Bailey's/Orange Women's Fiction Group discussion

anyone up for a challenge to read all the winners of the prize ?
It started in 1996 so we currently have 17 - no deadline just list how well you are doing and come back and edit your post as you add books. For those you read a while back just put in the year you think you read it!

Penny's progress through prize winners!!!

Read
A Spell of Winter 1996
Bel Canto
Small Island 2004
We Need to Talk About Kevin 2005
On Beauty
Half of a Yellow Sun 2007
The Road Home
May We Be Forgiven
Fugitive Pieces
The Road Home 2008

I'm counting 18 winners, one for each year including 1996 thru 2013. :)

I've only read about 3 of them, so I'm impressed at Penny's list.

I have read several books from the prize lists, but a lot of them did not go on to win. According to Goodreads I read most of them in April 2011, but that is just when I joined Goodreads so it is the default date, I probably read them when they made the list.
A Spell of Winter - 1996
When I Lived in Modern Times - 2000
Property - 2003
Small Island - 2004
We Need to Talk About Kevin - 2005
On Beauty - 2006
Half of a Yellow Sun - 2007
The Road Home - 2008
The Lacuna - 2010
The Tiger's Wife - 2011
The Song of Achilles - 2012
May We Be Forgiven - 2013
That is half of the prizewinners so far, with three more already on my kindle or bookshelves which I have not got around to reading yet.
Fugitive Pieces - 1997
The Idea of Perfection - 2001
Bel Canto - 2002
I will read those three first and add the rest to the list eventually.

Edit: I can also add to the list:
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing - 2014
How to Be Both - 2015
The Glorious Heresies - 2016

I have read:

Ruthie wrote: "I have read: ..."

Six 'snap' and two more already lined up. I think I had better add Home to my to-read list next.

READ:
(read count: 19)

1996: A Spell of Winter
1997: Fugitive Pieces
1998: Larry's Party
1999: A Crime in the Neighborhood
2000: When I Lived in Modern Times
2001: The Idea of Perfection
2002: Bel Canto
2003: Property
2004: Small Island
2005: We Need to Talk About Kevin
2006: On Beauty
2007: Half of a Yellow Sun
2009: Home
2010: The Lacuna
2011: The Tiger's Wife
2012: The Song of Achilles
2014: A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing
2018: Home Fire
2019: An American Marriage

edited Sept 6: I've now read We Need to Talk About Kevin
edited Dec. 16 2015: I've now also read The Lacuna
edited Aug 1 2017: read Half of a Yellow Sun
edited April 2018: I read Spell of Winter last month
edited May 2018: I just finished Property
edited January 2019: Just finished Home Fire and When I Lived in Modern Times
edited September 2019: I've now read The Song of Achilles and just started The Idea of Perfection.
Edited December 2019: I've now read Larry's Party and A Crime in the Neighborhood
Edited Sept, 2020: I;ve now Read A Girl is A HAlf Formed Thing


UNREAD:
(unread count: 5)

2008:The Road Home
2013: May We Be Forgiven
2015: How to Be Both
2016: The Glorious Heresies
2017: The Power

I collected a copy of Home from the library yesterday and will start reading it today.

My prize winner "read" list:


1996 - A Spell of Winter - 1/21/12
1997 - Fugitive Pieces - 7/5/15
1998 - Larry's Party - 6/27/15
1999 - A Crime in the Neighborhood - 6/19/12
2000 - When I Lived in Modern Times - 7/8/14
2001 - The Idea of Perfection 6/29/16
2002 - Bel Canto - 8/6/12
2003 - Property: A Novel 6/28/15
2008 - The Road Home - 7/27/12
2009 - Home - 7/5/12 ( I love Marilynne Robinson)
2011 - The Tiger's Wife - 1/31/12
2012 - The Song of Achilles - 6/4/12
2015 - How To Be Both - 6/15/15
2016 - The Glorious Heresies - 9/18/16

Val wrote: "I collected a copy of Home from the library yesterday and will start reading it today."

Have you read Gilead? Home is the sequel to Gilead, but could stand alone, yet I think you may get more out of Home if you read Gilead first. The final story Lila comes out this fall.

