 Hello everyone, welcome back to my channel. So since I've been away on my little booktube break, two major book prizes have announced their 2023 longlist. The women's prize announced their longlist on the 7th of March, and the international booker announced their longlist on the 14th of March. I have thoughts, and so I thought it would be nice today to just sit down and chat to you guys about said thoughts, and also hear about your guys' thoughts. Hopefully are you excited about these lists? Are you going to read any of the books? So I've been following the women's prize for fiction for a lot of years now. It is one of my favourite book prizes. My favourite book prize definitely used to be the booker prize, but that's been a little bit hit or miss over the past couple of years. That's a whole other video. So I was highly anticipating the announcement of this year's women's prize longlist. This year I was actually in a cabin in the snowy Norwegian mountains with my husband and our best friends, and I took a little break from our phone's detox to look at this list. So having let this list sink in a little bit more, having read a little bit more about these books, I have to be honest and say that this list isn't giving me much. I'm honestly quite disappointed by this list, I think. Not only are their books missing from this list, that should have been there in my totally subjective opinion. The books that are on this list are just not really exciting me. The books feel quite box-ticky, quite meh, just what you would expect to see based off of previous lists, if that makes sense. Also, why is there a memoir on this list? Genuine question for anyone who can answer. I do not understand the eligibility surrounding this prize well enough, clearly. Okay, so first we need to address the biggest travesty about this list, which is that this book, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, is not on the list. This was one of my favorite reads of last year. It is a masterpiece. Basically everybody seems to be in agreement on that. Gabrielle Zevin has honed her craft to an exceptional level at this point, and I'm not only disappointed to not see this on the list, I'm actually kind of shocked. I'm also surprised to not see the new Eleanor Catten on the list. Foster by Claire Keegan, I loved that. Briefly A Delicious Life by Nells Stevens. Fight Night by Miriam Tows. But now let me tell you which books on the list I am happy to see, and that I will be reading, because that may be more helpful. Firstly, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell, set in Florence in the 1500s. Not surprised to see this on the list at all. I am a massive Maggie O'Farrell fan. I will be reading this one really, really soon. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. She has won the women's prize before, I believe. Super excited for this one. It is a modern day retelling of David Copperfield. I've heard nothing but amazing things about this one from booktubers and you guys commenting down below in the comments and friends in real life too. Top of my list. We also have I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel. The premise of a single speaker detailing an unequal and unfaithful relationship feels quite standard, but I've heard nothing but amazing things, so I am intrigued. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes. This is a retelling of Medusa's story. I still haven't read anything by Natalie Haynes somehow. I will be reading this one at some point. And then the other two that I am vaguely interested in are Podd by Lailene Paul and the Bandit Queens by Perini Shroff. We will see if the reviews come in glowing for these two. So those are my women's prize thoughts. As you can see, I don't have too many. Am I being harsh? Do you guys find this list more exciting than I do? The International Booker, long list though. This list I am excited by. So I've really upped my translated fiction reading over the past couple of years. I love reading translated fiction now. It is delicious. Following a book prize like this is a great way for me to broaden my translated fiction horizons I feel and learn about more publishers and authors and translators. So this list on the whole looks good to me. And there are a couple of books on here that I'm really really happy to see. Firstly, Boulder by Eva Balthasar, translated by Julia Sanchez. This was a highly anticipated release of mine from last year. The amazing publisher and other stories kindly sent me this proof copy. I totally adore this. It is set in Reykjavik and follows two women who are navigating first-time parenthoods. This is exact and raw and stunning. It deserves its spot on this list so much. Delighted to see three books from Fitzcarraldo editions on this list. They are truly the queen of translated fiction. Stillborn by Guadalupe Nettle and translated by Rosalind Harvey is one that I'm particularly excited to read. This also interestingly follows two women as they explore whether or not they want to become parents. A hot topic with millennials right now and one I am super interested in. Thank you Fitzcarraldo editions for this proof copy. I'm very excited. I'm also super excited to read A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding by Amanda Svensson, translated by Nicholas Morley. This follows a set of triplets from Sweden who end up scattered in different countries when some family secret forces them to reunite 25 years later. We also have Paya by Perumul Marugan, translated by Anirudan Vasudevan. This one is set in rural India in the 1980s and follows a newly married couple who are from different castes. Thank you Pushkin Press for sending me this copy. I'm going to be reading this super super soon. There's also Time Shelter by Georgie Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel. This explores a new potential Alzheimer's cure that transports the patient back in time when healthy people start seeking the treatment as a way to escape modern life. Honestly, doesn't this list just sound so much more exciting? The books sound so innovative and tasty. Okay, so I think I'm going to leave this here. That is enough book prize chat for today. I really hope you found this video to be interesting or helpful. Please do let me know your thoughts on these lists down below. Are you excited about them? Do you want to read them? Could you not care less? I would love to hear from you. Really looking forward to chatting and of course I will keep you all updated on any of the reading that I do from these lists. Thank you so much for watching everyone. I appreciate you all so much and I'll hopefully see you very soon in another video. Bye.