Man Booker ShortList

If you'd like to see my wishlist for this year take a look here. 

I was hoping that Serious Sweet, The School Days of Jesus and Work Like Any Other would make it but sadly they did not. The top three are now in my TBR list and I am particularly interested in David Szalay's. Here is the Man Booker Shortlist for 2016.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing

Madeline Thien

His Bloody Project

Graeme Macrae Burnet

All That Man Is

David Szalay

The Sellout

Paul Beatty

Eileen

Ottessa Moshfegh

Hot Milk 

Deborah Levy

Congratulations to all of the shortlisted authors and good luck in the next stage!

The Actual Man Booker WINNER 2015

Marlon James, has won the 2015 Man Booker prize with his novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings. Congratulations to his achievement.

The judges accept that some people might struggle to read the book because it's hard work and hard going. But it is a testament to the power of this prize that if you type 'Brief' into google right now, it auto fills with the rest of the book title.

It's an exciting time of year for me because there are so many prizes to follow, and my favourite is always Man Booker because I love original fiction.

I won't be picking up this year's winner. It's not my kind of book, and I think that Man Booker is becoming something different from what it was when I first got excited about it four years ago. What I would consider winning fiction, is no longer what the judges look for. BUT they came to a unanimous decision in two hours, so Marlon James has pulled off something incredible.

Congratulations again, and to all of the shortlist that didn't make it as well!

The ACTUAL Man Booker Shortlist 2015

On Tuesday morning my refreshing thumb was on fire on Twitter waiting for the Man Booker announcement for the shortlist 2015 and at 11am I was rewarded with the list. Here it is.


I am disappointed that just one of my favourites from the long list has made it to the shortlist. I'm currently half way though The Chimes and am surprised that it has not been selected. There was a lot of comments in the media about how the odds were against Anna Smaill's first novel which is a shame because I am enjoying it very much.


A Little Life has, as predicted, made it to the shortlist. Sometimes harrowing, sometimes romantic and utterly gripping are a few of the ways it has been described. Personally I am not a fan of massively harrowing stories and will be avoiding it even if it wins. It is also the largest book in the list which always makes me suspicious...You didn't read it; admit it, it was long and wordy and you want to burn the damn thing. I'm sure that isn't true but I am always suspicious of longer books on prize lists.


Satin Island by Tom McCarthy looks to be some kind of American psycho style story set against a corporate background and punctuated by the media that affects the main protagonist U. It sounds a little heavy to get through, and could be quite hard to follow and reviews confirm that it is "confusing". Not really something I'd consider a criteria for 'literary fiction'.



A Brief History Of Seven Killings
Following the story of an attempted assassination of Bob Marley, Jamaican writer Marlon James's third novel is reportedly written in a considerable amount of patois which some readers find difficult. The taste of the judges this year appears to be very conflicting with my own as so far we're half way through the list and I'm not excited about any of the subject matters so far.


The Fishermen
Okay here we go, some real fiction, some real originality makes it onto the list. The story follows four brothers who discover a prophesy which drives a wedge between each of them. The guardian has called it a promising debut novel and I am pleased to see a first novel on the list because I think that's important for the Man Booker Prize to be promoting new authors.

The Year of the Runaways
This one sounds a lot like The Island or What Was Promised about migrants in Sheffield. It's definitely got the topical element on its side but its not particularly grabbing for me. The guardian calls it a beautiful and brilliant novel and most reviewers give it 5 stars. A more promising second half of the list.


A Spool of Blue Thread
It so nearly made it onto my predicted shortlist! with a ton of prize nominations and best seller aclaim, Anne Tyler has got some serious character writing behind her which people LOVE to read. A Spool of Blue Thread tops my wishlist at the moment.

Overall I'm not loving the list but it's 50/50 love/hate so fingers crossed for them all. I hope I wasnt too critical, I am really looking forward to the winner being announced.

Sticking with your reading

I love reading, I love talking about books, I love spending time in book shops and reading on the train, the car, in bed. But sometimes I know that I am falling behind with my book. There are so many other distractions which pull me away from reading at the moment. I love how busy I am but it does mean squeezing my reading in between everything else.


One thing that helps me want to read is a good book. When I'm reading something that interests me it is easier to pick it up at every opportunity. Those are the days that I will roll over on a Sunday morning and refuse to leave my bed until I finish every page. Sometimes the book I'm reading isn't a cliff hanger read that forces me to return again and again and I end up spending my days listening to podcasts or music and playing candy crush because the story doesn't pull me back.


If that is the case, should I even be reading that book? I would argue that yes, I should be reading that book, even if I am struggling to fit it into my schedule. This is where my 50 page rule comes up AGAIN I feel indebted to the author and industry to read the whole book if I was sucked in by good writing at the start.


