ORANGE JANUARY 2010

Just a quick note that Orange January is just around the corner!

For those of you new to Orange January, it is a personal challenge to read one or more books that have been nominated for or have won the Orange Prize. No reviews necessary (unless you want to) but it's fun to trade titles on this thread. Please let us know what you have in mind for Orange January!

This page lists the winners and those on the short and long lists.

Have fun!

Yippee!! The Orange is coming, the Orange is coming!

I have an Orange category for my 1010 challenge (but I'm only choosing 5 for each category). These are the ones I've targeted so far (all are on my shelf):

A. Home by Marilynne Robinson
B. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
C. The Mammoth Cheese by Sheri Holman
D. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
E. The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer

I also have as possibles:

What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin
Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett
Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill

Hoping this will kick start my reading for the new year.

I'm reading shortlisted works this year, having finished the winners list in 2009. So for Orange January I'm planning to read two from my shelves:
- The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters
- Amy and Isabelle, by Elizabeth Strout

and one other from the 2009 shortlist. Nudges willingly accepted.

I have on Mt TBR:

Fugitive Pieces
The Idea of Perfection
Half a Yellow Sun
The Road Home
Fall on Your Knees
Brick Lane
Carry Me Down
Unless
Purple Hibiscus
Oryx and Crake
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living

I won't be reading them all, but will hopefully make a bit of a dint in my TBR pile!

I shall be reading the following as part of my 1010 Challenge. Hopefully all in January if not I shall continue into February.

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Larry's Party by Carol Shields
When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant
Property by Valerie Martin
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith
Paradise by Toni Morrison
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
Home by Marilynne Robinsonn

>5 englishrose60: Some good books in that list! Don't forget, there's Orange July too.

Okay, here's what I got on my shelves to choose from:

WINNERS:
Larry's Party (1998)
When I Lived in Modern Times (2000)
The Idea of Perfection (2001)

SHORT LIST:
The Poisonwood Bible (1999)
Purple Hibiscus (2004)
The Accidental (2006)
The Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007)
The Outcast (2008)

LONG LIST:
The Lovely Bones (2003)
What I Loved (2003)
The Flying Troutmans (2009)

Not sure what I'll tackle first. I may use my trusty literary selection expert (Anthony) to help me out again. Open to your ideas too!

I've got two unread Orange's on my shelf, and since I'm really trying very hard to read off my TBR pile rather than buying new, it looks like I'll be reading The Lovely Bones and/or The Inheritance of Loss.

I'm planning to read two from my TBR stack:
- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (winner 2002)
- Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (shortlist 2004)

And hopefully also either
- Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (winner 1997), or
- Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler (shortlist 1996)

Teelgee, I thoroughly recommend Voyage of the Narwhal, it's one of my very favourite books.

I will try and read The Road Home (2008) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), and maybe get to On Beauty (2006) or The Idea of Perfection (2001) - if not those can be July reads.

My list, I doubt I will read them all but I love an Orange list!
In no particular order...

the Girls
Gilgamesh
Brick Lane
Fall on your knees
The Hundred Secret Senses
The Inheritance of Loss
Old Filth
White Teeth

From other people's lists
some of the books I've loved
The Poisonwood Bible
Half of a Yellow Sun
Bel Canto
Fugitive Pieces
Purple Hibiscus
Everyman's rules for Scientific Living loved the wry humour in this.
The Road Home

I've not enjoyed The lovely bones or The Idea of Perfection as much, but I think it was the mood I was in at the time.

This will be a great way to get through some un-read books! On my shelves I have the following, I will probably get through four or five.

The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer
Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson
Kith and Kin by Stevie Davies
Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
Gilead and Home by Marilynne Robinson
A Mercy by Toni Morrison

>12 charbutton: if you're open to suggestions, I'd rate four or five in this order:

When the Emperor Was Divine
Gilead
The Idea of Perfection
We Need to talk About Kevin
A Mercy

That's what I'd choose!

I have just finished ny first book for 2010 and what a marvellous book it is. Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels. Such beautiful writing about the horrific events of the Holocaust and its victims and survivors. Highly recommended.

>14 englishrose60: Isn't Fugitive Pieces a wonderful book :-)

There is also a lively thread over on the 75 book challenge.
http://www.librarything.com/topic/80703

Thanks KimB. Shooting over to read 75 book challenge thread. Some interesting comments. May lurk there once in a while this year to see what others are reading.

>13 teelgee: - thanks! I read When the Emperor Was Divine yesterday and really enjoyed it. I also finished Kith and Kin. I've just started We Need to Talk About Kevin.

We Need to Talk About Kevin was one of those books which remained in my thoughts long after I had read it.

