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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

The 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist is here...

How exciting!  The twenty books selected are up for the grand prize, which will be announced on June 3.  Before the winner is chosen, the longlist will be whittled down to a shortlist come April 13.  Of course, before any of that happens, I will make my own list of MUST-READS from the following twenty books:
(Photo from BWPFF site)
(list of books from BWPFF site):
Rachel Cusk: Outline
Lissa Evans: Crooked Heart
Patricia Ferguson: Aren’t We Sisters?
Xiaolu Guo: I Am China
Samantha Harvey: Dear Thief
Emma Healey: Elizabeth is Missing
Emily St. John Mandel: Station Eleven
Grace McCleen: The Offering
Sandra Newman: The Country of Ice Cream Star
Heather O’Neil: The Girl Who Was Saturday Night
Laline Paull: The Bees
Marie Phillips: The Table of Less Valued Knights
Rachel Seiffert: The Walk Home
Kamila Shamsie: A God in Every Stone
Ali Smith: How to be Both
Sara Taylor: The Shore
Anne Tyler: A Spool of Blue Thread
Sarah Waters: The Paying Guests
Jemma Wayne: After Before
PP Wong: The Life of a Banana

What do you think of the list?  Seems like a pretty diverse group of books.  I was hoping to see Miriam Toews for her latest novel All My Puny Sorrows and Jill Alexander Essbaum's novel Hausfrau on the list as they were both brilliant reads.  And I've heard wonderful things about Hanya Yanagihara's most recent novel A Little Life.  But not every book can make the cut, so I guess we will just have to wait and see which author is chosen as the winner of this year's Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction.  As far as the list goes, I do plan on reading a few of the books on it : Outline, I Am China, Station Eleven, The Country of Ice Cream Star, How to be Both, They Paying Guests, and After Before.  What about you?  Any favorites on that list? Who do you think will win the prize?

And now, I'm off to watch Shahs of Sunset - I love that show!  Talk about DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA.  Ta for now.  Happy reading!!

6 comments:

Ti said...

That is a great list. Very diverse, or so it appears on first glance.

I haven't read The Paying Guests yet. I finally got a copy from the library but then a few said it was just so-so which made me put it aside for now.

Nadia said...

Ti, it is diverse, which I love. I've heard the same about the Waters' book, but I still want to read it. I've only read one of her books (THE LITTLE STRANGER) and loved it, so I was hoping this one would be good as well.

OnDBookshelf said...

I've read Elizabeth Is Missing (which I really enjoyed), and The Bees (which perhaps should win by virtue of the fact it's one of the most interesting books I've read). I have A Spool of Blue Thread and Station Eleven on my tbr. Other than that, there are a few others I may explore as possible reads.

Nadia said...

OnDBookshelf, Elizabeth Is Missing sounds soooo good! I love the book cover for The Bees - that alone makes me want to read it ;) I have Station Eleven, but that's the only one. Ack! I need to get to reading :)

Frances said...

How to Be Both was quite a read and I'm looking forward to The Bees. The Paying Guests was a little disappointing though. Lots of the usual descriptive brilliance from Waters but the pacing really lagged in the second half.

Nadia said...

Frances, I'm glad to hear that Smith's book was so good :) THE BEES looks amazing! As for the Waters, I'm willing to give it a go despite the bad reviews. Cheers!