Bailey's/Orange Women's Fiction Group discussion

So, with the new year looming ahead of us... what former Women's Fiction Prize winners and nominees would you like us to read as a group?

Throw out your ideas here!

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List of 2021 Group Reads
January: The Siege by Helen Dunmore
February: Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
March: A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
April: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
May: Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
June: How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
July: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

My to read list includes:
The Power
State of Wonder
Burial Rites
Flight Behavior
The Paying Guests
Unless
NW
Ladder of Years
Paradise
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
The Outcast
Ruby
How to Be Both
May We Be Forgiven

I’d be up for lots of these, but have read the winners this year. Are we thinking one a month? Or a winner and a shortlist each month? 😊

If I recall correctly, in the past we just did one book a month, either from the shortlist or a winner.

Once new longlists are out we will often chose a book or 2 from that and then again when it is narrowed down to the shortlist. Since we are now in the "in between", we typically just pick what the group is feeling. :)

I've made this Google Sheet listing all the Shortlist/Winners. I've noted in the final column if/when a book was selected as a group read in this group.


https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

So, we can narrow down our focus to ones that haven't been picked in this group before. I am going to suggest that we pick a couple Jan and Feb so people can plan ahead a bit.


I am still working on filling in some details like author and page numbers etc.

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OK. I've finished the spreadsheet of Women's Fiction Prize Shortlist/Winners here, indicating which ones were previously read as group reads.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Based on this data and page length/ratings etc. here are a few that I think might be good January and February reads. Anyone want to read any of these or want to nominate anything else?

The Road Home by Rose Tremain (won in 2008)

Stay with Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (shortlisted in 2017)

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (shortlisted in 2017)

The Siege by Helen Dunmore (shortlisted in 2002)

Wow Jessica that spreadsheet is a work of art! Amazing! Thanks so much for organising.
I’ve been meaning to read more Helen Dunmore, as I enjoyed A Spell of Winter earlier this year, and I’ve recently enjoyed several WW2 fiction books, so my pick would be The Siege. Happy to read any of them and looking forward to discussing.

Carol wrote: "Wow Jessica that spreadsheet is a work of art! Amazing! Thanks so much for organising.
I’ve been meaning to read more Helen Dunmore, as I enjoyed A Spell of Winter earlier this year, and I’ve rece..."

Thank you, Carol! Spreadsheets for life! :P I love using them to help me organize my thoughts.

I would be happy reading the Siege too since I also enjoyed A Spell of Winter when I read it a couple of years ago.

Perhaps we could do:

JANUARY: The Seige
FEBRUARY: Stay with Me (in honor of Black History Month)

Jessica wrote: "Perhaps we could do:

JANUARY: The Seige
FEBRUARY: Stay with Me (in honor of Black History Month),..."

I like this plan!

Thanks for all your work on that spreadsheet, amazing.

Smashing plan 😊

great!

I’m in.

Great! I will add them to the group reads and create a post to discuss.

Hello, hope everyone is ok. Did we want to think about March? February is such a short month. What a suitable theme for March? Spring? Weather?

I think the past couple of years, the group hasn't read anything as they wait for the long list to be announced, but I would be fine having a selection, then we can pick a longlist book for april or beyond.

This is a list of observances for March. Notably, it is Women's History Month. https://www.thespruce.com/special-day...

Some that the group hasn't read that I also haven't read that may be possible March reads...

The Idiot by Elif Batuman
A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Lottery by Patricia Wood
The Colour by Rose Tremain


Thoughts or other suggestion ideas?

that list of special dates in March is amazing! I particularly like National Peanut Butter lover's day, respect you cat day, and international waffle day. I'm not sure which books would be particularly suited for these. Women's History month is probably a better bet.
I'm happy to go with any of your suggestions Jessica. if i had to pick one, it might be A God in Every Stone as i really liked Home Fire but haven't read anything else by Kamila Shamsie.

I would be down for the Shamsie. I've read and enjoyed Home Fire and Salt and Saffron by her and enjoyed them both.

Shall we declare A God in Every Stone our March pick?

Does anyone else want to suggest a pick? :)

I’m happy with that. I really liked ‘Home Fire’, but haven’t read anything else by Shamsie.

Alright, let's make A God in Every Stone our March read.

Long List announced! Let's pick our April read from this list. The short list will be announced on April 28th.

Which ones from this list would you be possibly be interested in reading for April?

https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co....

