I tried all the books on this year's Women's Prize longlist, here are my thoughts 🏆
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2024
- In today's video, I'm sampling and giving you my thoughts on all of the 16 longlisted novels on the Womens Prize longlist 2024 to provide you all with a solid jumping off point of where you may like to start with your Womens Prize 2024 reading.
Here's to another Women's Prize season! What books are you hoping to read first from the 2024 Women's Prize Longlist? Let me know your thoughts on the prize in the comments section! 🏆📚
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Finally a booktuber who's not boasting about their ability to buy and read a lot, but actually helps me find books I might want to read. Thanks for the useful content!
You're very welcome! 😁
The 8 lives of a trickster just finished loved it also enjoyed solider sailer
I just found your channel through this book and I cant wait to catch up with other videos of yours. Useful, sincere content on books is priceless.
So glad you're here! Thanks for watching and leaving a wonderful compliment 📚😁
It was good to hear your thoughts on these :) I've read Soldier Sailor and Ordinary Human Failings and thought they were both great. I've now started Brotherless Night on audio and And Then She Fell in physical form and am very much enjoying them both. I really like slow, detailed books so the writing in Brotherless Night works for me. I just wanted to mention that I don't think it is Alicia Elliot sexualising the child herself, more that the way this is portrayed is indicative of the way in which both young black and indigenous girls are sexualised by society at large. The rates of sexual abuse perpetrated against indigenous girls in Canada in particular is horrific and is largely ignored by the government so I think the author is writing a story that (sadly) reflects real life.
Thanks Mercedes! 😍 I totally understand what you're getting at, I think for me, that wasn't what came across, I read the reversal of that. Not a girl being sexualised but one deliberately sexualising herself that felt off. Now whether systemic issues, within the context of Canada, that you speak of have contributed to the shaping of this child into the way she is, that could very well be inferred through the text and I agree with you that that is highly likely to be the author's larger message here.
Nightcrawling is a book I'm now thinking of that also explores the sexualisation, this time of a black girl, and how, whilst she puts herself into prostitution, it is very clear that she has been left with almost no other option, caused by a socioeconomic system that has ultimately failed her and millions of others. However the girl in Nightcrawling is significantly older (almost an adult, if memory serves me correctly!) than the girl in And Then They Fell.
I also wonder how this theme will change throughout And Then They Fell as right now we are talking about one scene within a slither of the whole novel. So I will be really eager to hear your full review of the novel when you post! 😁💕
I can’t juggle two prizes at the same time and the international Booker is the one I love most so looking forward to your take on that next week. But watching the diversity of opinions on the women’s prize is certainly entertaining - you would not think that you and Scott at Gunpowder, fiction and plot were considering the same books! All readers are different - which is great!
I enjoyed this! Thank you.
I always love hearing your thoughts on the samples.
I am definitely going to try samples too at some point of all the WP fiction books. I am still also super excited by the non fiction so plenty to keep me busy. ❤
Oh yeah you are neck deep in books with both lists to contend with! 😱 Hope you're enjoying yourself in your reads!
This was a wonderful video, Charlotte. I'm glad you found "The Maiden" worthwhile. That's a great endorsement and validation for me.
Great video! I’m glad you found some you are excited to read. I don’t mind a short sci-fi novel, but from some reviews I’ve seen of Karen Lord’s book, it’s the third in a trilogy and people who have read it as a standalone end up confused (so I bought the whole trilogy 😆).
This was super helpful, thanks Charlotte! I was planning on getting And Then She Fell but I always skim and feel really uncomfortable reading this kind of topic as well. I think I'll steer clear. I do have my eye on a few of the others though :)
Amazing! Pleased to hear it helped! Happy womens prize reading! 😁
This will be a really helpful video to people who aren’t sure which books on the list they want to read Charlotte, really enjoyed hearing your thoughts. Only two still appeal to me, Enter the Ghost and Brotherless Night- I think I’d get on well with the slow detailed nature of the latter. I doubt I’ll get to either this year though.
Hi Charlotte. I am happy to have discovered your video! Your background view intrigued me. I LOVE Bali! So, I have read The Maiden and although I don't see it winning, it was a THOROUGHLY enjoyable read.
Soldier Sailor's intense panicked tone also put me off at first, but it turned out to be great for me. I don't have kids, but I could still relate with the narrator. I do think new mothers lose their marbles a little bit (said with all respect) and many of them say things like "I did not wash my hair for two weeks and could hardly get out of my pajamas". This book portrays the frenzy of this hormonal and intense period well. (Although Enright's description of motherhood in The Wren The Wren is almost better....)
Hey Christel! Yes I've also now completed The Maiden, and whilst I don't see it winning any prizes, it certainly exceeded my expectations overall!
