stargazer

Sunday Post: Blogging Anniversary, Book Prizes, Spring in London

A lot has been going on this week. And I don’t just refer to the Ukraine/ Russia situation, although that’s probably what occupies most of us at the moment.

Tuesday, International Women’s Day, the longlist for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 was announced. This tends to be quite an event in the bookish world. Incidentally, Tuesday was also my blog’s three years anniversary. The longlist for the International Booker Prize was announced Thursday. It’s a shame these two prizes coincide, since the latter tends to drown in all the hype around the Women’s Prize.

Spring has finally arrived in London and I have thoroughly enjoyed the longer days and the bright sunshine.

Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022, longlist

For a quick, informative overview, I would recommend watching one of the countless reaction videos on booktube, such as the one from Eric Karl Anderson:

Consensus seems to be that this is a surprising list with many relatively unknown titles. On the other hand the box-ticking score is high: Good diversity, smaller publishers represented, many debuts, variety of genres. Furthermore, it features an unusual degree of magical realism and ghosts.

Whether such a high focus on lesser known titles is good or bad remains to be seen. If the judges have genuinely found some hidden gems, which have been overlooked in a market dominated by big publishers and marketing budgets, obviously it’s great. Prizes are an excellent way of promoting unknown authors. On the other hand, putting too much weight on box-ticking relative to quality is problematic and will eventually undermine the point of a book prize.

Like last year, I intend to pick up 1-2 titles from the longlist. I may wait for more reviews, and possibly even for the shortlist, before deciding. But these caught my immediate attention:

Salt Lick by Lulu Allison: It seems nobody has actually read this book, but presumably it’s dystopian with climate change vibes. A herd of cows may possibly chime in with their thoughts throughout the novel. Intriguing? Unfortunately, it isn’t available on audio. That goes for several of the longlisted books, which is a hurdle, since I rarely read these days.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich: Amongst the more established titles, The Sentence caught my eye. I’ve been meaning to try one of Erdrich’s books for a while, so this seems like a good occasion. The novel is centred around a haunted bookstore in Minneapolis. It refers to many recent events such as the George Floyd killing, the virus and the BLM protests and has a Native American protagonist.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak: I’ve seen many glowing reviews of this novel about Cyprus and two teenagers who are on opposite sides in the Greek / Turkish conflict. I’ve also seen a less glowing one from FictionFan. Let’s see…

Out of my three picks, one includes a fig tree narrator, another a cow herd narrator. And the third has a ghost on the character list. Anyway, prize lists are an excellent opportunity to move out of ones usual reading sphere, right?

Blogging Anniversary

This post is already too long, but I may return to the International Booker Prize in a later post. Let’s finish with a bit of virtual cake to mark my three years blogging anniversary. Happy Sunday!

The Sunday Post is hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer.

57 comments

  4. Happy anniversary Stargazer, here’s to many more! I noticed the preponderence of ghosts and magical realism which suits me nicely. Salt Lick and The Sentence were in my top picks from the longlist too. Great minds and all that! (FF left me wondering about the Shafak and I think I’ll try one of her tried and tested books first.)

    • Thanks so much Sandra! I didn’t know you enjoyed magical realism. For me it’s hit and miss. Haha, yes absolutely – great minds do think alike. Of course we may both be wrong. 🙄😁 I am not 100% convinced about the Shafak either, but I’ll probably give it a try.

    • Thanks Nicki! I definitely want to try The Island of Missing Trees on audio. Glad you loved it. 😀

  7. Greetings. Have you heard of Jo Baker? I’ve read the first few pages of her The Body Lies, which I learned about when I googled “literary thriller.” I haven’t read enough of it yet to know if I’ll like it.

    • No, I haven’t heard of her, but I just looked up The Body Lies on Goodreads and it sounds like something I might enjoy. Thanks for the tip!

  9. Happy Anniversary! I’ll give dystopia and hauntings a miss, but there’s still plenty else here to tempt me. I’ve only read one Elif Shafak so far, but am eager to try her again. Let;s see which camp I fall into when I’;ve read it.

  10. Happy Blog Anniversary!! Mine is this Thursday — can’t believe it’s been 12 years. Thank you for sharing the Women’s Prize for Fiction list. I have several of those books on my TBR stack. I think my next read will be The Sentence. I bought an autographed copy from Louise Erdrich’s bookstore in Minnesota not long ago. Have a great week!

