Plans for July

I read 11 books in June. The month seemed to fly by and I am quite pleased that I still managed to read so many books when I had such a packed schedule.

Book of the month

The Prestige – Christopher Priest 

I Know This Much is True – Wally Lamb 

Red April – Santiago Roncagliolo 

Marcelo in the Real World – Francisco Stork  

Our Tragic Universe – Scarlett Thomas 

Songs from the Other Side of the Wall – Dan Holloway 

The Russian Countess – Edith Sollohub 

Good to a Fault – Marina Endicott 

Bequest – A.K. Shevchenko 

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner 

Beatrice and Virgil – Yann Martel 

The Lacuna – Barbara Kingsolver  (DNF)

Plans for July 

I love the list of books that I have lined up for July. It includes a lot of prize winners and so I am hoping that the quality will be far better than my June reads. I know I won’t be able to read them all, but I don’t like to limit myself too much.

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

A Life Apart – Neel Murkherjee

The Piano Teacher – Elfriede Jelinek

Palace Walk – Naguib Mahfouz

How Late it Was, How Late – James Kelman

Before the Fact – Frances Iles

The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

Luke and Jon – Robert Williams


The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill

Tinkers – Paul Harding

Bad Karma – David Safier

Young Hitler – Claus Hant

Sweetness in the Belly – Camilla Gibb

The Republic of Trees – Sam Taylor

Which books should I ensure I read in July?

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Other

The TV Book Club: Summer Reads 2010

The TV Book Club has recently revealed the books that will be featured on their Summer Reads series.

The eight books are:


The Help – Kathryn Stockett

The Man Who Disappeared – Claire Morrall

The Legacy – Katherine Webb

The Bed I Made – Lucie Whitehouse

Stone’s Fall – Iain Pears

Ellis Island – Kate Kerrigan

The Devil’s Acre – Matthew Plampin

The Weight of Silence – Heather Gudenkauf

Which ones will I read?

I have read two of the books already:

The Help – Kathryn Stockett stars4h

Stone’s Fall – Iain Pears  stars51

Both featured on my Best Reads of 2009 list, which is a very promising start to this season’s TV Book Club.

The other two books that immediately jump out at me are:

The Weight of Silence – Heather Gudenkauf

The Man Who Disappeared – Claire Morrall

Both sound like my sort of thing, so I’ll probably read them at some point. I don’t think I’ll read the entire list this time – I’ll be concentrating on the Booker long list instead!

The series begins on Sunday 27th June on More 4, when they will be discussing The Help.

What do you think of the selection?

Have you read any of the other books? 

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Other

You don’t have to go away to have a great time….

It was my birthday on Saturday and I have been celebrating by having a mini holiday from home. It is amazing how many things I managed to do without having to go away.

I started out by going to Chessington, a theme park close to my house. I’m not a fan of the scary roller-coasters, but had great fun taking my little boys on the gentler rides.

We went to a ‘pick your own’ farm and got our first strawberries of the season. (That is my little boy on the right and my nephew on the left)

In the evening I went to see Leona Lewis sing at the O2. She has the most amazing voice! Fans of fantasy will love her performance too – the costumes and stage props all looked as though they’d stepped out of a fairy tale. 

To finish off my weekend we paid a little trip to a doughnut factory.

We also managed to squeeze in an amazing Japanese meal and a few bottles of wine! I’m afraid that I haven’t done much reading for the last few days, but my parents bought me a few books that were lurking at the top of my wish list.

I am now the proud owner of:

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
The Housekeeper and the Professor – Yoko Ogawa
The Affirmation – Christopher Priest

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend too!