Sep 12
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
Sep 11
We’ve reached the end of our longlist reviews and are ready to make our shortlist predictions! Before we make our predictions we’d like to share some of our favorites and least favorites. Similar to last year, each of our panelists responded to a list of 20 questions about the longlist books. We asked about favorite writing, favorite plot, best title, favorite cover, and more. Keep reading to see what each judge selected as their top books for various categories. Read more
Sep 11
Our final book is 4321. Because it’s such a monster of a book, only two panelists were able to finish the book although Book Worm is currently reading it too. Our panel reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. And with 4321, we now have our collective rankings of all 13 longlist books. Tomorrow we’ll also post our individual predictions and preferences (which will vary from judge to judge).
Here are our ratings for 4 3 2 1…
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Sep 8
Book #11 for our panel is Autumn by Ali Smith. Our panel reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. Here are our ratings for Autumn.
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Sep 6
Next up for our shadow panel was a book none of us had heard of prior to the longlist announcement: Elmet. Four panelists reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. Here are our ratings for Elmet.
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Sep 5
Up next our panel reviews book #9: Solar Bones by Mike McCormack. Three panels reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. We hope you add your thoughts, reviews, and/or comments. Here are our ratings…
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Aug 18
Book number 5 for our shadow panel is History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund. Five of us read this book. Once again we reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. Here are our ratings for History of Wolves.
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Aug 10
Next up for our Shadow panel is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Our panel reviewed the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. We hope you add your own thoughts and comments. Here are our ratings…
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Aug 8
It’s officially time to begin our shadow panel reviews. For those of you who don’t know us well, each year we gather a group of panelists to do a shadow panel of the Man Booker longlist books. Our panel collectively reviews all the books on the longlist and at the end of the month we will make our predictions. Each week we will post 2-3 reviews with our ratings.
Our panel reviews each the book on the following criteria: 1) writing quality; 2) originality; 3) character development; 4) plot development; and 5) overall enjoyment. We’ve each provided mini-reviews and ratings. We rank books using that criteria to produce an “objective” ranking of our top 6 books.
First up for our Shadow panel is Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. A few of us (not me) predicted this would make the longlist. Here are our mini reviews and ratings for The Underground Railroad.
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Oct 25
The 2016 Man Booker Award winner was announced this today. Yesterday our panel made final predictions and we were pretty evenly split between The Sellout and Do Not Say you Have Nothing with Thien’s book having a slight edge. And the prize went to…
Congrats to Paul Beatty in his much deserved win. While I personally was rooting for Madeleine Thien’s book, I thought the Sellout was superb and worthy of the win. All 5 of our panelist read this book before the shortlist announcement and we had predicted it would make the shortlist. Kate and Nicole also predicted it would win the whole thing.
Paul Beatty is the first US author to win the Man Booker!
We want to hear from you! What do you think of the judges’ decision? Do you think the book deserves to win the prize? If not, which book should have won?
The Reader's Room 