Booker 25 - a thread

[Trojanbores]

Hello. I always try to read the Booker longlist.

Can anyone guess what might be on there this year? Any dead certs?

I’m also disappointed by no Alan Hollinghurst. I haven’t finished it yet but I love it at the moment.
I’ve only read ‘The South’ from the longlist. I read it about two months ago but can remember virtually nothing about it!

I’ve managed to reserve a few at the library. Only four. My library usually buys them in when they’re longlisted.

I’ve read only The Land in Winter which I enjoyed. I have another 3 and have ordered more in between book tokens, audible credits etc. I plan to try and read the longlist this year. I’m going to start with Misinterpretations.

Ooh I’m happy to see Flesh on there, at least I got one prediction right! Very confused by Audition and Universality being included though, I thought those were both really poor and underwritten. I’ve read much better books this year. I’m going to read Land in Winter next as others on here have enjoyed it so much!

Oh I also enjoyed Endling a lot! Would be happy if it won.

I am very surprised that there’s no Sarah Moss, Sarah Hall or Alan Hollinghurst! What does Sarah Moss have to do to get a nod?!

Place marking!

Has anyone tried Seascraper?

Fully enough I have it on order at work as someone recommended it but we only have a couple of copies in the county so I might now be waiting a bit longer….. unless we get some
more copies now it’s on the list

I think I might actually buy this one as it looks right up my street. And it’s quite short. I have Audition on order at the library but a long waiting list. The Desai isn’t even published until 25th September which is after the shortlist announcement.

I think all books should be published before the short list. I've started The rest of our lives on BorrowBox. It's good so far. I've reserved One boat, Endling and The South from the library. Have ulUniversality reserved on BorrowBox. Hopefully they'll order more of the books in soon.

Have just finished Seascraper which I really enjoyed. It’s one of those apparently quiet books which stays with you. Set in 1962, it’s about a young man in the northeast of England whose life seems mapped out for him but he senses there may be more out there. It’s also very short, only 163 pages, and none the worse for that. Haven’t read anything else by this author but will look out for his other books.

I think I will start with this one @pollyhemlock . Especially if it is short.

Love a quiet book. I'm enjoying The rest of our lives. It's also quite meditative so far with not a lot of plot. A few more have been added to BorrowBox so I've borrowed Love forms and Misinterpretation and reserved on audio Flesh and Audition.

I’ve finished and really enjoyed The South. It’s a coming of age/ family relationship story based in Malaysia. Good read.
I also read Misinterpretations but I found this one a bit of a mess- starts out great, the middle was very chaotic. Okay at the end.

I've finished The rest of our lives and enjoyed it. My reservation for The Endling has come in and they had a copy of Universality on the shelf too so think I will go with those next to give my eyes a screen reading break.

I've finished The Land in Winter which was very good, can't decide if I liked it more than The South. I'd say Love Forms is my favourite so far. I started Misinterpretations today but I'm cautious because of all the very mixed reviews!

I’m working my way through as many of the list as I can.

So far I’ve read:

Misinterpretation
I’m halfway through this and it’s fine. I don’t love it. There seems to be a real theme of unreliable or evasive narrators in this list and it varies how much that works for me.
Seascraper
I’d tip this for a winner. Love the evocative style and the direction the novel takes; completely surprising and I thought about it a lot afterwards.
Flesh
Definite shortlist material. I liked this more than I thought I would but it’s very masculine which I find a bit off putting. The flatness of the narrator and the jumps in time worked well, I think, in this book.
Endling
Started this. Didn’t grab me but I will go back to it.
The Land in Winter
I liked this a lot. The different perspectives and the intertwining stories worked well. Good period detail too. Shortlist for sure and possible winner.
The Rest of Our Lives
read this before the list came out. Enjoyable enough but not a winner.
Audition
interesting concept but didn’t actually seem to go anywhere. Never really felt like the narrator was a full character.
One Boat
Read about 2/3 of this and found it boring. The narrator completely fails to convince me as a woman tbh. And there’s too much of the “person in small Greek town who uses the colourful locals as foils in her own life” stuff.
The South
I liked the world of this and the different narrative voices. Compelling and warm but not a winner for me.
Love Forms
my favourite so far but not sure it’ll win. The most enjoyable read and the best written female narrator for sure. Loved the way the shifting relationships and perspectives on events changed throughout the novel - this felt authentic and emotionally true to me.

@AtomicBlondeRosethank you for this!!

Annoyingly on quite far down the wait lists for a few and I put myself on a book buying ban for this year when I started my job in the library……. Hopefully I’ll be starting soon!!

I’ve read Audition and Seascraper. I very much enjoyed Seascraper but Audition left me cold

I've read One Boat as I had an arc from Netgalley. I usually need a plot to enjoy a book but I liked how One Boat explored memory, grief and the passing of time. I'd be surprised if it won though. I've also listened to the audio of Universality which I didn't enjoy. I'm currently reading Flesh which I'm enjoying but it definitely isn't for everyone. The main events are picked from the protagonist's life and set out is 10 long chapters, almost like short stories. There's very little description or explanation but I'm finding it an easy read. I have The South to listen to on Everand and holds for most of the others at the library. I'm really looking forward to reading Endling.

I’ve just finished my fourth- Flashlight by Susan Choi. This one was a mixed bag- it’s written in four POVs starting with Louisa whose father disappears off a beach in Japan one night. Then it jumps around in time between Louisa, her mother Anne, father Serk and half-brother Tobias. Some parts are a bit of a drag but the good ones are very good and explore themes of dislocation and memory. This A Land in Winter and The South have all been hits with me but not 5/5 hits. Misinterpretation was a miss for me personally. Staring Audition now.

I can add Flashlight to my list - this I really
liked. Some of the storylines are very compelling. However some are a bit pointless and I feel like equal time is spent on topics or elements of the story which don’t have equal weight. Overall the good parts outweigh the less good.

I also read Universality which is pure trash IMO. What on earth is this garbage doing on the list? I thought it was trite and shallow. The characters are all just stereotypes, I think it’s trying to be funny but isn’t, and the story goes precisely nowhere.

Universality is next up on my Booker reading! Thankfully its quite short, might be it's only saving grace by the sounds of it

I just read a load of reviews and they were glowing, so maybe I missed something. I mean, I got what it was trying to do, I just thought it was nowhere near as subtle and clever as the reviews made out. The premise is a good one but the messages are well-worn by now and just kind of boring to me. It reminded me a little bit of “How I Won a Nobel Prize” but I did at least find that quite funny in parts and it had a plot!