Bailey's/Orange Women's Fiction Group discussion

here is a place to chat and get to know each other

been reading too much sad stuff - I need something very light and silly!!

I think we all feel like that sometimes Penny.
If you want a light one from the Orange / Bailey's list, how about A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

Val wrote: "I think we all feel like that sometimes Penny.
If you want a light one from the Orange / Bailey's list, how about A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian."<
funnily enough that one is on the great big 'to-read' pile!

Happy New year everyone - wherever you may be hope 2014 is a happy and healthy year for us all!

Here's to lots of great reads too!

Happy New Year everyone! We are starting the year off with a blizzard here. :)

Finally got my copy of Where'd you go Bernadette from the library along with Honour and Half Blood Blues - so they have all come together !

hope Jessica is hanging in there in these last few weeks of pregnancy - not sure exactly when you are due but sending you positive thoughts!

Hi! Thank you! I have birth to my son on Monday night. We are back at home now.

I did bring "Honor " to the hospital with me but only got to read a few chapters.

Many, many Congratulations Jessica!

It is a long time ago now, but I can remember never having long enough at a time or enough concentration to read much and definitely not anything challenging or serious when my daughters were newborn.

Congratulations Jessica! I cannot even imagine reading while in labour! I barely read much during each of my daughter's first year's of life!

Thank you!!

We were stuck in horrible traffic on the drive to the hospital. Reading help distract me from being too stressed out. :)

Today is the announcement of the longlist for 2014 Bailey's Women's Fiction Prize - am waiting to see what they have chosen!!

So our last few books have been Small Island, Life after Life, A Trick I learned From Dead Men, Honour, Lullabies for Criminals, Where'd you go Bernadette,Half Blood Blues,May we be forgiven, Annabel etc etc and I really havent been that thrilled with them. I think maybe my expectations were too high - while they certainly werent all awful I havent read something really outstanding - the best for me was The Light Between the Oceans. Any thoughts of the standard/quality of the books on the lists?
Have you all enjoyed them as much as you expected? Maybe I am looking back with rose-tinted glasses but some of the earlier books seem to be far superior to me!

"The Light Between the Oceans" was the best for me too, although I really liked "Half Blood Blues". I enjoyed several of the others and I wouldn't say any of them were awful, but several were not as good as I had hoped.
These are all books which made a longlist for a fairly prestigious prize, so it is reasonable to expect them to stand out.
I don't think I have read enough of the early ones to say whether they are generally better or not, but looking at those I gave five stars, most are several years old. (A lot of them get four stars, including recent ones.)

I really liked Small Island, Light Btwn Oceans, Life after Life (although it was a struggle at first) and Lullaby. I liked the first half of Bernadette but then it got too weird for me. Half Blood Blues was not a big favorite but I appreciated the unusual story/voice. Annabel really moved me and haunted me, not a happy book, but one that stayed with me nonetheless.

I find that long-listers will often lead me to books I might not usually chose (or even have heard of) and may not always love, but they usually have some unique quality to have made them stand out to the judges. The exception to that rule is when I see return authors whose work I know I do not usually love.

Ruthie wrote: "I liked the first half of Bernadette but then it got too weird for me."
I liked it at first too, it was an interesting idea to use emails, diaries, notes, etc. to tell the story and I found it funny. Unfortunately I don't think the author planned where the story was going very well and it stopped being funny and just became weird, as you say.
I was disappointed with the book, but I think I might read another by the author (although This One is Mine does not look appealing).

my local bookshop is pushing the prize list at the moment and there are bookmarks all over the shop with a quote on to promote the prize - I wanted to grab loads and post them out to you all!!

Out of all the books you have read from the Orange/Bailey lists (lists and winners) which would you say are your top three?

Mine are




and for the next best


any thoughts? Which books have you enjoyed or that stayed with you long after you read them?

I think mine would be:


Half of a Yellow Sun

Wolf Hall

Trumpet

Val wrote: "I think mine would be:


Half of a Yellow Sun

Wolf Hall

[book:Trumpe..."

that's really interesting as I have never heard of Trumpet - some of the books sort of pass you by and you miss them!

The book is loosely based on the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton, who was found to be a woman after he died. Unlike "Annabel", it is not about whether Joss is male, female, black, white, gay, straight or any other label apart from person and musician. Like "Annabel" is has a lot of beautiful writing.