Because of You by Dawn French
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
Consent by Annabel Lyon
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Luster by Raven Leilani
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Nothing But Blue Sky by Kathleen MacMahon
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Summer by Ali Smith
The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller

Summer by Ali Smith
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
?

What an interesting list, several unexpected books I didn’t see on any of the prediction threads, especially the Dawn French book. I’m disappointed that The Mermaid of Black Conch, The Liar's Dictionary and The Manningtree Witches didn’t make it, but will read them anyway. I’ve only read one on the long list, The Vanishing Half, and am determined to read all the long list this year, so very happy with whatever we choose.

Yes, there seems universal disbelief that the Mermaid of Black Conch wasn’t included.

I've only read three of the longlisted books (Vanishing Half, Piranesi, Exciting Times) so am open to most for a group read. Having said that, my library only has a few of these available and some don't appear to be published in Canada yet. I'll do my best to join in with whatever is chosen.

I'm reading Consent now and have a library copy of Transcendent Kingdom waiting. I'm not aiming to read the longlist, but I do like to read the whole shortlist if possible.

Like others I'm disappointed to not see Liar's Dictionary here, I thought it was fantastic.

I also like to try to read the whole short list (and will hopefully eventually read all the books that have been short listed for this award through its history).

I've already read: Burnt Sugar, How the One Armed Sister..., The Vanishing Half and Transcendent Kingdom.

Of the ones that I've read Vanishing Half and Transcendent Kingdom were my favorites and both make great discussion books.

I have the audio of the following checked out from the library currently: Luster, Exciting Times, and Summer.

And I have holds on No One is Talking About This and Detransition Baby.

The other books aren't currently available in a digital format from my library network.

Jessica wrote: "I also like to try to read the whole short list (and will hopefully eventually read all the books that have been short listed for this award through its history).

I've already read: Burnt Sugar, ..."

Jessica reading all of the previous shortlist is such an amazing challenge, I’m going to try and do this as well, with a very big time frame of probably about ten years! It’s a lot of books. The list you posted on another thread is so helpful on this for tracking progress.

I’m looking forward to reading Summer, but haven’t read any of that quartet and the general feeling seems to recommend that you need to read them all to really appreciate Summer so can we put this one off for a while as a monthly read and I’ll try and read the others soon.

Okay, I've created a poll. You can vote here. I have it marked to close on the 15th. This should give us a few days to vote and still give time for people to hopefully get their books by April.

The poll is here:https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Jessica wrote: "Okay, I've created a poll. You can vote here. I have it marked to close on the 15th. This should give us a few days to vote and still give time for people to hopefully get their books by April.

T..." Thanks for setting this up 😊

Carol wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I also like to try to read the whole short list (and will hopefully eventually read all the books that have been short listed for this award through its history).

I've already rea..."

Carol, I'm doing this too (slowly!) and just wanted to flag for you there is a thread in this group where this challenge is set up and tracked in personal posts, in case that interests you - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jen wrote: "Carol wrote: "Jessica wrote: "I also like to try to read the whole short list (and will hopefully eventually read all the books that have been short listed for this award through its history).

I'..."
Oh look at that! Thanks for letting me know Jen, I’ll add a post and get going. Hurrah! 😊

Poll Results:
1st Place: The Vanishing Half
2nd Place: Transcendent Kingdom
3rd Place: Burnt Sugar


So we will make The Vanishing Half our April read and Transcendent Kingdom our May read.

The shortlist will be announced on April 28th, so then we can have another poll or discussion to pick our June book from the shortlist. :)

So strange - I started ‘Vanishing Half’ this morning and I’m liking it a lot.

The shortlist was announced. Our April & May pick are included on the shortlist.

The winner will be announced on July 7th.

The Shortlist:
The Vanishing Half
Piranesi
Unsettled Ground
Transcendent Kingdom
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House
No One Is Talking About This

So, now we can pick our June & July reads from the remaining ones on the shortlist: Piranesi, Unsettled Ground, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, and No One is Talking About This.

I've posted a poll here to vote for the June book
: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Voting closes May 1st.

I think this is a great shortlist and am looking forward to reading them.

It is also a pretty "short" shortlist. None of these books are overly long.

Sorry for the delay. Been a crazy couple of weeks.


ANyhow, we had a tie for first place for the poll so we will do one book for June and the other for July. The winners were:
How the One-Armed Sister.... and Piranisi.