2021 Shortlist

The shortlist has been released:

Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Piranesi by Susannah Clarke
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

What do you think? Have you read/recommend any of these?

I've read all except: Unsettled Ground which isn't released in Canada until May 18th, and The Vanishing Half which I'm about 7 weeks out from getting from my audio library.

I liked Piranesi the best, and didn't dislike the others.

I read The Vanishing Half last year and I found it interesting. I just finished Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller and I think I found that the more interesting of the two novels. Both were good though.

I've only read The Vanishing Half, which I know is wildly popular. It was fine. The thing is, I read it for my book club, and I thought I should bring something extra to the conversation, and since I've had Passing in my TBR for years, I read it first. Passing, which inspired the Vanishing Half, was a much stronger novel. The Vanishing Half is good, but not prize worthy in my opinion.

I had Unsettled Ground in my hand at Munro Books last week (it sounds so good), but then I saw the same author's Bitter Orange, which I'd never heard of, and we're having a heat wave and I was really hot while I read the back cover, and the book is set in a hot summer, so I picked it instead. I'm 1/3rd through and savoring it. I own an earlier book of Fuller's, and I'm sure I'll get to it and Unsettled Ground too.