Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction Short List

Cynthia Bond: Ruby
Anne Enright: The Green Road
Lisa McInerney: The Glorious Heresies
Elizabeth McKenzie: The Portable Veblen
Hannah Rothschild: The Improbability of Love
Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life

There it is. I'm a bit confounded that A God in Ruins didn't make it even though I haven't read it.
I'm further amazed that the second one that I bought cheap and used, Ruby is on it. I don't normally have that kind of luck!

I'm in the middle of reading Ruby. It was an Oprah pick which I'm guessing is why it is available - my library had 3 copies. Feels very Oprah.
I'm not going to read A Little Life - too long.

>>3 raidergirl3: Me, either. Darn, I was really hoping to do the shadow jury again.

I'm astonished to have already read half the short list. While I ended up hating A Little Life, I'm glad I read it, as it's been on so many short lists and the topic of so many great conversations. The Green Road deserves inclusion; I don't think anyone is surprised to see it there. And I'm so pleased to see The Portable Veblen. That book delighted me so much.

I've started The Impossibility of Love. I'm only a few chapters in, and while the subject matter is interesting, the writing is, well, serviceable. But I've only begun - it may improve as it goes along.

Looking forward to all the fun conversations and the excitement of finding out who wins.

Should we open threads for each of the short list titles? I'll do so if no one else wants to/gets around to it.

Interesting short list. I've heard good things about the Enright. I have no interest in reading A Little Life and if it wins I just might surrender my "read every Baileys winner" medal (on a side note, I just chuckled when the default touchstone for A Little Life was Twilight!).

I'm intrigued by The Portable Veblen -- great to see your positive comment, >5 RidgewayGirl:. And as luck would have it, my daughter left a copy behind the last time she was visiting us. So that's one I might get to before the prize announcement.

I read Ruby almost two years ago, and still remember the book. I thought it was beautifully written if occasionally heavy on the similes, but it was just too raw for me - horrific abuse towards children and animals. It took me longer than usual to read it because I kept putting it down so I could go recover.

I enjoyed The Portable Veblen but it's not a book that will linger in my mind.

I haven't read any of the others yet.

I've opened a thread for each of the books on the shortlist. I was lucky enough to have read half the list ahead of time, meaning I might just be able to take part in the shadow jury maybe. With the winner not being announced until June 8th, I've got a good chance of reading all of them.

>9 RidgewayGirl: awesome! Thanks for organizing that.