Recommended Reading, My Books of 2011 So Far…

Can you believe we are halfway through 2011 already? I have more thoughts on all that coming later on today. Why is it that knowing you are halfway through a year makes you think about everything more? Like I said, more on that later today. In the meantime I thought I would give you a list of my books of the year so far. There have been more than ten in my ‘Books of 2011’ category, some have grown on me, some faded over time and some like the marvellous new Ali Smith novel ‘There But For The’ still need a little time to settle on me as do about six books I have read recently and have still only done small notes on pre-review. Getting back to the point without further ado, here are my favourite reads of 2011 so far…

1. The Proof of Love by Catherine Hall
2. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
3. Annabel by Kathleen Winter
4. Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood
5. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
6. Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
7. The Mermaid’s Singing by Val McDermid
8. A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley
9. Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
10. Before I Go To Sleep by  SJ Watson

I wonder if these will still be some of my favourites by the end of the year. There are a few contenders that I haven’t put reviews up on the blog, in fact ‘Swamplandia!’ by Karen Russell which I read ages ago, but haven’t reviewed yet could be a contender. Of course my end of year favourites allow me to cheat a little more, I have ten released in the year and ten released before, this mid-way post is more of a merge.

It is of course now pretty much summer time, and so you could really say that really this is my list of summer reading recommendations, should you be in the need of any. What are your favourite books of the year so far? What would you recommend I get reading over the summer months?

My Orange Shortlist 2011…

Today will see the announcement of The Orange Prize Short List 2011 and I think it’s the most excited I have been about a prizes short list, other than The Green Carnation Prize of course, in quite some time. I was going to call this post ‘guessing the Orange short list 2011’ but I simply can’t second guess what the panel of judges will have chosen as the final six books, even if I have read the entire Orange long list for 2011 (and I did manage it, thanks to my latest stint in the hospital). I can only go on what I would put forward for my six personal choices after having read the lot. So before I make my guesses here are the 20 books long listed once more, all with my score out of ten and links to the ones have posted already, others are from posts pending which will be up over the next week or so (I’m spacing them out in case you are oranged out, as I almost was at one point)…

• Lyrics Alley – Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 7.5/10
• Jamrach’s Menagerie – Carol Birch (Canongate) 9/10
• Room – Emma Donoghue (Picador) 10/10
• The Pleasure Seekers – Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) 7/10
• Whatever You Love – Louise Doughty (Faber & Faber) 8.5/10
• A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan (Corsair) 5/10
• The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) 9/10
• The London Train – Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) 3.5/10
• Grace Williams Says it Loud – Emma Henderson (Sceptre) 9/10 *became a 10/10*
• The Seas – Samantha Hunt (Corsair) 8.5/10
• The Birth of Love – Joanna Kavenna (Faber & Faber) 8/10
• Great House – Nicole Krauss (Viking) 9.5/10
• The Road to Wanting – Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) 7/10
• The Tiger’s Wife – Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 7.5/10
• The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer (Viking) 7.5/10
• Repeat it Today with Tears – Anne Peile (Serpent’s Tail) 8.5/10
• Swamplandia! – Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) 9.5/10
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives – Lola Shoneyin (Serpent’s Tail) 9.5/10
• The Swimmer – Roma Tearne (Harper Press) 6.5/10
• Annabel – Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) 10/10

So like I said rather than guessing what the judges might or might not have in their short list, no one can do that as five individuals will all love very different books (a few of my favourite submissions for The Green Carnation Prize last year didn’t make the longlist as I was out voted, that’s the way it goes sometimes), I looked at my marks out of ten. Did I still rate those books as highly as I did at the time, how did they compare, had some favourites faded and some books stayed with me when I thought they wouldn’t? I then thought about which of the 20 books I would want to have to read again two or more times and which ones I really loved first time but I am not sure I could read again (something I will be discussing on the blog soon). I also ignored hype, and would hope the judges are too. These are the six that I would have chosen if I was a judge, in order of preference…

  

  

It was a really, really tough decision to make because this years twenty books, ok apart from two of them for me personally, were all really strong and reading them has been brilliant on the whole. You might be shocked as two of my favourite books from the list haven’t made my final six. ‘Room’ because though I loved it last year I feel like I have seen and heard too much about it since. ‘Great House’, which is a book that really surprised me with how much I loved it when I least expected it to, could I read it again though? Probably not, though I would be happy if both of these were on the shortlist too and have a feeling they both with be on the real one.I almost popped ‘Repeat It Today With Tears’ on there too as that has really grown on me, and I liked it a lot to start with, but I couldn’t choose seven titles so had to be tough!