I'm listening to the audiobook of The Wren The Wren next month so fingers crossed I'll like it more than Soldier Sailor! 😁
Loved this overview. I’m interested in In Defense of an Act. I am very excited by And Then She Fell. Alicia Elliott is an incredible writer. Soldier Sailor is intriguing to me too. The Wren The Wren is on my wish list. 😊💙
Thanks Jolene! 💙
Brotherless Night was just nominated for the Carole Shields Prize here in N. America. Several books that were predicted for the Women's Prize did make it on that long list. I encourage you to check it out.
New subscriber here!! I also DNFd Ordinary Human Failings at 30% last year but I carried on with it these last few days and I’m glad I did. Around that point the narrative switched slightly (which I hadn’t realised when I dnfd) and we got a much deeper insight into the family’s past and I ended up really loving it.
On the flip side I ended up hating Hangman, the beginning really intrigued me but it all went downhill from there for me 😬
Welcome Hannah! Great to have you and to here your reading experience of those two! I wonder if I will have a similar experience and end up sticking with Human Failings this time! 😁
It seems like I have almost entirely opposite taste in books to you, but I totally agree about women and girls being used in books poorly. ‘Dead/abused woman as beautiful object’ is a trope I furiously avoid.
I think I will try Nightbloom and Ordinary Human Failingsxx
Oh it's fab to hear your thoughts after reading samples to these books! I'm halfway through The Maiden and all the things we think at the beginning quickly unravel lol, but I'm not enjoying the women being pitted against each other.
Oooh no And Then She Fell worries me now that you've mentioned that. I just finished River East, River West and honestly same girl. It was a book. I wasn't here for the child sexual assault in this book either.
The comment on Dolly Maunder cover 💀 I thought maybe the cover didn't do it justice, but might just be a cosy historical women's fiction like you said.
Hey Camila! Yes I'm also halfway through the Maiden and I'm enjoying it. It's basically just sex scenes interspersed with moments that pull the limited plot along! 😂
The books I bought from Blackwell's are The Maiden, In Defence of the Act, A Trace of Sun and Soldier Sailor. While waiting for them, I've read 10% and dnf'd Hangman and Blue, Beautiful World. I'm halfway through listening to 8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster and quite liking it. It's basically a history of life in North and South Korea from WWII thru the Cold War. Not perfect, but worth reading IMO especially if you don't know much about Korean history. All the other books I should be getting from my library as real books, ebooks or audio books. It's so much easier to dnf if not purchased. I listened to The Wren, the Wren and loved it. I'm now reading it and appreciating it even more. Western Lane was meh for me.
Yes the wren the wren is an interesting one. I remember wanting to sink into the characters and the setting because I love an Irish setting and it felt familiar.
I also felt that The Wren The Wren needs to be read AND listened to.
@@christelvanzyl5246 that's great to hear as I have access to an audiobook but not the ebook
CHARLOTTE! Had to delete my first comment bc I spelled yore name incorrectly 🤦🏼♀️. I appreciated your original WPFF video, but appreciate this one even more 📕🪱💚
HELLO! 😁 Glad to hear it. You are so welcome! 💚
Are you going to look at the Carol Shields Prize long list?
potentially could do in a few months time when my reading load is reduced. Are you Judy?
@@charlottemolloy I am 😊
I have to disagree with your take on science fiction; I think you're getting it mixed up with fantasy. The latter does need a lot of time for worldbuilding and character development, but SF works best in short form because it's about ideas, theories, that sort of thing. A long SF novel is mostly a lot of unnecessary filler.
Ahhh interesting! Thanks for explaining this! 😁
I agree that a standalone scifi does not need to be long to be done well. I read a 245 page near-future dystopian this week that I really enjoyed. It was an ARC of Hum by Helen Phillips that is set to come out in August in the US (not sure about elsewhere.)
I don’t think And Then She Fell is being exploitive in that initial scene with the main character as a teenager. It’s the opposite. The book is in the voice of someone who is experiencing the exploitation. It may be difficult to read such material but it’s important to make a distinction between exploitation and shedding light on the subject of exploitation. This book is doing the latter in my opinion.
Yes, it's certainly open to multiple readings & interpretations 😁
I had to DNF In Defence of the Act last night. I think it is a love/hate book. While all its issues are important, suicide, gender, abuse, mental health, and women in science, it is so flippant and crude in its exploration, I think it will be unbearable to many. Major trigger warnings. To others, it will seem a fresh voice and perspective. I’ll be curious as we work our way toward the prize if I’m convinced otherwise. Onward with the WP!!💃Thx for your insights Charlotte!
Yes I was also agog at some of her phrasing and attitude at times, shockingly outrageous and I do wonder how I will get on with this part of her character for the full length novel!
I completely agree with your opinion about child narrators. That's why I was so baffled when Room by Emma Donoghue was praised nonstop by so many people. The portrayal of that child was not at all realistic to me.
Sorry, you’ve given a false spoiler about In Defence of the Act about the father.
Yeah I realised when I read on that they managed to save him!