Since I have known about it, I have used the Orange Prize lists as something to shop from. It's not perfect, but I always manage to find some good reads on the list. So I thought I'd post the first (and only) dozen years of Orange Prize longlists, much as we have done with other lists, and listen to what you have to say about the ones you have read or the authors you are familiar with.

As mentioned on the other 'award' thread, the Orange Prize awards for excellence, originality, and accessibility.

Beginning with the oldest list. 1996:
1996 longlist

Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

Julia Blackburn, The Book of Colour - shortlist

Ajay Close, Official and Doubtful

Lindsey Collen, The Rape of Sita

Isla Dewar, Keeping Up with Magda

Helen Dunmore, A Spell of Winter - winner

Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower

Lesley Glaister, The Private Parts of Women

Stephanie Grant, The Passion of Alice

Liz Jensen, Egg Dancing

A. L. Kennedy, So I am Glad

Pagan Kennedy, Spinsters - shortlist

Andrea Levy, Never Far from Nowhere

Mary Morrissy, Mother of Pearl

Jane Rogers, Promised Lands

Elspeth Sandys, River Lines

Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses - shortlist

Anne Tyler, Ladder of Years - shortlist

Marianne Wiggins, Eveless Eden - shortlist

More later. One should remember this is a UK award and is based on books published in the UK the previous year. A few years ago, the OP added a 'first novel' prize; I'll include those also when we get to them.

I enjoyed Helen Dunmore's Spell of Winter, although I believe I read her The Siege first. Of Spell of Winter, I thought it a classic gothic novel. I have the Rogers in the TBR pile, and read the Tan & Tyler but can't remember them enough to comment. There are a lot of authors here whom we will see on later lists.

Is Ghost Road part of Barker's Regeneration trilogy? Can someone tell us about the trilogy and or the author?

avaland, The Ghost Road is the last part of her Regeneration trilogy, and won the Booker prize as well. I recently bought the whole trilogy though it's not quite made it to the top of my TBR pile yet! It's about the treatment of various shell-shocked WWI soldiers, including Siegfried Sassoon. It's meant to be excellent, I've been meaning to get round to it for years. Having actually bought it I might be in with a chance ;-)

So, I've heard but I thought I'd tease it out of someone:-) Thanks.

I've heard only good things about A. L. Kennedy, and I'm going to be reading her book Day for the Women and War theme month. I'll let you know what I think of her when I've read that book. :)

It is an interesting list. Anyone know who started it and why?

I'm embarrassed to say that I've only read two from the list (but two more are in my TBR stacks).

The Ladder of Years. This was the last Anne Tyler novel I read--simply because it was so dull that I didn't want to read anymore Anne Tyler for awhile.

The Hundred Secret Sense. Good, but I think that other books (The Joy Luck Club, The Bonesetter's Daughter) by Tan are far superior.

A Spell of Winter and The Blue Flower are waiting to be read.

Cariola, I share your embarrassment having read the same two novels (and I share your opinions on them as well!).

In fact, I will confess right now that I recently realized just how little of the Orange Prize I have read: 4 winners, and 12 shortlisters. *deep blush* I've done much better with Booker & Pulitzer winners over time. To begin rectifying this situation, I have 4 OP winners on my TBR for this year. One of them, Small Island, I'll be reading for the "displaced women" theme read ...

Message edited by its author, Apr 7, 2008, 9:23pm.

#8 I read and enjoyed Small Island last year. It's an excellent choice for the theme read.

I will have to check the rest of the Orange Prize nominees and winners to see how well I've done overall.

Message edited by its author, Apr 7, 2008, 10:35pm.

Well, I feel a little better. I reviewed the lists on the Orange Prize thread and find I have read more than I thought (and that only goes back to 2005 or 2006, I believe):

Lucky Girls
The Accidental
The Inheritance of Loss
The Observations
Afterwards
The Blood of Flowers
The Gathering

And I have five more in my TBR stacks:

On Beauty
A History of Love
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
The Outcast
The Septembers of Shiraz

Susan Hill wrote about her disappointment in the judging panel in 1996. She believed that The Blue Flower should win but that the panel lacked the 'expertise' to understand this novel, and fell back into choosing traditional women's fiction

I liked The Blue Flower but it helps if you know who Novalis is.

eh....isn't the point of this thread to approach the Orange Prize sequentially, rather than the "I've read this" approach. Just wondering.

As a man, I am more likely to read a novel by a female writer if it is nominated for a prize other than Orange, simply because it appears to be saying "these are books by women, for women".

>geesh, you all are getting way ahead of me here!

>11. simply because it appears to be saying "these are books by women, for women" That's interesting, jargoneer, because I don't think of it that way. I think of it as an award apart from those whose creation and history is rooted in the patriarchal literary establishment and which place a higher value on the lives and stories of men. One only needs to look at recent fiction winners of the Pulitzer to see that this conscious or unconscious attitude still prevails. I think it is wrong to see the OP dismissively as books by and about women. No one who has read Half of a Yellow Sun or The Lizard Cage would think this.

