The Women’s Prize Longlist 2019

What better excuse to blow the cobwebs off this blog than with the 2019 longlist announcement, of what is probably my very favourite prizes, the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Those of you who have been visitors of the blog for a long time (and sorry it has been the most defunct on and off book blog in the blogosphere, possibly) will know how much I love the prize and have done for many a year. I have played at guessing the longlist for yeeeeeeeears, you can see me doing this recently in a video on my channel here if you have missed it, I have also read the longlist for a few years now. I will be doing it again with a special guest this year, more on that shortly but first here is the selection of books that have just been announced…

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Fenton
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
Milkman by Anna Burns
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
Bottle Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden
Circe by Madeline Miller
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
Normal Peopleby Sally Rooney

I had only guessed six of the longlist, which isn’t my best ever BUT that is never a bad thing, one of the things I always love about a longlist is having books I own bumped up the TBR or finding new to me books, in this case the Li, Luiselli and McFadden. I have also read six of the books; Braithwaite, Burns, Emezi, Miller, Moss (which I thought might be too short to be on the list but I am thrilled is) and Rooney – all of which I will be reviewing on the blog soon. Promise.

Now then, I am going to be reading the longlist as I have for the last few years and I did mention a special guest… This year I am going to be reading the shortlist (and hopefully the longlist as she might have got a little head start) with my Mum, who I will be making videos and all sorts with. We are very excited.

I am also very excited to read the rest of the list. I talk about them in a little more detail on my channel here. What are your thoughts on the list and will you be reading any or all of them? Which have you read already and what did you make of them? Let me know ALL your thoughts!

The Tournament of Books 2016

For the last few years I have heard the lovely Ann and Michael, of Books on the Nightstand, mention a mysterious thing called The Tournament of Books. Before many of you laugh or look at the screen and say ‘pah!’, we can’t know everything about books and this is something that happens in the states rather than over here, though admittedly thanks to the internet the world is a much smaller place. It happens every March and it is roughly around the end I finally remember to investigate by which time I have missed out on lots of the fun. Thankfully this year Frances from NonSuchBook reminded me on Twitter and so I have decided to try and read along as it sounds a) like it will introduce me to some new reads b) push some reads up my TBR c) be fun in the realm of the Guardian’s Not the Booker, so I am in.

If you haven’t followed the ToB before, here’s the summary: Starting in early March and proceeding each weekday, one of our judges—the full list is below—will read two books, choose one to advance, and explain how they reached their decision. The criteria is entirely personal; we merely ask for no basketball metaphors, and that the judge render their decision-making process in full transparency, and also tell you any connections they might have to the authors and/or books involved. Then our commentators, Kevin Guilfoile and John Warner, weigh in, followed by the wonderful community of readers that turn the comments section into one of the smarter, more interesting discussions of contemporary fiction that we know about. There. Simple-ish.

I think really the best way to go about it is to get reading (thankfully I have already read the longest one, can you guess which one it is?) and he is the list of books that have formed the Tournament of Books 2016 shortlist…

• The New World by Chris Adrian and Eli Horowitz
• The Sellout by Paul Beatty
• Bats of the Republic by Zachary Thomas Dodson
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
• Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
• Ban en Banlieue by Bhanu Kapil
• The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
• The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The Whites by Richard Price
• Oreo by Fran Ross
• The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
• The Invaders by Karolina Waclawiak
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
  

You can find out about each title here. Shock horror, I have only read one of these books (which I have added a link to) but I do own a few (which I have popped in italics) of them. Also having perused the list in full there are lots and lots of book there that I want to read both that I have heard of and some which I had no clue about but might have ordered copies of to come from the US of A – hey I am thinking of reads for my holiday in a few weeks, and as I cannot locate any of my own books what else was I to do? So which are these books, funny you should ask I thought I would share my thoughts.

Anne Tyler and Chris Adrian I have read before and loved, I had no idea the Adrian was already out in the UK so that pleased me. Kent Haruf I have meant to read since forever. When I was in America last year I very nearly bought both Oreo by Fran Ross and The Turner House by Angela Flournoy as they sounds like books I wanted, in fact it was Flournoy’s setting of Detroit after visiting it which I was fascinated by. The Whites had a rave review from Jason Steiger on my favourite book TV show, The ABC Book Club, so it’s been on my periphery. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathiser made it onto my list of books of the first six months of 2016 (you can hear me talk about it and 12 others on The Readers here, a post of a full massive list will go live on the blog on Tuesday) so I will by that when it comes out next month. Then there are the unknowns of which Ban en Banlieue has me at hello, so much so I ordered it from the publisher. Erm, in hindsight I have pretty much mentioned the entire list so no wonder it has got my bookish bits excited. Mind you the longlist also had me very tempted too. Ha!

So which to read first? Anyone else joining in with this, done it before or are completely new to it like me? Have you read any of the books and what did you make of them?