Bookish Retail Therapy -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Bookish Retail Therapy

Work has been crazy the last couple of months. When I am under the gun, my retail therapy choice is online book shopping. I did some stress-induced shopping from Blackwell's Books the other day and the books just got here. I like a Blackwell's binge every now and again because they have books that are hard to find here in the US, or in editions we don’t have.

I keep a comprehensive wish list of books I want to read. Most of the books on the big list are from the book lists I'm working on -- certain prize winners, must reads, and books by favorite authors.  Others are books that caught my eye, often from the Slightly Foxed quarterly or recommendations from friends. The books in this picture have all been on my wish list for a while. That means they are not available as an audiobook from my library or on Spotify, because I always look for those free audiobooks first. 

Here's what's in that stack: 

The Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai came to my attention because it is on Erica Jong’s list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women, one of the lists I'm working on. It’s a great list and I've found several new-to-me authors on it, like Joy Kogawa and Lore Segal.

Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett won the 1923 James Tate Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. Based at the University of Scotland in Edinburgh, the James Tait Black Prize is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes, awarded since 1919 for literature written in the English language. Overall, I think I prefer these prize winners over the Booker winners. 

An Unofficial Rose by Iris Murdoch is one of the few Murdoch books not already on my shelves. I’m a Murdoch completist, so this buy made me particularly happy.

Highland River by Neil M. Gunn won the James Tait Black prize in 1937. It is about a young man on an introspective journey to the source of the river he grew up with.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis is for a buddy read in January some of my bookstagram friends. I could have bought this classic from an American store, but, oddly, I couldn’t find the Penguin Classic edition.

Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore is her last book of poetry. It won the Costa Book of the Year Award, yet another list I’m working on.

It’s true, I can’t resist a list! Do you have any book lists you are working on? Maybe we share a few. Or I can tackle a new one!

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction -- LIST

 

THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE

The James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes. It has been awarded since 1919 for literature written in the English language. The award is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The winner is chosen by two academic scholars in the English Department, with the assistance of PhD students.

I am not going to keep updating the winners after 2020. My enthusiasm for prize-winners is waning with the 2020s. I plan to focus my efforts on reading the winners up to 2020 then declare victory and move on to other bookish projects.

So far, I have read only 23 of the winners. The prize may offer literary prestige and £10,000, but it doesn't guarantee popular success or that your book will stay in print! Some of these are hard to find. Here is the list, with notes about whether I've read a book, if it is on my TBR shelf, or if it available as an audiobook from my library:

2020 Lote by Shola von Reinhold

2019 Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann ON OVERDRIVE

2018 Crudo by Olivia Lang

2017 Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams

2016 The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride FINISHED

2015 You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits 

2014 In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman ON OVERDRIVE

2013 Harvest by Jim Crace ON OVERDRIVE

2012 The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner
 
2010 The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli ON OVERDRIVE

2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt ON OVERDRIVE

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here) FINISHED

2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan FINISHED

2004 GB84 by David Peace

2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan

2002 The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen FINISHED

2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith

2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith FINISHED

1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge TBR SHELF

1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller TBR SHELF

1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift (FINISHED) and Justine by Alice Thompson

1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest (reviewed here) FINISHED

1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst TBR SHELF

1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair

1990 Brazzeville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here) FINISHED

1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman

1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read

1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown

1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph

1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric

1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter TBR SHELF BOTH

1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates

1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin TBR SHELF

1981 Midnight's Children (reviewed here) and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux FINISHED BOTH

1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding TBR SHELF

1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee

1977 The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carre TBR SHELF

1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville TBR SHELF

1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore

1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell TBR SHELF

1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch TBR SHELF

1972 G by John Berger (reviewed here) FINISHED

1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer

1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell

1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen TBR SHELF

1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross

1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble TBR SHELF

1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins TBR SHELF

1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here) FINISHED

1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy FINISHED

1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles

1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy

1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson TBR SHELF

1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner

1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West TBR SHELF

1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson

1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell FINISHED

1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley FINISHED

1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett

1954 The New Men FINISHED and The Masters FINISHED by C. P. Snow 

1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy

1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh FINISHED

1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer

1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez

1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith

1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene FINISHED

1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley TBR SHELF

1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions

1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong

1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid

1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin

1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)