>6 I think the OP talks about how it started in some of their Q&A. I think the failure of the Booker Prize to recognize women writers back in the in early 90s was the catalyst (was there a year that there were no women on the longlist or something like that?). It took them a few years to get the award up and going.

The Orange Prize does add that extra qualifier to their award - "accessibility". And I do think that their longlist is usually quite a mix of fiction. For example, a couple of years ago it had Frangipani listed. I think this got on the list for a number of reasons but I would've have said literary excellence was one of them. Still, it was an interesting and fun mother-daughter story.

re: Susan Hill. I have thought that some of the earlier winners seemed not of the quality of some the more recent winners but I've not really made a study of it. As I stated above, it's not perfect but it's a great place to explore books by women.

1997 longlist

Margaret Atwood Alias Grace - shortlist

Beryl Bainbridge, Every Man for Himself

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices

Joan Brady, Death Comes for Peter Pan

Joan Didion, The Last Thing He Wanted

Linda Grant, The Cast Iron Shore

Siri Hustvedt, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl

Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother

Laurie R King, With Child

Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall on your Knees

Deirdre Madden, One by One in the Darkness - shortlist

Jane Mendelsohn, I Was Amelia Earhart - shortlist

Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces - winner

E Annie Proulx, Accordion Crimes - shortlist

Leone Ross, All the Blood is Red

Manda Scott, Hen's Teeth - shortlist

Paulina Simons, Red Leaves

Meera Syal, Anita and Me

Jeanette Winterson, Gut Symmetries

Mary Kay Zuravleff, The Frequency of Souls

How about these titles? Would anyone like to tell us what you thought about any of these you might have read?

The only one I've read is Fall on Your Knees. This was a dark family saga but quite good. Lots of plot twists and surprises.

1998 Longlist

Kirsten Bakis, Lives of the Monster Dogs - shortlist

Sandra Benitez, Bitter Grounds

Lucy Ellmann, Man or Mango?

Esther Freud, Gaglow

Cristina Garcia, The Aguero Sisters

Nadine Gordimer, The House Gun

Kathryn Heyman, The Breaking

Michelle Huneven, Round Rock

Liz Jensen, Ark Baby

Christina Koning, Undiscovered Country

Pauline Melville, The Ventriloquist's Tale - shortlist

Drusilla Modjeska, The Orchard

Ann Patchett, The Magician's Assistant - shortlist

Deirdre Purcell, Love Like Hate Adore - shortlist

Anna Quindlen, Black and Blue

Michele Roberts, Impossible Saints

Carol Shields, Larry's Party - winner

Anita Shreve, The Weight of Water - shortlist

Jane Urquhart, The Underpainter

Louise Young, Baby Love

I read The Lives of Monster Dogs (the 98 list) and remember enjoying it. I have the Gordimer and Urquhart on the TBR pile.

From the 97 list I read I was Amelia Earhart which I did enjoy but remember thinking it didn't live up to the hype (simply everyone was reading it. I would highly recommend Alias Grace but I will let someone else who has perhaps read it more recently speak for it. I have read most of Chitra Divakaruni's novels but not this early one. She tells a very good story in a comfortable, middle-weight prose.

Has anyone read Siri Hustvedt? I am always drawn to her books but have yet to read one. I saw recently she has a new novel out also (see what I mean? I am drawn to reviews, blurbs...etc of her work).

From 1998, I've read only The Weight of Water and Black and Blue. I read them back around that time and unfortunately, neither have really stuck with me ...

The only one I read is Winterson's "Gut symmetries", which I liked a lot. It's not great literature (she herself wrote at least two considerably better books), but it has her distinctive voice, a couple interesting twists and turns, and it's sexy. (Although, if you've read her before you may feel she keeps writing one and the same love story...)

From the 1997 long list, I've only read Alias Grace, which was interesting, but not Atwood's best.

From the 1998 list, I've read only The Magician's Assistant, but a copy of The Underpainter is in my TBR stacks.

I haven't read any from the 1998 long list. However, I have read a non-fiction book by Drusilla Modjeska, Stravinsky's Lunch, that I recommend highly. It's about two Australian artists, Stella Bowen and Grace Cossington Smith, and about what it means to be a woman and an artist, in relation to family and companionship.

Yes, Christina, I agree with you. I also read Exiles at Home: Australian Women Writers, 1925-45 by Drusilla Modjeska, which I highly recommend too.

