raidergirl3's Orange 2014

I'm going to still keep track of the Orange (Women's Prize for Fiction) in my own post. I"m not sure how much I'll read this year, but I like making the lists, and if the longlist this year is good, I'll keep track here of my reads. As usual, I'm listing books so I can keep track of the ones I already own, and ROOT out.

Books in my house
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (2006 short list)
Love Marriage by VV Ganeshananthen (2009 longlist)
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (2010 longlist)
Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff (2008 new writers SL)

Library/Books I'd like to read
This is How, by M.J. Hyland (2010 longlist)
Secret Son, by Laila Lalami (2010 longlist)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (2010 shortlist)
The Observations, by Jane Harris (2007 shortlist)
Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai (2007 shortlist)
May We Be Forgiven, by AM Homes (2013 winner)

2014 Shortlist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Hannah Kent, Burial Rites
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland
Audrey Magee, The Undertaking
Eimear McBride, A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

2014 Longlist:

Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam
Suzanne Berne, The Dogs of Littlefield
Fatima Bhutto, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon
Claire Cameron, The Bear
Lea Carpenter, Eleven Days
M.J. Carter, The Strangler Vine
Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries
Deborah Kay Davies, Reasons She Goes to the Woods
Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
Charlotte Mendelson, Almost English
Anna Quindlen, Still Life with Bread Crumbs
Elizabeth Strout, The Burgess Boys
Evie Wyld, All The Birds, Singing

The List to Rank; http://www.librarything.com/list/9446/all/Your-favorite-books-from-the-2014-Bail...

What Got Read 2014:

January
The Long Song by Andrea Levy (2010 Longlist)

February
The Bear by Claire Cameron (2014 Longlist)

March
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (2014 Longlist)

April
The Burgess Boys by Elizabet Strout (2014 Shortlist)

May
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (2014 shortlist)
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood (2014 longlist) audiobook
May We Be Forgiven AM Homes (2013 winner)

June
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (2014 shortlist)
Still Life With Bread Crumbs (2014 longlist)

Hi raider. I enjoyed The Long Song when I read it. I hope you did as well. Of your list I have Secret Son, The Inheritance of Loss, May We Be Forgiven and have also read Black Water Rising which I enjoyed as well. You have a couple there that I do not have but want to read.
Like you I enjoy making lists also. I don't always stick to them but I enjoy making them. :-)
Good luck & I hope you enjoy the Oranges you do read this year.

New list is out!

Some comments:
I've read 2, Americaneh and The Bear.

Some long books on that list, The Goldfinch, which I just got the other day from a friend, and the Luminaries, which I can't decide if I want to read, The Signature of All things (501 pages)

I've got a few requested from the library now: The Burgess Boys (which I've wanted to read for a while anyway. I loved Olive Kitteredge) All the Birds, Singing (on order), Burial Rites (#11 on list, it's on order) Still Life with Bread Crumbs (#14 on list)

I also have wanted to read The Lowland and The Goldfinch, and will eventually get to Maddaddam.

Any one have any suggestions of what they've already read and loved?

I haven't read any of them yet, but I'd be surprised if I had since I don't often read new books. I like to watch and see what still sounds good a few years down the road. There are a few I'm interested in though. . . . Deborah Kay Davies, Reasons She Goes to the Woods - I've never heard of this book or this author, but the title intrigues me. And of course I'll read the Atwood (and buy it to complete my hardcover trilogy).

I made a list to rank the longlist books as they get read. Feel free to head over and add what you've read, and rank them.

http://www.librarything.com/list/9446/all/Your-favorite-books-from-the-2014-Bail...

>nickelini It's funny how some titles just call to you. I was surprised how many books I half recognized on the long list. Many of the books are available already.

I am with Joyce in that I rarely read new or even contemporary fiction. Nonfiction is a different ballgame. But I do love most Oranges I read so given that, I will most likely be reading:
Americanah, because I find this author quite brilliant,
Eleven Days as I read a lot of books on mental illness, PTSD & the sort,
The Undertaking, perhaps and most probably
Anna Quindlen's Still Life with Bread Crumbs because what is not to love about any Quindlen work.
The remainder will most likely wait for another year as I have a lot of Orange books on my shelves to read to fulfill Orange July & Darryl's 'an Orange a month' challenge.
I hope you enjoy the ones you choose to read.

Started The Goldfinch. When I emerge in a few weeks/months (770 pages!) I'll let you know what I thought. Hopefully nothing will come in the library that needs 7 days to read.

That one is a real chunkster raider. I hope it is good. I have heard really good things about it. I have Tartt's The Little Friend on the back burner for later in the year on the Big Fat Books Club.

