You kiss by the Booker

OK, Booker season, long list announced today, so time to reactivate Quo Vadis and see what sort of malarkety the judges are up to this year.

For those even to lazy to clip on the link, here they are:

Peter Carey Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Kiran Desai The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Robert Edric Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Nadine Gordimer Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Kate Grenville The Secret River (Canongate)
MJ Hyland Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Howard Jacobson Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
James Lasdun Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Mary Lawson The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
Jon McGregor So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Hisham Matar In the Country of Men (Viking)
Claire Messud The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
David Mitchell Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Naeem Murr The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
Andrew O’Hagan Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
James Robertson The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
Edward St Aubyn Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Barry Unsworth The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Sarah Waters The Night Watch (Virago)

As Hermione Granger, chair of the judging panel, once commented wisely:

Books! And cleverness!
There are more important things -- friendship and bravery.