1999 Longlist

Beryl Bainbridge, Master Georgie

Andrea Barrett, The Voyage of the Narwhal

Suzanne Berne, A Crime in the Neighborhood - winner

Julia Blackburn, The Leper's Companions - shortlist

Marilyn Bowering, Visible Worlds - shortlist

Catherine Chidgey, In a Fishbone Church

Julia Darling, Crocodile Soup

Maureen Duffy, Restitution

Jane Hamilton, The Short History of a Prince - shortlist

Jackie Kay, Trumpet

Oonya Kempadoo Buxton Spice

Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible - shortlist

Elizabeth Knox, The Vintner's Luck

Karla Kuban, Marchlands

Hilary Mantel, The Giant O'Brien

Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Most Wanted

Toni Morrison, Paradise - shortlist

Barbara Neil, A History of Silence

Nora Okja Keller, Comfort Woman

Marly Swick, Evening News

Clearly, it is a good touchstone day:-)

Read The Leper's Companion when it first came out, remember very little about it. Liked it well-enough (no bad memories, if you know what I mean). I have read Suzanne Berne's more recent novel A Ghost at the Table but A Crime in the Neighborhood remains in my TBR pile. When I was at the bookstore, the book was required reading for the advanced placement English classes in one of the local high schools.

I've read The Poisonwood Bible, which I loved loved loved. I've also read Paradise but frankly don't remember much about it.

I've read only two of these: The Short History of a Prince and Paradise. Niehter seems to have left a big impression.

clearly 1999 was a good year - The Poisonwood Bible and The Voyage of the Narwhal are my two favourite books, and The Vintner's Luck is pretty high on the list, too. I also liked Trumpet.

I've also read Master Georgie and A Crime in the Neighborhood, but wasn't gripped by either. (I don't understand why Beryl Bainbridge is so highly rated - can anyone explain?)

I'll get back to adding years soon, promise! In the meantime, anyone is welcome to add one (I get the longlists from the OP website, copy and paste) and its easier to do the touchstones starting with the end of the list:-) But only one at a time, please. So we can digest.

Great idea ... why should you have all the cutting and pasting fun avaland?

2000 longlist

Leila Aboulela, The Translator

Judy Budnitz, If I Told You Once - shortlist

Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring

Anita Desai ,Fasting, Feasting

Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, The Dancers Dancing - shortlist

Barbara Ewing, A Dangerous Vine

Jo-Ann Goodwin, Danny Boy

Linda Grant, When I Lived in Modern Times - winner

Sunetra Gupta, A Sin of Colour

Laura Hird, Born Free

A L Kennedy, Everything You Need (very wrong touchstone!)

Julia Leigh, The Hunter (wrong touchstone)

Alice McDermott, Charming Billy

Gina B Nahai, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith

Christine Pountney, Last Chance Texaco

Jane Rogers, Island

Shauna Singh Baldwin, What the Body Remembers

Zadie Smith, White Teeth - shortlist

Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle - shortlist

From the 2000 list, I've read White Teeth, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Translator. All very different ... liked them all but none were all-time faves.

I have read the Jane Rogers - a good read, with touches of gothic. Her Mr. Wroe's Virgins hooked me on her. It's been a while since she has had a new novel.

I have also read the Chevalier, which I thought an entertaining read although I was probably not as excited over it as most (I like a little more meat in my historical fiction).

The Linda Grant, which won, has been on my TBR piles for years!

I have read a few other books by some of these authors, and I have the new Elizabeth Strout yet to read.

Thanks, lindacl!

I have read the Jane Rogers - a good read, with touches of gothic. Her Mr. Wroe's Virgins hooked me on her. It's been a while since she has had a new novel.

I have also read the Chevalier, which I thought an entertaining read although I was probably not as excited over it as most (I like a little more meat in my historical fiction).

The Linda Grant, which won, has been on my TBR piles for years!

I have read a few other books by some of these authors, and I have the new Elizabeth Strout yet to read.

I like a little more meat in my historical fiction

Yes, me too. The current issue of Bookmarks magazine included Girl with a Pearl Earring on a list of recommended summer reading for older students and I thought that was a good fit. Something a high schooler can enjoy, but maybe not "meaty" enough if you're into that sort of thing.

Yes, I would agree. I may have liked the Vreeland Vermeer story better (they both merge together a bit for me)

2001 longlist

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin - shortlist

Trezza Azzopardi, The Hiding Place

Jill Dawson, Fred & Edie - shortlist

Meaghan Delahunt, In the Blue House

Helen DeWitt, The Last Samurai

Leslie Forbes, Fish, Blood & Bone

Esther Freud, The Wild

Laurie Graham, Dog Days, Glenn Miller Nights

Kate Grenville, The Idea of Perfection - winner

Josephine Humphreys, Nowhere Else on Earth

Sena Jeter Naslund, Ahab's Wife

Rosina Lippi, Homestead - shortlist

Jayne Ann Phillips, Motherkind

Danzy Senna, From Caucasia, with Love

Jane Smiley, Horse Heaven - shortlist

Ali Smith, Hotel World - shortlist

Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter

Jeanette Winterson, The PowerBook

Message edited by its author, Apr 24, 2008, 3:43pm.

Touchstones are being difficult!

From the 2001 list I've read The Blind Assassin and The Hiding Place. I have The Idea of Perfection en route to me from Paperbackswap and was pleased to see avaland's very positive comments on it elsewhere on LT!