The six I have chosen have stayed with me, I’ve connected with them all in some way and most of all really, really enjoyed them. Will I get it right? I am sure that I won’t, I was rubbish at guessing the long list and am sure it will be the same in this instance. It’s the taking part that’s the fun bit though isn’t it? Which books do you think will make the final six? Which ones have you read, or which ones are you really tempted to read? Will you be reading the short listed titles?

P.S This will be my last post on all things Orange for a while, apart from the actual long list of course which I will post later, I am aware Savidge Reads has been quite orangey in the last week or so, so my missing long list reviews will be sporadic over the next few weeks/months leading up to the winner being announced.

The Orange Prize Longlist 2011

Even though there has yet to be an official announcement on their site it seems that The Guardian and The Independent have already announced, rather subtly, what the Orange Longlist 2011 is. I don’t think I am doing anything wrong in doing the same, though I also don’t think that Savidge Reads divulging what’s already out there in much wider read arenas already will make any difference. I tried guessing the Longlist yesterday (thought the post went up at silly o’clock this morning), do have a read, and you can see I did superbly badly in guessing only three (I will put stars next to those three, links to the ones I have read – all one of them – and italics under the ones I have in the TBR) of the titles, which are…

• Lyrics Alley – Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
• Jamrach’s Menagerie – Carol Birch (Canongate)
• Room – Emma Donoghue (Picador)*
• The Pleasure Seekers – Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury)
• Whatever You Love – Louise Doughty (Faber & Faber)
• A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan (Corsair)*
• The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
• The London Train – Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape)
• Grace Williams Says it Loud – Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
• The Seas – Samantha Hunt (Corsair)
• The Birth of Love – Joanna Kavenna (Faber & Faber)
• Great House – Nicole Krauss (Viking)
• The Road to Wanting – Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus)
• The Tiger’s Wife – Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)*
• The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer (Viking)
• Repeat it Today with Tears – Anne Peile (Serpent’s Tail)
• Swamplandia! – Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus)
• The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives – Lola Shoneyin (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Swimmer – Roma Tearne (Harper Press)
• Annabel – Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

I mentioned earlier that actually the less that I got right the happier I would be as it means a whole list of potential delights to discover. I am kicking myself for not going with my Emma Henderson guess and also did a real ‘doh!’ moment when I saw Louise Doughty as I have ‘Whatever You Love’ in my top 5 bedside TBR books. I could focus on the ‘grrr, why didn’t that one get on the list’ feeling a bout a few titles I had read but there are a lot of books to excite me on the list to.

The titles by Leila Aboulela, Carol Birch, Aminatta Forna, Tea Obreht, Karen Russell, Lola Shoneyin and Kathleen Winter are the instant standouts of the books I don’t own and would really like to read having just looked them all up very quickly on Waterstones website. There is a certain amount of ‘really?’ not because I think Tishani Doshi, Jennifer Egan, Samatha Hunt, Anne Peile and Roma Tearne deserve not to be on the list, they are just all books which have come through my doorway and then got lost in the only box that vanished on the move up north. Actually lets move on, I still can’t quite talk about that event as it gets to me a lot, though teaches me I should read faster maybe.

Will I be reading the longlist myself? No, because I don’t have them all, though there are a few I might see if the library has. For now though I will say I will try those titles that I have in the TBR and bring you my thoughts on them, and maybe any which arrive after, before the shortlist is announced on 12^th of April. I don’t think I could read 19 books, remember I have only read one so far, in that time anyways, especially not the massive Orringer. Having said that though, I am going in for a big operation on my birthday next week, so there is lots of recovery time coming…

So what do you think of the list? Which ones have you read and are overjoyed to see on their? Any you have tried and didn’t quite get to grips with? Any books that you are rather miffed didn’t make it? What do you think about the official longlist compared to my rogue one? Any other Orange thoughts?