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TSS: Reading the awards

I am kind of still finding my way with this whole Sunday Salon thing and so I think that for the time being, I am going to keep unofficially participating in Sunday Salon and also officially participating in Muse in the Fog's Suddenly Sunday at the same time.

In case you hadn't noticed the longlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction was announced this week. It has been mentioned one or two times around the blogosphere, and yes, I am going to talk about it here. What I wanted to focus on though was what it means to a reader if a book is long listed for one of the big prizes, let alone wins one. First, here's the list of books that made the long list:

Rosie Alison: The Very Thought of You (UK)

Eleanor Catton: The Rehearsal (New Zealand)

Clare Clark: Savage Lands (UK)

Amanda Craig: Hearts and Minds (UK)

Roopa Farooki: The Way Things Look to Me (UK)

Rebecca Gowers: The Twisted Heart (UK)

M.J. Hyland: This is How (UK)

Sadie Jones: Small Wars (UK)

Barbara Kingsolver: The Lacuna (US)

Laila Lalami: Secret Son (Morocco)

Andrea Levy: The Long Song (UK)

Attica Locke: Black Water Rising (US)

Maria McCann: The Wilding (UK)

Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall (UK)

Nadifa Mohamed: Black Mamba Boy (UK)

Lorrie Moore: A Gate at the Stairs (UK)

Monique Roffey: The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Spain/UK)

Amy Sackville: The Still Point (UK)

Kathryn Stockett: The Help (US)

Sarah Waters: The Little Stranger (UK)

My initial thoughts when I first saw this list was 'oh my goodness I haven't read any of these'! I own Wolf Hall, I have The Help out from the library at the moment, and I have had The Little Stranger out as well, but I had to return it unread. I will borrow it again eventually I am sure. There are several others that I have been meaning to read as well, but haven't actually done anything about.

My second reaction was based purely on my affection for Historical Fiction as a genre. Of the twenty books that are listed, twelve of them have a historical setting, or at least are partially set in a different era! The Very Thought of You is set on the eve of WWII (so a must read for me)and Savage Lands by Clare Clark is set in 1700s Louisiana and sounds fascinating and The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver is set during the Mexican Revolution. I really loved The Poisonwood Bible and so this is already on my TBR list. The Long Song by Andrea Levy is about slavery and The Wilding by Maria McCann is set in the post English Civil War era (a time that I find fascinating too). Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a Tudor novel that has been garnering critical awards all over the place, and Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed is set in 1930s Africa. I can't get enough of books set in Africa. The White Woman on a Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey is set in post Colonial Trinidad, which it is fair to say I have never read about before, and The Still Point by Amy Sackville is partially set at the end of 19th century. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (1960s American South) and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (post WWII UK) round out the list.

Then I saw the longlist for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, which is Australia's most prestigious literary fiction prize, and again, I hadn't read any of them. I had heard of some of the authors - let's face it, you can't be a reader in Australia and not have heard of Peter Carey and Tom Kenneally at the very least - and I have read Sonya Hartnett, and have been meaning to read Peter Temple for the longest time too. It is interesting to have a crime novel make the long list too. That's not something that you see that often.

Figurehead, Patrick Allington (Black Inc. Publishing)

Parrot and Olivier in America, Peter Carey (Penguin Group)

The Bath Fugues, Brian Castro (Giramondo Publishing)

Boy on a Wire, John Doust (Fremantle Press)

The Book of Emmett, Deborah Forster (Random House)

Sons of the Rumour, David Foster (Pan Macmillan)

Siddon Rock, Glenda Guest (Random House)

Butterfly, Sonya Hartnett (Penguin Group)

The People's Train, Tom Keneally (Random House)

Lovesong, Alex Miller (Allen & Unwin)

Jasper Jones, Craig Silver (Allen & Unwin)

Truth, Peter Temple (Text Publishing)

So heres the thing. Apparently, despite the fact that in the past 15 months I have read approximately 150 books, I am not reading the books that are garnering the critical praise that comes associated with being nominated with these prestigious prizes. Coincidentally, this week also saw the launch of the third annual DWABAHA tournament, where popular romance novels that have been released in the previous 12 months are pitted against each other in brackets. Participants then vote, until finally there is one book left that is called champion! The initial list was 64 books long, and out of that list, I had read a miserly total of 4. This means that I am not reading the critically acclaimed books and I am not reading the popularly acclaimed books in the genres that I enjoy reading, so what the heck am I reading?

As I do every year, I have added the long listed books to my ever growing TBR list, and think about when I might possibly read some of them, so that I can continue my participation in the ongoing Orange Prize Project challenge at the very least.

Do you like to read the novels that are long listed for prestigious prizes? Some people try to read as many as possible of the long listed novels before the prize is nominated? If a novel does win one of these prizes, do you add it to your TBR list? Does seeing which books made the list attract your interest to those novels, or do prizes not matter to you at all? Perhaps some prizes mean more than others to you?