2000 was a better year for me. I've read Girl with a Pearl Earring (hasn't everyone by now?), Charming Billy, White Teeth, and Amy and Isabelle. What the Body Remembers is in my TBR stacks.

#34 Interesting . . . I taught a unit in an interdisciplinary arts course where the students read "Still Life" (the Vermeer story from Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue, which was a collection in which the painting was really the main character) and an excerpt from Girl with a Pearl Earring, studied the paintings mentioned in both, and watched a special feature from the movie DVD on how the cursory scene in the novel was created in the film. It worked pretty well.

From the 2001 list, I've read: Ahab's Wife (which I found disappointing), Caucasia (that was the US title of the novel), Hotel World, and The Bonesetter's Daughter. I loved Smith's The Accidental and read Hotel World right after; not so good in comparison. Of course, since I read them in reverse chronological order, that means that her writing is getting better and better, so that's good news!

Loved the Idea of Perfection although I read it in '03 before it went into paperback here in the states. It was a personal book-of-the-year that year and converted me to a forever Kate Grenville fan.

Blind Assassin was also a personal book-of-the-year for 2000. No many authors can pull off that story within a story within a story (although John Crowley did it a few years later with Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land). I adore Atwood.

I read The Bonesetter's Daughter also and quite liked it although I don't think it packed the punch that The Joy Luck Club did.

I picked up Homestead because our then Orange Prize bookgroup discussed reading it (we were based on reading off the longlists of all the OPs) but we disbanded due to scheduling conflicts before we got to it. Thus it is in the TBR pile. Rosanna Lippi is aka Sara Donati and an LT author, btw. Also in the TBR pile is Hotel World; I too have already read The Accidental. I have read a few other novels by some of the other authors I haven't already mentioned, nothing I'd rave about.

thanks again, lindsacl for the posting of the list.

avaland, Rosina Lippi/Sara Donati also has an LT account under the name greenery. She's a linguist as well as a gifted writer and is one of the very first users I interacted with here on LT way back in the day before forums. She has a colorful, interesting, fun to read weblog too.

Message edited by its author, Apr 26, 2008, 3:01am.

>marietherese, unfortunately it seems everyone has an interesting weblog....(and not enough of me to get much past LT!:-)

Oh, my. What ever it is I've been reading, it hasn't been award winning and nominated books. Of all the books mentioned, I've only read two:

Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. I know a lot of people hated this book. I didn't, but I didn't love it either. I am interested in stories where a woman is fed up with her life and gets up and walks away from it. I would never in a billion years do that, but the fantasy does cross my mind every once in a while. I think Michael Cunningham did a better job with this theme in The Hours than Tyler did here.

The Girl with the Pearl Earring, by Tracy Chevalier. This is one of my all-time favourite books because I'm a huge Vermeer fan, and so little is known about him. With almost nothing to build from, Chevalier invented a world that gives a plausible picture of what it was like to know Vermeer. I'm particularly fascinated by the rooms in his paintings, and Chevalier takes us into those rooms (well, that single room actually) and gives us her ideas on why he made the artistic decisions that he did. She sheds light on some of the mystery surrounding Vermeer. The other Vermeer book mentioned here, Girl in Hyacinth Blue by Susan Vreeland totally and completely missed its mark in my opinion. Vreeland didn't capture a single brushstroke of the Vermeer magic. Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a lovely title though.

I own several more that Avaland has listed: Alias Grace, Fugitive Pieces, Larry's Party, The Underpainter, The Poisonwood Bible, The Blind Assassin, and The Hiding Place. I guess I know what I should read next!

2002 Longlist

Kitty Aldridge, Pop

Anna Burns, No Bones - shortlist

Jennifer Clement, A True Story Based on Lies

Stevie Davies, The Element of Water

Helen Dunmore, The Siege - shortlist

Maggie Gee, The White Family - shortlist

Lesley Glaister, Now You See Me

Joanne Harris, Five Quarters of the Orange

Chloe Hooper, A Child's Book of True Crime - shortlist

Elizabeth McCracken, Niagara Falls All Over Again

Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age

Kathy Page, The Story of My Face

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto - winner

Nani Power, Crawling at Night

Lily Prior, La Cucina

Anita Rau Badami, The Hero's Walk

Emma Richler, Sister Crazy

Rachel Seiffert, The Dark Room

Sarah Waters, Fingersmith - shortlist

I'm seeing a trend here in my own reading -- I've read 2-3 from each year so far. From the 2002 list I've read Bel Canto, The Secret Life of Bees, and The Dark Room. I liked them all; "Bees" somewhat more than the others. I also recommended "Bees" to my 15yo daughter who liked it quite a lot.

lindsacl, you should read Fingersmith, I am sure you would like it!

I loved Fingersmith from this list, although I always feel a bit much like Sarah Waters' books are a guilty pleasure. I really disliked Five Quarters of the Orange, although I think that's probably just that I have an aversion to Joanne Harris's worldview rather than anything to do with her writing. (Ahhh, broad statements I can't really back up. My favourite.)

