Monday, September 17, 2007

Short List, Long List, Any Old List

We're back from another weekend at the cottage, which starts off an incredibly busy span of time for me: I leave on Wednesday for NYC for work and I'm not back until Sunday night where I'll be visiting friends, doing other fun stuff like shopping, and hopefully seeing a Broadway show...oh, and attending some meetings too. Then it's Word on the Street the following weekend, then Thanksgiving, then I think we're home before going up north again to close up the cottage. It doesn't leave time for a lot of reading, does it?

Regardless, there's an incredibly solid Giller longlist that's just been announced this morning here. This year, compared to most, I've actually read 4 of the books on the list so far: October, Effigy, Helpless, and Divisadero. And it's always exciting to see who actually makes the shortlist.

Anyone pick their front runner just yet?

And while we're on the subject of prizes, there's a really interesting article in The Guardian about the 'tussle' behind the scenes over the Booker shortlist here. I'm certainly not as prepared to offer an opinion on that literary giant of a prize as I've only read one of the books listed, and that's On Chesil Beach, by McEwan.

It's such an exciting time of year for books, lots of events, plenty of big tomes hitting the stores, and loads of prize announcements to keep people talking.

4 comments:

Beth said...

Perhaps I'll see you at Word on the Street (although how we would recognize one another, I don't know). Among other things, I'm going to see (make faces at?) Patricia.

Deanna McFadden said...

Beth, you should absolutely come and find me! I'll be working the HarperCollins Children's book (with Mable's Fables) for most of the day. I look forward to meeting you in person...

Carrie said...

Have fun in NYC!
Let me know if youy need any recommendations of the food or booky sort.

b*babbler said...

I love the fall for all the new book happenings. It's such a delicious time of the year for the literary folk.

And I am so excited about Word on the Street. Having missed it the last few years (pregnancy, etc) I'll be glad to get back into it.

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