booker prize shortlisters i want to read
(post to follow: books I want to read, in general)
π Boulder: I'm terrified to read this book, because it will complicate my already complicated feelings on wanting/not wanting to become a mother someday. It will probably very painfully address my fear of parenthood changing an existing relationship, which stems from my fear of nothing ever being a sure thing. But maybe that's why I have to read it. Plus, it's quite short.
Also, I'm curious to see how Samsa and Boulder acquire (for lack of a better word) the child, as I've never thought about the ways I would seek out if I had a partner I couldn't, like, biologically create the child with. That is probably something I should think about.
π The Gospel According to The New World: I've found that as much as I'd like to be into magical realism (Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garcia Marquez) I cannot seem to get into those books. But I'm nothing if not stubborn, so here's me trying again. Plus, it's Jesus-themed! That might be fun. I like that Pascal seems like a very reluctant messiah.
π Still Born: Another book that is about motherhood and is thus scary. It reckons with adult female friendships too which is something I've been thinking about lately. Again, it ties into my pervasive fear of "oh shit things are gonna change and you're gonna have to deal with that."
Many of my friends are looking to be child-free in their future, and I wonder if this book will address the dynamic between friends who are child-free and who have children with the kind of depth and nuance I'm looking for, rather than the lazy passive-aggressive jokes ("haha these moms only talk about their kids now" "my child-free friends think they're so much better than me") that have become so common.
π Time Shelter: This one will body me, I know. It's the winner of the prize, and I can see why. Already the premise grabs at me: A clinic with floors dedicated to specific time periods meant to help Alzheimer patients becomes a refuge sought by totally healthy people, and it spirals into a big thing.
I love anything to do with time fuckery in a story, or people who are fearful of the passage of time, because I am fearful of the passage of time (if you couldn't already tell), and I like to consume things that give me a moment of peace or make me feel like there's a point to time passing.1 I'm sure this book will deal with more things too - historic revisionism is something I'm predicting based on the book blurb, which I'm also interested in seeing explored, but honestly I'll probably be interested in anything it chucks at me.
wrap-up
It was fun to look through the Booker Prize shortlists, a thing I have literally never done before and only did because a smart girl I follow on TikTok was excited about it so I got curious. I'm excited to read more translated books as well β it's an art form I'm incredibly impressed by and want to learn more about.
Of my selection, three books are about things I'm scared of and one is in a genre I've failed to get into β so far. I usually think myself rather cowardly and inflexible, so it's kind of nice to know that I'm not always that way in all things. To more things outside my comfort zone!
I have a playlist called "fighting chronophobia" full of songs that just make me have big feelings about time.↩