Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This prompt is all about reading fabulous works written by women which either won or were nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction. This award does change names sporadically when they change sponsors, it is currently labeled 'Bailey's Prize', but was also called 'Orange Prize'.

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Suggestions:
The official Website
The 2013-2017 list
The 1996-2012 list

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Optional questions:
- What are you reading for this category?
- Why did you choose this book?
- When browsing through the lists, did you see many books you already read?

My original choice was A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, but I will probably read A Little Life instead

I'm a little terrified to read A Little Life but that may have to end up being my pick. I really want to see what all the hype is about.

Laura wrote: "I'm a little terrified to read A Little Life but that may have to end up being my pick. I really want to see what all the hype is about."

Me too, Laura, but its so loooong :-( 720 pages.

The reviews though .....

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet or Oryx and Crake as a substitute for MaddAddam

I've been wanting to read these for awhile.

I've only read Station Eleven from the list and I didn't enjoy it.

I have several appealing options of this one: Americanah, Alias Grace, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Station Eleven, We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Vintner's Luck.

I may finally read Gone Girl this year for this prompt.

Other books I own are:
A Gate at the Stairs - Lorrie Moore
Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

The only two that I want to read at all are The Goldfinch and The Invention of Everything Else so we'll see what I go with. Award lists are always such a tough one because if you don't have the same taste as the award committee you are shit out of luck.

Uh...ummmm...I just read again (for the first time?) the reviews on A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing.... I think I'll stick with A Little Life.

Maybe Half Formed Thing would work for the " Book with a Unique Format " prompt? Or the intimidating one........

Wound up with far more choices than I expected for this one! So far I have four contenders:
1. Swamplandia! (a book I own and have been meaning to read for a while)
2. The History of Love (a recommendation from one of my friends)
3. The Paying Guests (a recommendation from my book calendar earlier this year that peaked my interest)
4. The Essex Serpent (a book that stuck out to me when I initially looked at potential options for this category)

No idea which one I'll read for this; we'll see what stands out when the year starts!

I have 9 of the books on my bookshelves so there are lots of options! Some of them I already have slotted for other weeks. My plan is to read the one I've owned the longest (1997!) Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx. Surprisingly, the books on the list that I HAVE read, I didn't like.

An author that I highly recommend, who may not be so well known, is Andrea Barrett. Her book The Voyage of the Narwhal is my 2nd choice. She always manages to weave in science elements to her stories, which I find fascinating.

There are so many good ones on this list! Not sure what I'll end up reading but right now my top two contenders are A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, which I admit sounds ridiculous but a friend of mine read it and says it's really good! Or A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, since I read another book by that author and liked it.

My choices are:
The Power (Winner 2017)
The Glorious Heresies (Winner 2016)
The Improbability of Love (Nominee 2016)
A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding (Nominee 2016)
The Invention of Everything Else (Nominee 2009)
The Song of Achilles (Winner 2012)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Winner 2005)

I've already read Song of Achilles and loved it, so I may reread, or I may read The Power (because when Emma Watson recommends a book, a girl's got to read it).

Where'd You go Bernadette
has been on my list for a while, so I think I will read it for this category

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet or Where'd You Go, Bernadette for me. They both count for other challenges, too, so I'll probably read whichever I don't choose for this one for another slot.

What an awesome category, and my choices would be
The Power
Hag-Seed
Or A God in Ruins which I’m leaning towards because I read the first book by Kate Atkinson and liked it.

Laura wrote: "What an awesome category, and my choices would be
The Power
Hag-Seed
Or A God in Ruins which I’m leaning towards because I read the first book by Kat..."

I read Hag-Seed a few months ago and thought it was great!

A God in Ruins Women's Prize for Fiction Nominee for Longlist (2016)

- What are you reading for this category?
Burial Rites
- Why did you choose this book?
It was on my TBR. Also, I am reading for a monthly book selection of a group I belong to.
- When browsing through the lists, did you see many books you already read?
Yes and many are on TBR as well.

Some possibilities: The Mare by Mary Gaitskill or The Secret Chord
by Geraldine Brooks.

I chose The Goldfinch for this category because it's been on my TBR list since it came out and when I saw it was available at the library and I went ahead and checked it out. ( I actually finished it today, I absolutely loved it, )

Don't forget that the 2018 longlist will be released in March, so you'll have even more books to choose from!

I'm looking forward to reading The Power because it's gotten some great reviews from friends. (It will also work for the "allegory" category in the Popsugar challenge.)

Nadine wrote: "I'm looking forward to reading The Power because it's gotten some great reviews from friends. (It will also work for the "allegory" category in the Popsugar challenge.)"

I want to read that one too. My library only has a few copies and as of earlier today, I'm #99 on the holds list. I might have to break down and buy it. I'm not doing the Popsugar challenge, but think I need to check it out as several people have mentioned it. I am doing 26 Books with Bringing Up Burns, though. I'm not sure I can handle 3 challenges...

