Steve_Bamlett_blog

Shortlist indicated when out – The Books I read this year only contained here. This will be updated up to date of final decision

2021 Booker Longlist with SL for SHORTLISTED below. – The Books I read this year.

Like last year, I’m aiming to keep what I actually read lower than the total and perhaps, considerably so – certainly than the full list. Still finding Booker now too focused on USA writers.

Here’s the Longlist – and how I’ll record my adventures with it:

Bought (B) Not YET (A)	Date Started (S) Finished (F)	The 2021 longlist is:	Outcome: Blog = URL Explanation or location of paragraph length summary review for non-blogged books
B – SL	27/08/21 (F)	A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Granta Books)	SHORTLIST Steve’s Hoped Prediction for winner (2) https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/08/31/booker-longlist-a-mode-of-existence-more-akin-to-that-of-ghosts-than-humans-tamils-in-sri-lanka-after-the-civil-war-and-the-ghostly-but-epic-life-of-a-nation-that-never-existed-be/ Tremendous!!!!!!!
B	11/08/21 (F)	Second Place by Rachel Cusk (Faber & Faber)	NOT ShortListed  https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/08/12/second-place-pretty-much-summed-up-how-i-felt-about-myself-and-my-life-that-it-had-been-a-near-miss-requiring-just-as-much-effort-as-victory-but-with-tha/
B _WINNER	July 29th 2021 (F)	The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)	WINNER – Steve’s Hoped Prediction for winner (1) https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/08/02/she-herself-has-been-taken-by-surprise-at-how-much-it-matters-to-her-this-buried-question-from-long-ago-that-particular-stone-never-seems-to-find-a-resting-place-no-matter-how-often-it/ A favourite author who hasn’t let me down in this great novel.
B	September 3rd 2021 (F)	The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (Tinder Press Headline, Hachette)	NOT Shortlisted https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/09/05/booker-longlist-she-might-hope-for-more-but-had-long-ago-learned-to-live-with-whatever-came-to-pass-is-hope-and-political-liberalism-enough-in-the-novel-in-a-world-where-black-lives-reall/ What a beautifully readable and crafted novel!
B	March 10th (finished)	Klara and The Sun by Kazupo Ishiguro (Faber & Faber)	NOT Shortlisted https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/03/10/what-you-dont-like-are-sealed-black-boxes-okay-lets-open-them-once-we-see-inside-well-learn-reflecting-on-the-inside-of-a-black-box-in-kazuo/ Another favourite author. Stupendous.
B – SL	September 9th 2021 (F)	No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury Publishing)	SHORTLISTED Steve’s Hoped Prediction for winner (5) https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/09/09/booker-longlist-if-all-she-was-was-funny-and-none-of-this-is-funny-where-did-that-leave-her-1-a-reflection-on-no-one-is-talking-about-this-by-patricia-lockwood-2021/ A stupendous and innovative novel.
B	September 6th 2021 (F)	An Island by Karen Jennings (Holland House Books)	NOT Shortlisted https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/09/06/booker-longlist-the-unfolding-continued-and-he-was-stretched-thin-by-it-so-thin-and-formless-that-he-might-at-any-moment-be-taken-up-by-the-wind-removed-a-reflection-on-an-isl/ My objection are not to the novel’s power but to what I see as its underlying political position. I may be very wrong as I somewhat admit here.
A	N/A	A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)	NOT Shortlisted
B – SL	25th September 2021 (F)	Bewilderment by Richard Powers (Hutchinson, Heinemann)	SHORTLISTED Steve’s Hoped Prediction for winner (4) https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/09/26/booker-oddly-enough-theres-no-name-in-the-dsm-for-the-compulsion-to-diagnose-people-a-blog-reflecting-on-bewilderment-by-richard-powers-2021-london-hutchinson-hein/ Don’t think it should win, but a wonderful novel
B – SL	6th August 2021 (F)	The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed (Viking, Penguin General)	SHORTLISTED Steve’s Hoped Prediction for winner (3) https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/08/07/a-he-doesnt-read-me-and-i-doesnt-read-myself-i-doesnt-read-or-write-what-does-it-mean-to-re-create-the-unread-in-the-fragments-of-really-lived-li/
B	June 10th (F)	China Room by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker, Vintage)	NOT Shortlisted https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/06/05/she-thinks-shes-isabel-fucking-archer-how-women-end-up-in-male-novels-a-new-masterpiece-by-sunjeev-sahota-2021-china-room/ A Favourite author. Wonderful.
A – SL	N/A	Great Circle by Sophie Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday, Transworld Publishers)	SHORTLISTED Still not tempted
B	February 19th (F)	Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (Faber & Faber)	NOT Shortlisted https://stevebamlett.home.blog/2021/02/19/we-are-so-many-every-single-one-the-centre-of-the-world-around-whom-others-revolve-and-events-assemble-so-much-necessarily-lost-skated-over-ignored-when-the-mind-do/ A worthy novel.

Quick Paragraphs

I will add here brief statements on novels I choose not to blog upon:

SHORTLIST COMMENT: I am pleased with the SHORTLIST, apart from exclusion of Sunjeev Sahota. Still not tempted by Great Circle. Delighted for Arudpragasam. My top hoped-for winner is The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto & Windus, Vintage)

Added 3rd November 2021. The Promise by Damon Galgut (Chatto & Windus, Vintage) WON!