Tonight's the night

The announcement of the winner is this evening.

Which shortlist books have you read? Which do you think will win? Who would you like to win?

I've read Room, The Memory of Love, The Tiger's Wife and Great House.

I think Room will win though there's not a huge amount in it - bookies say 2:1 for Room which is not what they'd say if it was a cert

My choice, The Memory of Love is 3:1

To be honest, there isn't a book on the list I think should not win, even the two I haven't read. I didn't find Great House as interesting as the other 3 I read.

I didn't finish the shortlist, as I had intended to, but I did read four of the six books. My favorites, in order:

The Memory of Love
Grace Williams Says it Loud
Room
Annabel

I don't think Annabel is worthy of the prize, but the others are, IMO.

Breaking News: The winner of this year's Orange Prize for Fiction is The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.

The Tiger's Wife is a brilliant book. So glad it won, though I am a little surprised it did.

I'm glad to hear that you liked it, Jill. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my Kindle, so I'll read it during my San Francisco vacation in a couple of weeks, or when I visit my folks in Philadelphia next month. I already have a couple of other books from this year's longlist that I'm planning to read for Orange July, The Swimmer by Roma Tearne, and The London Train by Tessa Hadley.

I'll probably buy The Tiger's Wife for my Kindle also. It already has a long hold list at my local library and I want to read it in July. I'll also be on vacation for some of July so I'm not sure I want to get caught up in an unpredictable library hold queue.

Well, I had read 4 of the shortlisted Orange Prize contender's - and of course the one that wins is one I have not read. Like Lindsacl I''ll probably end up purchasing it to read - I find our Library hold queue very long! Last one I got onto there were 22 people ahead of me.

The four I read - in order of preference were

The Memory of Love
Grace Williams Says it Loud
Annabel
Room

FYI: The Tiger's Wife will be up for grabs during the Orange July giveaways. More info coming soon!

I'm more than 100 pgs into The Tiger's Wife & have not picked it up in over a week. I know it's gotten so many great reviews but did anyone else find it slow in the beginning? Is it worth continuing? I read Room and felt the beginning was slow, but loved it in the end.

I would not have predicted The Tiger's Wife winning, although I really liked the book--less than The Memory of Love and more than Grace Williams or Great House. Annabel is the only one I haven't read (yet). Room I never quite decided where to place.

I've got The Tiger's Wife on the shelves at home, I'll have to *definitely* read it this Orange July! (Yeah, just like I said I'd definitely read The Lacuna last Orange month, and yet it remains unread on the shelves...)

I'll be getting around to Grace Williams Says It Loud soon, I've got the library's copy at home (and it's popular, so I won't be able to renew it).

And I still want to source/read The Memory of Love and Annabel...

I was quite surprised by it winning, but really liked it a lot, though I liked the second favourite to win The Memory of Love best, and I also liked Room which was favourite to win. I think this year's longlist and shortlist were great though. 3 debut novels on the shortlist, a 2nd and a 3rd. Emma Donoghue is the only one with a really large body of work - my favourite book by her is Life Mask though I've read most of them except the ones between that and Room - I think she must have had some publisher problems because it seems to be much more obscure than the others.