Val wrote: "The book is loosely based on the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton, who was found to be a woman after he died. Unlike "Annabel", it is not about whether Joss is male, female, black, white, gay, st..."

interesting - I had never heard of it

anybody else like audio books? I enjoy them but find the experience so different from actual reading. I find sometimes I cannot picture how a word would look if its in another language eg in Burial rites I am listening to it and would have no way of writing some of the words used as I have never seen them written. Sometimes in a book shop I deliberately flick through a book I have listened to just to see what it 'looks' like!!

Has anyone read The Lacuna? I couldn't understand it at all and I like Kingsolver.

Oh we are finally getting some sunny days - perfect for sitting and reading - shame life gets in the way!!

Penny wrote: "Has anyone read The Lacuna? I couldn't understand it at all and I like Kingsolver."

i own it, but i have not read it yet. i have not read full-on reviews for the book (i like to keep the brain uncluttered with the thoughts of others before i have had a change to read something for myself) -- but i have heard enough to know it got pretty mixed responses. the subject really appeals to me, so i hope to get to it sooner rather than later.

what do you mean by not understanding it, penny? like, the subject matter was dense and a tough slog, or was it the style of writing causing confusion?

Penny wrote: "Has anyone read The Lacuna? I couldn't understand it at all and I like Kingsolver."

Penny, it took me a loooong time to like the book and then ended up loving it. This is from m review:

It was so clever how Kingsolver very subtly wove all the different meanings of "lacuna" into the story without hitting you in the head with it -- first she defines it in the literal sense, that it's a sort of cave or gap under the ocean, but it could also be a hole or something missing, from a manuscript, from an argument, or from logic. These all come out at different points and make you just stare at the page and say "Wow." The ending is a stunner and really should remain hidden until you finish for yourself. It will be difficult for you to finish, but really well worth those first long 298 pages.

I read The Lacuna several years ago and loved it, although I am sure I did not understand all of it. Perhaps it is time for a re-read. It covers a lot of history, some of which was unfamiliar to me.
There is a linking theme of 'holes' as Karen says. Many of them are glaringly obvious but most people ignore them and a few fall through them. The war veterans protesting about their pensions have fallen through the safety net of social provision while the country is still applauding their patriotism in a general, impersonal way. Under McCarthyism anyone with a social conscience is seen as socialist, communist, unpatriotic and a threat to the country - which is a massive hole for people to fall into.
Some characters have something missing in their personal lives, a need which they can't fulfil.
There is a lot crammed into the book, which does make it quite confusing, but also makes it great.

For me it felt that there were 'spaces' in the actual narrative that meant I got lost or lost interest as I went along - very choppy and misleading - of course I was listening to the audio so maybe its a book that just doesnt work well on audio.

I am off walking in the Lake District so will be unavailable for a few days - Val is still around though! Hopefully I will get some reading done in the evenings too!

this morning, word is being shared that Nadine Gordimer died yesterday. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo...

gordimer famously (??) declined her shortlist nomination for the women's prize (in 1998, for her work The House Gun). the basis for her rejection was the discriminatory nature of the prize - by excluding men from eligibility.

i have read different articles over the years pondering whether a book award only for women is needed - arguments on both sides. last year, the stella prize was created (http://thestellaprize.com.au/about-us...), to help celebrate women writers in australia.

i am so curious about what you guys think on the subject. i mean, i suspect we all love the idea of the women's prize, since we are all here and keen to read & discuss. :)

but it's a bigger question once you start thinking on it, isn't it?

(the things my brain thinks about!! heh!! sorry!)

edited to add:

* here's one link to an article on the subject: http://thequietus.com/articles/14986-...
* and another about a new women's lit. prize in canada: http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/news/does-c...

Jennifer wrote: "this morning, word is being shared that Nadine Gordimer died yesterday. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/bo......"

sorry Jennifer I seem to have missed your post about this. I too have thought about this many times - and yet in the end what I come back to is whether there are good books being promoted by any prize. I too feel there is a discriminatory feel to the prize and it smacks too that women cant compete on a level playing field with men - HOWEVER - there is still a great deal less recognition for women and women within the arts generally. There are still men out there who only read male authors. There are female authors who may never have got heard or read because they write in an unconventional or challenging manner. For instance Lionel Shriver may never have met with as much success as she did for We Need To Talk About Kevin as it is a difficult subject and an intense book to read.
There are plenty of prizes out there - I'm not sure if there is one only for men and would there then be an outcry that they were being sexist if there was?!! Probably yes! So we go round in circles!

was halfway through a crime novel and have lost it!! we have the decorators in and everything is in boxes or in the wrong place and I just cant find it!

