sevenstories’ Review #43 & #44 (+ Man Booker Prize Summary)

With the Man Booker prize winner being announced on Tuesday morning I needed to get up to date with my reviews. Sadly the last on the shortlist probably won’t be reviewed until after the winner has been announced but here are reviews of the superb The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt and the perfectly serviceable Snowdrops by A. D. Miller.

http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-43-sisters-brothers-by-patrick.html

http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-44-snowdrops-by-d-miller.html

And here is my summary of the six shortlisted novels in my personal ranking order. I’d love to hear from anyone else who has been reading the shortlist – I’ve been shadowing the prize with a group of sixth formers at my school and have really enjoyed it as well as discovered some brilliant new novels and authors.

http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/man-booker-prize-summary.html

sevenstories’ CBR-III Review #40: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending is the first novel from the Man Booker shortlist that I’ve read and I was drawn to it primarily because of its beautiful cover, so it definitely wins points for having the best cover design on the shortlist. Barnes is the bookies favourite to win and when the shortlist was announced the judging panel claimed it as Barnes’ best work, which considering he has already been shortlisted several times does seem to bode well for his chances. I will get back to you once I’ve read the others…

All in all, an excellent novel which manages to really  get inside your head.

My full review is on my blog: http://acaseforbooks.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-40-sense-of-ending-by-julian.html