My Thoughts: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

This is one of those books that I have been meaning to read for so long, and I finally got their and finished it off in just two sittings! Not bad for a 300 page book.

The novel starts in a series of images, a young boy listening to his sister playing the piano, eating a family meal, and playing in his hideout. Then suddently the reader is presented with a startling image, he goes to play in his hideout when suddenly he hears a crash inside the house, his mothers bowl of buttons spill across the floor. Then silence. His parents and sister are removed from him forver by the Nazi soldiers.
While hiding from the guards in the marshy muds of Poland Jakob is discovered by a Greek geologist, who takes him home and stays his friend and companion for life. Jakobs life takes his through Greece and Canada and back again, yet no matter how far he travels from the terrors of his childhood he can never forget or lay his sister's ghost to rest.
The language in this book is stunning, with a real poetic quality. I started the book marking all the notable passages, but after sticking in 10 post its in the first 20 odd pages I thought it was best to just read and enjoy. I'll certainly be searching out more of Anne Michaels books in the future.

Challenges:
999 (1001)
Book Awards 2
War Through the Generations: WWII
Orange Prize Project
1001 BTRBYD

Another Project!!! The Orange Project Prize

Yet another project! I keep saying I'll stop. This project aims to read all the winners and short list for the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Prize for new writers. If your interested in joining or reading people's reviews for these books visit The Orange Prize Project. I have highlighted the books which I have read already in Orange, as you can see I have given many of them a high rating - I hope this is a good sign!
The Orange Broadband Prize for New Writers
2008 Short List
The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Inglorious by Joanna Kavenna
The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam by Lauren Liebenberg
2007 Winner
The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
shortlist
Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan***
Bitter Sweets by Roopa Farooki

2006 winner
Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
shortlist
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by Yiyun Li

2005 winner
26a by Diana Evans*****
shortlist
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff*****
The Orange Prize For Fiction
2008 Short List
Nancy Huston Fault Lines
Sadie Jones The Outcast
Charlotte Mendelson When We Were Bad
Heather O’Neill Lullabies for Little Criminals
Rose Tremain The Road Home
Patricia Wood Lottery

2007 winner
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun ****
shortlist
Rachel Cusk Arlington Park
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss ***
Xiaolu Guo A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers
Jane Harris The Observations
Anne Tyler Digging to America

2006 winner
Zadie Smith On Beauty ****
shortlist
Nicole Krauss The History of Love *****
Hilary Mantel Beyond Black
Ali Smith The Accidental ** 1/2
Carrie Tiffany Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
Sarah Waters The Night Watch *****

2005 winner
Lionel Shriver We Need to Talk About Kevin *****
shortlist
Jane Gardam Old Filth
Sheri Holman The Mammoth Cheese
Maile Meloy Liars and Saints
Marina Lewycka A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian ****

2004 winner
Andrea Levy Small Island
shortlist
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Purple Hibiscus*****
Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake*****
Shirley Hazzard The Great Fire
Gillian Slovo Ice Road
Rose Tremain The Colour

2003 winner
Valerie Martin Property
shortlist
Anne Donovan Buddha Da
Shena Mackay Heligoland
Carol Shields Unless***
Zadie Smith The Autograph Man***
Donna Tartt The Little Friend*****

2002 winner
Ann Patchett Bel Canto
shortlist
Anna Burns No Bones
Helen Dunmore The Siege
Maggie Gee The White Family
Chloe Hooper A Child's Book of True Crime
Sarah Waters Fingersmith*****

2001 winner
Kate Grenville The Idea of Perfection
shortlist
Margaret Atwood The Blind Assassin*****
Jill Dawson Fred & Edie
Ali Smith Hotel World
Rosina Lippi Homestead
Jane Smiley Horse Heaven

2000 winner
Linda Grant When I Lived in Modern Times
shortlist
Judy Budnitz If I Told You Once
Elizabeth Strout Amy and Isabelle
Eilis Ni Dhuibhne The Dancers Dancing
Zadie Smith White Teeth*****

1999 winner
Suzanne Berne A Crime in the Neighbourhood
shortlist
Jane Hamilton The Short History of a Prince
Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible
Toni Morrison Paradise
Julia Blackburn The Leper's Companions
Marilyn Bowering Visible Worlds

1998 winner
Carol Shields Larry's Party
shortlist
Kirsten Bakis Lives of the Monster Dogs
Pauline Melville The Ventriloquist's Tale
Ann Patchett The Magician's Assistant
Deirdre Purcell Love Like Hate Adore
Anita Shreve The Weight of Water

1997 winner
Anne Michaels Fugitive Pieces
shortlist
Margaret Atwood Alias Grace
Deirdre Madden One by One in the Darkness
Jane Mendelsohn I Was Amelia Earhart
E Annie Proulx Accordion Crimes
Manda Scott Hen's Teeth

1996 winner
Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter
shortlist
Julia Blackburn The Book of Colour
Pagan Kennedy Spinsters
Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses
Anne Tyler Ladder of Years
Marianne Wiggins Eveless Eden

MLA 30 Books Every Adult Should Read and Orange Prizes 50 Best Contemporary Reads

United Kingdom - "a World Book Day poll conducted by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), in which librarians around the country were asked the question, 'Which book should every adult read before they die?' "
I've completed 58% of these and I reckon that I could easily finish the rest of the list in the next couple of years, BUT I doubt I'll quite make 100% as I'm not sure about reading the Bible. I aim to complete the list by 2010.
The Orange Prize have also list 50 Contemporary Great Reads of which I have read 40%, many of these books fit into the MLA or the 1001 list so I'm also tackling this!

Update June 5th, 60% complete (MLA)