September Orange Books

Following Orange July, Darryl (kidzdoc) challenged us all to read at least one Orange book per month. If you plan on participating in September, here's the place to list your reading selection, comments, reviews and questions. Have fun!

I'm planning to read Annabel, which was on the 2011 shortlist, and I'm also planning to read The Little Stranger, which was longlisted a while back.

I'm planning a month of reading about prostitution, so my Orange September book will be Lullabies for Little Criminals.

I think my Orange book for September will be The Invisible Bridge, from the 2011 longlist.

The only Orange on my September pile is What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (2003LL).

I really enjoyed Annabel, Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Invisible Bridge - y'all have some good ones on the go.

I am in the middle The Colour by Tremain and A Spell of Winter by Dunmore.

Oddly enough, having never really paid attention to Orange award winners before, I just realised that I actually own all the winners except for 1999 - 2001. I was a fan and didn't even know it!

Citizenjoyce - enjoy your prostitution month! =)

Thank you, Mrstreme. I'm thinking there may be some unpleasantness involved.

I didn't read any Oranges in August but I'm planning to read Annabel in September. I've just exchanged my copy of The Sea, The Sea for a Canadian edition of Annabel on ReadItSwapIt.

Laura- we'll be able to exchange thoughts!

I'll probably be reading Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (2005 longlist).

I think I'm going to read The Tenderness of Wolves and perhaps The Boy Next Door if I have the time! :)

I've just started The Swimmer, so I'm sure I'll still be reading it in September.

I'm hoping to read either The History of Love by Nicole Krauss or The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith in September. I'm not sure which to try first; I've had The Autograph Man longer but The History of Love is shorter...

I'm starting my September read early, having picked up Small Wars this morning.

#13> I didn't like The Autograph Man so much, so I'd go with the other book. :)

Unfortunately White Teeth was so good it spoils one for her later books. As in Snowflower and the Secret Fan I keep reading them hoping I'll find one that rises to its level.

I've decided to read The Tiger's Wife for my September Orange read.

A question for the group. As you're aware, the Orange Prize powers that be decided to eliminate the Orange Prize for New Writers, and substitute it with the monthly Orange New Writers promotion, which highlights a debut novel by a male or female author, in association with Waterstone's. This month's selection, Ours Are the Streets by Sunjeev Sahota (male), looks interesting to me, and I'll get it while I'm in London. For the purposes of this group, are the Orange New Writers books applicable? If so, do male Orange New Writers count?

I'll also post this question in the main discussion thread.

I have chosen The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver for my September Orange read. I will most likely read it when I have finished my current non-fiction read of Our Three Selves: The Life of Radclyffe Hall by Michael Baker.

I'm currently reading Jamrach's Menagerie and plan to read Lullabies for Little Criminals if my ILL request comes through for me.

I am most of the way through A Spell of Winter and I am really liking it.

@ 19:
bucketyell;
So happy you are liking A Spell of Winter. I know that one is going to be in my top ten of the year. Loved it!

As for me, I have changed my mind regarding my September Orange and decided to read The Long Song by Andrea Levy. It seems to meet my reading yen at the moment more than The Poisonwood Bible.
~belva

I finished Small Wars and am giving it two very enthusiastic thumbs up, I loved everything about it (although I think she wrote herself into a corner at the end). Sometimes the "small" wars are just as devastating as the "big" wars.

Having a break from Orange books for a while, I've got a stack of non-Orange library books to get through!

Time for September Orange book! I picked The Observations based on everyone's glowing recommendations. Hope to finish it this weekend or early next week.

I've begun The Tenderness of Wolves: I'm about 50 pages in and not quite won over yet, but so many of y'all had such good things to say about it that I'm going to keep going! I do love the setting, but I think the rotating narrative voice is making it more difficult for me to connect with the characters. Anyway, even if I'm not loving it at the moment, I'm still enjoying it. :)

23: The Tenderness of Wolves took me a while to get into but I did eventually. Would it make sense to say I loved it with reservations?!

I have just finished Annabel. Lovely, poetic prose and it was thought provoking regarding attitudes towards gender but maybe a little too poetic and symbolic, in this case, for me.

