April TIOLI - Orange Longlist

I thought it would be useful to have a thread, since there are quite a few books on the list that a lot of us hope to read in April (as well as Room - is there any month since last summer that someone hasn't managed to read it for a TIOLI challenge?)

And the list is

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Sudanese; 3rd Novel
Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) - British; 10th Novel
Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) - Indian; 1st Novel
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) - British; 6th Novel
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) - American; 4th Novel
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) - British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd Novel
The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) - British; 4th Novel
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) - British; 1st Novel
The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) - American; 1st Novel
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) - American; 3rd Novel
The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) - American; 3rd Novel
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Serbian/American; 1st Novel
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) - American; 1st Novel
Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail) - British; 1st Novel
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) - American; 1st Novel
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) - British/Nigerian; 1st Novel
The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - British; 4th Novel
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) - Canadian; 1st Novel

My own response

Read and reviewed for the Bookbag

Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty (Faber and Faber) - British; 6th Novel
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna (Faber and Faber) - British; 2nd Novel
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (Chatto & Windus) - American; 1st Novel

Read

Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel
The Pleasure Seekers by Tishani Doshi (Bloomsbury) - Indian; 1st Novel
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Viking) - American; 1st Novel

Own

Repeat it Today with Tears by Anne Peile (Serpent's Tail) - British; 1st Novel
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (Serpent's Tail) - British/Nigerian; 1st Novel
The Swimmer by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - British; 4th Novel
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury) - British/Sierra Leonean; 2nd Novel

from library

Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Sudanese; 3rd Novel

Library reservation

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (Canongate) - British; 10th Novel
The London Train by Tessa Hadley (Jonathan Cape) - British; 4th Novel (but 8th in queue for one copy)

Currently being serialised on radio 4 Book at Bedtime

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - Serbian/American; 1st Novel

Want to read

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair) - American; 4th Novel
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre) - British; 1st Novel
The Seas by Samantha Hunt (Corsair) - American; 1st Novel
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking) - American; 3rd Novel
The Road to Wanting by Wendy Law-Yone (Chatto & Windus) - American; 3rd Novel
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape) - Canadian; 1st Novel

Raising hand. I've missed all of the previous TIOLI chances for Room, so I will be reading it this month.

Already read:

Grace Williams Says it Loud (highly recommended)
Room (highly recommended)

Already own:

Annabel
Great House
Lyrics Alley
The Memory of Love
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
Swamplandia!
(I'll buy The Tiger's Wife later this week)

Wish list:

The London Train
The Swimmer

Planned reads for April:

Annabel
The Memory of Love
Swamplandia!

Hmm. I was going to say that The Seas couldn't be Samantha Hunt's first novel, as The Invention of Everything Else was shortlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize. The Seas is her first novel, though, as it was published in the US in 2005; The Invention of Everything Else was published in 2008.

OOOoo! I scored a copy of Jamrach's Menageriefrom the March ER offerings, it's here, I've put it on the wiki, and that's what I'm reading for this challenge! I wish I thought I would get to The Seas or A Visit from the Goon Squad this month, but I doubt that.

>7 LizzieD: Jamrach's Menagerie is the one book I really wanted from the last batch. But I put it on my wishlists tagged "High".

I'm planning to read the following this month:

Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

I have library reservations on the following:

The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

And I will probably also reserve and read the following at some point:

Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin
The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna

I finished The Invisible Bridge. I absolutely loved it. It's probably the best book I've read in 2011.

I liked your review, thornton37814! Hope my library has that one.

I've read Room which was amazing and A Visit from the Goon Squad which I enjoyed.

I'm going to aim for Great House for sure. I'm on the waiting list for the library's e-version of Swamplandia so hopefully I'll get to that too. Now you have my wanting to fit in The Invisible Bridge as well!

Edited to mess with the touchy touchstones.

I've managed to read another two books from the list (making a total of 8) and started another one which I won't finish:

Leila Aboulela's 4th novel Lyrics Alley is a fascinating story set in 1950s Sudan and Egypt, a lot of it is drawn from things that happened to the author's own family. I don't know if it will be shortlisted but I will be looking for her other books.

Anne Peile's Repeat It Today with Tears is beautifully written and is set in early 70s London - the recent historical is something which interests me. But there's a real ick factor in reading the sex scenes and then realising this is with her dad (she knows the relationship, he doesn't).

I've begun reading The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna, whose work I've been interested in for a while.

I've been reading someone's predictions on the shortlist - Jackie of the Farm Lane Books blog thinks Room won't make the shortlist although that and The Birth of Love are her own favourites, and predicts Great House, A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Tiger's Wife and The Memory of Love on the grounds of the writing quality.

What do you predict?