I thought The Siege perhaps a better book than Dunmore's Orange Prize winning novel, Spell of Winter. It is one woman's story set during the siege of Leningrad. Pretty bleak but an excellent novel.

As is also the Badami, Hero's Walk. Although at the moment the plot escapes me but it created in me a lifelong Badami fan.

La Cucina was a fun read, not award-winning quality, imo. It's moving in places. A story of middle-aged passion - food and sex. She gave him cooking lessons, I believe, and he teaches her passion and sensuality (if I remember correctly). There is a great scene where he lays out an entire culinary masterpiece on her body. . .

Ugh, sorry, but I really despised La Cucina.

2003 Longlist

Bella Bathurst Special

Sandra Cisneros Caramelo

Janet Davey English Correspondence

Anne Donovan Buddha Da - shortlist

Lucy Ellmann Dot in the Universe

Sonya Hartnett What the Birds See

Siri Hustvedt What I Loved

Liz Jensen War Crimes for the Home

Nora Okja Keller Fox Girl

Haven Kimmel The Solace of Leaving Early

Shena Mackay Heligoland - shortlist

Valerie Martin Property - winner

Edna O’Brien In the Forest

Julie Otsuka When the Emperor was Divine

Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones

Carol Shields Unless - shortlist

Zadie Smith The Autograph Man - shortlist

Donna Tartt The Little Friend - shortlist

Louise Welsh The Cutting Room

Crystal Wilkinson Water street

Property is an excellent novel. I thought it made for an interesting read along with The Known World and one other that was out about the same time which I can't quite remember at the moment, for offering fresh perspectives on a subject (slavery in America) much written about. The Martin book is a great piece of historical fiction that is honestly placed within its time period and setting. Her protagonist, a plantation owner's wife, is unsympathetic (meaning you won't like her:-) and she fails, with all of the white Southern woman's constraints that she rails against, to even think of what it must be like to be a slave. At least that is the point that stuck with me. If you haven't read it, it's an incredibly thoughtful, thought-provoking read.

I also thought Property was a wonderful novel . . . but of the list above, I'd have chosen When the Emperor Was Divine. I can't believe it didn't even make the short list.

I've also read The Lovely Bones (a little too "pop" for my taste); The Autograph Man (a disappointment after reading White Teeth); and Unless and The Little Friend, which were interesting but neither of which I would consider short-list worthy.

But then, I haven't read the others, so I can't compare.

Cariola, I also really enjoyed When the Emperor was Divine. I've read Unless,too.

I agree with your "pop" assessment of The Lovely Bones although I confess I just passed it to my 15yo daughter. It was listed in Bookmarks magazine as recommended fiction for older students (the same list I mentioned in message #33) and I thought it was at least a step up from some of the chick lit she is picking up these days ...

I think The Lovely Bones made the list mostly for the originality of the post-death narrator. I blew through the book while attending at Book Expo America after hearing booksellers standing in line for a free toilet stall discussing it (I was in one of those stalls:-). I rifled through my bag when I got back to the hotel and located a freebie and blew through it that night (this was before it was published). While I found it emotionally moving in places and certainly entertaining; it has not stayed with me.

Hi Avaland,

You must have a great job if you can get all these freebie books. I did want to add to what you have already said about The Lovely Bones, it was a 'perfect storm' of a release. It was a best seller and word of mouth has been given the credit which is impressive to me. It was a topinc that was on the front pages of newspapers everyday for a while with missing kids and finding them dead and it was also about the lack of connection within families. She added humor and growing up to the story and it had an ending that satisfied people. I know people on LT have high standards, but best sellers are best sellers.

Hi Avaland,

You must have a great job if you can get all these freebie books. I did want to add to what you have already said about The Lovely Bones, it was a 'perfect storm' of a release. It was a best seller and word of mouth has been given the credit which is impressive to me. It was a topinc that was on the front pages of newspapers everyday for a while with missing kids and finding them dead and it was also about the lack of connection within families. She added humor and growing up to the story and it had an ending that satisfied people. I know people on LT have high standards, but best sellers are best sellers.

>55, had a good job would be more appropriate:-) But one must define 'good job' further before I could confirm that. Yeah, free books, but low pay, lousy hours, and hard physical work. There are pros and cons to every job.

Further on The Lovely Bones; I do think her portrayal of parental grief was quite good; and found the idea of the mother abandoning the family a less conventional one.

The Lovely Bones was my first foray into book club type fiction, to give me something in common with other readers because I felt I was becoming too isolated geographically and socially. I have to laugh!

I must say though, the depictions of a family in grief over the death of a child and the reactions of the siblings were spot on, I cried. I avoid suspense and horror so was impressed to find I could read the plot OK, and that was thanks to the narrator. The after-life scenes and the ending were too cheesy though, like a midday movie.

What the Birds See is excellent. A vignette of Melbourne life in the sixties from a child's point of view, with an amazing denoument that is the result of two children's loneliness. Very powerful.

