Posts by jenp27

2024 Booker Longlist: The Safekeep by Yael van her Wouden

Up next for our panel is another debut novel: The Safekeep by Yale van her Wouden.

Cover Blurb: A house is a precious thing…

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Keep reading to find out how our panellists rated this book.

2024 Booker Longlist: Held by Anne Michael

Book number four for our Booker panel is Anne Michael’s Held.

Cover blurb: 1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night.

1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts with messages he cannot understand.

So begins a narrative that spans four generations of connections and consequences that ignite and reignite as the century unfolds. In radiant moments of desire, comprehension, longing, and transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Keep reading to find out how our panelists rated this book.

Booker longlist 2024: Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

Our panel’s third book is another debut novel: Wild Houses by Colin Barrett. Will our panel like this one more than Headshot or James?

Synopsis from Goodreads: As Ballina in the west of Ireland prepares for its biggest weekend of the year, the simmering feud between small-time dealer Cillian English and County Mayo’s fraternal enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. When the reclusive Dev answers his door on Friday night, he finds Doll—Cillian’s bruised, sullen, teenage brother—in the clutches of Gabe and Sketch. Jostled by his nefarious cousins, goaded by his dead mother’s dog, and struck by spinning lights, Dev is unwillingly drawn headlong into the Ferdias’ revenge fantasy.

Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old Nicky can’t shake the feeling that something bad has happened to her boyfriend Doll. Hungover, reeling from a fractious Friday night, and plagued by ghosts of her own, Nicky sets out on a feverish mission to save Doll, even as she questions her future in Ballina.

You can purchase a copy of the book here

Keep reading to find out how our panelists rated this book.

2024 Booker longlist: James by Percival Everett

Next up for our panel is James by Percival Everett. Everett is no stranger to book awards, having won over 15 and been listed for many others including a Booker shortlist nomination for his novel The Trees.

Cover blurb: When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

While many narrative set pieces of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a “literary icon” (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

Keep reading to find out how our panellists rated this book.

2024 Booker Longlist: Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

It’s time for our panel to start our journey through the Booker longlist books. The first book we have reviewed is the debut novel, Headshot, by Rita Bullwinkel.

Cover blurb: An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkelanimates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.

Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivate young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.

You can purchase a copy of the book here

Keep reading to find out how our panellists rated this book.

Meet our Booker Panelists

Booker seasons is one of my favorite of the reading year. Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know that each year we bring together a panel of readers to make predictions, read (or attempt to) and review all nominated longlist books. Since we’ve been doing this for over 7 years and some of our panelists have changed, I figured it was time to introduce our panel before we start posting our reviews next week. Who are we? What sorts of readers are we? What do we look for in our literature?

2024 Booker Longlist: Initial thoughts

Now that the list has been released and our panel has had few days to think about it, we share our thoughts about the list, which books we felt were shafted, and which books’ inclusion surprised us.

2024 Booker Prize Longlist Predictions

It’s my favorite time of the year: Booker season! Every year our panel comes together to read and review all the booker nominees and to predict the winners. This year’s longlist will be announced on July 30. Every year we try and most years we fail spectacularly to get more than 3 correct predictions each. Will we have better luck this year? Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.