Well, turn out for the draw was much higher than I expected. Thank you to everyone who entered, and for your kind comments too. I hope we can do much more of this in future, perhaps with some more Orange Prize book soon.
The random number generator has now done its work and the first winner is...*drum roll*... Tracey. Copies of both The White Woman on the Green Bicycle and The Twisted Heart are yours. And the second copy of Monique Roffey's novel goes to.... Caro. I will be in touch with both of you via email soon to get addresses and such.
Can you believe that the Orange shortlist is announced on Tuesday? Oh dear, and I'm only just coming up to finishing book 8 in the longlist readathon. My prediction thus far, based on what I've read and what I'm most anticipating goes something like this:
- Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
- Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger
- MJ Hyland, This is How
- Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
- Monique Roffey, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (I'm trusting Kirsty on this one.)
- Eleanor Catton, The Rehearsal or Amy Sackville The Still Point (These are the two left to read that I'm most looking forward to trying, and entirely speculative.)
I'll be honest, I'm not expecting the shortlist to look anything like that really. It was already decided several weeks ago and Daisy Goodwin twittered that it was 'full of sparks and surprises', which suggests to me that at least some of the big names have been omitted. I think both Mantel and Waters are absolute musts for me, and probably the Kingsolver too, although I still haven't quite finished it.
I'm afraid I haven't done that much reading this weekend at all; about a hundred pages of Small Wars (which is getting much better, almost despite itself) and about fifty pages of the The Lacuna (which I'm beginning to eke out, only hundred pages to go. Tis such a companionable book I don't want it to be over). Otherwise it has been beautiful weather and so Esther and I have spent most of our time out in the garden, potting out and planting. We sowed our peas, salad leaves, basil and peppers, and did the interminable weeding. As we're very much gardening novices (this is only our second year) we're not expecting all that much to come up, but it was good to be outside.
The only real bookish development is that we purchased and assembled a new bookcase. The trawl from Hay was the bookpile that broke the camel's back and we had completely run out of space. Here it is in all its empty-shelved glory.
I took the opportunity of all that space to make an Orange Prize shelf, with the fifteen books that I have managed to gather in. Of the other five, I have four on hold at the library; the final one, Secret Son by Laila Lalami isn't in the library and I have tried the publisher to no avail. The Book Depository to the rescue I suppose.
Right, enough of this chatter. I'm off to make some carrot and cream cheese cupcakes and read some more of Small Wars. How very domestic of me.
Next week I absolutely promise posts of The Very Thought of You and This is How.
~~Victoria~~