Message edited by its author, May 5, 2008, 7:29am.

Oh, too much to catch up with! Of those mentioned thus far, I've read:

The Ghost Road (I highly recommend Pat Barker's whole Regeneration trilogy)
The Blue Flower (a wonderful book, as is most all of Fitzgerald's work--polished little gems)
Alias Grace (a book I couldn't get out of my head)
The Mistress of Spices
I Was Amelia Earhart (I was disappointed with this book)
The Voyage of the Narwhal (good, but I think Barrett is better at short stories)
The Poisonwood Bible (very good story of missionary life)
Paradise (I found this rather disappointing)
The Translator (I appreciated the internal depiction of a devout Muslim woman, and I thought her struggle to reconcile her love and her faith was very well done; however, the ending marred this one for me)
Fasting, Feasting (very good)
What the Body Remembers (also very good, wonderful sense of place)
Charming Billy (I remember liking this a lot, but can't remember details anymore)
White Teeth (really stuck with me--I thought she showed such promise)
The Blind Assassin (marvelous)
Ahab's Wife (I liked this one, although I know reactions are mixed)
Niagara Falls All Over Again (good, quirky book)
Bel Canto (lovely and shocking)
Fingersmith (I love Sarah Waters, and I think this is her best--a long book, but tightly plotted)
When the Emperor Was Divine (a book that will stay with you for a long time)
The Lovely Bones (okay, not great)

I didn't respond year by year, so here is the accumulation:

The Ghost road I agree with cabegley above that the trilogy is wonderful.
Blue Flower The beauty of this book has stayed with me for years. I love Penelope Fitzgerald, and have loved all her books.
Hundred secret senses I like all her books, but the Joy Luck Club best.
The inheritance of Loss was very well done and believable with great characters. I think she is even more talented than her mother Anita Desai
A History of Love A very moving book, beautifully written. Super.
Half of a Yellow sun One of the great books about Africa by an African. Amazing. (Her Purple Hibiscus is wonderful, too. )
The Mistress of Spices I was not impressed
Larry's Party Not one of her stronger books
Master georgie Delightful, as I find all her books. she has a very quirky intelligence and choice of subjects but my favorite is still the bottle factory outing
The Poisonwood Bible A terrific book about family dynamics, religion and the missionary life. Very well done.
Girl with a Pearl Earring A touching tale, and the movie was lovely to see because of the paintings in it and Colin firth as Vermeer.
Charming billy I loved this book and the peek at Irish american life
White Teeth Strong story of immigrants in britain. Promising writer.
Ahab's wife One of the better historical novels.
Homestead A fun read as are her other books about pioneering, but not great literature.
Secret life of Bees Overrated IMO
Bel Canto I was disappointed.
Caramelo A peek into another culture, but not great art.
The lovely Bones Amazing attempt to speak in the voice of the dead without being too creepy.
Autograph Man Not up to the level of White Teeth but she is young and may outdo it yet.

Message edited by its author, May 5, 2008, 10:07am.

2004 LONGLIST

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus - shortlist

Monica Ali, Brick Lane

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake - shortlist

Rupa Bajwa, The Sari Shop

Stevie Davies, Kith & Kin

Stella Duffy, State of Happiness

Maggie Gee, The Flood

Sarah Hall, The Electric Michelangelo

Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire - shortlist

Zoë Heller, Notes on a Scandal

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

Dinah Lee Küng, A Visit from Voltaire

Joan London, Gilgamesh

Andrea Levy, Small Island - winner

Sarah May, The Internationals

Toni Morrison, Love

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

Gillian Slovo, Ice Road - shortlist

Rose Tremain, The Colour - shortlist

Anne Tyler, The Amateur Marriage

I've read a few more of these: Brick Lane, The Namesake, Small Island. I started but haven't finisihed The Sari Shop, and in my TBR stacks are The Time Traveller's Wife, The Great Fire, and Notes on a Scandal.

Cariola, we seem to have read many of the same books on this list! I, too have read Brick Lane, The Namesake, The Time Traveller's Wife, and Notes on a Scandal.

I've also read Love, plan to read Small Island this month, and will get to Purple Hibiscus, probably over the summer.

I read Purple Hibiscus recently, and I liked it--not as much as Half of a Yellow Sun, but you can definitely see how she got from here to there. I passed it along to my 12-year-old daughter--I think it would really speak to the YA audience.

I liked Brick Lane quite a lot. The Namesake was good, but I prefer Lahiri's short stories, which are brilliant (and I'm not a short-story fan, so that's saying a lot). The Time Traveler's Wife was also very enjoyable (one of the favorites of my book club), but I was unimpressed with Notes on a Scandal.

