Hi everyone it's Lauren, I hope you're all doing really well. I have an exciting
video today, I'm going to be working with the Costa Book Awards again this year
and they have given me two sets of two of their book prize shortlists for me
to give away to you! So the Costa book Awards if you don't know runs every year
and there are five different categories for books that can enter and these are
novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's books, so the shortlist for
each of these categories was revealed at the end of November and the winners are
going to be announced on the 7th of January and then between the 7th of
January and the 29th of January it's decided which of these five winning
books gets the title of Book of the Year so I'm going to be focusing on the
shortlists for Novel and First Novel because that's closest to what I read
fiction mainly, and I'm also going to be doing another video and towards the end
of January where I have a look at the contenders for the Book of the Year
awards as well. Let's have a quick look at these short lists then, I'm going to
start with the First Novel category I really love that Costa has a first
novel category as part of its awards because when I've read shortlists
before I always feel like a debut novel is at such a disadvantage to everything
else and I think it's so much better and easier to compare them and more fair
really when they have their own category so the first one here is Pieces of Me by
Natalie Hart which is about a couple who have both been in the army, they've both
served in Iraq and then the husband goes back to do another tour of duty leaving
the wife at home and when he returns she finds that he's very different, he's
suffered some kind of trauma, so that sounds quite interesting. The next one we have
is An Unremarkable Body by Elisa Lodato this is about a woman whose mother
dies and after looking at the medical examiner's report which I'm guessing
says that her mother had a very unremarkable body she starts to look
into her life and find out more about her uncover some secrets about her
relationship with her own mother her relationship with her husband and it
says 'an unremarkable body does not mean an unremarkable life' Then we have
something very interesting which sounds like a mix between Groundhog Day and
Cluedo which is the Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and
I'll read you what it says on the back because it sounds really interesting
'She's been murdered hundreds of times and each day Aiden Bishop is too late to
save her. The only way to break this cycle is to identify
Evelyn's killer, but everytime the day begins again Aiden wakes up in the body
of a different guest and someone is desperate to stop him ever escaping
Blackheath.' So very intriguing, very, very different and finally for this short
list we have Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, which is about a series of
letters happening between a woman who I believe works at the museum and a man
who she's written to a letter of condolence after his wife dies and it's
kind of a strange friendship, I'm guessing relationship, that builds up from
there, so quite a varied shortlist for First Novel, some very very different
subjects being tackled there. And now for the main Novel Award, this is quite
interesting there's a few books on here which have had a lot of hype and then
sort of some which I personally haven't been that intrigued to pick up so I'll
be interested to see why they've been shortlisted so let's start with
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker which is a retelling of the Iliad but from the
point of view of Briseis says who is a queen of Troy I believe so it's her
perspective on her city getting sacked and in her being given to Achilles and
I've heard so many good things about this book it sounds amazing and it's all
about giving a voice to the women of Troy the women of the Iliad who have
previously been silenced. Then we have From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
this one was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize as well so I've heard about
it but I haven't been that interested to pick it up it's about three different
men who have very troubled pasts and are coming together I guess to find some
kind of closure some form of healing with somebody from Syria it says
'Farouk's country has been torn apart by war. Lampy's heart has been laid waste
by Chloe and John's past torments him as he nears his end.'
So when blurbs are quite vague like that sometimes you need to be told a few
times that a book is decent before you pick it up if you know what I mean, so
now that this has been shortlisted again it's making me a little bit more
intrigued I'll have to say. We then have The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman which
to be honest I hadn't actually heard of until it was shortlisted for this prize
but it does sound quite interesting it's set in Rome and it's about the son of a
very great artist and when his father goes missing the son is kind of I guess
working through his emotions in terms of worshipping his father and
also fighting against it and becoming an artist in his own right so I'll be
interested to see how all of that plays out
and finally Normal People by Sally Rooney which was also longlisted for the
Man Booker Prize and actually probably I don't know if it's my favorite book of the
year or at least one of my favorite books that I've read this year I
absolutely loved it this is about two young people in Ireland and it's their
relationship as they go from school to university and how it waxes and wanes
and Sally Rooney is just so amazing she's so observant in terms of looking
at human interactions and how the same situation can be misinterpreted by
different parties and I absolutely loved it so I'm delighted to see it
shortlisted again for another prize. So let's get into the details of this
giveaway, Costa have given me two full sets of each of these shortlists to
give away to you. That was very well lifted by me I must say! All you have to
do to enter is make sure you're a subscriber of this channel, like this
video and leave me a comment down below saying which shortlist you'd like to be
entered for. You can say both if you like, you don't have to have to choose one but
just say First Novel or Novel or both! You must have a delivery address in the UK
or Ireland unfortunately, this is not an international giveaway but it will run
for the next 48 hours so it's Sunday today. I am going to choose the winners on
Tuesday morning, so you have all of Sunday and all of Monday to enter below so
good luck and thanks to Costa for giving me these books to give away. I'm
really excited to read them, I think the Costa Book Awards is probably one of
my favorites that we have in the UK because they really focus on the
readability of the books they choose so I think it's a really accessible prize
as literary prizes go! So thanks for watching, good luck to those entering and
I'll see you in my next video, bye!