Comments on: Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announced Today

By: jenniferpuryear

jenniferpuryear — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 14:34:04 +0000

Sine, you are always so kind and encouraging. I really appreciate you following Bacon and commenting! And I love it when JoBurg Expat arrives in my mailbox! I look forward to your book signing for Kilimanjaro Diaries at Parnassus on September 23d and hope to see you up at school before then.

By: Sine

Sine — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 01:07:19 +0000

” I suppose I still look to the Mother Country for some important things, such as royal babies, fabulous boy bands like One Direction, and great picks in literature.” – classic, Jennifer! I’m rooting for We are Completely Beside Ourselves, and have already pegged Rise Again at a Decent Hour based on your review, but I have a backlog. I don’t know how you do it. I have about 6 book reviews to write (don’t have a blog for it but vowed that this year I’d write Goodreads or Amazon reviews for everything I read, as a way to keep track of it for myself) and can’t get around to it.

By: jenniferpuryear

jenniferpuryear — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:34:58 +0000

I think that for me, reading a Booker Prize winner often feels comfortably exotic, if that makes any sense. Plus, I guess it has often given me my cross-the-Pond fix. I’m a casual Anglophile, easily satisfied. I always mean to get more serious about that. I do think it’s worth it to slog through Wolf Hall. Once you get used to the voice, it reads a little easier – a lot like Dickens, I think. I’m sure you’re aware that Bring Up the Bodies is an easier and better read in some ways – the prose style at least – but the story just isn’t as compelling. I would love to know what you’re reading right now, Sara!! Thank you so much for your comment and please do let me know! xo

By: Sara Bhatia

Sara Bhatia — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 21:25:28 +0000

It’s interesting to me that you love the Booker Prize winners — I’m much more of a Pulitzer Prize girl myself. It’s interesting to me how the various prize committees (and the books they value) are truly different. I find the Booker winners tend to have a much less linear storytelling style — there’s often a mystical, dreamlike quality, or an unreliable narrator, or a circuitous structure. Given a choice, I always choose the Pulitzers. But if you recommend We are All Completely Beside Ourselves, I’ll try it. And I’m going to go back to the Hilary Mantle books — I couldn’t get into them, and abandoned the first one 50 pages in, but so many people I know adored them, I’ll give them another shot.