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Aug 29

2023 Booker longlist: A Spell of Good Things by Ayòbámi Adébáyò

Next up for our panel is Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s A Spell of Good Things. Adébáyọ̀ is no stranger to literary acclaim. Her novel Stay with Me won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and Prix Les Afriques and was shortlist for the Women’s Prize. Many of our panelists have raved about her work.

Synopsis taken from Booker Prize website: Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀’s breathtaking novel shines a light on the haves and have-nots of Nigeria, and the shared humanity that lives in between. 

Ẹniọlá is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. His father has lost his job, so Ẹniọlá spends his days running errands, collecting newspapers and begging – dreaming of a big future.  Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family, and now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice. But when sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola and Ẹniọlá’s lives become inextricably intertwined…

You can purchase a copy of the book here

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

Aug 21

1 Comment

2023 Booker Longlist – Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

It’s Booker season and our panel has begun our review of all the longlist books. Over the next month, we will be reviewing each of the 13 nominees. First up for our panel is Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time. Barry’s novels have been nominated several times for the Booker prize. A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture were both shortlisted for the Booker, two others were nominated for the longlist, and he has won numerous other literary prizes.

The Booker panel describes Barry’s latest book as a “beautiful, haunting novel, in which nothing is quite what it seems, Sebastian Barry explores what we live through, what we live with, and what may survive of us.” Keep reading to see how our panel rated the book.

Aug 1

3 Comments

Booker prize 2023 longlist

It’s officially out. Keep reading to learn more about this year’s long list and how our panelists did with their predictions.

Jul 28

3 Comments

Booker Prize 2023 Longlist Predictions

It’s 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 August 1st. Trying to predict the longlist is almost like trying to predict the winning lottery numbers and typically our panel (and other groups across the web) only predicts a few of the books that end up on the longlist. Will we have better luck this year? Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.

Jul 22

5 Comments

Booker 2022: Longlist predictions

It’s Booker season! Every year our panel comes together to read and review all the booker nominees and to predict the winners. The longlist will be announced this July 26th. Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.

Jul 24

9 Comments

Booker 2021 Longlist Predictions

The official longlist for this years Booker Prize is due to be announced on July 27 so in the “readersroom” tradition of recent years we have assembled our shadow panel and put together our own predictions for the longlist.

Mar 20

10 Comments

2019 Book March Madness

march madness

Do you love reading challenges? Our March Madness Book challenge is back. Books get paired with college basketball teams and you get to try and predict which basketball teams will win. You get extra points for reading books that advance in the tournament (books advance based on whether their basketball team partner wins or loses their match).

Book brackets have been posted on our challenge page. Sheet 1 is the basketball bracket, sheet 2 is the book bracket, sheet three is the list of books with authors. You will pick your bracket on the CBS sports page by picking basketball teams. Those teams will be matched with books in the order you see them in the bracket – think about placing one bracket on top of the other and you will see how they match up.

Participants have one day to sign up – you must sign up and fill out your bracket before the tournament starts (tomorrow at noon EST).

Full instructions can be found on our challenge page. Click here: March Madness Challenge

Good luck readers!!

Mar 19

9 Comments

2019 Book March Madness

march madness

It’s that time again! Once again The Reader’s Room will be hosting our own version of a bookish March Madness, slated to begin with the start of the NCAA tournament (March 21st). Reading will begin March 21. We hope you join us for this challenge! Read more

Oct 15

2018 Man Booker Shortlist musings

Well, I let the ball drop and wrote down the wrong date for the Man Booker announcement in my calendar. Tomorrow BST, the winner will announced. Our panel collectively read all short listed books. Here are a few of our thoughts about the shortlist. Tomorrow morning we will post our final predictions. Read more

Sep 19

14 Comments

2018 Man Booker Short list predictions

Our shadow panel of 6 judges managed to collectively read all 13 books. We rated all the books on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) enjoyment. Based on our collective ratings we came up with a group shortlist. Keep reading to find out how each book was ranked and which books we predict will make the list. The shortlist will be announced tomorrow. Read more