I did not read Home when it won because I had not read Gilead and thought I ought to read it first. Now I am reading it, it seems to be working as a stand alone novel, so I need not have worried about that.
Did you read Gilead or Housekeeping first Jayme?
Would you recommend reading the books in order of publication?

I've read both Housekeeping and Gilead. Housekeeping is very different from Gilead, but very good. It is not part of the Home/Gilead series.
Gilead has more religious reflecting then Home which makes sense because the protagonist is a minister - I loved it - one of my favorite books.

Definitely read Gilead first, if you are planning on reading Lila since they are about the same family.

Thanks Jayme.
I have not read much of Home yet, but I am really liking it so far, so will be reading some of her others as well. I will read Gilead before Lila.

PS I have finished Home and later read the other winners I had missed. It was my favourite of the ones I had not already read or bought.

here are the winning books i have already read:


read:
* 1997 - Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels
* 1998 - Larry's Party, by Carol Shields
* 2002 - Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
* 2004 - Small Island, by Andrea Levy
* 2005 - We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
* 2007 - Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
* 2011 - The Tiger's Wife, by Téa Obreht
* 2016 - The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney


to read:
* 1996 - A Spell of Winter, by Helen Dunmore
* 1999 - A Crime in the Neighborhood, by Suzanne Berne
* 2000 - When I Lived in Modern Times, by Linda Grant
* 2001 - The Idea of Perfection, by Kate Grenville (own)
* 2003 - Property, by Valerie Martin
* 2008 - The Road Home, by Rose Tremain
* 2009 - Home, by Marilynne Robinson
* 2010 - The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver (own)
* 2012 - The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller (own)
* 2013 - May We Be Forgiven, by A.M. Homes
* 2014 - A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimear McBride (own)
* 2015 - How to Be Both, by Ali Smith (own)


**********

i will update this as my reading progresses. i do own several more of the winning books...so maybe this challenge will focus my reading a bit more?

:)

Anyone still up for this for 2015? I am still planning to work my through - slow but steady!!

Penny wrote: "Anyone still up for this for 2015? I am still planning to work my through - slow but steady!!"

oops - i forgot this was here - thanks for the nudge, penny! we can just update our existing posts, right? or were you thinking of something different for 2015?

I would be up to keeping this going. To be honest I forgot about this challenge. Maybe if it was in its own header or under the General discussion board it would be easier to see? Maybe renamed Baily's/Orange Prize Winner Challenge?

Thanks for bringing this thread back, Penny, I hadn't noticed it before. I'm definitely interested in this, but it take me longer than 2015... I'm a bit surprised to see I've only read 2 winners so far:

Fugitive Pieces and
Small Island

I have some catching up to do!

Edited January 2020:
1997 - Fugitive Pieces
2001 - The Idea of Perfection
2002 - Bel Canto
2004 - Small Island
2005 - We Need to Talk About Kevin
2015 - How to Be Both
2018 - Home Fire
2019 - An American Marriage

Jayme wrote: "I would be up to keeping this going. To be honest I forgot about this challenge. Maybe if it was in its own header or under the General discussion board it would be easier to see? Maybe renamed Ba..."

yes - perhaps a dedicated challenge folder would be good? then we could have a place for the winning books challenge (just move this thread), and perhaps we could have a second challenge which is for reading the long- or shortlisted books? since we are working on those too.

Jennifer wrote: "Jayme wrote: "I would be up to keeping this going. To be honest I forgot about this challenge. Maybe if it was in its own header or under the General discussion board it would be easier to see? Ma..."

Hopefully I have done it right and we now have (drum roll please!!!) a Challenge for reading Winners and a Challenge for the shortlist (anyone want one for the long list too?!!!)

Dont panic everyone - there's no time limit!

In June I read Larry's Party, Property and How To Be Both. All three were completely different, but Property was riveting with its historical accuracy and How to be Both was very current and thoughtful.

I have the challenge set up on the group home page challenge thing.

OK so although I don't want a deadline for this I think for 2017 I would like to add 5 winners to my list.