Let's talk prizes!

Library Loot - March 17 to 23

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and me that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Wow! So much to blog about at the moment, which means I have ended up being a couple of days late with my Library Loot post this week! Lucky it is Eva hosting Mr Linky this week, and not me!

Not only did I carry books out of the library that I have borrowed, I also took six books off of the sale table at the library.There were more I could have taken, but I tried to have some self control!

Here is a list of the books that I bought for a whole 10 cents each:

Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale

Harvest Moon by Harvest Moon

Queen of Swords by Judith Tarr

The Shepherd Kings by Judith Tarr

Paint the Wind by Cathy Cash Spellman

The Revolt of the Eagles by Jean Plaidy

I might have to have a look at the table again next time I go too. Then again, one of the reason that I use the library so much is to try and keep my bookshelves under control!

The items that I borrowed were:

City of God by Beverly Swerling (reloot) - Of the three books I have read by this author, I loved two of them. This is the next book in the series that started at the settlement of New York and is following a couple of families through and telling the story of New York.

The Murrumbidgee Kid by Peter Yeldham - I have loved both of the books I have read by this author, and now I am hoping to read all of his backlist!

At Last Comes Love with Mary Balogh - the next book in the Huxtable series.

The Mascot by Mark Kurzem - A few weeks ago in my Sunday Salon post I talked about the books that I had seen other people reading on the train, and this was one of those books!

Heaven and Earth by Nora Roberts - I recently read the first book in this trilogy. I am looking forward to the second too!

When Twilight Burns by Colleen Gleason - This is the fourth book in the Gardella Vampire chronices. It's been ages since I read the third book, mainly because my library doesn't have the last two books. I had to get this one as an interlibrary loan, so it has a very attractive green cover on it just like the one I showed here a while ago.

Shadow of the King by Helen Hollick (reloot) - This is the third book in the Pendragon's Banner trilogy.

The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn - I really enjoy Deanna Raybourn's Lady Julia series of Victorian mysteries, so I am prepared to go on this journey with her featuring different characters.

The Penny Pincher's Club by Sarah Strohmeyer - I think I have read just about everything Sarah Strohmeyer has written, from her Bubbles Yablonsky series which was Stephanie Plum like mystery, and now her more women's fiction books. Looking forward to this one.

Vulture Street by Powderfinger - Yes, another Powderfinger CD. I just can't seem to listen to enough of their music at the moment. Once again I leave you with another clip from YouTube. The first part of this video is (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind, and then seques into It's a Long Way to the Top, originally performed by another Aussie band, AC/DC. It is the pre final entertainment from a couple of years ago (think a similar deal to the half time entertainment at the Superbowl!

Classics Circuit: Those devilish Alastairs

Today I am glad to be participating in the Classics Circuit for Georgette Heyer. When I signed up for the blog tour, I was asked what I was going to be post about, and because I had just borrowed it, I said that I would post about The Devil's Cub. I then realised that I hadn't actually reviewed the book that comes before it which is These Old Shades, so I thought I would do a post about my experience of reading Georgette Heyer, and a comparison of the two books. In addition, I am also using this post as my entry for the letter H in the Historical Tapestry challenge, Alphabet in Historical Fiction.

Up until a few years ago I hadn't read any Georgette Heyer novels, which in some ways was quite surprising given that I love both romance and historical fiction. Georgette Heyer is often creditted with creating the Regency Romance sub-genre, and over the years I have read quite a lot of those types of romances. I am not really sure what it as that I was waiting for. Since I started reading this author, I have read one of her straight historical fiction novels, one of her mysteries, and now three of her romances. I liked the first romance I read, but I didn't really know what to expect when I picked up These Old Shades. It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I enjoyed it as much as I did!

Here is the synopsis for These Old Shades (the recent Sourcebooks rerelease)

A notorious duke with a devilish bent...

Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon, is called "Satanas" by enemy and friend alike. In the aristocratic circles of both London and Louis XV's Paris he has a reputation as a dangerous and debauched rake.

A cast off urchin with a secret past...

Late one evening, the Duke stumbles upon Leon, a red-headed urchin fleeing a certain beating at his brutal brother's hands. On a whim, Avon buys the boy and makes him his page. But it soon becomes clear that Leon is not what he seems...

When the grubby Leon turns out to be the enchanting Leonie, the Duke is not prepared for the breathtaking transformation or the tender emotions she awakens in him, or the unconditional love she has for the man who saved her.

One of the issues with being a pioneer of a genre, is that in the 80 plus years of subsequent imitators, many of the tropes used in the novel have become pretty standard tropes of the regency romance sub-genre. In this one alone there is the cold, distantly aloof aristocrat, the girl dressing as a boy and the suspense subplot, and yet, despite the fact that these are all storylines that have been reproduced numerous times over the years, there is still a freshness to them in Heyer's writing.

