This Week in Books, 7th Ed.

My reading list for the rest of the year is out.

I have been slumming as of late and not reading as much as I would like and should. Life has been getting in the way, and my TBR Stack is stagnant.

But on Wednesday, the  Booker Prize for Fiction -- formerly known as the Man Booker Prize -- released its longlist for 2019. It's given me back my excitement for reading. Soon, every damn one of the 13 novels should make it onto the TBR Stack.

Several already are on the TBR list: Margaret Atwood's Testaments, a sequel to her classic, The Handmaid's Tale, which has received much attention of late, what with the television series and the current political climate; Northern Ireland author Kevin Barry's Night Boat to Tangier; and An Orchestra of Minorities, by Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma.

I have raved several times about the prize, and its awarding of deserving books, now from around the world, as long as the novel was written in English -- previously, one had to be a member of a former nation of the British Commonwealth to be eligible. The expansion has just increased the breath and scope of the books and the authors, leading to a diversity of riches. The list will enhance my reading of authors of color, of woman, and of people from outside the United States.

Just listen to some of the titles and authors on the 2019 longlist: The Man Who Saw Everything, by Deborah Levy, which weaves together two stories of a similar event -- a man being hit by a car on Abbey Road in London. There's Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli, about several Mexican children on a journey to cross the U.S. Border. Then there is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in The Strange World, by Elif Shafak, which gives life to the thoughts and remembrances of a sex worker as she lays dying after being murdered and dumped.

Let's get to reading.