1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary

1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan

1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley FINISHED

1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn

1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby TBR SHELF

1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers

1934 I, Claudius (FINISHED) and Claudius the God by Robert Graves ON OVERDRIVE

1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell TBR SHELF

1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson

1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien TBR SHELF

1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young TBR SHELF

1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon TBR SHELF

1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young

1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster FINISHED

1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett TBR SHELF

1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett FINISHED

1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence

1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole TBR SHELF

NOTES

This list is so long, and there are so many books on it that look good to me, that I plan to confine myself to completing the 20th Century winners only. I'll cut myself some slack and not try to keep up with the list into the 21st Century. I think I will adopt the same plan for several of the lists I'm working on. My heart is with mid-20th Century fiction so I'll stick with that. I get enough contemporary fiction as it is without keeping up with all the prize winners. 

Updated July 3, 2025. This is a redo of the list I originally posted in 2009. 

List: James Tait Black Prize for Fiction

The James Tait Black Prizes, established in 1919, are Britain's longest running literary awards. The Prizes for fiction and biography have been awarded since 1919; the Prize for drama was added in 2013. The James Tait Black Prizes for Fiction, Biography, and Drama are awarded by the University of Edinburgh’s School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, established in 1762.

The two book prizes are judged by senior staff from the English Literature department at the University, assisted by a group of postgraduate students. Each prize is £10,000.

I'm working my way through the winners of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction. Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue. If you are also working on this list, and would like your related posts linked here, please leave a comment with links and I will list them below.

2018 Crudo by Olivia Lang

2017 Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams

2016 The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

2015 You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits

2014 In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

2013 Harvest by Jim Crace

2012 The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner

2011 You and Me by Padgett Powell

2010 The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here)

2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan

2004 GB84 by David Peace

2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan

2002 The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen

2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith

2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith

1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller

1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift and Justine by Alice Thompson

1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest (reviewed here)

1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair

1990 Brazzeville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here)

1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman

1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read

1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown

1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph

1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric

1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates

1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

1981 Midnight's Children (reviewed here) and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding

1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee

1977 The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carre

1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville

1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore

1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell

1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

1972 G by John Berger (reviewed here)

1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer

1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell

1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen

1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross

1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble

1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins

1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)

1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy

1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles

1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy

1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson

1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner

1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West

1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson

1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell

1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley

1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett

1954 The New Men and The Masters (in sequence) by C. P. Snow

1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy

1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer

1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez (out of print)

1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith

1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley

1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions

1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong

1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid

1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin

1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)

1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary

1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan

1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley

1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn

1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby

1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers

1934 I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves

1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell

1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson

1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien

1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young

1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young

1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett

1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett

1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence

1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole

NOTE

List updated on April 18, 2020.

RELATED POSTS

Please leave comments with links to related posts -- progress reports, reviews, etc. -- and I will list them here.

2018 CHALLENGE: European Reading Challenge Wrap Up

COMPLETED

This is my personal wrap up post for the 2018 European Reading Challenge.

If you have completed the 2018 challenge, please got to the official wrap up page and add a link to your wrap up post. To post a review for a 2018 book, please go to the review page.

The 2019 challenge will be posted ASAP.

BOOKS I READ

The Virgin in the Garden by A. S. Byatt (UK)

The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra (Russia)

Long Ago in France: The Years in Dijon by M. F. K. Fisher (France)

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Sweden)

Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald (Germany; National Book Critics Circle Award winner)

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride (Ireland; James Tate Black Memorial Prize winner)

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (Norway)

Exodus by Leon Uris (Belgium)

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd (Austria)

The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin (Turkey; Edgar Award winner)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (Italy)

Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike (Denmark)

Outline by Rachel Cusk (Greece)

I visited a total of 13 different countries for this challenge, which is pretty good for me. What is better, for me, is that four of the books were translated to English from the authors' native languages. I read a lot of books set in other countries, but not usually by authors from other countries.

