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Costa Book Awards 2017

Started by Serge, November 22, 2017, 09:45:54 PM

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Serge

Not as high profile as yer Booker, but they've just been announced...

Quote2017 Costa book awards shortlists

Novel

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Tin Man by Sarah Winman

First novel

The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks
Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Haunting of Henry Twist by Rebecca F John

Biography

Once Upon a Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up by Xiaolu Guo
A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rossellis and the Fight Against Mussolini by Caroline Moorehead
In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott
Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table by Stephen Westaby

Poetry

Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi
Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey
Useful Verses by Richard Osmond

Children's book

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan
Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans
The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Explorers by Katherine Rundell

Interesting to see Shamsie and McGregor again, they both made the Booker longlist. Shamsie's is the only book I've read on any of the shortlists here, and I thought it was good, but fell apart quite badly in the last quarter. I still have no interest in reading 'Reservoir 13'. I saw Stephen Westaby giving a talk at the Derby Book Festival last year, but would happily never read a thing about hospitals ever again for as long as I live. Anybody read any of the others/have any opinions on who should or shouldn't win?

Neville Chamberlain

FACT: When we still lived in Nottingham, my wife was in a mummies-and-babies group with the wife (partner?) of Jon McGregor. FACT. Lives in Sherwood apparently. FACT. I tried to read one of his books, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things. Didn't really get on with it, to be honest. ANOTHER FACT.

holyzombiejesus

I've read a few. I think I mentioned the Xan Brooks one on the old books thread a year or so ago. It's silly. Tim Burton silly. I don't like Tim Burton. 4 servicemen, all deformed or injured so they resemble characters from The Wizard of Oz,  pay young girls to hang out with them....

One of the other books, the Oliphant one, has won the Richard and Judy book club prize. Does the fact that that really puts me off mean I'm an horrible snob? Didn't Sarah Winman write that When God Was A Rabbit nonsense? WGWAR seemed to start the latest fad of winsome books for women, decorated in Rob Ryan style covers.  Might start a thread...

Serge

I've just noticed that the title of the Winman book rhymes with her surname.

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 23, 2017, 03:29:56 PMWGWAR seemed to start the latest fad of winsome books for women, decorated in Rob Ryan style covers.  Might start a thread...

This book passed me by, but you should definitely start a thread, as it sounds like there's a rant waiting to be unleashed!

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Serge on November 23, 2017, 10:11:56 PM
I've just noticed that the title of the Winman book rhymes with her surname.

This book passed me by, but you should definitely start a thread, as it sounds like there's a rant waiting to be unleashed!

Ha ha! Not quite a rant but sometimes publishers seem like such sheep. The post Gone Girl tendency for thrillers to have black and white covers with block yellow titles is the most striking one but, yeah, so many of those books aimed at women use Rob Ryan style cut outs. There was a time when women books used to be all fluorescent with pictures of heels and bottles and shopping bags but now it's all cutesy ribbon writing and trees. Even the titles of certain types of fiction seem really similar.

Serge

Yeah, I know what you mean. In fact, I think there's a thread in this...