Litsy

Took me a while, but here it is. My #bookerdozen (The order was chosen by pic-collage. 😁)

Thank @Liz_M for the prompt and @vivastory for the inspirational. I‘ll list the titles in comments

Graywacke Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel (2005)
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (2023)
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (2023)
The Colony by Audrey Magee (2022)
An Island by Karen Jennings (2021)
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (2019) 3mo

Graywacke Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson (2019)
Milkman by Anna Burns (2018)
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah (1994)
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (1987)
Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard (1984) 3mo

Liz_M Thanks for the tag. The only two books I've read are also on my booker dozen. I guess I need to wishlist the other 10. 3mo

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Graywacke @Liz_M Start with Moon Tiger. 🙂 3mo

Suet624 Lost Children Archive ❤️ 3mo

Graywacke @Suet624 I second that heart. What a special book! If I were ranking, Moon Tiger 1, LCA 2. I think 3mo

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vivastory

Untitled | Unknown

Without a doubt the most pleasant surprise that was bookish this past week was the positive response to my #bookerdozen post. I loved seeing all of the posts & added quite a few to my TBR. I loved @thekidupstairs #womensdozen post & the response posts. Some great reads for #weekinbooks The real standouts though are “Convenience Store Woman“ which I finished yesterday. Something so magical about a lot of contemporary Japanese fiction. (CONT)

vivastory The other two pieces that stood out the most are from my current story collection: Gaiman's “Fragile Things.“ First is “Bitter Grounds.“ Gaiman does something at the end of this piece that he did at the end of a few other pieces in this collection that I just really love. It's a twist or ambiguous, but it doesn't feel cheap at all. I'm thinking of other stories like “Study In Emerald“ & “Closing Time.“ The second piece is the poem (CONT) 3mo

vivastory “Instructions.“ There are a few poems strewn throughout Fragile Things, but this has been the one that has caught my attention the most. It is pretty meta, including a few references to other stories within FT, but I think it would work by itself & it is a beautiful poem in its own right. 3mo

merelybookish So cool. It was fun to scroll through and checked out people's lists! Just as a twist, here's the Booker I hated. 😆

The Finkler Question: A Novel

3mo

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MicheleinPhilly @merelybookish Pretty sure that‘s the book that ceased my obsessive Booker reading. Ugh. What a dud. 3mo

merelybookish @MicheleinPhilly Terrible. So much penis talk. 🙄🙄 3mo

LeahBergen I never got around to making my own list but I sure enjoyed reading everyone else‘s! 3mo

Aimeesue I have the illustrated book of Instructions. It was illustrated by Charles Vess, who is a patron of my librarian friend‘s library. I get jealous because she talks to him all the time. And tells me about it, of course.

Instructions

(edited) 3mo

vivastory @Aimeesue It's so funny you mention that! I have a decidedly mixed reaction to the graphic adaptions to Gaimain's work. I was *reallY* disappointed in the graphic novel of American Gods that I read, IMO it really added nothing to the story, while on the other hand you have a BRILLIANT illiustrator such as Chris Riddell doing the illustrations for several of his works (!!!) I recently saw a video on booktube of the Vess & am def intrigued! 3mo

vivastory @merelybookish Although I have read my share of favorites, I apparently haven't read enough from the list to have a nominee for one that I really disliked. HOWEVER, the MB International is a different story: Dangers of Smoking In Bed & The War of the Poor. (To be far, I have Our Share Of The Night & am looking forward to it) 3mo

Aimeesue @vivastory Riddell is so brilliant! And yeah, I can‘t say graphic novelizations of his longer stuff appeal to me at all. Short stories, maybe - A Study in Emerald worked well, I thought - but novels, not so much. 3mo

CBee I really enjoyed Convenience Store Woman 👏🏻 3mo

vivastory @CBee I'm looking forward to exploring Murata's other works! 3mo

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JenP

Untitled | Untitled

#bookerdozen
I‘m late to it but these are my booker dozen. Can‘t believe Atwood didn‘t make my list if I was allowed 13, she would be on there.

vivastory

AkashaVampie I am scared to ever read A Little Life. Ive heard it wrecked some people. 3mo

JenP @AkashaVampie it‘s not a book I recommend to people and it‘s devastating. But, I‘m a psychologist and I thought it was one of the best representations of trauma and a certain personality type that I‘ve ever read. 3mo

AkashaVampie @JenP wow!! Yeah i might read it sometime before I die, but not any time soon.
3mo

vivastory Great list! Not surprised to see a bit of overlap with my own. Ishiguro is such a master at writing stories that stick with you for years, The Mistry & the McCormack are high on my TBR. 3mo

