Orange December

What's on your Orange reading for December? Tell us!

I *might* read The Great Fire. I'm going with my mood in December vs. reading things because I said I would / should. So we'll see.

Oh, I liked The Great Fire! Mum recently read it, and really liked it too. I must dig up The Transit of Venus by her, too, I've got a copy somewhere...

I was thinking maybe The Tenderness of Wolves, that one's been catching my eye of late.

I missed out on reading Disobedience in November when I read Gilgamesh instead; so here's hoping in December I will get to those proper British Jews in Disobedience.

I missed out on November, I'm afraid. Will probably try for Fugitive Pieces for December.

I've not been doing well on these monthly Orange reads, I have to say, and have not read an Orange book since Swamplandia! in August. After failing to read The Invisible Bridge in September and Fall on Your Knees in October and not even planning a November Orange read, I am definitely committing to Toni Morrison's A Mercy for December. I didn't even realize this was an Orange book until I thought to look it up. (Conveniently, it finishes up one of my 11 in 11 categories, it's nice and short, and I just saw Jill's lovely review.) If I have time, I will also read The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

I am making one of my 12 in 12 categories be Orange books so I am looking forward to reading at least one a month next year.

AnneDC; how about 2 months next year? Orange January & Orange July..............I sure am looking forward to them.

For December I will be duplicating crimson-tide and reading Fugitive Pieces. That book was my plan for October and November, perhaps September as well, but I found myself inside other Oranges and so it has come to December.
I am going to try to read all of the Orange Winners in 2012. I have a few and if I can pick the rest up off BookMooch or PBS, I will snag them. The others will be up to the library as I am attempting a moratorium on book purchases next year and buying only (or attempting) Virago Books and books for my R/L B/C. Anyway it is a goal that I am looking forward to attempting to meet.

I'm hoping to read The Magician's Assistant by Ann Patchett soon but may well save it for Orange January.

Pardon the cross post! A new thread for Orange January 2012 has been started!

Started my December Orange book last night: Lottery by Patricia Wood. Great characters so far.

You all simply must read Fugitive Pieces!~! It won the Orange Prize in 1997 and is truly a wonderful book. Canada puts out some really awesome reads!
Anyway that is my December Orange. I am almost finished with it and am finding myself reading slower and slower.
Pick up an Orange. Vitamin C is soooo good for you!

I'm planning on The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey (2010 SL) and maybe The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville (1998 SL) for December.

My local book group is reading A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian this month, so I'll be calling that my December Orange read and will read Fugitive Pieces in Orange January.

Fugitive Pieces is nothing short of wonderful. It did indeed earn that Orange Prize of 1997.

I finished the lovely Lottery by Patricia Wood, which was shortlisted in 2008. Here's my review, if you're interested.

I am squeezing in another Orange book, Homestead by Rosina Lippi (2001 short list).

Get it? Squeezing another Orange book? Squeezing oranges? Oh, I kill myself sometimes....

And I loved Homestead! I know many of you would love it too. Here's my review if you're interested.

I finished my Orange for this month, Disobedience which won Naomi Alderman the award for new writers in 2006. It's a great book about religion, Judaism in particular, sexuality, the abuse of power, communication, silence, the importance of ritual, and the person's place in the community. It also has some great descriptions of migraines. If anyone who has migraines has read this book, let me know how accurate the representations are.

#17 I'm hunting down a copy of Disobedience based on your comments. I really enjoyed When we were bad, another Orange book, based on a dysfunctional London family whose mother is a rabbi.

And from your comments, Kerry, I'm going to have to try to find a copy of When We Were Bad.

The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
5 Stars

Ah, yes, THIS is why I adore the Orange Prize. I probably would not have even heard of this book if it had not been nominated for the prize. And to be honest, I might have skipped over it except the location fit for the Around the World in 80 Books challenge. And to think I might have missed this gem, which has catapulted itself to the top of my Favorite Orange Books List AND the Best Books of 2011 List.

The plot is simple: a newly married English couple moves to Trinidad in the late 1950s when the husband accepts a job there, and their lives are altered by the politics of the country as it declares independence from British rule.

