BLC: Big Jubilee Read 3

The BBC (the public service TV and radio broadcaster in England) have announced the the titles for the Big Jubilee Read, a reading for pleasure campaign celebrating great reads from celebrated authors from across the Commonwealth, celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

They started with a readers' choice longlist, then the list was whittled down by a panel of librarians, booksellers and literature specialists.

The full list can be found at BBC Arts and more information at Literary Celebration. On that page if you click on "More about these novels" you get a little synopsis of each book.

There are 70 books on the list -- 10 books from each decade of the Queen's Reign. The books come from a wide range of Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom.

I thought it might be fun to read a book from each decade!

The books for the third decade, 1972-1981, are:

The Nowhere Man - Kamala Markandaya (1972, India)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - John Le Carré (1974, England)

The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough (1977, Australia)

The Crow Eaters - Bapsi Sidhwa (1978, Pakistan)

The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978, England)

Who Do You think You Are? - Alice Munro (1978, Canada)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (1979, England)

Tsotsi - Athol Fugard (1980, South Africa)

Clear Light of Day - Anita Desai (1980, India)

Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981, England/India)

For this swap, choose and read one of the books from the third decade of the queen's reign.

Email your partners and tell them about the book you read. It's up to you what you say, but you might want to think about questions like why did you choose this book? Was it a world you know about or one that was new to you? Did the book seem dated Were you aware of the book being 40 years or more old or did it seem contemporary? Was there anything that surprised you? What did you think about the characters? Would you like to read something else by this author?

The gap between me assigning partners and the sending deadline is shorter this time than previously -- I'm going into hospital in a few days and wanted to make sure I'd be out and fit for all the important swap dates. But you can obviously start reading your novel as soon as you want so hopefully it won't make any difference.

I'm posting this swap during the four day Queen's Jubilee Celebration Weekend which seems very appropriate!

Don't forget to rate your partners!!