Book Beginning: The Lesser Bohemians

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I move. Cars move.

-- Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride, author of A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, which won the Baileys Women's Prize in 2013. Lesser Bohemians won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 2016.

This isn't my favorite type of beginning, short and choppy. The first chapter starts with a stream of conscience scene of the protagonist, an 18-year-old Irish girl in London for drama school, at an audition.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Mailbox Monday: Britannia Edition

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I've been on a Brexit inspired book buying spree and have a mountain of used books to show for it. With the exception of the P.D. James mystery from this century, all the books were published in the middle of the last, mostly in the 1950s and '60s.

Starting with the most recently published and working backwards:



The Lighthouse by P.D. James, her 13th Adam Dalgliesh mystery (2005)



Henry and Cato by Iris Murdoch (1976)



The Moon's a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses, two volumes of his autobiography reprinted together (1972; 1975)



The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens, which won the Booker Prize (1969)



The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch (1968)



The Italian Girl by Iris Murdoch (1964)



The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch (1963)



The Old Men at the Zoo by Andgus Wilson, which is on Anthony Burgess's list of his favorite 99 novels (1961)



The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay (1956)



Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson (1956)



Such Darling Dodos, short stories by Angus Wilson (1950)



England, Their England by A.G. Macdonell (1933)



Lady into Fox by David Garnett, which won the James Tait Black Prize (1922)

Five Faves: Big Yarns

FIVE FAVE BIG YARNS

Summer is a great time to fall into a "Big Yarn" kind of book, which I define as an absorbing story with a strong, coherent plot, fully-developed characters, drama, a reasonable tempo, and at least a few thought-provoking ideas. To me, Big Yarns offer more plot then philosophy and don't get experimental with structure or language.

My general definition excludes genre novels, like thrillers, which can be absorbing page-turners, but (with exceptions) tend to lack fully-developed characters and thought-provoking ideas. I also think of books that appeal to readers of both sexes and most ages. In my mind, The Count of Monte Cristo is the grand daddy of all Big Yarns. Most Dickens books and many other 19th Century novels also qualify.

What are some of your favorite Big Yarns? A short list of my favorites include:

• Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here)

• What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies (reviewed here)

• The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney (reviewed here)

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo (reviewed here)

• Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (reviewed here)

In making this list, I realized just how much I enjoy Big Yarns, because I reviewed all of them.

FIVE FAVES

There are times when a full-sized book list is just too much; when the Top 100, a Big Read, or all the Prize winners seem like too daunting an effort. That's when a short little list of books grouped by theme may be just the ticket.

Inspired by Nancy Pearl's "Companion Reads" chapter in Book Lust – themed clusters of books on subjects as diverse as Bigfoot and Vietnam – I decided to start occasionally posting lists of five books grouped by topic or theme. I call these posts my Five Faves.

Feel free to grab the button and play along. Use today's theme or come up with your own. If you post about it, please link back to here and leave the link to your post in a comment. If you want to participate but don't have a blog or don't feel like posting, please share your list in a comment.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event (details here).

Book Dragon's Lair is hosting in October.  Please stop by this friendly blog to find reviews and recommendations for your next fantasy novel, cozy mystery, romantic suspense, or who knows . . . .

One of the best things about living in Portland is Powell's Books and I am particularly lucky in that my office is a short 15 minute walk away.  On a lunchtime walk the other day, I did a quick swing through the famous City of Books and found a few, no surprise.



Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien.  This won the James Tait Black Prize back in 1931.  I'm working my way through this list, so was excited to find a reprint.



Venusberg and Agents & Patients.  Anthony Powell (no relation to Powell's City of Books) is a favorite author of mine. I already have a copy of Venusberg, but loved the cover on this duel edition (the first American edition of both).



Faces in My Time, Vol. III of the memoirs of Anthony Powell.  I have the first two volumes and have been looking for these last two.



The Strangers Are All Gone, Vo. IV of the memoirs of Anthony Powell. 