Justin Alastair is in Paris when he comes across a young boy being accosted by others, and decides on a whim to make the boy his page. He very quickly realises that his page is actually a girl and sets out to find out more about her. It seems that she is most definitely something more than a young peasant, and soon Justin finds himself plotting and scheming to unveil a villain of the French Aristocracy.

I really enjoyed that this book was partially set in pre-revolutionary France.

When I rated These Old Shades, I gave it 4.5/5. Some times though the gut reaction rating that I initially apply isn't what I would have rated it a couple of weeks later. I will leave it at 4.5, but having now read The Devil's Cub, I would probably amend that to 4/5, not because I didn't still think I had enjoyed it immensely, but rather because when I put the two books together and compare my reading reaction, then These Old Shades is left in the shadows.

In this novel Miss Heyer has woven 'affairs' of lovely ladies and handsome, if some times wicked, men into a design as intricate as old lace. Love and desire, abductions and escapes, gaming and duelling are inevitable incidents in this full-blooded eighteenth-century story. The many thousands of admirers of Miss Heyer's These Old Shades will meet familiar friends again in Devil's Cub

The main male character in The Devil's Cub is Dominic, Marquis of Vidal, and son of Justin and Leonie, the Duke and Duchess of Avon. Dominic shares many of the same traits that his father possessed. They are both dark and broody, cold and aloof, but where were told that Justin is a man with a deserved reputation as a rake, it is really with Dominic that we see this for ourselves. Dominic is a man who trifles with young women with little thought for the consequences for the lady concerned, the man who fights in duels with the slightest of provocation, and the man who takes on the most ludicrous wagers, and to my mind, he is more overtly amusing than his father.

As a result of an illegal duel, Dominic is hustled out of the country to France, but not before he makes arrangements to have his current young lady, Sophia Challoner, accompany him. When her older, and much more sensible, sister inadvertently finds out about the plan, she is determined to save her sister from certain ruin, and therefore shows up at the rendezvous in her place. Mary expects that she will be able to be back before most people realise that she is gone, but she had not counted on Dominic's temper, and determination, to travel onto Paris urgently. When she wounds him, Dominic begins to realise that Mary is not as dull as he thought she might be, and that he may have at last found a woman who could live up to his mother in terms of spirit, and her sense of adventure.

There was only one scene very early in the book where I didn't like Dominic, and I must confess that I was a bit concerned that I was not going to be able to connect to him as a reader as a result of those actions. Whilst not forgivable, it was not repeated and I got no sense that it would be in the future, and I was therefore able to move on from.

I must confess that there were times that Mary came awfully close to making stupid decisions, but she was saved from being a TSTL (too stupid to live if you aren't sure what that acronym means) heroine by the fact that for most of the time she is no simpering young woman (something that Leonie had down pat in the previous book). In fact, I often found myself wondering what exactly it was that Mary was supposed to be living up to!

It was an absolute delight to watch the chemistry between Dominic and Mary leap from the pages, and to watch a rake whose family members despair of ever reforming (not counting his devoted parents of course) fall in love with a woman that no one would have thought would have been attracted to, and to do so with the utmost care for her reputation once he started to fall for her.

All through both of these books there is a superb cast of supporting characters. Justin's brother and sister, and their respective children in the later book, provide colour, vibrancy, depth and humour, meaning that The Devil's Cub in particular, is an incredibly balanced and readable novel. Leonie and Justin also worked better for me in this novel, having been married for many years now. I still found it a bit hard to connect with Leonie, but I did enjoy that no matter how well she thought she had managed to conceal Dominic's doings from her husband, Justin was almost omnipotent - always having ways of knowing exactly what his firebrand of a son had been up to!

As an aside, the edition of The Devil's Cub that I read was printed in the late 1970s, and it is very interesting to look at the differences between the synopsis and the covers! The other thing that I didn't realise until I was writing this post, is that Barbara from An Infamous Army is a member of the Alastair family! Given that An Infamous Army was the first Heyer I read, I feel as though I have come full circle, and in fact I think if I was to reread her book, I would appreciate more fully Barbara's character. I can totally see myself picking up These Old Shades and beginning my adventures with the fantastic Alastair family again, and this time reading through Devil's Cub and onto An Infamous Army.

In the end I rated The Devil's Cub 5 out of 5.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy of These Old Shades.

If you are interested in reading more posts from the Classics Circuit, here are the other stops on the Georgette Heyer tour this week:

March 15, 2010 Booklust Review: Penhallow

March 16, 2010 Carol’s Notebook Review: Cotillion

March 16, 2010 Musings Review: These Old Shades

March 17, 2010 Reading Adventures Review: Devil’s Cub

March 18, 2010 Blog Jar Review: Royal Escape

March 19, 2010 Reading, Writing and Retirement Review: Friday’s Child

March 20, 2010 Staircase Wit Review: The Grand Sophy or Devil’s Cub

March 21, 2010 Medieval Bookworm Review: Cotillion