BarbaraBB Great choices 🥰 3mo

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azulaco

The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood

It took me awhile, but this is my #bookerdozen.
The Handmaid‘s Tale, Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
Prophet Song, Paul Lynch
Trust, Hernan Diaz
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Shocked at how few winners I‘ve read!

vivastory

Ruthiella Great list ! A lot of overlap with mine! 👍 3mo

vivastory Fantastic liost!! I really liked Oryx. Plan on reading the rest of the trilogy. Some personal favorites of mine on your list & others that are high on TBR (Pullman, Saunders & Mantel). I know what you mean about the winners. I think that most of my selections were from the longlist & shortlist 3mo

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Liz_M

Ducks, Newburyport | Lucy Ellmann

For my #bookerdozen, the first six were easy to choose -- the 5⭐ and 4.5⭐ books (Ducks through How Late). The other six I chose from the many four-star reads that I was slightly more enthusiastic about and didn't seem to have been mentioned already.

@vivastory

Liz_M Ducks, Newburyport
The Satanic Verses
Lost Children Archive
A Brief History of Seven Killings
The Sea, the Sea
How Late it Was, How Late
Eva Trout
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
How to Be Good
Lila
Empire of the Sun
Remembering Babylon 3mo

CatLass007 I read Empire of the Sun when it was first released. It was excellent. I‘ve never read any of the others but Litsy is the reason for my growing Audible wish list. 3mo

Ruthiella I loved Ducks! It changed the way I thought for a while. I found myself talking to myself like that narrator. 3mo

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BarbaraBB Great list. I still need to read Ducks but I loved the Rushdie, Luiselli and Murdoch. I have Empire of the Sun on my shelves. Should read it soon! 3mo

Liz_M @graywacke I'd LOVE to see your #bookerdozen 3mo

Liz_M @CatLass007 Lila was excellent on audio. 3mo

Liz_M @Ruthiella the fact that a lot of narrate to ourselves that way 3mo

Liz_M @BarbaraBB Ducks is a commitment and not for everyone, but I loved the unique style. Empire is quite good in how the situation is presented as normal and only when you think about it, realize how disturbing it is. 3mo

vivastory I somehow missed the Hornby. Lately I have been reading the compilation of his Believer articles & have been loving it. Def want to read Empire. Ballard is a favorite. 3mo

Liz_M @vivastory I loved those books! I am especially fond of the books bought vs. books read lists. 💝 3mo

Graywacke @Liz_M have to think about that. Lost Children Archive and Empire of the Sun would both be on there. 3mo

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CarolynM

The Black Prince | Iris Murdoch

Here‘s my #BookerDozen.
The Black Prince Iris Murdoch
Small World David Lodge
What‘s Bred in the Bone Robertson Davies
Moon Tiger Penelope Lively
The Van Roddy Doyle
Dirt Music Tim Winton
The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst
Wolf Hall Hilary Mantell
The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes
Hot Milk Deborah Levy
Autumn Ali Smith
Milkman Anna Burns
I was a bit embarrassed by how few I‘ve read when I went through the lists ☹️ Thanks for the idea Scott

vivastory

BarbaraBB Well you did read some good ones! I LOVED The Black Prince and Moon Tiger! 3mo

BarbaraBB … and Milkman, Line of Beauty and Dirt Music! (edited) 3mo

Graywacke Moon Tiger! 🖤 3mo

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Ruthiella Great list! Iris Murdoch is such an interesting writer. I definitely have The Black Price on my TBR. 3mo

Centique Theres so many here i need to get to! This is a great reminder of great books ive missed 🙌 3mo

Reggie I loved Milkman so much. 3mo

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vivastory

Untitled | Unknown

I loved the idea that @thekidupstairs had to create a #womensdozen Twelve books that have either been longlisted, shortlisted or won the stellar Women's Prize For Fiction. Below are my 12 (w/ no overlap from my #bookerdozen
Zadie Smith: White Teeth
Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Half A Yellow Sun
Madeline Miller: The Song Of Achilles
Kamila Shamsie: Home Fire
Oyinkan Braithwaite: My Sister, The Serial Killer

vivastory Susanna Clark: Piranesi
Yaa Gyasi: Transcendent Kingdom
Patricia Lockwood: No One Is Talking About This
Louise Erdrich: The Sentence
Ann Patchett-The Dutch House
Ghost Wall-Sarah Moss
The Essex Serpent-Sarah Perry
Using my dozen in the sense of baker's dozen, thanks to the pointer from @ruthiella 3mo

Ruthiella Great list! I‘ve actually read 10 of them already! The three I haven‘t, the Ann Patchett, Kamila Shamsie and Sarah Moss, are definitely on my TBR. (edited) 3mo

vivastory @Ruthiella Thanks! Both are quick reads that have staying power for different reasons. 3mo

