So what the heck have I been doing posting review after review after review?   Well,  I was on holiday to North Dakota visiting the grandkids for 2 1/2 months so posting was difficult.   So I read and read and read and didn’t get all the reviews posted.  I took care of that since being home – plus I read a few books this week.

Also, and the point of this post, is I saw back in early July that the Man Booker prize Long List for 2015 would be published on July 28 (something like that).  So I had an idea – I would read them all and make my own educated guesses before the Short List was published on September 15, 2015.   That would give me about six weeks to read the  13 books on the list.  And when the Long List was released I was pleased to find I’d already read two.

I cleared out my pressing “to be read” pile and was ready on about August 1.  There are 4 books which are not available in the US –  one will be on September 1,  another in June, 2016.  There is no word on the last two of the books – they’re not available here yet.

And last night (early this morning?) I finished the last of the 9 books I had access to.  Here are my results although I’ll adjust it if necessary when I read the 10th of the available books,  Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg  (Sept 1).  Links go to my own reviews.

Long List at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booker-prize/11768503/longlist.html

My guesses for Short List (in this order – winner on top)
1.   A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
2.   A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
3.   Lila by Marilynne Robinson
4.   The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
5.   The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
6.   The Green Road by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)

***********************************
The Long List –

XXX  Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (Jonathan Cape) 210
XXX   The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan (Faber & Faber) 305

XXX  The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami (Periscope, Garnet Publishing)
XXX  Lila by Marilynne Robinson (Virago)
XXX  A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler (Chatto & Windus)
XXX  A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (Picador)
Ireland

XXX  The Green Road by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape)
Jamaica

XXX  A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Oneworld Publications)
Nigeria

XXX  The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma (One, Pushkin Press) – 304
India

*****  (Not Available in US yet)  *****
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (Jonathan Cape)/ Sept 1 – 304

The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (Picador) / June, 2016 – 480
USA

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy (MacLehose Press, Quercus) 256 /

The Chimes by Anna Smaill (Sceptre) ? –