Books To Take on Holiday… Help!

Excitingly I am off on holiday tomorrow to Cyprus for a week of sun, sea, sand, ruins, cocktails and much reading on sun loungers (if the weather is to be believed) or the balcony. I cannot wait, this is my first holiday ‘not doing anything’ in three years and the prospect of just reading, mooching about, paddling and swimming is a little bit too joyful. What isn’t joyful however is deciding what on earth to pack book-wise. As many of you will know I loathe my Kindle Fire with a passion (the glare, the lack of pages, etc, I have tried I really have) so books is the only way. After many painstaking hours I have come up with a shortlist, which is 21 books long and takes up the entirety of one case. So I need your help to whittle it down so I can actually fit some clothes in. Here are the choices…

• The Versions of Us – Laura Barnett
• The Sellout – Paul Beatty
• Black Water – Louise Doughty
• The Danish Girl – David Ebershoff
• The Fair Fight – Anna Freeman
• Our Endless Numbered Days – Claire Fuller
• The Girl in the Red Coat – Kate Hamer
• The Ship – Antonia Honeywell
• Moriarty – Anthony Horowitz
• The Loney – Andrew Michael Hurley
• Human Acts – Han Kang
• Disclaimer – Renee Knight
• A Reunion of Ghosts – Judith Claire Mitchell
• This Must Be The Place – Maggie O’Farrell
• The Illuminations – Andrew O’Hagan
• Anatomy of a Soldier – Harry Parker
• Merciless Gods – Christos Tsiolkas
• The Good Liar – Nicholas Searle
• Gold Flame Citrus – Claire Vaye Watkins
• A Lovely Way To Burn – Louise Welsh
• A Year of Marvellous Ways – Sarah Winman

So which of these have you read and, without giving any spoilers away, what did you make of them? I will then check your answers before I leave and pick seven, maybe 8 (as the flight is 5 hours each way, notice the excuses start creeping in) for the trip. Now I better sort out my pants and other attire, thanks in advance.

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The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2014

Now if you have seen me chuntering on about this on Twitter, you can forgive me, ignore this post or just enjoy the exciting news all over again. Yes, today has been the announcement of the Green Carnation Prize 2014’s longlist. You may or may not know that this prize is very close to my heart as it is one that I co-founded way back in 2010 (I won’t go on you can read all about it here) to celebrate LGBT writing as it is something, that believe it or not, there is still sometimes some stumbling blocks in the way of. The prize has gone from strength to strength in the last five years, with a lot of hard work I won’t lie, and is now in association with Foyles Bookshops and this years judges have come up with this rather wonderful selection of books…

The Green Carnation Prize Longlist 2014

• Through The Woods – Emily Carroll (Faber & Faber)
• The Absent Therapist – Will Eaves (CB Editions)
• The Fair Fight – Anna Freeman (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• All The Days and Nights – Niven Govinden (The Friday Project)
• Vixen – Rosie Garland (Borough Press)
• Thirst – Kerry Hudson (Chatto & Windus)
• The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales – Kirsty Logan (Salt)
• In Search of Solace – Emily Mackie (Sceptre)
• Any Other Mouth – Anneliese Mackintosh (Freight)
• The Lives of Others – Neel Mukherjee (Chatto & Windus)
• Unspeakable Things – Laurie Penny (Bloomsbury)
• Invisible Love – Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (Europa Editions)
• The Glasgow Coma Scale – Neil D. A. Stewart (Corsair)

What is exciting is that while I do all the admin of the prize and the snaring of judges, I have absolutely no control over what the judges choose as their longlist out of the submissions they get (this year was the most ever). I just make sure they all have them really and sit in on meetings to make sure it is all above board. I have to keep my mouth shut and remain nonchalant throughout even if books I love get culled – after all I haven’t read the whole lot of submission have I? Well, not since I stopped judging. So the longlist is always a surprise to me. Having had a few days to think on this list (a small bonus that almost makes up for all the press release, website and social media scheduling madness that follows the decision) the more and more I have fallen in love with it.

To me, at least, it seems like a really diverse and exciting list of all sorts of writing be it a thick epic novel or a short snappy one, a memoir, a short story collection, memoir, non fiction or graphic novel. Amazing. There is a mix of the big publishers and the smaller indies. There is also a wealth of authors I had and hadn’t heard of, meaning some new exciting voices look to be on my reading horizon… Yes, I am planning on reading all (eight) that I haven’t yet in the next few weeks and I am really excited about it. Though I might not be able to talk to you about them until after the winner, though maybe not being a judge I can? What do you think? Hmmm, I will have a think! Either way is it bad that I feel very proud of the prize, the judges and even a teeny weeny bit proud of myself?

For more info on the prize, the judges, events and more head to the website here. What are your thoughts on the list? Have you read any of them? Will you be reading any of them? As always I would love to hear your thoughts.