The Year in Books: August: She reads the Booker longlist -- usually, but not this time!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

August: She reads the Booker longlist -- usually, but not this time!

I'm breaking with tradition here. August and September are usually reserved for tackling that baker's dozen of the Booker Prize longlist, but not this year. I'm still in summer mode, and I'm not quite ready to pick up pen or paper for taking notes while I read. So I'm going to be lazy for another month, and pick up the Booker books when the shortlist comes out.

If you haven't heard yet, the longlist this year is as follows:

A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki

Almost English, by Charlotte Mendelson

Five Star Billionaire, by Tash Aw

Harvest, by Jim Crace

The Kills, by Richard House

The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman, by Eve Harris

The Spinning Heart, by Donal Ryan

The Testament of Mary, by Colm Tóibín

TransAtlantic, by Colum McCann

Unexploded, by Alison MacLeod

We Need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo

I've already started on The Kills, which I actually ordered before the longlist came out because it sounded very offbeat and weird -- kind of right up my alley. I've finished We Need New Names (which I really loved) and TransAtlantic (which I really liked); and I have a lot of these books in my library or they've already been preordered.

In the meantime, I'm staying in pure summer mode, reading down the tbr pile -- if one or two of these novels gets thrown into the mix, well, good enough. I'll be back in September to read the shortlist. For now, though, it's the last days of summer, and I'm going to be lazy.

Five Star Billionaire Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)

We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)

The Luminaries Eleanor Catton (Granta)

Harvest Jim Crace (Picador)

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman Eve Harris (Sandstone Press)

The Kills Richard House (Picador)

The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)

Unexploded Alison MacLeod ( Hamish Hamilton)

TransAtlantic Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)

Almost English Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle)

A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)

The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan (Doubleday)