From the lists posted since I last responded I see that there are lots of my book club reads here:

Secret Life of Bees--funny thing, I enjoyed this rather a lot when I read it, but when I look back on it I think "Meh, average at best." 2.5/5
Bel Canto--This one had an interesting premise and was quite well done. 4/5
Oryx and Crake--thought this was great . . . not so much when I read it, but it has really stuck with me and I look back on it from time to time. I also gave this to my husband to read and he liked it too. Not so much a "book club book" as others on the list that I've read. 4.5/5
Time Traveler's Wife--I liked this one too, but wasn't wild about it. 3/5

I've also read:
Unless--thought this was was really good, but then I'm a Carol Shields fan 4/5
Lovely Bones--read this years after it came out, so I'd heard from the people who loved it and the people who hated it. I can see both their points of view, and I'd say I liked it well-enough. An interesting premise, not sappy or anything. Not a waste of reading time. 3.5/5

And Five Quarters of an Orange is in my TBR pile.

Message edited by its author, May 7, 2008, 12:01pm.

I have read many of the books already spoken about (i.e. Oryx and Crake, Brick Lane, Time Traveler's Wife...etc) but also The Sari Shop which I enjoyed very much. It follows the story of a young male clerk in a popular sari shop which caters to upper class clients. When he asked to deliver to a client he sees a whole new world before him and embarks somewhat on a self-improvement program. It's a first novel and has some weaknesses but still, quite good.

I also enjoyed Joan London's Gilgamesh, not so much a modern retelling as a descendant of some sort of the great poem. It's also a love story that begins in Australia and ends up in Armenia (more than a little wanderlust in the story).

I still have Tremain's The Colour and Slovo's Ice Road here in the TBR pile.

This thread is tough on my wallet!

oh come on, cabegley, every thread is tough on our wallets...:-)

Very true, avaland, but some more than others.

2005 LONGLIST

Kate Atkinson - Case Histories

Clare Clark - The Great Stink

Kira Cochrane - Escape Routes for Beginners

Joolz Denby - Billie Morgan - shortlist

Anita Desai - The Zigzag Way

Christine Dwyer Hickey - Tatty

Patricia Ferguson - It So Happens

Melanie Finn - Away From You

Jane Gardam - Old Filth - shortlist

Sue Gee - The Mysteries of Glass

Miranda Hearn - Nelson’s Daughter

Ingrid Hill - Ursula, Under

Sheri Holman - The Mammoth Cheese - shortlist

Marina Lewycka - A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - shortlist

Nell Leyshon - Black Dirt

Michelle Lovric - The Remedy

Maile Meloy - Liars & Saints - shortlist

Joyce Carol Oates - The Falls

Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin - winner

Tricia Wastvedt - The River

I've read and enjoyed Old Filth; in fact, I like everything that I've read from Jane Gardam. I have A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. Are any others of these particularly good?

I loved A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Both sad and funny.

Gee! I guess I have to dig it up from under one of the TBR piles.....but which one?????

I thought Case Histories was excellent (the follow-up, One Good Turn, less so). The Falls was also very well done, as long as you don't mind unsympathetic protagonists. And speaking of unsympathetic protagonists, We Need to Talk about Kevin was memorable and creepy. The only other book on that list I've read is The Great Stink--it stunk.

I agree, cabegley. I could not finish The Great Stink.

I thought Case Histories was OK, but not amazing (though I get the impression I'm decidedly in the minority on that front). I hated A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. For me, it was just totally lacking in funny. I spent the whole time wanting to yell "stop being horrible to each other!" at it. It's one of the few books I've actually put down and got rid of. But I know many people liked that one as well.

I've seen many good reviews of Ursula, Under recently, which is tempting me greatly. I almost picked up Billie Morgan at the weekend, as it's by the partner of the lead singer of one of my favourite bands (which is less lame than it sounds!) but I was put off by some of the spoken word stuff I've seen/heard her do. Anyone read anything of hers?

Ursula, Under was a great debut novel. A trip through one little girl's family tree, the notable and the not-so-notable. Ultimately very uplifting, I thought.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a powerful book. After one reads it, one really feels they need to talk about the book with someone but I know I found it difficult to do some immediately after reading it.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, as Cariola suggests, is both funny and thoughtful. It's a strange balance between the two. It really seems like a comic novel at first and later delves a little deeper. I liked it but I wouldn't have considered it prize-worthy.

Although I never finished my audio book of The Mammoth Cheese, I have read other Sheri Holman books (i.e. The Dress Lodger) and thought them quite good. I have not read the Joyce Carol Oates; but in the last few years I have become a serious Oates fan and will get to it eventually. I remember trying to read her in the late 70s and couldn't get into the books, now I can't get enough of her.

