Bailey's/Orange Women's Fiction Group discussion

Have a look back at all the old lists and see what you would like to read!
Nominate away!!

Jayme would like to nominate the 2010 winner The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.

I will nominate The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna.
I mentioned the Commonwealth Prize in a general chat about literary prizes. This book won it in 2011 and was also short-listed for the Orange Prize.
My rating when I first read it was 4/5, because I thought the novel was a little patchy. At its best it is truly amazing and my rating may be harsh; I have probably given 5/5 to less amazing and certainly to less ambitious books.

I nominate The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, long listed for the Orange Prize in 2007, and winner of the 2006 Costa First Novel Award. I am not familiar with the author, but this book has received good reviews. There are several copies in my regional library, so should also be readily available elsewhere.

"The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered ..... One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good."

"Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages."

Are there any more nominations?
I will put the polls up tomorrow.

I'm quite keen on What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin.

The complexity of cultures that embrace polygamy intrigues me in this story which apparently has a feminist angle and explores the relationship between the two women married to the wealthy Sikh landowner and also has a political edge with the story set in 1947.

I've just realised the polls are already up and that I'm lagging behind with my nominations. I won't mind if this one has to roll over to December.

I have included both your nominations Janine. I sometimes forget the time difference too, although I shouldn't as I have a daughter and a brother in New Zealand.

Thanks Val - much appreciated.

Val wrote: "I will nominate The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna.
I mentioned the Commonwealth Prize in a general chat about literary prizes..."
Alas, this is not available yet in my local library.