Review: The Prestige

Why did I assume I would dislike The Prestige? There were several reasons:

• It is about magicians, a class of entertainers I tolerate only slightly better than mimes or clowns.
• It is set during a period of time I am bored with, no matter how enduringly popular in novels – the Civil War through World War I.
• I had already seen the movie, and I dislike reading a book when I already know what the story, especially a story with big secrets like this one.
• I really do not like speculative fiction in any of its broad forms – fantasy, paranormal, or science-fiction.

But I read it anyway because it won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and I am working my way diligently through that list. I am so glad I did!

Christopher Priest's novel is the story of two rival magicians at the turn of the 20th Century, vying to outdo each other in an illusion featuring a disappearing man. Both have secrets that follow them to the grave – and beyond – that are only revealed when their grandchildren meet up decades later.

Because Priest is such a first class storyteller, he created a drama that is entirely believable – no matter how scientifically farfetched – and mesmerizing, even for readers who know the secrets from the movie. I was completely entranced.

Even though The Prestige runs contrary to many of my book prejudices, it could end up as my favorite book of 2013 – pretty big words, considering it is only January.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Prestige counts as my second Black winner for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, which runs through January 31, 2013.   I have now finished that challenge.  Whew!

Review: The Honourable Schoolboy

John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was a long, slow slog through a lexicon of Cold War spy jargon. The sequel, The Honourable Schoolboy, is ten times more enjoyable. For one thing, the plot to atmosphere ratio is weighted to the plot side. Instead of being almost all atmosphere, there is an exciting espionage story involving drug runners, Hong Kong tycoons, glamorous ex-patriots, and the political legerdemain of wrapping up the Vietnam War.

It starts with a long but vivid section describing how the entire British international intelligence network had to be dismantled in the aftermath of routing out the mole in Tinker, Tailor. Then it really picks up and gets delightfully complicated when George Smiley sends a semi-retired operative to Hong Kong to find one Chinese informant buried in the rubble of the earlier undercover operations.

What atmosphere there is is pitch perfect. Le Carré frames the story as one of British Secret Service lore, expressed by the omniscient narrator with an ideal balance of admiration and world-weary cynicism.

OTHER REVIEWS

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy here on Rose City Reader

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on chaotic compendiums

The Honourable Schoolboy on chaotic compendiums

Smiley's People on chaotic compendiums

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold on chaotic compendiums

If you would like your review of this or any other John le Carré book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

The Honourable Schoolboy won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and counts as one of my Black choices for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, challenge.  It also counts as one of the books for the Mt. TBR and Off the Shelf Challenges, since it has been on my TBR shelf since 1983.

2011 Challenge: Battle of the Prizes, British Version, Wrap-Up

2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version: January 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012

This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes.  Good thing it ran until the end of this month, so I could finish.

Click here for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

Click here for the 2012 Battle of the Prizes, American Version.

I read four books for the 2011 challenge, two Booker winners and two James Tait Black winners.  I drew no big conclusions about the two prizes, other than the James Tait Black prize is no "me too" award -- it stands on its own.  Both prizes have been around for many years, but only three books have won both. Also, I have a general, perhaps unsubstantiated, feeling that the Bookers get to be more famous but that the Blacks are undercover gems.

MY BOOKS

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Booker; reviewed here)

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd (Black; reviewed here)

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (Booker; reviewed here)

The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Sparks (Black; reviewed here)

Review: The Mandelbaum Gate

There are plenty of great novels of ideas out there; books that cause a reader to question assumptions and wrestle with big issues. What makes The Mandelbaum Gate stand out is Muriel Spark's presentation of her ideas against the backdrop of early-1960s Jerusalem, a city recently divided between Israel and Jordon.

Barbara Vaughan is a British, half-Jewish, Catholic convert on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, determined to see the holy sites on both sides of the divided city while she waits for her agnostic, archeologist boyfriend to secure an annulment of his first marriage from the Vatican and return to his archeological dig on the Jordanian side of the border. Aided by an amnesiac British diplomat, a Christian Arab merchant, and a family of charming and corrupt travel agents, Vaughan survives her adventures with a mix of stiff-upper-lip British fortitude and religious fatalism.

