Once again, I will be participating in the BookerMarks Man Booker project. For details check out the details on the BookerMarks blog page or Facebook page.I would like to take a stab again to guess a few titles that might make the long list. A compilation of 2013 eligible titles can be found on Goodreads.
First on my list of hopefuls for the longlist would be Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. Life After Life has already been short listed for the 2013 Women's Prize and lost to AM Homes' May We Be Forgiven.
The main reason I would like to have it appear on the long list is that I have already finished 25% of it. Shallow reason, I know, but my reasoning none the less. So far it is an intriguing read in which 4 of my Goodreads friends have read and rated 4 stars or better. It is also "leading" the voting on the Goodreads Man Booker 2013 Eligible list.
Book two on the list of hopefuls "may" be TransAtlantic by Colum McCann. Colum McCann wrote and won the National Book Award (2009) and IMPAC Award (2011) for Let The Great World Spin. A book I truly adored.I say I "may" want it on my list of hopefuls because I attempted to read it once and got bogged down very early. I put it down to read book club books that I needed to get to and have yet to pick it back up. I have sense learned that the first part is the set up for the main book and I "may" give it another try. If it is long listed, I will definitely finish it - if it is not, it will be at the bottom of the to read list for a while.
Book three on my list is Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I actually almost started it on Audible yesterday, but it is only a 5 hour audible book and only 188 pages and I did not want to waste a credit for such a short book. I started American Gods instead. Gaiman's book has received 5 stars from 5 of my Goodreads friends. I don't know why, but I really doubt this one will make the longlist, but I will be glad to read it if it does.
Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin is a book that sparked my interest based on the premise of "choosing a book by its cover. A coming of age story that most likely doesn't have anything to do with the two bicycles on the cover, it still looks like a very interesting read. I am sure fellow BookerMarkian, Penny would love to see this one make it to the long list since she has already read and reviewed it here.
The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness is the only other book on the Goodreads 2013 Man Booker Eligible list that is already on my to-read list. I added it during Booktopia Bellingham this past June. Alas, I made no notes as to who recommended it or why. However, Patrick Ness also wrote the book, A Monster Calls which was hugely popular with the other members of BookerMarks. Once again, I doubt this one will make the long list, but as I wanted to read it for some reason that I don't remember, maybe it will make the long list so I can stop adding more titles to the to read pile than I can possibly read.
Woman Upstairs by Claire Mussud is a title that has been recommended by Ann Kingman of Books on the Nightstand Podcast fame. Although it was not on my to-read list, I was reminded to add it when I came across it on the Booker Eligible list as I had intended to add it after listening to the podcast.Perusing the list of past Man Booker winners, may or may not result in long list hopefuls. Last years eligible list contained at least a dozen past nominees only to end up with one previous winner on the list - Hiliary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, which subsequently went on to win the 2012 Booker.
That said, the first two-time Booker winner, JM Coetzee, has a possible
long listed book with The Childhood of Jesus. Seemingly a favorite from the forum Mookse and Gripes, one reader/poster writes: It is one of those books though that will probably drive quite a lot of people nuts. I guess readers needing clearness and tightly strung plot ends will find it unsatisfying.
I completely agree with Colette_Jones that this book will benefit from a second reading and I have to admit that I very much look forward to reading it a second time soon.
A thought provoking book (there's a a country, accepting newcomers, giving shelter and work, free buses, telephone and TV, but no computers, no internet, a time difficult to pin down - so while technically speaking we have something like an ideal communism, Coetzee leads far away from it in a moral sense), a philosophical meandering (the idea of starting new lives when reaching certain points for example, having your past erased from mind - with the exception of Símon of course, who does not forget his biological urges and the technical and logical knowledge he has brought with him), a biblical allegory (numerous allusions, some better hidden than others) and a tongue-in-cheek view of "family life" (the boy changes from "a very nice boy" to something of a real spoilt brat after finding his "mother").
Anyway, this really is a book which lends itself to numerous interpretations, at least that is my opinion after the first reading. A second reading could probably get rid of a few silly interpretations of mine...
Rachel Joyce has another Booker eligible title with Perfect. You may remember her 2012 long listed title, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye. I reviewed that one here.
Roddy Doyle won the Booker in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is eligible for this years The Guts. 
Margaret Atwood whose novel The Blind Assassin won her the Booker award in the year 2000, is eligilble for her book MaddAddam. It is the third in a trilogy including Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood. Although I enjoyed parts of The Blind Assassin, I hope that MaddAddam does not make the long list as I would feel compelled to go back and read the first two books of the trilogy. I really do not want to do that right now.From reading through some other posts on The Mookse and the Gripes Forum several others titles are strong favorites:
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