Finished The Goldfinch. I won't go looking for any more Donna Tartt books after that experience. Bloated text with a plot that wasn't complex enough to sustain the pages. Her use of technology from 14 years ago was a constant interruption for me as THAT WASN'T THAT COMMON! I liked the beginning, thinking I was in for a great ride with characters and some elaborate plot - nope. Even the technology - I thought there would be some reveal about Theo and why his recollection didn't match the reality of what life was like. Was he an unreliable narrator, my favorite kind? Nope.
Most of the characters were okay, like Boris and the furniture guy, but only from Theo's eyes, so they weren't that developed. There was a lot of potential, and some parts read quickly, but it didn't do much for me, and after the fact, all the annoyances are seeming even bigger.

Then, other authors just seem to match your brain. I'm halfway through The Burgess Boys and Elizabeth Strout isn't disappointing. I loved Olive Kitteridge though, so am really not surprised.

Oh shoot. I didn't actively dislike The Secret History when I read it years and years ago, but I put The Goldfinch on my Kindle because it was cheap as a daily deal. Now I have paid for it and will have to read it, but you make me not look forward to it - just as I feared.
It's surprising and fun to me how two people can look at the same lists and come out with completely different books. I've had to chase down some of the ones you have listed above because I just never noticed them. Thanks!
(This is How, for example!). I did read Love Marriage, and I'm sorry to say that it was my first Orange that I thought didn't really deserve a nod - not bad; just not prize worthy, I thought. OH well.

I don't know >11 LizzieD: LizzieD, don't let my review turn you off. There are so many rave reviews and people seem to just love the book. I felt somewhat justified though when talking with a colleague. We both took The Goldfinch home to read over the March break, and she felt it just fizzled out at the end as well. It just seemed that the build up (over 700 pages) should have had a better (much better) ending. And probably my complaints would have been less with a better ending. I can deal with one or the other - boring story but killer ending,(The Woman Upstairs paid off in the end for instance) or a great beginning and middle, but less than satisfying ending (Life After Life, Americanah). But both? blech.

I finished The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, and will finish the last half hour of MaddAddam tomorrow. Both were okay, good, but not ones I would push on someone else. Although, MaddAddam has made me want to pick up Oryx and Crake which I have avoided for a few years. Now I want to see how it all started, sort of a prequel (for me).

I'm still on the list at the library for a couple more from this year's list: Burial Rites and Still Life with Bread Crumbs.

After requesting the library get it last summer, I finally got to read May We Be Forgiven, the winner from last year. (I was the first reader to get the book)

I liked it better than The Goldfinch, especially as an American story and comment on the American Dream. I was actually a little indifferent about the story until the last 100 pages, and then I really liked how it all came together. The beginning had such tragedy that I couldn't imagine it ending well, but it took turns I did not see coming.

That makes 3 Bailey books this month, and I am picking up Burial Rites at the library tomorrow.

I ordered The Undertaking by Audrey Magee from the Book Depository so as to get ahead of the North American release . I really enjoyed it. I'd be happy to see it take the Orange Prize. Such a unique look at WW11 from a very different German perspective. I have also read Burial Rites, which I gave 4 stars too. It was interesting,but relentlessly grim. I hope to fit in The Lowland fairly soon.

@raidergirl aka Elizabeth, I read May We Be Forgiven last year and though it was way out of my usual reading experience, I really enjoyed it.

>15 vancouverdeb: Burial Rites is grim, but it is Iceland. I'm enjoying it so far. There will be only 2 on the short list I haven't read, so I'd put odds on one of them to win the prize. Looks good for The Undertaking! If it wins, I may order it like you did.

There's another 2014 longlisted on its way to me from the library - Still Life with Breadcrumbs. The library is getting ahead of my reading, argh. But my reward tonight for getting 2 (two!) sets of physics labs corrected is a spell with Burial Rites on my deck. It actually hit over 20 degrees today. First time this year. Really. Yesterday started out okay, but by the time we were at a picnic with my daughter's ringette team at an outdoor laser tag party in the afternoon, it was freezing out! Of course, no one was dressed for below 10 degrees (C) because it was MAY 31st!

The sun and my book is calling.

As I predicted, one of the two books I haven't read on the shortlist has won.

In other news, I really liked Burial Rites. (Alias Grace + Kristin Lavransdatter + Indridason, thanks AnneDC for describing it that way: perfect!)

Picked up Still Life With Breadcrumbs which looks like an easy read. Hopefully, because it is just 7 day loan from library.

Orange July? nope. I read at least one book in each of the first 6 months, and now nothing for July! Silly me.

I ended up really liking Still Life with Breadcrumbs in a quiet sort of way. Nice female lead character dealing with her life and choices at 60ish.

After a few more reads this month (Road Ends and The Rosie Project) I may look for an Orange from my shelves.

Orange July sort of fizzled for me too, Elizabeth. I read Americanah and would have liked it better a couple of hundred pages slimmer. I did like the blogs, but the rest was simply a decently written love story. That's O.K., but I think a major prize nominee should have something more to it.
I didn't end up loving The Goldfinch either. I got tired of it and the writing too. In fact, I haven't read an Orange/Bailey nominee that I thought was prize worthy for several years. Boo. Hiss.