How annoying Penny!

I would be very pleased if this prize became irrelevant. Female authors can and do compete for other literary prizes, but they are still under represented. The Women's Fiction Prize is discriminatory, but it was created as a reaction to discrimination existing at a time when few publishers were submitting books by their female authors for other literary prizes.
Several prizes place some sort of limiting requirement on entries. I am sorry that the Commonwealth Writers' Prize has been cut back so much (there is just a short story prize now), as I think that was a good way of showcasing writers we might not have come across otherwise. The Booker Prize long list this year has only one Commonwealth writer (Richard Flanagan from Australia). There are a few female authors.
I should mention for clarification that almost all UK literary prizes are (and always have been) open to writers from the rest of the Commonwealth, but the Commonwealth Prize was different in having shortlists from each area of the world.

Val wrote: "How annoying Penny!

I would be very pleased if this prize became irrelevant. Female authors can and do compete for other literary prizes, but they are still under represented. The Women's Fiction ..."

the commonwealth prize is not one I have come across before - I really enjoy reading authors from other countries and cultures. I suppose the answer is at the moment for there to be loads of prizes for everyone!!

I have found several good books from it over the years, including some by African and Asian women who later made it onto the Orange / Bailey's list.

my books for October have arrived at the library before my August book!!
I really like having a couple of months warning of the books that are coming as its so much easier to get them in time (most of the time anyway!)

looks like Still life with Bread crumbs finally made it!! It's been nominated and not won before so I am pleased it has made it now.

anyone read a woman I have just come across called Julia Glass? She looks promising.

i have read Three Junes, by Julia Glass - it was a nice book. i do own I See You Everywhere, but have not read that one yet.

Penny wrote: "looks like Still life with Bread crumbs finally made it!! It's been nominated and not won before so I am pleased it has made it now."
Yes finally Penny. I have requested it from the library and will read it when I can. It is showing as 'On order', as is The Bear. I will buy copies if they take too long to arrive, but I prefer to get them from the library whenever possible.

Penny wrote: "anyone read a woman I have just come across called Julia Glass? She looks promising."
I haven't read anything by her, but the library has three copies of I See You Everywhere and one of The Whole World Over, so I might give her a try some time.

Penny wrote: "... anyone read a woman I have just come across called Julia Glass?..."

I've read Three Junes and The Widower's Tale and liked both of them.

Diane wrote: "Penny wrote: "... anyone read a woman I have just come across called Julia Glass?..."

I've read Three Junes and The Widower's Tale and liked both of them."

yes its the Three Junes one that caught my eye - like Val its not in the library.

Just finished I am on a roll now with my books about slavery or abolitionists!! This one is great - I really enjoy this author some of hers are better than others (as with all authors ) but none are a 'dud'. This is a good one!
my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

anyone tried this Kindle Unlimited thing from Amazon? I have been sent a free trial but when I put in several books from my to read shelf they dont come up!

I had a look at the books they had listed and there were some I would read, but none I really wanted, so I decided not to bother with it.

Val wrote: "I had a look at the books they had listed and there were some I would read, but none I really wanted, so I decided not to bother with it."

there are loads of books available on kindle but they are not available on kindle unlimited - so I dont really get the point!
I think I'll stick as usual to the good old library!!

Yes, 'unlimited' is inaccurate or very misleading.
I always try the library first, but do buy a few kindle titles and have spent more than £7.99 some months this year. Hardly any of them are available under kindle unlimited.

I cant keep up some days - so many things to sort out and do!!! the reading is getting pushed a little (at least for my usual standards) at least I have audible so can listen and do stuff at the same time.

Anyone else watch the Crime Thriller Awards the other night? I really enjoyed it as I had read so many of the books or knew of the authors. The Strangler Vine was mentioned as it was nominated.

Just realised our little group has been going for over a year now - woo hoo!!!