2015: Orange or Bailey? LizzieD Can't Decide
ConversazioniOrange January/July
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1LizzieD
Once again, here are my unread nominees for this wonderful prize. I have two more from 2013 in the mail. YAY!
These are my unread nominees:
Fault Lines ; Girl with a Pearl Earring ; The Housekeeper ; Accordion Crimes
Ahab's Wife ; The Gathering ; The Household Guide to Dying
Lullabies for Little Criminals ; The Ghost Road; Burial Rites
A Spell of Winter ; Ladder of Years; The Mistress of Spices
The Namesake ; Fugitive Pieces; The Flood
The Invention of Everything Else ; The Secret Life of Bees
Caramelo ; The Magician's Assistant; The Light Between Oceans
What the Body Remembers ; The Lovely Bones ; Black and Blue
Home; The Time Traveler's Wife; Eveless Eden
Burnt Shadows ; The Accidental ; The Weight of Water
The Book of Fires ; On Beauty ; The White Family; History of Love ✔
Black Water Rising ✔; The Inheritance of Loss ; Small Wars ; The Last Samurai
The Little Stranger ✔ ; Middle Age; The Blue Book
The Short History of a Prince ; The Tenderness of Wolves ; Swamplandia!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian; The Aguero Sisters
The Mysteries of Glass; Lives of the Monster Dogs
The Hero's Walk; Unless; The Monsters of Templeton
Homestead; The Night Circus; The Help; Manhattan Beach
The Pink Hotel; When I Lived in Modern Times; Lyrics Alley
Hen's Teeth; The Sealed Letter ✔; Half Blood Blues
Elizabeth Is Missing; The Paying Guests; Station Eleven ✔
Aren't We Sisters? ✔; The Bees ✔ How To Be Both ✔
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine; Circe; Milkman
These are my unread nominees:
Fault Lines ; Girl with a Pearl Earring ; The Housekeeper ; Accordion Crimes
Ahab's Wife ; The Gathering ; The Household Guide to Dying
Lullabies for Little Criminals ; The Ghost Road; Burial Rites
A Spell of Winter ; Ladder of Years; The Mistress of Spices
The Namesake ; Fugitive Pieces; The Flood
The Invention of Everything Else ; The Secret Life of Bees
Caramelo ; The Magician's Assistant; The Light Between Oceans
What the Body Remembers ; The Lovely Bones ; Black and Blue
Home; The Time Traveler's Wife; Eveless Eden
Burnt Shadows ; The Accidental ; The Weight of Water
The Book of Fires ; On Beauty ; The White Family; History of Love ✔
Black Water Rising ✔; The Inheritance of Loss ; Small Wars ; The Last Samurai
The Little Stranger ✔ ; Middle Age; The Blue Book
The Short History of a Prince ; The Tenderness of Wolves ; Swamplandia!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian; The Aguero Sisters
The Mysteries of Glass; Lives of the Monster Dogs
The Hero's Walk; Unless; The Monsters of Templeton
Homestead; The Night Circus; The Help; Manhattan Beach
The Pink Hotel; When I Lived in Modern Times; Lyrics Alley
Hen's Teeth; The Sealed Letter ✔; Half Blood Blues
Elizabeth Is Missing; The Paying Guests; Station Eleven ✔
Aren't We Sisters? ✔; The Bees ✔ How To Be Both ✔
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine; Circe; Milkman
2LizzieD
When it gets here, I plan to begin with Burial Rites.
3LizzieD
So it's here, but I have to finish An Unnecessary Woman (which I'm loving) first! He writes like a woman!
An alert! A.L Kennedy's The Blue Book from the 2012 list is a Kindle deal for $1.99 right now.
An alert! A.L Kennedy's The Blue Book from the 2012 list is a Kindle deal for $1.99 right now.
4rainpebble
Burial Rites is beyond perfection, Peggy! I don't know if I will read a better book this year. But my favorite Orange/Baileys of all time is the very first winner: A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore. I am excited for you. You have some really lovelies coming up on your TBR list.