Another way I reconnect to my books is by actually looking at them. Reorganising my shelves and paying attention to what I actually want to read is my favourite way to get inspired to read more. Because there are always more books waiting to be read.


There has been a recent suggestion by a friend to start a vague bookclub so that we can talk about books together. And that has been a huge motivation to 'crack on' with my book and start talking about it with friends. It's something I really miss from university, when we were all reading the set text, getting to bitch about it for hours was brilliant and I think I might be about to get that back. The group of colleagues I have my tea break with are all avid book readers or students of literature and although we have very different tastes there is a ton of bookish discussion that has started, mostly by the Man Booker long list being announced.


Finally the last reason I keep reading is for this blog, it's a real motivator to finish a book by the end of the month so that I can write my reviews. Twitter is the main place I post about my blog, so if I am marketing my own writing I quite often have my eye on what publishers have coming out and what books people are blogging about. It's exciting to read about books and to write about them, so I have to do some of the primary research too and actually READ.


On that note, I have a book to finish.

August Reviews

The Moor's Account
Laila Lalami
Periscope (Garnet) 30/7/2015 Paperback
4/5
Bought in Bookshop


The first on the list for the Man Booker Long list. I knew I wanted to get started with some of the chosen long list and when I wandered into the local bookshop near my work The Moors Account was both on my own personal shortlist AND was only £9.99. The story follows an expedition of Spanish soldiers and settlers out looking for gold in the new world of La Florida (sound familiar?). The twist is that the story is told through the eyes of a slave from Azemmour in Portugal.


The book is a fictionalised retelling of a genuine expedition which ended with just four survivors. Laila Lalami's novel is based on a single line in one of the survivor's records: "The forth survivor is Estevancio, an Arab Negro from Azamor."


The story looks into the developing relationship between master and slave when in survival situations. The gradual shift in the relationship back and forth is interesting to follow throughout each adventure in the 8 years that the expedition wanders, lost, through the wilderness. The skills of each man become more important as the situation worsens and improves and the hierarchy of the group continuously changes.


I loved this story, it has one of my style pet peeves which is that there are no speech marks which has been creeping into books more and more these days which I do not see the point of. It doesn't make the story hard to follow, however principally I find it difficult to find my place again if I ended on a chunk of speech and have to scan for the precise word rather than the rough approximation of where I was in the conversation.


Other than the small punctuation issue, I thought the book was descriptive, immersive and gripping. I was pleased with the ending and the story engaged me throughout although it was quite a long story and because there is no real beginning middle and end there is a slightly strange feeling to finishing it as if there is more to tell even though the adventure is over.

Man Booker Shortlist

The announcement was made this Tuesday! This is the Man Booker Shortlist 2014. Fingers crossed for the winner. (14th October 2014)

Very interesting list, I was surprised that Mitchell didn't make it on. But I am very pleased to see Karen J Fowler on there.

How to be Both by Ali Smith - Hamish Hamilton (Penguin)

J by Howard Jacobson - Random House

The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee




















The Narrow Road to the Deep North

To Rise Again At A Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen J Fowler

August Reads

Time for the August round up! Shockingly low numbers here. I have actually read a third, but it is a manuscript under consideration so I can't tell you anything about it. If it ever gets published I'll review it though.

I do hope that I can bring my average up next month. I'd like to keep the average around 3/4. It is really tough to balance around work.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
Profile 19/06/14 Paperback
8/10
Off The Shelf

Waacbo, as it is affectionately called in the office, was long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Shortlist to be announced (9th Sept). I'm fairly certain it will be shortlisted, and might even win! It is outselling all the other long list books put together.

I was nothing to do with this book, it was all sorted before my time, but I was very glad to have read it. It has a very interesting look at a topic I knew nothing about. The characters are curious, and intriguing. They are not necessarily people I would want to know... But they make for fantastic reading. READ it. BUY it.

I found the book so interesting, (I can't give away the twist!) and it is written so well. A brilliant insight into humanity, how and why we do things and why it is important. Not to mention the bizarre nature of childhood memories.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
Portobello Books 7/06/14 Kindle
8/10
Kindle

I hadn't realised that this was non-fiction until I read the acknowledgements at the end of the book. I discovered that Katherine Boo is a journalist (I didn't know she had won the Pulitzer, or that would have been a giveaway...) who threw herself into the slums of Mumbai and became so much part of the furniture that she could recount the incredible stories and events in this marvelous book.

What I loved about this book was not just the stories of poverty, but that within poverty there are different levels of ambition, pride and ability. That a garbage sorter's lively hood might not be as meager as others might think, despite the taboo of the job. An incredible and inspirational story.

See my review of what I thought of reading on a kindle here.

I may have only read two books this month, and one that I can't tell you about, but they were all 8/10. The highest mark I've given so far. I think 10s pretty much belong to old favourites like Diana Gabledon's Outlander series. By the way, is anyone else watching the Starz series of Outlander?