#17 I found We Need to Talk About Kevin one of the most harrowing books I've read. I'd be interested in your opinion, charbuton, and anyone else who's read it.

I've just re-read The Lovely Bones. It lasted me into January, so it counts. I'd read it years ago, and I was prompted to read it again after seeing Peter Jackson's film, which was very different (but very good) but it had to be.

livrecache, I'm with you on We Need To Talk About Kevin. "Harrowing" is a good word for it. (I also thought it was quite brilliant.)

I saw "The Lovely Bones" the other week, and thought Peter Jackson did a good job of it - the visuals were quite stunning. But I had the same quibbles about it as I had about the book, so it's obviously just not a story for me. (Go see "Bright Star", that one's gorgeous in all aspects.)

I'm in. I started Small Island by Andrea Levy this morning on the trolley.

I love the Orange months ;-)

edited for spelling.

I'm reading Amy and Isabelle, a shortlisted book. It's an interesting story so far (although I'm not far along).

I'm nearing the end of The Mammoth Cheese - what an interesting book. So many stories happening simultaneously. It may be my only Orange read this month, but I might sneak in another one or two.

eta I don't know what's up w/ the touchstone for this book. It shows blue but when I submit, it isn't linked. Has happened several times with this one.

Just finished up The Flying Troutmans - a cute but quirky book - and will be starting The Poisonwood Bible - my first Kingsolver fictional book. I love her essays and looking forward to this one!

Jill, it's a great Kingsolver to start with. I hope you like it!

I finished The Mammoth Cheese and reviewed it here. It was quite good!

I've given up on The Road Home, but would be interested to see what others think of it.

>28 wandering_star: I enjoyed The Road Home but I read it very quickly and took it on face value. I think your review was very good. I'm almost ashamed to admit I didn't think about Christy's ex-wife at all while reading it.
The other book of Tremain's that I've read was The Colour the writing was very good but she got a few things wrong about NZers and it grated on me. That book was a bit closer to home for me.

I'm about to start Old Filth tonight after work sometime.

Interesting. I have The Colour on my shelves and would still like to get round to it soon. Maybe the same thing was happening for you as with my reading The Road Home - some things just didn't ring true...

I have just finished English Correspondence which was "longlisted" in 2003. I am a bit wary of what I say about it because it is so completely an example of the type of book which I love but have stopped recommending to friends because they invariably hate it.

The story is centred on Sylvie who returns from her father's funeral in England to the hotel which she runs with her husband, in rural France. The book is slow moving, low on plot, high on detailing the nuances of every interaction between Sylvie, her husband and her in-laws. This is done brilliantly. I had such a strong sense of the mother-in-law and could see her vividly as an organised, practical woman whom I would have nothing against in everyday life but would hate to have as a mother-in-law. I would have liked the husband to have been a little more sympathetic. He basically commits the three sins of blokeness by being 1) overly rational, 2) completing lacking in empathy and 3) having an affair with his colleague. And I think Sylvie could frustrate some readers with her passiveness. It was believable though and really well written. It had some of those wonderful moments for me when the author puts into words something you've felt but never articulated!

I finished A Concise ChineseEnglish Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo while in London. (For some reason, the touchstone will only load if I delete the hyphen.) I thought it was pretty bad. Here's my review:

I chose to take this book with me while London, and, as someone said below, the short chapters made it a good traveller's read; also, because it was set in London, many of the places mentioned in the book were right in front of me. I've had this book for awhile and had high hopes for it, but, for many reasons, I found it quite disappointing. First, the "cuteness" of Z's misunderstanding of English words and phrases began to get tedious after the first 100 pages. Second, I have no idea whatsoever why this young girl became so pathetically attracted to a 42-year old loser. Yes, she was in a strange country alone and he was kind to her at first; yes, she thought he was handsome; yes, he became her first lover; yes, he has a house. Is that reason enough to give up your whole personality as well as your time, money, culture, and emotional energy? I don't think so, not even for a somewhat vulnerable girl like Z. The man in the story was a failed sculptor who had run out of ideas (after all, how many penises can you scupt before running out of ideas?), whose job was making random deliveries in a battered van, and who told her outright that for the past 20 years, his lovers had all been men. It doesn't take a genius to read the flashing red sign on his forehead: "LOSER--RUN!!!" Third, certain events in the story were just unbelievable to me. Even a 23-year old from China would figure out pretty quickly that it isn't appropriate for young women to buy porn and read it openly in tea shops, watch peep shows designed for male customers, or attend live sex shows (let alone saying to a guy you met half an hour ago, "I want have sex with you" and stripping off your pants in a natural but public setting).