Sarah wrote: "I want to read that one too. My library only has a few copies and as of earlier today, I'm #99 on the holds list...."

Yikes! It didn't occur to me that lots of other people might want to read it too at my library!! I'm going to put it on hold right now!!

Nadine wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I want to read that one too. My library only has a few copies and as of earlier today, I'm #99 on the holds list...."

Yikes! It didn't occur to me that lots of other people might wan..."

Yeah, once President Obama listed it as one of his favorite books of 2017, a lot of people decided to add it to their TBR lists. Good luck - I hope you don't have to wait as long as I do!

I have no idea what book to choose as of yet but I was so pleased to see one of my faves on the list. The Lonely Hearts Hotel which I read twice last year and bought for my personal boom shelf

For me, I'm reading . For this whole challenge I'm really trying to push myself to read books that I otherwise wouldn't look at.

What are you reading for this category?
I read The Power

- Why did you choose this book?

It was Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf pick for the end of last year, it just took a long time for my hold to come up.

- When browsing through the lists, did you see many books you already read?

There were a few, not many. I read mostly science fiction and fantasy and a lot of the list seemed to be regular fiction. The ones I DID read, were the more sci-fi options.

Emily St John Mandel –

I'm reading Life After Life for this one. My first fiction book of the challenge.


And of course, because it's what I do, I kind of feel like I should turn this Prize into a challenge. Like read all the winners, or read either the winner or a nominee from each year. Off to go spreadsheet...

Katie ... 😬. Stop giving me ideas for more lists!

I added it to my spreadsheet yesterday, and I'm ashamed to say I've read none of the winners and only 2 of the nominees. So that really tells me I need to make it a challenge.

I just checked and I’ve read one winner and seven nominees. Pretty sad, but I guess I do tend to favour classics over contemporary fiction. I think I should support the sisterhood and join your challenge though.

Can we start a support club for this?? and how much time are you giving yourselves lol

Yes please! I'll start a thread on it when I'm on a computer.
And I'm definitely going to make a page for it in my bullet journal!

The Women's Prize for Fiction has long been one of my favorite awards. The longlist is released in March, very near my birthday, so it's like a literary birthday present every year (#nerdmuch).

I've read about 100 nominees and winners. Just a few that I loved:

The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
There but for the by Ali Smith
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

I'm so happy to see others getting interested in this wonderful award and look forward to the new thread dedicated to it.

I keep a google doc with all of the nominees and winners since the inception of the prize. You can see it HERE. It's not always easy to find the complete lists online, especially for the older years, so hopefully some of you will find this useful.

dalex wrote: "I keep a google doc with all of the nominees and winners since the inception of the prize. You can see it HERE. It's not always easy to find the complete lists online, especially for the older year..."

Thanks for posting. At a quick glance, Ive only read 8 of them ( and one was Gone Girl, lmao. What??!! Really??!!) But I own several.

Thanks for the list, dalex. I found several that I want to read. I've read a few of them, but most I have never even heard of!

dalex, thanks for sharing that list. I had just been looking at the winners and shortlist before.

Thank you for that list, dalex! I'm kind of sad at how few of these books I've read. But I do have a few of them on my TBR list, so I'm excited to get to them this year.

Thanks for the list, dalex!

So I've added them to my spreadsheet, and I've read one winner, six shortlisted and four longlisted. I didn't rate any over three stars, and three of them were one-star reads for me. Going by that, I'm not sure I'll be prioritising these books, but I'm still glad to have the list.

Thanks for the list, dalex! I've only read 4 from the list but have several more on my TBR.

You're welcome for the list everybody!

It's a very eclectic prize that covers all genres - literary fiction, historical fiction, mystery, speculative fiction - so I'm sure you can find lots of book to enjoy. Some of my all-time favorite books have been nominees for the Women's Prize (though I confess there were a few that I didn't like at all and wondered why the judges chose them).

Thanks dalex! Sadly, I have only read a couple of the books on this list but do have some on my tbr.

That list is especially helpful because GR doesn't have some of the older nominees listed as such. I never knew that one of my favorite books, The Last Samurai (zero relation to the Tom Cruise movie) by Helen DeWitt, had been nominated in 2001. I'll have to go through the list and fix any other missing ones.

My other recs for this prompt:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Outline by Rachel Cusk
The Observations by Jane Harris
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

I read Emma Donoghue, Room for this prompt (Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction, 2011). I read it in one sitting, and am still revisited by it. It's an outstanding novel, but disturbing.

Oh my, how did I miss this thread and the prospect of a new challenge list to add to my spreadsheet! Thank you Dalex for the list :D

I just went through the whole list, I've read 10 and have 9 on my TBR on 451 books... Not many and I'll have to read the summaries to see which ones I actually want to read.