The dramatic setting if the perfect foil for Vaughan's struggle to unify the conflicting parts of her own identity. Her struggle, coupled with a little cloak and dagger espionage and mildly farcical sexual exploits, make for a compelling read. Anthony Burgess included The Mandelbaum Gate on his list of best novels, calling it "a well-wrought and stimulating novel hard to forget."

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this or any other Muriel Spark book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

This was the second James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner that I read for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

2012 Challenge: Battle of the Prizes, British Version

This is the third year Rose City Reader has hosted the Battle of the Prizes, British Version, Challenge.

This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes. (Click here for the American Version.)

Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three or four great books!

For details and sign up, please go to the challenge page, here, or use the challenge page tab in the bar at the top of the blog.

Review of the Day: Brazzeville Beach

William Boyd won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his mesmerizing novel Brazzaville Beach.

Narrator Hope Clearwater sets out to explain why she is living on the edge of Africa, in a dead-end scrap of a village called Brazzaville Beach. Her story is two-fold: what happened to her marriage in England that drove her to Africa in the first place, and what happened at the chimpanzee research preserve afterward.

Hope had married a math genius, and then wrestled with jealousy of his monomania when her own career took time to get traction. The story has a classic X-shaped structure, with her life and career improving while her husband's falls apart.

The second story about the chimpanzees is more exciting and less theoretical. Hope discovers a violent division in the chimpanzee tribe, but must fight her boss – a world authority on chimpanzee behavior – to expose the truth. The resolution is a little subdued given the action leading up to it, but it is still an absorbing tale.

Both stories are fascinating, although they never really tie together thematically. Other than both involving science and both leading to Hope's further independence, there isn't a lot of connection between the two narratives. But Boyd knows how to tell a story and this novel is no exception. Worth the read.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this, or any other William Boyd book, listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

I read this as one of my James Tait Black Memorial Prize picks for the 2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, Challenge.  William Boyd is one of my favorites.

Review of the Day: G

John Berger won both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for G, his picaresque novel about the illegitimate son of an Italian merchant and an English intellectual. The plot follows the life and loves of the unidentified hero from his birth in the late 1800s through middle age.

So far so good. Then, like Berger, I have to switch to metaphor to describe the book: Imagine sitting at a table with a watchmaker as he demonstrates to you how to take apart and put back together a complicated watch. He explains each minute process in detail to make sure you understand every intricacy.

In theory, this should be interesting – seeing a master craftsman demonstrate his talents doing something you've always taken for granted (how a watch works) and making you think in a new way. But in reality, it is going to be tedious. The parts are tiny, it takes forever, and no matter how much he explains, you are never going to be able to track it all.

Now imagine that you have to sit there while this watchmaker takes apart and reassembles four or five different watches, explaining the process in the same excruciating detail.

Now, for watchmaker and watches, substitute John Berger describing G's sexual conquests – in excruciating detail, from seduction, through climax, to afterthoughts. Over and over.

Now – yes, it gets worse – add a third person at this table. Interspersed throughout the Don Juan episodes (sometimes interspersed in alternate paragraphs with no transitions and no punctuation to indicate dialog), this omniscient narrator drones on and on about the historic events that are the backdrop to G's adventures. There is a 19th century labor uprising in Italy, the early Socialist movement in England, the Boer War, the first airplane flight across the Alps, WWI trench warfare, and Italy's plotting to free Trieste from the Austrians. But G isn't actually involved with any of these events, so they never become more than a newsreel playing in the background. (Sorry to mix my metaphors – blame Berger.)

G has more plot than many an experimental novel. And, like reassembling a watch, it may involve genius. But I was more than happy to see it end.

OTHER REVIEWS

(If you would like your review of this book listed her, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.)

NOTES

This was my "double-dipper" choice for the 2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version.

The 2011 Battle runs from February 1, 2011 to January 31, 2012.  Sign up here, or click the logo.

2011 Battle of the Prizes, British Version

This challenge pits winners of the English Man Booker Prize against winners of the Scottish James Tait Black Memorial Prize in a British Version of the Battle of the Prizes. (Click here for the American Version.)

Does one prize have higher standards than the other? Pick better winners? Provide more reading entertainment or educational value? Maybe challenge participants will be able to answer these and more questions – maybe they will simply read three or four great books!

