WOMEN'S PRIZE LONGLIST OUT!

Well the longlist hit the net at midnight and there are a couple of surprises as well as the obvious books that everybody thought would make it. I must say that I am over the moon that The Silence of the Girls made it, and if it went on to win I would be one very happy little reader. Of the sixteen books I have read six, so I have some major reading to do. The nice thing is some of these books were blipping on my radar already and there is one that I have never even heard of. All and all, it looks to me to be a decent longlist. Click on the Women's Prize in the main heading under "More" to see the entire list of books.

I think Madeline Miller has a better than average chance of winning another prize with Circe making the longlist. Miller won back when it was called the Orange Prize with The Song of Achilles. If you are a betting reader, Circe has to be one of the favourites. I think everybody was expecting Milkman, after it won the booker, and Normal People to be on the list but there are also some dark horses as well. I am very interested in many of the ten I have not read. I also have a soft spot for My Sister the Serial Killer, as I think it is a brilliant book that is much deeper than you think at first. I must admit that I have not heard anything about Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton.

It sounds very intriguing indeed. Here is the blurb -

It is 1910 and Philadelphia is burning.

The last place Spring wants to be is in the rundown, coloured section of a hospital surrounded by the groans of sick people and the ghost of her dead sister. But as her son Edward lays dying, she has no other choice.

There’re whispers that Edward drove a streetcar into a shop window. Some people think it was an accident, others claim that it was his fault, the police are certain that he was part of a darker agenda. Is he guilty? Can they find the truth?

All Spring knows is that time is running out. She has to tell him the story of how he came to be. With the help of her dead sister, newspaper clippings and reconstructed memories, she must find a way to get through to him. To shatter the silences that governed her life, she will do everything she can to lead him home.

Well I am off to start on this list! :)