There's A Great Group Of Books On The Booker List

Yesterday, we finally got to see the books on the Man Booker Prize 2015 longlist, and, as usual, my TBR list just grew a few inches. I'm especially excited this year because of the list's truly international scope: the writers represent seven different countries —the U.S., the U.K., India, Jamaica, Ireland, New Zealand, and Nigeria. Equally awesome is the fact that seven of the 13 authors are women.

The Booker Prize is generally one of the more diverse book prizes (a woman has won five out of the last ten years), but it's still refreshing to see such an inclusive list. It also represents a nice turnaround, since last year — the first time U.S. authors were eligible — the list included only three female authors and one person of color.

Not all of the nominated novels are available in the U.S. yet, but if you're feeling inspired to run out and grab one of these right away, I'd recommend Hanya Yanagihara's remarkable, if large, novel, A Little Life,or Marlon James' frenetic retelling of the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley, A Brief History of Seven Killings.

Check out the full 2015 Booker longlist below. Happy reading!

• Bill Clegg (U.S.) — Did You Ever Have a Family

• Anne Enright (Ireland) — The Green Road

• Marlon James (Jamaica) — A Brief History of Seven Killings

• Laila Lalami (U.S.) — The Moor's Account

• Tom McCarthy (U.K.) — Satin Island

• Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria) — The Fishermen

• Andrew O’Hagan (U.K.) — The Illuminations

• Marilynne Robinson (U.S.) — Lila

• Anuradha Roy (India) — Sleeping on Jupiter

• Sunjeev Sahota (U.K.) — The Year of the Runaways

• Anna Smaill (New Zealand) — The Chimes

• Anne Tyler (U.S.) — A Spool of Blue Thread

• Hanya Yanagihara (U.S.) — A Little Life

Image: Meredith Turits/Bustle