I plan to eventually read a lot of the books on this list. I am reading (and loving) The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer right now.

#13 To my shame I still haven't read any of the longlist and I just realised that the shortlist is announced tomorrow!

The Memory of Love and Lyrics Alley both sound interesting although I think I will be avoiding Repeat it Today With Tears

Orange Prize shortlist is out, I thought it was announced in the evening but that must just be the prize!

There are 3 debuts on it - Henderson, Obreht and Winter. I believe there were 9 first novels on the list though at least 2 - Russell and Orringer - were not first books.

Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (Bloomsbury)
Grace Williams Says It Loud by Emma Henderson (Sceptre)
Great House by Nicole Krauss (Viking)
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Annabel by Kathleen Winter (Jonathan Cape)

Why are the touchstone options so ridiculous? I've never even heard of Jonathan Weiner!

I've only read Room on it but am currently reading The Memory of Love and have just said to Sue I would do a Bookbag review (we've done all the other 5 and just have that one and one other longlist title without a review).

I have The Tiger's Wife on order as it was suddenly only £5.98 - which is close to the actual price I pay for new paperbacks - the other night, and I will probably buy Grace Williams Says It Loud because it is in paperback.

I haven't read any of the shortlisted books but I've just finished The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives from the long list. I enjoyed it, but not so much that I thought it should get onto the shortlist - I gave it 3 1/2 stars.

I've just started Tishana Doshi's The Pleasure Seekers (another one that didn't make the shortlist) and 30 pages in am really liking it. And the 3rd one I bought when the long list came out was The Swimmer by Roma Tearne. I can obviously pick 'em really well!!

I'm quite surprised that both The Invisible Bridge and Swamplandia! missed out, based on the reviews and conversations I've seen on here.

I'm not surprised - I rated The Invisible Bridge and Swamplandia! 5 stars but somehow I didn't think they'd be on the shortlist. I'd also already read The Pleasure Seekers and really enjoyed it, and I bought The Swimmer when it came out in paperback and before the longlist was announced, as I really liked Brixton Beach.

Emma Donoghue, or someone pretending to be her, has just set up an account on Twitter (it must be very new as she only has a handful of followers) and predicts that Annabel will win.

Ah well. I could have astonished you all by predicting this. With the exception of The Memory of Love, these are the books from the longlist that interested me least as I read about them here and at Amazon. I have just started Jamrach's Menagerie, btw, for what that knowledge is worth.

Well, shoot, Grace Williams Says It Loud looks good but it's not at all easy to find in the US. Poor us.

Grace Williams Says it Loud was excellent, IMO. I ordered it from The Book Depository last year. I've read Annabel and Room, and will read the other three shortlisted books in the near future.

>20 LizzieD: After reading some reviews, I know really want to read Jamrach's Menagerie. It sounds like (insert some overused phrase here). Ah, I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for pointing me in this direction, Luci!

I have read two of the shortlisted titles: Room and The Memory of Love. I loved them both but The Memory of Love felt more like an Orange prize winner.

I will probably read Grace Williams when it arrives at my local library-they usually order multiple copies of Orange short listed titles. Just hoping the recent cuts haven't changed that this year!

Islington Libraries seem to have ordered 3 copies of each longlist book at the same two branches - fortunately one is the branch I use regularly (though it would be even better if it was at the central library as Mike works in the building though not as library staff). So I will be checking the catalogue and reserving when they arrive, or at least if I think I have time to read them.

I owe big thank you to elkiedee for starting this challenge. The Invisible Bridge was on my wishlist and who knows when I would have gotten to it. Because of this challenge I have read it and fallen in love with it. A great book that will probably among my top reads of the year.

I just finished The Tiger's Wife, and as far as I'm concerned, this is the winner. What a great book, however, I haven't read the rest of the short list. I will get Grace Williams Says It Loud this week, I think.

I finished Room today. I've been meaning to read it forever... I thought it was very good but will be surprised if it wins the Orange Prize this year.

Alas, I lost out on my chance to get Grace Williams Says it Loud from Book Depository. The only other place I can find it is Amazon for $54. That's not going to happen, and no copies are ordered for my library system, so I'll just hope it's reissued or something before July.

Amazon US is offering Grace Williams Says it Loud from several sellers, with prices ranging from $9-13 + $3.99 shipping here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/144470401X/ref=tmm_pap_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8...

Thanks so much, Darryl, I have no idea why I didn't see that myself. Finally, I have a copy on the way.

I managed to snag a copy of The Tiger's Wife at the library last week, so though I didn't plan it out as a TIOLI, I may as well add it to the points! Obreht didn't tie it all together quite as well as I'd hoped, but I enjoyed it.