Man Booker Shortlist Announced

The Man Booker shortlist was just announced on Tuesday. I didn't know what the Man Booker prize was until last year, so if anyone out there is like me and unsure what it means, this is how it is described on their website:

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, first awarded in 1969, promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year.

Anyone who writes a full-length book in English, who is part of the Commonwealth is eligible for the prize.  It has to have been published that year in the UK.  (The word Commonwealth always reminds me of the show Andromeda. It was a Sci-fi show so I'm assuming I'm the only one who watched it) 

The six books that made the shortlist this year are:

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending
Carol Birch Jamrach’s Menagerie
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English
A.D. Miller Snowdrops

Two of the authors are first time novelist - Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller, and two of them are Canadians - Patrick de Witt and Esi Edugyan. The winner of the prize will be announced October 18 and they win 50,000 pounds. Sounds good to me!