Sep 20
The time has come for our shortlist predictions. We’ve spent the last few months reading all the longlist books and rating the nominees. Keep reading to see which books topped our collective list and what panelists picked as their personal predictions.
Read moreEvery year when our panel reads the longlist, we rate each book on several categories including writing, originality, plot development, character development, and enjoyment. This year each of our panelists will pick their favorite book for specific to each category and a few other new categories. Later this afternoon we will post our predictions.
Jen’s overall thoughts: This year’s list was a mess. I was at a loss as to why half the books made the list. I also hated the fact that so many books were similar with respect to their predominant themes of parental loss, abuse, trauma. For me, the Booker prize is an opportunity to showcase top literature published in english. And that list should include books that capture or highlight our current time so that when we look back on prior lists we can see how those books reflect current literature (whether they pushed literary boundaries with style or content or whether they described and connected the reader to our current socio-political world). Did any of these books really push the boundaries with respect to literary style, approach, content? How many of these books will be memorable or become classics? Honestly, I’ve already forgotten the details of half of them.
How many of the longlist books did you read: All of them. I had to speed read my way through Bee Sting and Prophet Song which was a bit challenging.
Best writing: Old God’s Time
Most original: In Ascension
Best Plot development: The House of Doors
Best Character development: All the Little Bird Hearts
Most enjoyable read: The House of Doors & All the Little Bird Hearts. I loved them equally.
Least enjoyable read: The Study for Obedience
Which book would you want to read again? Study for Obedience. I hated the writing style but this book was the most dense in terms of meaning and themes for reflection and thus merits a second read.
Book Worm’s overall thoughts
How many of the longlist books did you read: All of them
Best writing: – All the Little Bird Hearts
Most original – Prophet Song
Best Plot development – Old God’s Time
Best Character development – The Bee Sting
Most enjoyable read – House of Doors
Least enjoyable read – In Ascension
Which book would you want to read again? All the Little Bird Hearts
Nicole’s overall thoughts
Best writing: Pearl
Most original: House of Doors
Best Plot development: House of Doors
Best Character development: Really hard to stay … They’ve sort of run together
Most enjoyable read: Pearl
Least enjoyable read: This Other Eden
Which book would you want to read again? Pearl
Adding my own category – haha – Most terrifying: Prophet Song
Tracy’s overall thoughts: What a strange longlist! I’m not sure I’d call this the best representation of English language fiction this past year, but there were a few gems I’d never have read otherwise.
How many of the longlist books did you read: All but Bee Sting
Best writing: Study for Obedience and Pearl
Most original: How to Build a Boat
Best Plot development: House of Doors and A Spell of Good Things
Best Character development: All the Little Bird Hearts
Most enjoyable read: Pearl
Least enjoyable read: In Ascension and This Other Eden
Which book would you want to read again? Study for Obedience
Sep 11
Our next longlist nominee is Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein. Bernstein was born in Montreal and now lives in the Scottish Highlands, where she teaches literature and creative writing. Her first book was a collection of poems titled The Coming Bad Days. Earlier this year she was selected for Grant’s Best of Young British Novelists.
Synopsis from Booker Prize website: A woman moves from the place of her birth to a ‘remote northern country’ to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has just left him. Soon after she arrives, a series of unfortunate events occurs: collective bovine hysteria; the death of a ewe and her nearly-born lamb; a local dog’s phantom pregnancy; a potato blight.
She notices that the community’s suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed particularly in her case. She feels their hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother’s property. Inside the house, although she tends to her brother and his home with the utmost care and attention, he too begins to fall ill…
You can purchase a copy of the book here
Three of our panelists read the novel. Keep reading to find out how our panellists rated this book.
Read moreSep 6
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney marks the approximate halfway point for our panelists as we make our way through the 2023 Booker longlist.
Elaine Feeney is an award-winning poet, novelist, short story writer and playwright from the west of Ireland. Her works often center around themes of national and cultural identity. She started off as a slam poet in her 20s and her debut novel, As you Were, won the Dalkey Emerging writer award. How to Build a Boat is her second novel and is set in the West of Ireland.
Synopsis taken from Booker Prize website: Jamie O’Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe.
At the age of 13, there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind, these things are intimately linked.
And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.
Sound interesting? You can purchase a copy of the book here.
Our panelists were really divided on this one. Keep reading to find out how we ranked it.
Read moreSep 4
Next up for our panel is a debut novel, Western Lane by Chetna Maroo.
Synopsis from Booker Prize website: Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world.
Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its rhythms: the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo. But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a 13-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.
You can purchase a copy of the book here
Four of our panelists read this book. Keep reading to find out what they thought.
Read moreNext 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.
Read moreAug 21
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.
Read moreAug 1
It’s officially out. Keep reading to learn more about this year’s long list and how our panelists did with their predictions.
Read moreJul 28
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.
Read more
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.
The Reader's Room 