2015 Bailey's Womens Prize for Fiction Longlist

The longlist has been announced.

Outline - Rachel Cusk
Crooked Heart - Lissa Evans
Aren't We Sisters? - Patricia Ferguson
I Am China - Xiaolu Guo
Dear Thief - Samantha Harvey
Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
The Offering - Grace McCleen
The Country of Ice Cream Star - Sandra Newman
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night - Heather O'Neill
The Bees - Laline Paull
The Table of Less Valued Knights - Marie PHillips
The Walk Home - Rachel Seiffert
A God in Every Stone - Kamila Shamsie
How to Be Both - Ali SMith
The Shore - Sara Taylor
A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler
The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
After Before - Jemma Wayne
The Life of a Banana - PP Wong

I made a list at Lists, for those who read any of the longlist to rank by your criteria. Feel free to head over and add your opinions!

http://www.librarything.com/list/10155/all/Your-favorite-books-from-the-2015-Bai...

Thanks Elizabeth! I'll be having a closer look at the list later on! Thanks for posting it! So far I've only read Elizabeth is Missing , which I enjoyed.

I haven't read any, but there are two or three that are very high on my wishlist.

I've read The Bees and The Paying Guests, neither of which I liked very much, unfortunately. Looking forward to exploring the rest of the list, though.

Elizabeth is Missing is fantastic, and I also really enjoyed How to be Both.

>6 lauralkeet: Hmmm. After really disliking There but for the I wasn't at all interested in How to be Both, but maybe I'll give it a try. Elizabeth is Missing sounds very interesting.

I've read 3:The Paying Guests, Station Eleven, and The Table of Less Valued Knights.

I quite enjoyed all of them for different reasons. I am surprised the Table of Less Valued Knights made the list as a literary prize, but it is a very fun book - easy to read and a fun ride. For fans of King Arthur type books. Maybe not fans because it pokes fun of it in a feminist manner. Maybe there is more to it than I originally thought!

I wanted to enjoy The Paying Guests more as I read it, but it has more going for it when discussions happen after.

Station Eleven was my favorite so far.

Thanks for posting the list, Elizabeth. I haven't read any of them, but I at least have The Paying Guests and Elizabeth is Missing on my Kindle. Station Eleven is affordable right now too, so I guess I'll download that and then have a lot of fun checking out the rest!

This is a fun list. I'm currently reading The Paying Guests and I like it, although it is a slower paced novel than, say, Station Eleven. I plan to read How to be Both and Outline soon.

I covet How to Be Both, having loved Hotel World, but unless I luck into a real deal, I'll have to wait a bit. Don't know Outline, but I'm off to research the field this morning!

This is such a great list. I have read Elizabeth Is Missing, Station Eleven, A Spool of Blue Thread and The Paying Guests. My favorite so far is Station Eleven. I am definitely going to be adding more to the ever growing TBR books.

I have only read two... got some catching up to do!

I've now read Elizabeth is Missing. Aren't We Sisters? and I am currently reading A Spool of Blue Thread.

>8 raidergirl3: Yes, a *funny* feminist manner, which is pretty impressive, and points gently to the many ways in which wishing we were back in a particular period only really works in western history if you are a wealthy, hetero male. Having read How to be both, I'm looking out for my own copy (I got mine from the library) just a lovely book, echoes of Sarah Dunant and Zadie Smith (the second in terms of making urban London living funny, not in terms of style!). I also like the whole 'choose your own adventure' aspect of the publishing two halves in a different order depending on chance - which you pick up.

Elizabeth is Missing I thought was overrated, and a bit too 'neat ends tied up' for me. Aren't we sisters? I think suffers from being the second of two to deal with the same characters - the most interesting character in the second book is only referred to, we don't get to see her experiences first hand.

I didn't finish The paying guests, I'm afraid it just didn't grab me the way Sarah Waters' earlier books did. Outline I loved and would read again - lyrical book set for the most part in Greece, a wonderful book when the rain is coming down outside and you have a blanket over your knees (although other reading options are available...). And The Walk Home was beautiful, dealing with sectarianism and its impact on a family over generations.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the list.

What surprises me most is the number of excellent books left off their long list. Books like. . .
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Euphoria by Lily King
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Moor's Account: A Novel by Laila Lalami

No doubt there are a lot more titles that LT readers are surprised not to find there, either.

Limelite - I'm not good at all guessing what might be on any book list, but I really did enjoy Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I confess I've yet to read any of the other books on your list, though Lila is waiting for me on my kindle.

15 Charlotte, for whatever reason Sarah Waters's just does not do much for me.

I started Station Eleven last night and have been sucked into a very interesting, page-turning story.

>15 charl08:
I also like the whole 'choose your own adventure' aspect of the publishing two halves in a different order depending on chance - which you pick up.

Well, if I hadn't already requested How To Be Both from the library, this info would have intriqued me greatly! Now I can't wait to get this book. Alas, the line is longer than I would like.

I've read only two of the books. I loved Elizabeth is Missing but was disappointed in Sarah Waters's The Paying Guests, a book I expected to like.

I loved The Paying Guests, but I think that my response isn't necessarily that of others. It was slow and the character of Lilian remains a cypher throughout. But I loved the pacing, that mirrored the slow pace of life in Champion Gardens, where change came slowly and reluctantly. I also like the parts of Victorian novels where the heroine is left in mortal peril so that we can check in with her aunt who is writing a letter to her member of parliament, after which she will have a long, polite conversation about tulip bulbs with her neighbor. And then we get to find out whether the heroine managed to escape. Also, I thought Frances was a fantastic character.

>21 RidgewayGirl: Count me as one who loved The Paying Guests. Granted the beginning was quite slow, but after that the pacing was almost hypnotic. It remains one of my favorite books of 2014.

I read and reviewed A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler and I put my review on the main page, and on my thread here. I really loved it!

>21 RidgewayGirl: Thank you for articulating so clearly everything I too loved about The Paying Guests!

I'm really looking forward to finding out what's on the shortlist, partly because my local library always buys in multiple copies (:

Just got The Girl who was Saturday Night out of the library, hope to get to it soon. Has anyone else read it?

>25 charl08: I haven't, but I hear it's similar to her first book, Lullabies for Little Criminals. That was one of my favourite books of the past 10 years, so I'm really looking forward to The Girl Who Was Saturday Night!

It is similar and quite good!