The execution of this simple story is utterly brilliant and totally captivating. Richly atmospheric with vivid descriptions of the Trinidadian landscape and culture and peoples. Complex and mesmerizing characters. Profound, yet subtle, probings into race and class and colonization.

Intertwined with this story of a country in tumult is George and Sabine's marriage which is filled with misunderstandings and complicated passion and opposing opinions of Trinidad. And at the very heart of it all is Sabine, who struggles to understand herself as a woman, as a British citizen, as a wife. She grows and evolves, becoming bitter and resigned yet also more completely her whole true self. Sabine learns how to define "power" and "compassion" and "revolution," and it is this that is the theme of "The White Woman on the Green Bicycle."

That does sound like a winner, HRO, and I'm not sure how it had managed to escape my wish list. Got it now!
Meanwhile, just as soon as I finish my current VMC (today with any luck), I'll pick up The Gate at the Stairs for my December Orange. I've started it and like it. (And, Belva and Dee, I've just acquired copies of Fugitive Pieces and The Magician's Assistant, and they have jumped up high on my list for January. Richness!)

#20, HRO, glad you enjoyed your December Orange selection so much! I love when that happens! Sadly, I couldn't finish The White Woman on the Green Bicycle after a scene involving pet abuse. I can stomach a lot when I read - but somehow, that bothered me more than I could bear.

>21 LizzieD: - I hope you love it when you get around to it! :)

>22 mrstreme: - I'm sorry. :/ We all have "hot buttons" - those topics that just make a book unreadable - don't we? It's really such a minor part of the book, though, that I think you would enjoy it if you ignored that bit.

I picked up The White Woman on the Green Bicycle the other day and confess I put it straight back down - was finding it very hard to cope with the way the language was written - the local dialect. I have read books before with strong dialects in it - but I just couldn't manage this. Maybe it is my mood - I am all things light and fluffy at the moment - will try again after Christmas.

I just finished A Gate at the Stairs, and I don't think I'll ever know what I think about it. For awhile her writing blew me away, and at first I really enjoyed the book. Then stuff started happening, and I never understood what she was doing or what the book itself was doing. (At one point she says that the question, "What did the author intend?" is irrelevant. The creation itself intends, and that is what is important.) I'm off to read reviews here to see what somebody who had a clue thought.

I'm not someone who had a clue about A Gate at the Stairs or really about very much :), but I couldn't finish it. You saw stuff happening? That's what made me stop, it seemed like at the start something would happen, but I never saw it.
I'm glad to see someone else felt the same, because it was on the NY Times Notable Book list, but I just didn't get it.

A Gate at the Stairs was one of my four worst books of the year. 'Nuff said.

Finally got around to The Idea Of Perfection by Kate Grenville, and very glad I did too. My full review is
here

You all have certainly helped me cross A Gate at the Stairs off my list!
I picked up The Great Fire the other day, and found it very slow moving. I wasn't especially interested in the characters, either. So about 70 pages in, I set it aside. It's still sitting out in the open, where I *might* get back to it, but if a couple of weeks pass and I'm still not interested, it will go up on Paperbackswap.

Meanwhile, I requested my Orange January books from the library !!!

I've finished my second Orange for December - The Ventriloquist's Tale by Pauline Melville (1998 SL) - and very much enjoyed it (3.5 Stars). Wonderfully gothic themes wrapped in fabulous magical realism in the style of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In addition to the Orange Prize, it also won the Costa First Novel Award in 1997.

28: Great review of The Idea of Perfection. I received a copy from Laura in a Secret Santa three years back and loved it

25: I borrowed A Gate at The Stairs from the library last year but didn't get further than the first couple of chapters before I had to return it. I've sometimes wondered if I should borrow it again but maybe not! Perhaps Lorrie Moore is a writer best suited to short stories.

>28 letterpress:: more praise for that review! I loved, loved, loved that book.

Merry Christmas all! I didn't get any actual books on the day itself (but money with which to buy more books, bwahahahahaha!), so on Xmas day I started a book that's been hanging around for a while: The Tenderness of Wolves. Very good read so far, I'm enjoying it in the snatches I'm allowed. (Hurrah, no one coming over tonight and the kids *will* fall asleep early, or I will have a foot-stamping tanty over not having solid reading time for several days...)