The central character Wayne/Annabel and the pain of living that life didn't feel real to me and unlikely incidents such as the pregnancy and the singer friend losing her voice, seemingly added for symbolic effect, reduced further any sense of realism.

Dee, that's good to hear! I plan on reading more of it today, so hopefully I'll get into it as well.

I'm going to start The Little Stranger today. I almost forgot this was an Orange nominee! I tend to focus on shortlisted books and Elizabeth/raidergirl3 had to remind me this qualified as Orange as well!

Laura, I hope you like The Little Stranger. I really enjoyed it!

My September Orange was The Long Song by Andrea Levy. I had such high hopes for this one and those hopes entertained me about 4/5 through the book. Then things went rather off-kilter for me.
Here's hoping my October Orange is a little sweeter.
My review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/8964519
~belva

Yes, I agree with you about The Long Song, belva. It had some good bits (I too loved Miss July), but overall wasn't a resounding success.

I finished The Observations yesterday. A fantastic book - 5 stars! Thanks to everyone for their glowing recommendations, which inspired me to read this book. Here's my review, if you're interested.

I was planning to read Case Histories this month, but have just collected The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna from the library, so will read that for September instead.

I have Memory of Love as well from the library so I will be starting it soon.

I've decided to read Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela this month instead of The Tiger's Wife. I'm 1/4 of the way through it, and it's very good so far.

I just couldn't get into The Tenderness of Wolves, so rather than force it I've decided to return it the library for now and give it another go at some point in the future! I haven't quite narrowed down what I want to read as my Orange book this month...might go browse some of the July threads to see what calls my name!

I ended up reading The Observations by Jane Harris thanks to Jill's review and really enjoyed it.

Yay! Glad you liked it!

I finished my first September Orange nominee, The Little Stranger, which I mostly liked except for / until the ending. Here's my review. And I've just started my second Orange for the month, Annabel.

I just picked up The Observations from the library, it was a great review, Jill!

Thanks, Tania!

Finally I'm ready to start my September Orange book, Lullabies for Little Criminals. This will be my 6th book about prostitution this month with Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue being my favorite. Wow, yet again she shows what an author she is. I'm hoping Heather O'Neill won't disappoint.

I'm hoping Heather O'Neill won't disappoint.

I hope so too, since you well know I love this book. If you don't like it, I'd love to hear all about it, because I can't exactly figure out why I feel so strongly about it. I think it's just Baby's voice is so fabulous. She sounds like a 12 year old, but really, she's making observations waaay beyond her years . . . yet, she's (she being O'Neill, not Baby) is so artful with this that I'm feeling the adolescent. I might have to read this book again to figure out what it is that appealed to me so . . . I've certainly read more literary, clever books. And I find fun in how rewarding they can be, and Lullabies for Little Criminals has none of that. Hmmm. Must read it again soon. (Difficult to bring myself to reread a book when I have a TBR of over 500 books).

I'm excited. You know how it is when you finish a book and think no other could live up to it? I'm glad to know I can put that fear aside.

2 Stars for What I Loved (2003LL)

I hated the writing style. Meandering. Wandering. Digressing. Rambling. The characters were unlikable, and everything and everyone had this distant feel so I could never engage with the story or the people. And then there's this dark mysterious ending that doesn't flow with the rest of the story.

>43 Her_Royal_Orangeness:: I didn't like that one much, either.
I finished Annabel, which I liked quite a lot.

Is Slammerkin an orange book - or just extra reading because you like Emma Donoghue - I loved Room and have been thinking about reading her other books

No, I don't think Slammerkin was nominated for an Orange Prize, but it's well worth reading.

Jill, I loved your review on The Observations and gave it a thumbs up. You definitely talked me into reading it.

On another note, here it is October 1st. Time to be choosing our 'October Oranges'. WOOT WOOT!~!
~belva

October's Orange of the Month Thread to feed Daryll's Challenge:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/124482#

Oh no, October! I've had a seriously bad reading month this September and consequently not quite finished my September Orange book, The Memory of Love. However I'll get it done in the next day or two. I found it a little hard to get into, but now I'm hooked and thoroughly enjoying it.

Loved, loved, loved The Memory of Love. I thought it was a very special book c/t. I can easily see how you got hooked.

>50 rainpebble:: me too!