There is a bug in the Group Challenges software, so the numbers and covers may be wrong on the Home page. It is affecting several groups and people, but should be fixed eventually.

Val wrote: "There is a bug in the Group Challenges software, so the numbers and covers may be wrong on the Home page. It is affecting several groups and people, but should be fixed eventually."

Aha! So it's not me then. Thanks for the heads-up.

The challenge bug appears to be fixed for most people, although you may have to re-enter your shelf name. Please let me know if the number of books read for the challenge is not correct for you.

Val wrote: "The challenge bug appears to be fixed for most people, although you may have to re-enter your shelf name. Please let me know if the number of books read for the challenge is not correct for you."

thanks for the update, val.

i didn't know there was an issue so set my challenge up right around the time the bug was reported. (which is still making me laugh. good timing on me!)

at the moment, it still seems broken for me.

it's showing i've read 3 books, when my shelf shows i've read 7. it also seems very slow to load - i clicked on the "3/25" of my reading progress, because i was curious if i would see a different number in that space. it took longer than usual on GR to load the page. i also was curious about other participants' challenges, and those pages were slow to open too.

i did just re-enter the shelf name to see if that helped (so far it hasn't, though maybe some time is required)... i am still wondering if i should delete the challenge and start over?

my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

edited to add:

i posted in the feedback group about my issues persisting. :)
and i think i know what's causing the issue for my challenge - some of my books marked as 'read' don't have exact dates attached to them for when i read them. (pre-GR reading.) curious to see what a GR person can tell me about that.

just to update: the problem for me was the missing specific 'read' dates. (even though the books were shelved as 'read', they are not counted in the challenges unless they have a reading date filled in for them.) the things i am learning today!! :D

Yes, sometimes you have to invent a read date. That isn't really a bug, just the way Goodreads is set up.
At least it is counting the books now.

yep -- glad it's showing properly for me now. and that i clued into the fact that the issue was my own problem, and not bug-related. sorry i took up real estate talking through it though. hahaha!! :)

Michelle - Carry A Big Book's Challenge


1996: A Spell of Winter 💖💖💖

1997: Fugitive Pieces
1998: Larry's Party
1999: A Crime in the Neighborhood
2000: When I Lived in Modern Times

2001: The Idea of Perfection

2002: Bel Canto 💖💖💖💖

2003: Property

2004: Small Island 💖💖💖💖💖

2005: We Need to Talk About Kevin

2006: On Beauty 💖💖💖
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2007: Half of a Yellow Sun 💖💖💖💖

2008: The Road Home

2009: Home 💖💖💖💖
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2010: The Lacuna
2011: The Tiger's Wife
2012: The Song of Achilles
2013: May We Be Forgiven

2014: A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing 💖💖
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2015: How to Be Both 💖💖💖💖
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

2016: The Glorious Heresies
2017: The Power
2018: Home Fire

2019: An American Marriage 💖💖💖💖

Lisa

2004- Small Island
2005- We need to talk about Kevin
2006- On beauty
2012- The song of Achilles
2015- How to be both
2017- The Power

Hello! I'm new. I'm 14 books in on the now 25 winners. I've linked my shelf to the group challenge. Is the right place for discussion about them?

Finished the 25th book this afternoon!
Here's my list in order of preference
1. Half of a yellow sun
2. Hamnet
3. The song of Achilles
4. How to be both
5. Small island
6. Home fire
7. May we be forgiven
8. The lacuna
9. Bel canto
10. Girl is a half formed thing
11. The power
12. A spell of winter
13. The idea of perfection
14. An American marriage
15. We need to talk about Kevin
16. Larry's Party
17. The Road Home
18. On Beauty
19. Property
20. Home
21. The Glorious Heresies
22. A crime in the neighbourhood
23. Fugitive pieces
24. The Tigers wife
25. When I lived in Modern Times

Carol wrote: "Finished the 25th book this afternoon!
Here's my list in order of preference
1. Half of a yellow sun
2. Hamnet
3. The song of Achilles
4. How to be both
5. Small island
6. Home fire
7. May we be ..."

woo Hoo!!! well done! which was your favourite?

Loved half of a yellow sun and Hamnet, but do many great books in that list