Thursday, August 17, 2006

2006 Booker Mela

Its that time of the year again, and Falstaff ain't letting me get away without a Mela, so here we go:

The Booker long list is out. Though its not a star studded cast as it was last year, it has some interesting entries. So all of you get ready to read and review 19 books in 60 days. Lets see how much of it we can get through. Rules like last year - pick a book or two and let me know that you will be reviewing them, and when you are done send me a link to the review.

Here's the complete longlist:

Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story - Prufrock Two
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss - Falstaff's review, 30in2005
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life - Falstaff's review, Nithya
Grenville, Kate The Secret River
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down - Dips
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights
Lasdun, James Seven Lies - Falstaff's review
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children - Black Mamba
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green - Small Talk's review, Falstaff's review, Veena
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk - Falstaff's review
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch - Falstaff's review, Prufrock Two, Anoop

Last year's Mela here.

PS: Falsie, you don't need to pick any - that's only for people who have a life. I will put you down for all of them.

7 comments:

Falstaff said...

Ya, ya, okay.

Just for the record, here are the two books from the long list I've already reviewed:

Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss:

http://momus.wordpress.com/2006/03/26/across-generations/

and Nadine Gordimer's Get a Life:

http://momus.wordpress.com/2005/12/23/new-beginnings/

Gordimer's is, unsurprisingly, the better book, but neither, in my opinion, deserves the prize.

30in2005 said...

I know Falstaff has done Inheritance of Loss but can I please do it again? I have just moved home and the book is in my tall please-read-me-when-you-have -a-minute pile. It's next on my list.

Veena said...

Falstaff: Okay okay I will link these. And let me also go spam a bunch of people and browbeat them into contributing. No one wants to read a book nowadays?

30in2005: Sure. The more the merrier.

30in2005 said...

Thankee kindly. Although my review will not be as deep and thoughtful as Falstaff's.....

I promise to be thorough!

small talk said...

Hi there,

Did read Black Swan Green and liked it very much. Here is a very small review I had written. http://happysmalltalk.blogspot.com/2006/06/black-swan-green-by-david-mitchell-i.html

Dips said...

Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down

I have just got this from library..I would like to give it a go..

Nithya said...

Veena,

I am planning on reading Get a Life by Nadine Gordimer and posting a review on it.