Let’s hope the 2012 Orange Prize doesn’t go the same way of this year’s Pulitzer!

The six novels shortlisted for this year’s Orange Prize are:

• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding

• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick

• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

I haven’t read any of the novels shortlisted and with the winner announced on May 30, I am unlikely to make my way through the list. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued by The Forgotten Waltz but feel I should read State of Wonder (you know when you see a book reviewed in every newspaper and magazine you pick up and on display in every book shop you walk into? That’s State of Wonder for me). I’ll wait until the winner is announced and then read the winning novel.

PS. Stay tuned for Australia’s equivalent of the Orange Prize, the Stella Prize. I believe it will be up and running this year.