Bailey's Women's Fiction Longlist 2017

Bailey's Women's Fiction Longlist 2017

Stay With Me, Ayobami Adebayo
The Power, Naomi Alderman
Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
Little Deaths, Emma Flint
The Mare, Mary Gaitskill
The Dark Circle, Linda Grant
The Lesser Bohemians, Eimear McBride
Midwinter, Fiona Melrose
The Sport of Kings, C.E. Morgan
The Woman Next Door, Yewande Omotoso
The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Heather O’Neill
The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
Barkskins, Annie Proulx
First Love, Gwendoline Riley
Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeleine Thien
The Gustav Sonata, Rose Tremain

thanks to vancouverdeb for putting this list together that I copied.

Thoguhts?

Here's the list: http://www.librarything.com/list/11297/all/2017-Baileys-Womens-Prize-for-Fiction, so everyone can rank their reads. Head on over!

I haven't read any of them, but I've been hearing raves about The Essex Serpent since last spring.

The only one I've read is Hag-Seed which was very good. I'm definitely excited to read The Essex Serpent but it isn't out in the U.S. yet. I'm already on the library wait list for when it comes in, though. (It might be available for purchase on kindle currently)

I don't really have any desire to read Barkskins, just too long!

I read summaries of the others and Stay With Me, The Power, Little Deaths, The Lesser Bohemians, and Midwinter sound the most appealing to me.

I've read The Essex Serpent and The Lesser Bohemians. I started off enjoying The Essex Serpent but it got increasingly pedestrian and meh and I ended up skim reading to finish it. I could see its charm but thought it ultimately lacked in substance.

I loved The Lesser Bohemians but others hated it. If you didn't like A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, you probably won't be impressed with this one either as it has the same stream of consciousness writing style. Some might also be put off by protag's dysfunctional relationship with older guy. I found it completely immersive though and gave it five stars.

I have the Thien and the Gaitskill to read on my kindle.

>1 raidergirl3: Thanks for creating the list.

I'm about to start The Mare and will report back.

Oooo, Dee! The Mare is the only one that I can afford right now, so I'm eager to know what you think of it. I'm attracted to The Lonely Hearts Hotel, but the one review here is off-putting.
I've read and loved Hag-Seed, and I have The Lesser Bohemians and Do Not Say We Have Nothing in hand and should read them before I think about splurging on anything else.

It took me longer to finish The Mare than I expected, mainly because of having to read other course related books, but also it took a little while to get really into it. Plus it's a longer book than I realised (it's not always obvious on Kindle)!

I can now report that I ended up loving it and gave it 4.5 stars. It's ambitious with a lot of interwoven threads and themes and I wasn't sure if Gaitskill would be successful at first but on the whole, she really is.

Velvet is an eleven year old Dominican girl living in New York in poverty with her mother and little brother. Ginger is a middle class, middle aged, white ex-addict who's been thinking about adoption and takes on Velvet for the summer as part of a project to help kids from deprived areas. The book follows these two and connected characters not only through that summer but for the next two years.

And then there's The Mare, the horse who provides hope in Velvet's life and also mirrors Velvet's experiences regarding the abuse of power.

A good balance of psychological truth, social reality and enough hope to make it all bearable.