2006 longlist

Leila Aboulela, Minaret

Lorraine Adams, Harbor

Naomi Alderman, Disobedience

Jill Dawson, Watch Me Disappear

Helen Dunmore, House of Orphans

Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess

Alice Greenaway, White Ghost Girls

Gail Jones, Dreams of Speaking

Nicole Krauss, The History of Love - shortlist

Hilary Mantel, Beyond Black - shortlist

Sue Miller, Lost in the Forest

Joyce Carol Oates, Rape A Love Story

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Curtis Sittenfeld, Prep

Ali Smith, The Accidental - shortlist

Zadie Smith, On Beauty - winner

Carrie Tiffany, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living - shortlist

Célestine Hitiura Vaite, Frangipani

Sarah Waters, The Night Watch - shortlist

Meg Wolitzer, The Position

2007 Longlist

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun - winner
Clare Allan, Poppy Shakespeare
Rachel Cusk, Arlington Park - shortlist
Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss - shortlist
Patricia Ferguson, Peripheral Vision
Margaret Forster, Over
Nell Freudenberger, The Dissident
Rebecca Gowers, When to Walk
Xiaolu Guo, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers - shortlist
Jane Harris, The Observations - shortlist
M J Hyland, Carry Me Down
Lori Lansens, The Girls
Lisa Moore, Alligator
Catherine O’Flynn, What Was Lost
Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
Deborah Robertson, Careless
Rachel Seiffert, Afterwards
Jane Smiley, Ten Days in the Hills
Anne Tyler, Digging to America
Melanie Wallace, The Housekeeper

2006 longlist

Leila Aboulela, Minaret. Good, but it didn't knock my socks off. 3 out of 5.

Lorraine Adams, Harbor. She did incredible research, and it paid off. Fascinating. 4 out of 5.

Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess. I've enjoyed most of her Tudor novels, but it's hard to believe this made the long list. 1.5 out of 5.

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead. I know everyone loved it, but for me, it was a real snoozer. 2 out of 5.

Ali Smith, The Accidental - shortlist. This one was near the top of my Best in 2007 list. 4.5 out of 5.

2007 Longlist

Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss - shortlist. I got about 60 pages in and abandoned it. May get back to it later, but it just didn't grab me.

Jane Harris, The Observations - shortlist. Fun piece of Victoriana with some feminist messages. 3.5 out of 5.

Rachel Seiffert, Afterwards. ONe of the best books I've read so far this year. Her prose is delicately devastating. 5 out of 5.

Several others are in my TBR stacks.

I thought I'd post these jpgs of all the longlisted, shortlisted and winning novels of the Orange Prize for anyone to print out for their use. There are five pages.

From 2006:

I really enjoyed The History of Love, but I should point out that I listened to it rather than read it. I think it would work well as a back-to-back read with her husband Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, if only to really pick out the parallels in it. (I had about a year between the two, which I regretted.)

I liked Prep, but I know many people did not. I was not terribly fond of On Beauty (I think White Teeth is much better).

The Night Watch was lovely. I really enjoyed the structure of the novel, as well as the story within. I am a big fan of Waters' work.

From 2007:

I loved Half of a Yellow Sun--a deserving winner.

I thought Inheritance of Loss was beautifully written, especially in the way the countryside became as much a character as the people themselves. The story had a much broader scope than I'd anticipated from the cover copy. (I know there were a number of people who did not enjoy this book, though.)

I enjoyed A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, and I thought the construction was extremely clever.

I just finished The Tenderness of Wolves on Monday--I thought it was an astonishingly good debut novel.

avaland, thanks for posting the jpgs, much easier for me to look at.

Working backwards from 2008, I've read the following.

The Keep by Jennifer Egan -- strange but interesting
Half of A Yellow Sun loved it as you all know
The Inheritance of Loss -- I didn' enjoy this, as cabegley so diplomatically points out
The Tenderness of Wolves -- read it and loved it, thanks to an LT recommendation
Purple Hibiscus -- very good but what cabegley says in #64
Oryx and Crake -- not one of my favorites of Margaret Atwood's
The Great Fire -- loved it; Shirley Hazzard is one of my favorite authors
Bel Canto -- to my surprise, I loved it
Horse Heaven -- loved this; one of my favorites by Jane Smiley
The Poisonwood Bible -- a little heavy-handed, but I really enjoyed it.
The Magician's Assistant --not Ann Patchett's best
Alias Grace -- excellent

Obviously a lot of reading still to do!

Wow, are there ever a lot of names on these lists that I've never heard of! However, in a dozen years, I've read a dozen books (working forwards from 1996):

The Hundred Secret Senses -- loved it; my favourite Tan book
Alias Grace -- not my favourite Atwood
With Child -- enjoyed it, but I'm surprised this is on this list (just because it's a mystery?)
The Weight of Water -- I must confess I don't remember this one very well...
The Poisonwood Bible -- loved it, have reread it and loved it more; my favourite Kingsolver book
Girl with a Pearl Earring -- an interesting read
The Idea of Perfection -- loved it
The Bonesetter's Daughter -- I don't remember this one very well either; obviously not her best!
The Secret Life of Bees -- enjoyed it
The Lovely Bones -- a disturbing read
Oryx and Crake -- thought-provoking
The Time Traveller's Wife -- loved loved loved it

I've also tried to read Fugitive Pieces, The Underpainter, The Blind Assassin and The Accidental (hated the writing style of that one), but couldn't get into any of them.