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vivastory @Ruthiella I read the Patchett over the Thanksgiving holidays not realizing how much of a Thanksgiving book it is, A real surprise. One of the characters, Maeve, ended up being one of my favorite characters I encountered last year. 3mo

Ruthiella @vivastory Ooh! Maybe I will try to read it this November ! 🦃 3mo

youneverarrived So many good books on your list! 3mo

vivastory @youneverarrived Thanks, Katie 🙂 I'd love to see your list if you're able, if not no worries. I know that you have your hands full with your kiddos 3mo

BarbaraBB We‘ve got four in common, which doesn‘t surprise me, and I should have included The Sentence! 3mo

vivastory @BarbaraBB Tookie was such a wonderful character. I can't wait to explore more of Erdrich's backlist. I really loved your list. I'm esp. looking forward to reading the books by Waters, Hustvedt, Luiselli & Woodson. 3mo

BarbaraBB Those four are really so so good! I hope you‘ll read them! 3mo

vivastory @BarbaraBB I plan on making them a priority. I'm looking forward to it! 3mo

batsy Great list! Quite a few that I love in here. I'll be reading The Essex Serpent next month and I'm glad it's on your list. I'm so bad at knowing/keeping track off award books but it'll be interesting to comb through the website to see what I've read... 3mo

TheKidUpstairs Great list. A few on yours almost made mine, but there were so many I had to cut some! 3mo

TheKidUpstairs @batsy it's only been the last few years that I've really paid attention to the awards, so it was a fun exercise to go back and see which books I'd loved were nominated without me knowing. And to explode my TBR with all the great titles I missed! 3mo

Branwen Excellent list! 💕📚 I absolutely love The Essex Serpent and totally think it deserves more love! 3mo

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Ruthiella

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION JOURNAL. | THE. WOMEN'S PRIZE

Inspired by @TheKidUpstairs and @BarbaraBB here‘s my #womensdozen using only the short list and winners. Purposefully no overlap with my #bookerdozen with either author or title. Some are my favorite books of all time.

1. The Poisonwood Bible
2. Bel Canto
3. Purple Hibiscus
4. Old Filth
5. The Observations
6. The Tiger‘s Wife
7. Life After Life
8. The Goldfinch
9. Do No Say We Have Nothing
10. The Idiot
11. Girl, Woman, Other
12. Piranesi

Christine This is an amazing list, and now I‘m of course wondering which are your favorite books of all time! 3mo

vivastory I have read only 2 of these! I have a lot of reading to do as several of these are on my TBR 3mo

Ruthiella @Christine Thanks! Bel Canto, Old Filth, Life After Life and The Idiot would go on that list. 😃 3mo

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Ruthiella @vivastory So many books, so little time! 😃 3mo

vivastory So true, so true. If only work didn't keep interfering! 😅 3mo

vivastory @Ruthiella I have to ask: have you read other Atkinson books? I'm just curious, because I read “Case Histories“ & really loved it but it's the only Atkinson that I have read so far. 3mo

Ruthiella @vivastory I LOVE Atkinson. I‘ve read most of her novels and the entire Jackson Brodie series. I highly recommend it. When Will There Be Good News is IMO the best, but they‘re all great. @CarolynM is also a fan. 3mo

vivastory @Ruthiella Thanks! *Noted. I am def. planning on continuing the Brodie series, but also plan on checking out Life After Life. 3mo

BarbaraBB Such a great selection 😍. I loved Old Filth too. And Piranesi. And I should read

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel

3mo

Ruthiella @BarbaraBB Discovering Jane Gardam was a revelation to me. I want to read everything she‘s written! 3mo

BarbaraBB I‘ve been thinking that too! And I noticed I already read The Tiger‘s Wife. Not even that long ago, in 2020. I don‘t remember a thing, isn‘t that weird? Or maybe it‘s because it‘s the damned Covid year… 😱 3mo

Ruthiella @BarbaraBB I definitely have read books where I have no memory. I sometimes wonder if I briefly had an out of body experience. 😂 3mo

BarbaraBB I am really shocked. I often don‘t remember what a book was about but not remembering that I read a book in the first place hasn‘t happened before, I think 👵🏼 3mo

vivastory @BarbaraBB If it's any consolation I recently started reading a short story collection thinking I had never read it & halfway through it I checked goodreads only to discover that I had read it 6 years ago 🙃 3mo

TheBookHippie The Observations is the only one I didn‘t read in your list!!!! Wow. 3mo

Ruthiella @TheBookHippie Wow! The Observations was great. I‘d recommend it to anyone who likes Sarah Waters. 3mo

Christine Worthy picks! Though I have to admit I‘ve never heard of Old Filth! 3mo

