You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Anne Enright, Matt Haig and Sarah Crossan are all vying for trophies in the inaugural Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, supported by National Book Tokens.
Altogether 30 authors have been nominated by booksellers across five categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography & Autobiography, Children’s and Breakthrough Author.
The public will now get to vote for their favourite in each category until 14th November.
In Fiction, recent Booker shortlisted author Anne Enright has been shortlisted for The Green Road (Vintage), competing against Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers (Faber), The Loney by Andrew Hurley (John Murray), The Muse by Jessie Burton (Picador), This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell (Tinder Press) and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon (The Borough Press).
In the non-fiction category, Matt Haig's Reasons to Stay Alive (Canongate) will go head to head with SPQR by Mary Beard (Profile), Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane (Penguin), The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan (Bloomsbury), When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi (Bodley head) and It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan (Vintage).
In Children’s, The Bookseller YA Book Prize winner Sarah Crossan’s One (Bloomsbury Books) competes with Patrick Ness’ The Rest of Us Just Live Here (Walker Books), Beetle Boy by MG Leonard (Chicken House), The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books), The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books) and The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson and Sara Ogilvie (Pan Macmillan).
Cathy Rentzenbrink and Bill Bryson will fight it out on the biography and autobiography with other shortlisters, while Andrew Micheal Hurley, Han Kang and Kit de Waal will compete, among others, for the best Breakthrough Author gong.
The shortlists have been revealed ahead of the first National Bookshop Day, to be held on Satrurday 8th October, as part of this year's Books Are My Bag campaign.
Alan Staton, head of marketing & communications at the Booksellers Association, said: “In this first of its kind award those who love books the most – bookshops and readers – will have their chance to vote for their books of the year.”
Katie Clapham of Storytellers, Inc., Lytham St Annes, commented: “The Books Are My Bag Readers Award is a really exciting list; a bookseller’s super power is their ability to make expert recommendations and this shortlist promises to showcase some of the best books of the year, chosen by the people who really know. If you’re looking to expand your own reading horizons, these books would be a great place to start.”
The full list of nominees is below:
Fiction
· The Green Road by Anne Enright
· Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
· The Loney by Andrew Hurley
· The Muse by Jessie Burton
· This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell
· The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
Non-Fiction
· Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
· SPQR by Mary Beard
· Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
· The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
· When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi
· It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan
Biography & Autobiograph
Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham
· The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink
· The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
· At the Existentialist Café by Sarah Bakewell
· The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
· Alive Alive Oh! by Diana Athill
Children’s
· One by Sarah Crossan
· The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
· Beetle Boy by MG Leonard
· Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt
· The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield
· The Detective Dog by Julia Donaldson
Breakthrough Author
· Abi Elphinstone (The Shadow Keeper)
· Amy Liptrot (The Outrun)
· Andrew Michael Hurley (The Loney)
· Han Kang (The Vegetarian)
· Joanna Cannon (The Trouble with Goats and Sheep)
· Kit de Waal (My Name is Leon)
· Lisa McInerney (The Glorious Heresies)
· Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Harmless Like You)