5LizzieD
Confession Time: even with Belva's whole-hearted endorsement, I just can't read Burial Rites right now. I'm a bit irritated by her writing - just a wee bit more editing, and she would be wonderful especially if she curbed her love of adjectives. As it is, that irritation and the fear that I'm going to be saddened again have made me move on. I'm sure that I'll try again later. Then I picked up The Little Stranger and couldn't quite make myself forge ahead with it either.
So I may not read Orange in January. I'm concentrating on the first Patrick Melrose novel with Moon Tiger as back-up. I'm sure that Lively would have been on the Orange list if only it had existed in 1987. Maybe June will have me back on track!
So I may not read Orange in January. I'm concentrating on the first Patrick Melrose novel with Moon Tiger as back-up. I'm sure that Lively would have been on the Orange list if only it had existed in 1987. Maybe June will have me back on track!
6LizzieD
Just slipping in to say that I did read and enjoy The Little Stranger a month late. Loved Moon Tiger too!
7LizzieD
Here's what I think about ---
THE BEES by Laline Paull
This is just a weird one. I give Paull full credit for an original idea, a novel about the life of a bee hive. She didn't pull it off for me although some people have been swept away. My DH was a professional beekeeper for a number of years, so I know what she wrote accurately and what she distorted for the sake of her story. (For me the most egregious fix is that honey bees can sting more than once. They can't.) Her heroine is Flora 717, born a sanitation worker, who is so gifted that she does some of every task in the colony. (That's what worker bees do, as a matter of fact, except for laying fertilized eggs.) Flora is not Hazel or Fiver, whom I have remembered with affection for almost 40 years since I first read Watership Down. She moves from crisis to crisis, and we are told what she feels, but I never felt anything with her. Since she is the only character who lasts through the whole book, with the exception of a drone who improbably overwinters with the cluster, it's hard to care much what happens. What happens is about everything that can happen to a colony. Readers who don't know anything about bees may enjoy the surprises, and many people did according to the reviews here. Many people have also raved about the writing which I found adequate.
So - three stars from me. I'd say that if it attracts you, you should read it. I really can't believe that it made the short list.
THE BEES by Laline Paull
This is just a weird one. I give Paull full credit for an original idea, a novel about the life of a bee hive. She didn't pull it off for me although some people have been swept away. My DH was a professional beekeeper for a number of years, so I know what she wrote accurately and what she distorted for the sake of her story. (For me the most egregious fix is that honey bees can sting more than once. They can't.) Her heroine is Flora 717, born a sanitation worker, who is so gifted that she does some of every task in the colony. (That's what worker bees do, as a matter of fact, except for laying fertilized eggs.) Flora is not Hazel or Fiver, whom I have remembered with affection for almost 40 years since I first read Watership Down. She moves from crisis to crisis, and we are told what she feels, but I never felt anything with her. Since she is the only character who lasts through the whole book, with the exception of a drone who improbably overwinters with the cluster, it's hard to care much what happens. What happens is about everything that can happen to a colony. Readers who don't know anything about bees may enjoy the surprises, and many people did according to the reviews here. Many people have also raved about the writing which I found adequate.
So - three stars from me. I'd say that if it attracts you, you should read it. I really can't believe that it made the short list.
8LizzieD
I'll start the month with this year's winner, How To Be Both, now safely on my Kindle. I'm excited! I loved Hotel World, and I understand that it was maybe not one of her best even though it got an Orange nod. Smith is SO creative!!!
9raidergirl3
I'm hoping to read How to Be Both as well. School is done for me and I have it for one more week from the library. I forgot about Orange July!
I just (finally!) finished The Bees. Took me longer than I'd like mostly because June does me in each year, but there were a lot of bees! I thought of it as Divergent Bees, if you've read that book. It was certainly ambitious.
I just (finally!) finished The Bees. Took me longer than I'd like mostly because June does me in each year, but there were a lot of bees! I thought of it as Divergent Bees, if you've read that book. It was certainly ambitious.
10LizzieD
Glad to see you, Elizabeth! I don't know where I said it, but my DH was a beekeeper, and I found the mix of good science, misinformation (or maybe altered reality for the sake of the story), and fantasy uncongenial.
I've only barely started *Both* and Black Water Rising too because I always like to have a mystery going. Also, I'm greedy.
I've only barely started *Both* and Black Water Rising too because I always like to have a mystery going. Also, I'm greedy.