DETAILS

OPTION ONE: Chose three books that you have not read before:

1) One that won both the Booker and the James Tait Black prizes (here is the short list of double dippers);

2) One that won the Booker but not the James Tait Black (Booker winners are here); and

3) One that won the James Tait Black but not the Booker (James Tait Black winners are here).

OPTION TWO: For those who have already read all three of the double-dippers, or otherwise do not want to read one of those three, pick two Booker winners and two James Tait Black winners for a total of four books.

OFFICIAL RULES

• Read all books between February 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012.

• Sign up here by leaving a link to your post in a comment, or the list of your three choices in the comment. I will add the links to the participant list in this post.

• You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.

• Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged! The Complete Booker is a logical crossover. The great thing is, for those working on both these lists, completing the challenge means reading three books, but crossing four items off the lists.

• As you progress, please let us know by leaving comments with links to progress reports and reviews. Reviews are not necessary, but encouraged. If you do not have a blog, put your reviews or reports in a comment on this post.
  

• You can copy and paste the button. Or, if you want me to send you the code, please leave a comment with an email and I will. I cannot figure out the fancy ways of giving directions. 
  

PARTICIPANTS

Participants are listed in order of signing up. Click on the name to get to the each person's challenge page.

Leave a comment with a link to your challenge post to sign up.

Rose City Reader (this is my sign-up post; my wrap-up post is here)
chaotic compendiums
The Tattered Page
Joy's Blog
Remember to Breath
Hotchpot Cafe (wrap-up post, here)

REVIEWS

Links go to the reviews:

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, here on Rose City Reader (Booker)

Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd, here on Rose City Reader (Black)

Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben, on Hotchpot Cafe (Black)

Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, on Hotchpot Cafe (Double Dipper)

IDEAS

The list of last year's participants with links to their reviews is here. 

With the completion of G by John Berger for last year's challenge, I have now read the three double dippers, so I'll be reading four this year.  As with all challenges, my goal is to read books already on my TBR shelves.

My Booker possibilities include:

• Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
• Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally

My Black possibilities include:

• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
• After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley

NOTE: Last updated on January 13, 2012.

Opening Sentence of the Day: G

"The father of the principal protagonist of this book was called Umberto."

-- G by John Berger.

This is one of only three books to win both the Booker Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.  I am reading it as my last book for the 2010 Battle of the Prizes, British Version, which ends on January 31.

I am only 67 pages into it and I like it so far.  I am worried that it is going to take a weird or bad turn that will leave me not liking it, because J.G. at Hotchpot Cafe doesn't care for it and we have similar taste in books.

Review of the Day: The Secret Scripture

The Secret Scripture is the entwined story of Roseanne McNulty, a 100-year-old mental patient, and Dr. Grene, who is desultorily trying to figure how Roseanne came to live in the institute and whether she really belongs there after all. The story is told through Roseanne’s secret diary and Dr. Grene’s journal.

Roseanne tells a harrowing tale of growing up in civil war Ireland, her tragic marriage, and the unfortunate events that culminated in her institutionalization. Grene is drawn to Roseanne and her sad history as he struggles with his own failed marriage and personal grief.

Barry is an incredibly talented storyteller. He spins a yarn that is wide sweeping, but so compellingly detailed that the reader smells the salt wind of western Ireland and hears the rustle of the meddling priest’s rusty cassock. Even though the ending may not come as a surprise, there is great satisfaction to be had from the way the clues nest so snugly together.

OTHER REVIEWS

Wendy at caribousmom
Mel at The Book Nook

(If you would like your review of this book, or any others by Sebastian Barry, please leave a comment with a link and I will list it here.)

NOTE

This is the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner that I read for the Battle of the Prizes, British Version. I’m hosting the challenge, so it is about time I read a book for it.

List: James Tait Black Memorial Prize

First awarded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction is one of the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. The award is based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the winner is chosen by the Professor of English Literature at the University with the assistance of PhD students.

Those I have read are in red. Those on my TBR shelf are in blue. If you are also working on this list, and would like your related posts linked here, please leave a comment with links and I will list them below.

