BLC: Big Jubilee Read 1

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! So this first swap is for books from 1952 (the year of the queen's coronation) to 1961. I'll go on and create other swaps as we go through the year.

The books for that first decade are:

The Palm-Wine Drunkard - Amos Tutuola (1952, Nigeria)

The Hills Were Joyful Together - Roger Mais (1953, Jamaica)

In the Castle of My Skin - George Lamming (1953, Barbados)

My Bones and My Flute - Edgar Mittelholzer (1955, Guyana)

The Lonely Londoners - Sam Selvon (1956, Trinidad and Tobago/England)

The Guide - R. K. Narayan (1958, India)

To Sir, With Love - E. R. Braithwaite (1959, Guyana)

One Moonlit Night - Caradog Prichard (1961, Wales)

A House for Mr Biswas - VS Naipaul (1961, Trinidad and Tobago/England)

Sunlight on a Broken Column - Attia Hosain (1961, India)

Interestingly, and reflecting the ways in which the world and publishing have changed, only one of those books is by a woman author -- more women appear as we go through the decades.

For this swap, choose and read one of the books from that first 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? Were you aware of the book being 60 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?

This is a group swap because many of us prefer to swap within the safety of a group. I am planning to post it as a public swap as well.

I'm giving us a month between assigning partners and swap end, but you can obviously start reading your novel as soon as you want!

Don't forget to rate your partners!!