The author expects us to buy all this naivete simply because Z is a lonely girl away from home for the first time, but it just doesn't work. Writing all this down makes me recall how impatient I was to finish this book (which I left in the hotel because it wasn't worth carrying back). As soon as I post this review, I'm changing my 3 stars to 1.5, giving it a little credit for the original if overwrought idea and some humorous wordplay.

Have finished Larry's Party an Orange Prizewinner by Carol Shields. I did not warm to the character of Larry but I did enjoy reading about the development of his life over the years. I particularly found the information about mazes very interesting.

Deborah - I think that's the first negative review of that book I've read, but it sounds just awful. I think my copy will disappear into the depths of Mnt TBR. Thanks for the warning!

Englishrose--I loved the whole maze thing in Larry's Party too.

Nickelini - When I was reading about the mazes it made me want to go and experience them for myself. Trouble is my orienteering skills are on the negative side so I would probable get lost forever. Think I'd better stick to getting lost in books!

Just finished Old Filth. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Felt completely engaged in the main characters life and didn't want the story to end. Sir Edward Feathers (Old Filth) is a retired barrister from Hong Kong, to his legal cronies he is a man who has simply had everything fall into place for him in his life and has become a legal legend. The real story, as it unfolds with excursions to his past is quite different. I'll be looking out The Man in the Wooden Hat, the sequel told from his wife's POV (we only get a taste from her view in Old Filth). Recommended.

re: Larry's Party: it wasn't my favorite Carol Shields novel, but I'd heard mixed reviews and came out pleasantly surprised. And I liked the mazes, too!

I recently finished Amy and Isabelle which I found powerful, emotional, and very well-written. I'm now reading The Night Watch which is enjoyable.

Finished When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant which I enjoyed. I am nearly at the end of Property by Valerie Martin and will then red The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

I shall probably leave my other 5 Orange Prizewinners for Orange July.

I've just started The Inheritance of Loss which I've had in my possession before but passed on before I read it. This is my own copy, so I just have to read it this month. (I must admit that I thought it was written by a man previously.)

I just finished Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden ( short list 2009) and liked it very much.

I have finished The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Very good story from one of my favourite authors. Lev comes to London from Poland leaving his small daughter behind with her grandmother. His wife had died. I found this a very moving story about a man looking for ways to make a better life for his family back home. Orange Prizewinner of 2008 and deservedly so IMO.

Yes, I really enjoyed The Road Home. Tremain really seems to havea knack for getting into her characters' heads.

I've finished The Night Watch (3.5 stars; uncooperative touchstone), and am now reading my last book for Orange January, The Wilderness. This is about a man who has Alzheimers, and the progression of his disease.

Halfway though The Idea of Perfection. What a quirky book - I'm really enjoying it!

^ I enjoyed it too!

Finished The Idea of Perfection today. What a great book! Highly recommended.

I really liked The Idea of Perfection too, but I sent it around as a bookring, and most people weren't impressed. I'm glad you were.

47 Sorry, I think I was one of those people. But it was more to do with my mood at the time, I think :-)

I've been taking a break from Wolf Hall seems to be slow going and am halfway through Lullabies for little criminals, well written but a train wreak of a plot very awful circumstances but can't turn my head away. It's another bookring.

I finished my Orange January reading with The Wilderness, which was very good but also very sad. Now I can't wait for July!

I have The Wilderness sitting in pile right by me, but I will have to put it aside for a little longer. I've just finished Gilead and there's only so much sniffling I can take. Gilead was just wonderful, amazingly cleverly structured and while the narrator finishes up satisfied that he's done his best, I felt a little sad for the character returning to the wilderness. Glorious writing.

Lullabies for little criminals was really well written. It was convincing and seemed to read like non-fiction.
I have only given it 2an' a half stars, because, I don't want to seem like a prude, (but I'm going to seem like one anyway) I dislike the subject matter of the drug culture and children suffering in the drug culture.

Looks like I have time to squeeze in another Orange for January. Starting The Septembers of Shiraz tonight. That's only two for the month (I usually average five or six Orange January or July books) but I had a lot of other "required" reading to do.

I finished my fifth and final book for Orange January - The Lovely Bones.

This was a great reading month. Hands down, my favorite was The Outcast, but every book offered something special:

WINNERS:
The Idea of Perfection (2001) (review)

SHORT LIST:
The Poisonwood Bible (1999) (review)
The Outcast (2008) (review)

LONG LIST:
The Lovely Bones (2003) (review)
The Flying Troutmans (2009) (review)

See you all in Orange July!

I just finished Orange book #2 for January. The Septembers of Shiraz - long listed in 2008. Excellent. My review is here.

I started The Voyage of the Narwhal today, but doubt I'll finish it by Sunday night. Who knows though - it seems like a pretty engaging read.