2018 Crudo by Olivia Lang

2017 Attrib. and Other Stories by Eley Williams

2016 The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

2015 You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits

2014 In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

2013 Harvest by Jim Crace

2012 The Deadman's Pedal by Alan Warner

2011 You and Me by Padgett Powell

2010 The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

2009 The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt

2008 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (reviewed here)

2007 Our Horses in Egypt by Rosalind Belben

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2005 Saturday by Ian McEwan

2004 GB84 by David Peace

2003 Personality by Andrew O'Hagan

2002 The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen

2001 Something Like a House by Sid Smith

2000 White Teeth by Zadie Smith

1999 Renegade or Halo2 by Timothy Mo

1998 Master Georgie by Beryl Bainbridge

1997 Ingenious Pain by Andrew Miller

1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift and Justine by Alice Thompson

1995 The Prestige by Christopher Priest (reviewed here)

1994 The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

1993 Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

1992 Sacred Country by Rose Tremain

1991 Downriver by Iain Sinclair

1990 Brazzeville Beach by William Boyd (reviewed here)

1989 A Disaffection by James Kelman

1988 A Season in the West by Piers Paul Read

1987 The Golden Bird: Two Orkney Stories by George Mackay Brown

1986 Persephone by Jenny Joseph

1985 Winter Garden by Robert Edric

1984 Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter

1983 Allegro Postillions by Jonathan Keates

1982 On the Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin

1981 Midnight's Children (reviewed here) and The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

1980 Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee

1979 Darkness Visible by William Golding

1978 Plumb by Maurice Gee

1977 The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carre

1976 Doctor Copernicus by John Banville

1975 The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore

1974 Monsieur, or The Prince Of Darkness by Lawrence Durrell

1973 The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch

1972 G by John Berger (reviewed here)

1971 A Guest of Honour by Nadine Gordimer

1970 The Bird of Paradise by Lily Powell

1969 Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen

1968 The Gasteropod by Maggie Ross

1967 Jerusalem the Golden by Margaret Drabble

1966 Such by Christine Brooke-Rose and Langrishe, Go Down by Aidan Higgins

1965 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark (reviewed here)

1964 The Ice Saints by Frank Tuohy

1963 A Slanting Light by Gerda Charles

1962 Act of Destruction by Ronald Hardy

1961 The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson

1960 Imperial Caesar by Rex Warner

1959 The Devil's Advocate by Morris West

1958 The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot by Angus Wilson

1957 At Lady Molly's by Anthony Powell

1956 The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macauley

1955 Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett

1954 The New Men and The Masters (in sequence) by C. P. Snow

1953 Troy Chimneys by Margaret Kennedy

1952 Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

1951 Father Goose by W. C. Chapman-Mortimer

1950 Along the Valley by Robert Henriquez (out of print)

1949 The Far Cry by Emma Smith

1948 The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

1947 Eustace and Hilda by L. P. Hartley

1946 Poor Man's Tapestry by G. Oliver Onions

1945 Travellers by L. A. G. Strong

1944 Young Tom by Forrest Reid

1943 Tales From Bective Bridge by Mary Lavin

1942 Monkey by Wu Ch'eng-en (translation by Arthur Whaley)

1941 A House of Children by Joyce Cary

1940 The Voyage by Charles Morgan

1939 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley

1938 A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours by C. S. Forester

1937 Highland River by Neil M. Gunn

1936 South Riding by Winifred Holtby

1935 The Root and the Flower by L. H. Myers

1934 I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves

1933 England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell

1932 Boomerang by Helen Simpson

1931 Without My Cloak by Kate O'Brien

1930 Miss Mole by E. H. Young

1929 The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley

1928 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

1927 Portrait of Clare by Francis Brett Young

1926 Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

1925 The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty

1924 A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

1923 Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett

1922 Lady Into Fox by David Garnett

1921 Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare

1920 The Lost Girl by D. H. Lawrence

1919 The Secret City by Hugh Walpole

NOTE

List updated on December 31, 2018.

RELATED POSTS

Please leave comments with links to related posts -- progress reports, reviews, etc. -- and I will list them here.