CarolynM Yep, big Atkinson fan. That one is probably my favourite Brodie (very hard to choose) I haven‘t read all of her non-Brodies yet @vivastory Of the ones I‘ve read I love Life After Life but my favourite is its companion novel

A God in Ruins

3mo

batsy Purple Hibiscus, The Idiot, and Piranesi! 💜 So many here that I must read. 3mo

Tamra I‘m still irritated by the The Goldfinch. I was downright angry at the time! 🤣 3mo

TheKidUpstairs So many good ones! Totally stacking The Observations and Old Filth! 3mo

Ruthiella @CarolynM The way the plot of When Will There Be Good News winds up was so amazing. I still get goosebumps. (edited) 3mo

Ruthiella @batsy A lovely list of possibilities! 😃 3mo

Ruthiella @Tamra I get that! Donna Tart‘s style can be indulgent and long winded. 😆 3mo

Ruthiella @TheKidUpstairs I hope you enjoy them! 3mo

Caryl Ooh! Some of my favorites (Bel Canto, Old Filth, Purple Hibiscus, Life After Life) and some shelf-sitters I need to get to (Piranesi, The Idiot). 3mo

Ruthiella @Caryl so many books, so little time! I hope you enjoy both when you get to them. 😃 3mo

Readerann Have read 7 of these and mostly agree with you, especially on 1 and 2! (edited) 3mo

Ruthiella Both were the first I‘d read from Patchett and Kingsolver and they knocked it out of the park. 3mo

BkClubCare Oh my, there are 5 on this list that I have yet to read.🧐 3mo

Ruthiella @BkClubCare Looking through the shortlist, I saw lots of books I already have on my mental TBR. 3mo

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BarbaraBB

WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION JOURNAL. | THE. WOMEN'S PRIZE

Okay @TheKidUpstairs I checked out the history of the Women‘s Prize for Fiction and it turned out some of my all time favorites were nominated on it. So here are my #womensdozen (I didn‘t use books I already posted in my #bookerdozen post).

Titles below in the comments!

BarbaraBB Anne Michaels: Fugitive pieces
Helen Dunmore: A spell of winter
Yaa Gyasi: Transcedent kingdom
Jacqueline Woodson: Red at the bone
Valeria Luiselli: Lost children archive
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah
Elizabeth Strout: The Burgess boys
Siri Hustvedt: What I loved
Sarah Waters: Fingersmith
Margaret Atwood: Blind assassin
Jane Urquhart: The underpainter
Anna Quindlen: Black and blue 3mo

TheKidUpstairs Fugitive Pieces has been on my TBR since high school when a teacher recommended it. I'm thinking I should finally get to that one soon! Only 26 years late! 3mo

TheKidUpstairs And I really have to read Lost Children Archive. I absolutely loved

Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions

3mo

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sarahbarnes Some great books here! And Fingersmith is on my list! 3mo

Ruthiella Great list! 👍 Looking at the Women‘s Prize shortlists over the years made me want to read all of them! Anna Qindlen is an author I need to try. (edited) 3mo

vivastory I feel like between the #bookerdozen & the #womensdozen I could easily be stocked up on books to read at least until the summer! So many wonderful recommendations on these posts & reminders of books that I have been meaning to read 💙 3mo

vivastory @TheKidUpstairs I saw a virtual event with several incredible authors early days of the pandemic & Valeria Luiselli read from that one & I haven't forgotten it. I keep meaning to read it. 3mo

BarbaraBB @TheKidUpstairs Thanks for the Luiselli recommendation! And looking at your choices I was thinking: I should finally read

Fall On Your Knees

3mo

BarbaraBB @vivastory Yes! I felt a renewed appreciation for them: so many authors I probably wouldn‘t have discovered without them! (edited) 3mo

TheBookHippie Wellllll my my my we have a similar choice !!! 😳👀♥️😘

Fingersmith

3mo

squirrelbrain Some great books! ❤️ 3mo

BarbaraBB @TheBookHippie Finally! And it‘s a good one 👌🏽 3mo

batsy Great list! Many I have yet to read but Fingersmith and The Blind Assassin are excellent 💜 3mo

Tamra Loved Blind Assassin! 3mo

TheKidUpstairs @BarbaraBB one of my favourites by one of my favourite authors! 3mo

Readerann I loved Americanah and The Blind Assasin. Anna Quindlen is a writer who I feel is predictable but I‘m perfectly happy to read anything she writes anyway! We only part ways at Elizabeth Strout. 😁 3mo

BarbaraBB @Readerann You‘re no Strout fan? I loved everything she‘s written 😃. I haven‘t read many Quindlen books but this one stood out at the time (long ago!) and I still remember it! 3mo

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