Peter Carey Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Robert Edric Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Nadine Gordimer Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Kate Grenville The Secret River (Canongate)
M.J. Hyland, Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Howard Jacobson Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
James Lasdun Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Mary Lawson The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
Jon McGregor So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Hisham Matar In the Country of Men (Viking)
Claire Messud The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
David Mitchell Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Naeem Murr The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
Andrew O’Hagan Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
James Robertson The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
Edward St Aubyn Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Barry Unsworth The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Sarah Waters The Night Watch (Virago)
Postscript
*Waters, Carey and Mitchell are the bookmakers hottest tips for winner, apparently. With Jacobson and Unsworth hotly tipped to make the longlist. The fun begins!
15 comments:
You're back! Hooray! Just in time for the Booker Longlist too... Am looking forward to browsing through these books in the stores soon...
Welcome back.
thanks. 'snice to be missed and good to be back no matter how lovely (and it was, it was) the beach
So far I've read David Mitchell (Go Mitchell! Go Mitchell!). I'm reading Sarah Waters's as an MSLit ebook now. I'm also excited about Unsworth's new book - a great fan. So next week it's book shopping time - again. I hope Kino would be apprised of the list by now, and is exhibiting those books soon, with 30% off.
leon - that's exactly what i'm waiting for! i've read sarah waters, and have copies of the carey and mitchell. that makes 16 to buy.
Kiran Desai's mum Anita was nominated I think 3 or 4 times.. but never won. Interesting -- are there any other parent/child pairs who've been nominated over the years, or maybe spouses, other relations?
Welcomd back, Sharon. I hope you had a lovely time.
Via Kimbofo's Reading Matters, comes news of a forum devoted to discussion of the finalists in this year's Man Booker Prize.
I bought four of the finalists from The Book Depository yesterday.
I've found their prices to be cheaper than local Sydney bookshops and the books are sent by free airmail. The longest it took a book to arrive from the UK to my postbox was 6 days.
(I am just a customer of TBD and have no financial interest.)
Slaps forehead as I notice you have TDB in your sidebar! Go back to sleep, Ron.
Welcome back, Sharon! Nothing like a good holiday to rejuvenate and refresh the body, soul and mind, eh?
Crossing my fingers and hoping for a Mitchell win! I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories like his book's subject matter! Defnitely a book I want to have in my collection...when my pay comes in! :p
You're back!! Don't disappoint your fans by disappearing so soon again.
You missed defending your chosen book at the Book Club meet the other night. This is becoming a trend, you and Gene Girl.
Signing Off,
Self Appointed President of the Sharon Bakar Groupie Club
sharanya - not award winning parent-child pairs ... though Andre Dubus and his dad, and Paul Theroux and his son come to mind as examples of famous writer pairs
hi ron and thanks for the heads up on the forum. i don't feel that i can look at it until i've read some more of the titles which won't be for a while 'cos i have other books getting in the way ...
good for the book depository! as leon says, we are waiting for our favourite bookshop here to drop prices by 30% as it did last year!
eternal wanderer - yes, mitchell's book looks interesting
animah - so sorry i wasn't there. intended to be but then my sister and her family decided that they wanted to have another beachy holiday. "small island" wasn't my "recommendation" 'cos i hadn't read it either, but i put it on the list of suggestions because it was voted best of the orange prize winners. hate to admit i am not at the end yet though (too many distractions!) but really am enjoying it. will post my comments on it here soon. bumped into muntaj yesterday and it seems the reaction from the group was less than euphoric? i'm sad.
Yup, Sharon, it's a whole lotta reading going on.
I'm pitting for Mitchell over Carey. Think I'll be in Samurai mode if Mitchell doesn't figure on the shortlist at least.
Though my eyes are going to be peeled on Claire Messud's 'The Emperor's Children'. Just 50 pages into it and it holds the promise of a book you want to see on your shelf forever. It's got journalists, 9/11, villians and so much more.
The usually conservative 'Economist' ends their review thus:
"Buy two copies; give one to a friend".
Publishers Weekly has given it a starred review (would have been a surprise if it was anything but...)
"Her writing is so fluid, and her plot so cleverly constructed, that events seem inevitable, yet the narrative is ultimately surprising and masterful.”
Now, if that hasn't got you to the bookstore already.....
And I didn't even get to Hisham Matar's ' In The Country of Men'. Haven't read it, though the serious bookies who have give it the ravest of rave reviews.
It's a similar story for Naeem Murr's 'The Perfect Man'. Murr's is a story in itself, was on the road to engineering, when he discovered the accidental author in him.
Oh well...
Here's to more sleepless nights ahead.
thanks for the recommendations. you're way ahead of me and i have other books getting between me and the booker list. i'm steaming up ...
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