I hadn’t planned on reading this year’s Booker longlist but it intrigues me that I haven’t even heard of most of these titles that have been nominated for a prize that I’ve been following with interest for the past couple of years. So I am posting this list with an intent to read at least a few of these books before the next round of finalists are announced in September. Some of the books haven’t been published in the US yet which means they aren’t available to read in print form but we’ll see what I can get my hands on before September 18th. A few of the novels are available at my library so those will probably be the ones I read first. If I am spectacularly interested in a title, I will buy it later but right now, a place on the Booker longlist isn’t enough of an endorsement that it will be a book I enjoy.
- Snap/Belinda Bauer (NYPL request)
- Milkman /Anna Burns
- Sabrina /Nick Drnaso (NYPL request)
- Washington Black /Esi Edugyan (Ordered from Book Depository and Read)
- In Our Mad and Furious City /Guy Gunaratne
- Everything Under /Daisy Johnson
- The Mars Room /Rachel Kushner (I read a NYPL copy)
- The Water Cure /Sophie Mackintosh (NYPL request)
- Warlight /Michael Ondaatje (NYPL request)
- The Overstory /Richard Powers (NYPL request)
- The Long Take /Robin Robertson
- Normal People /Sally Rooney
- From a Low and Quiet Sea /Donal Ryan (I read a NYPL copy – click to read my review
I will update this post as I read the books and hopefully I’ll be able to make some commentary or predictions before the September 18th shortlist announcement.
Hi ya Karen, that sounds like a bit of a job. How long will it take?
How have you been?
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Haha. I haven’t read any of them yet so we’ll see whether it’s even a job I can complete 😉
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I’m sure you’ll have a damn good go!
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Interesting list, many regular followers of this prize seem not to have encountered many of the books, I do wonder if that’s because some of the more common and known publishers now have relationships with many bloggers and avid readers, so although they read aot more and widely, it’s from a similar pool, whereas this prize limits the number of books an individual publisher can nominate, meaning it’s open to many lesser known publishers that aren’t quite as touted by the book reading community. Just a thought.
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Interesting, Claire. I do wonder what goes on behind the scenes and how a a publisher determines which of their books will be submitted for consideration. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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