Looking for a Good Read?

Why not give one of the books on the 2006 Booker Prize Shortlist a go...

You will probably have to reserve a copy but the recently announced winner was:

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook's son trying to stay a step ahead of US immigration services, this is far from easy. When a Nepalese insurgency threatens Sai's blossoming romance with her handsome tutor they are forced to consider their colliding interests. The judge must revisit his past, his own journey and his role in this grasping world of conflicting desires - every moment holding out the possibility for hope or betrayal. (from the publisher)

Other titles in the shortlist include Australia's own Kate Grenville and M. J. Hyland:

The Secret River by Kate Grenville
In 1806 William Thornhill, a man of quick temper and deep feelings, is transported from the slums of London to New South Wales for the term of his natural life. With his wife Sal and their children he arrives in a harsh land he cannot understand. But the colony can turn a convict into a free man. Eight years later Thornhill sails up the Hawkesbury to claim a hundred acres for himself. Aboriginal people already live on that river. And other recent arrivals—Thomas Blackwood, Smasher Sullivan and Mrs Herring—are finding their own ways to respond to them.
Thornhill, a man neither better nor worse than most, soon has to make the most difficult choice of his life. Inspired by research into her own family history, Kate Grenville vividly creates the reality of settler life, its longings, dangers and dilemmas. The Secret River is a brilliantly written book, a groundbreaking story about identity, belonging and ownership. (from the publisher)

Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland
John Egan lives with his mother, father and grandmother in rural Ireland. The Guinness Book of Records is his favourite book and he wants to visit Niagara Falls with his mother. But, more than anything, he is determined to become a world-famous lie detector, almost at any cost. Carry Me Down is written in clean, compelling prose, and is about John's obsessive and dangerous desire to see the truth, even as his family is threatened in countless ways. In this singular tale of disturbed love every word rings true. (from the publisher)

The final three books in the shortlist include:

In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
It is a white hot day in Tripoli, Libya, in the summer of 1979, and nine-year-old Suleiman sees his father standing across the street. Why does he pretend he hasn't seen him? And why doesn't he come over when he knows Suleiman's mother is falling apart? From a breathtaking new talent comes an utterly gripping novel told from the point of view of a young boy growing up in a bewildering world where his best friend's father disappears, and a man sits outside their house all day, asking strange questions. Soon the whispers become so intense that Suleiman, in an effort to save his family, may end up betraying his friends, his parents and ultimately himself. (from the publisher)

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
Moving backwards through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked out streets, illicit liaisons and sexual adventure, to end with its beginning in 1941, The Night Watch is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young man with a past, drawn with absolute truth and intimacy. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching . . . Helen, clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret . . . Viv, glamour girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal to her soldier lover . . . Duncan, an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the war. Their lives, and secrets connect in sometimes startling ways. War leads to strange alliances . . . Tender, tragic and beautifully poignant, set against the backdrop of feats of heroism both epic and ordinary, here is a novel of relationships that offers up subtle surprises and twists. (from the publisher)

Mother's Milk by Edward St Aubyn
The novel's perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St Aubyn's praised trilogy, Some Hope – starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and compelling account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favour of his sons; to Mary, who's consumed by her children and an overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once-illustrious family whose last vestige of wealth – an old house in the south of France – is about to be donated by Patrick's mother to a New Age foundation. An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery and assisted suicide, Mother's Milk showcases Edward St Aubyn's luminous and acidic prose – and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy. Absorb Mother's Milk into your bloodstream and postnatal depression will never seem the same again. (from the publisher)

Don't want to wait for your copy to come up? You should be able to get hold of something from the 2006 Longlist.

• Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey
• Gathering the Water by Robert Edric
• The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
• Black Swan Green byDavid Mitchell
• Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
• Get a Life by Nadine Gordimer
• The Ruby in her Navel by Barry Unsworth

Have you read any of these books? Leave a comment below and let other readers know what you think. Happy reading!