    • The same to you! I wonder if I’ll ever make it to 12 years of blogging. Very impressive. Oh, I did read that she had her own bookshop. Interesting, that you have actually been there.

  11. Happy birthday – cake is definitely needed on this occasion.
    Good point about the dangers of ‘box ticking” in the literary awards: I fear the judging panel for the Booker prize (the other one, not the international version) have been guilty of that in the last few years..

    • Thanks so much! I think cake is in order. 😀 I wasn’t keen on the Booker longlist last year. Women’s Prize and the International Booker are probably the ones I find most interesting. Too bad they overlap, but I will probably try to read a couple of books from the latter as well.

  12. Happy blogiversary! 🙂 Although I’m always interested to see what’s on the longlists for literature prizes, I rarely read any of them as they tend to be not my kind of thing. But I admire anyone who reads any or all of them!

    • Thanks you! To be honest, I am generally sceptical towards prize lists and would never read the full longlist like some bloggers / vloggers do. But I’ve found some amazing books, which I would never have heard of, if not nominated. So I think prize lists can be useful.

    • Thanks!! That is exactly how I use these lists. Last year I picked up books like Piranesi (winner of the Women’s Prize) and The Employees (shortlisted for International Booker) both of which were highly unusual and so much fun.

    • Thanks so much Tessa! I agree, it looks like a well-rounded selection. Of course I haven’t read any of them, so can’t really judge. 😀

    • Thanks! I haven’t read any of them either. Last year I’d read two, before the announcement, but this year there are so many relatively unknown titles.

    • Thanks so much Rose! 😊 I can’t believe it has been three years already. But lucky timing – it has been the perfect hobby in a time dominated by lockdowns and limited socialising.

      • Your timing couldn’t have been better 🙂
        The contact with other readers who blog has been a constant joy throughout the past two years for me, too.

        • I didn’t even think of the interaction aspect of blogging before starting out. As it turns out, that is one of the most fun things about it.

          • The social aspect didn’t occur to me, either. In the beginning, I thought it would be a handy way for me to remember what I’ve already read, but blogging turned out to be so much more than that.

  19. Congrats on reaching the three year mark. The daffodils in St James’s look wonderful – not quite as many out yet here in the north, but hopefully we won’t be far behind.

    • Thanks Julia! 😀 I love the daffodils too, they seem to signal that spring has arrived. Hope you will soon see more up north as well!

    • Thanks so much Inge! 😊 I have thoroughly enjoyed these three years and can’t believe I am such an “old” blogger already. Haha, I wondered about the cows as well, but who knows what goes on in their heads?

  21. Congratulations not just on three years of blogging but also on having such an accomplished blog!

    • Thanks Jane, that is so kind of you to say (especially since I don’t know what I am doing half of the time… 😊) I’ve been enjoying it a lot though and hope I can keep it up in the years to come.

  23. Happy blogiversary! Here’s to many more! 🍾
    Ha, I hope you enjoy The Island of Missing Trees more than I did – statistically, there’s a good chance you will since I seem to be in a minority on it. Talking trees, forsooth! But I think the insects who could read annoyed me even more… 😉

    • Thanks so much FF! 😀 I am not 100% convinced about The Island of Missing Trees, but I do like the setting and wouldn’t mind learning more about the Greek / Turkish conflict. If I end up hating it, feel free to say “told you so”! After the talking cows in Salt Lick, maybe the talking tree feels completely natural…

  24. Thanks for these award lists. There were about 9 on the Women’s Prize for Fiction that I hadn’t heard of and 7 titles that I know … but I haven’t read any yet. I have a copy of the Maggie Shipstead novel, which I want to read this year. Any predictions on the winner? The Dawnie Walton book has received some good recognition. Guess we’ll have to wait for the shortlist before predictions. Nice park photos. Enjoy the sun!

    • I haven’t read any of them either and have absolutely no idea about potential winners. Great Circle was Booker nominated last year and is probably amongst the favourites, but if I should hazard a guess, I don’t think it’ll win.The Dawnie Walton book was mentioned by Barack Obama, I believe? Apparently, many people follow his book recommendations. Let’s see how it all goes.

    • Thanks Lashaan, I can’t believe it has been three years already. I’ve seen Louise Erdrich’s books quite often, so now is the time to actually read one of them!

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