Wednesday, August 10, 2005

2005 Booker Mela

The Booker long list is out.Here's the link.

Can't remember another year where there were this many repeat contenders - 4 out of 17. Rushdie, McEwan, Coetzee and Ishiguro are back!

The winners will be announced on October, the 10th. Anyone up for a marathon reading session? 17 books in 60 days. If thats a bit too much(which I think it is esp for us who don't read for a living!), how about each of us pick one(or two) and then review it on our respective blogs before October 10th? For those of you who read but don't blog, I can host your review here on Yossarian Lives - just let me know.

Here's the entire list - just tell me which ones you want to sign-up for.

The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw - Prufrock Two - Review
The Sea by John Banville - Prufrock Two, Falstaff - Review
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes - Veena
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry - Susmit - Review, Falstaff - Review
Slow Man by JM Coetzee - Dilip
In the Fold by Rachel Cusk
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - Karthik - Review,Falstaff - Review
All For Love by Dan Jacobson - Falstaff - Review
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka - Falstaff - Review
Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel - Falstaff - Review
Saturday by Ian McEwan - Dilip,Uma, Falstaff - Review
The People’s Act of Love by James Meek
Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie - Black Mamba
The Accidental by Ali Smith - Hurree
On Beauty by Zadie Smith - Uma,Karthik
This Is The Country by William Wall
This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson - Anup(another maybe!)

Update: Some of you have written in about availability and yes, I did forget about that! From what I could gather, almost all the books seem to available at UK bookstores(like Amazon UK) and most of them seem to be available here in the States. The exceptions are Shalimar, the Clown and Slow Man both of which will be released sometime in September so you will have atleast 10-15 days to read and review them. I am currently trying to find out about availability in India and will get back with another update. Thanks!

10 comments:

Sunil said...

Shoot....I thought i'd sign up for Shalimar.....

Don't think i'm going to read the others this year.......over time perhaps....but......

Veena said...

Sunil,

See no reason why you can't sign up for Shalimar. Didn't mean to have just one person per book - its whatever one would like to read.

Though I guess we would get into trouble if everyone wanted to read just Shalimar, but we are fine for now. Shall I put you also down for Shalimar?

Dilip D'Souza said...

Veena, may I volunteer for the Coetzee and McEwan books? I would also pick the Banville book, but I'm not sure I can do all three. So I'll take those two and if I get to Banville, that'll be a bonus.

PrufrockTwo said...

Have read the Banville: could try doing that, as well as (perhaps) the Tash Aw...

APB said...

Why leave out "This Thing of Darkness" by Harry Thompson? I might even read it if it gets shortlisted. No promises though.

Veena said...

Anup,
My mistake - I thought I got all 17! I will add the Harry Thompson to the list and put you on as a 'maybe'.

Falstaff said...

Hi Veena,

Will read the Coetzee anyway, so could do that - though I guess Dilip's already handling it.

I'll do the Jacobson. And will try to don the Mantel assuming I manage to get my hands on it.

Thanks for asking, btw.

Veena said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Veena said...

Thanks all! Looks like we will have a good many reviews before the 10th.

It might make sense to schedule when each of the reviews go out but I think that might prove to be a coord nightmare. So just send me a link whenever you guys are posting and I will cross post it here on YL. I will also collect all the links and put it all in one place right before Oct 10th.

Falstaff said...

Actually, on second thoughts - I'll do the Mantel and the Lewycka rather than the Jacobson. Am intrigued.