Ladies and gentlemen, your 2012 Orange Prize longlist:

• Island of Wings, Karin Altenberg
• On the Floor, Aifric Campbell
• The Grief of Others, Leah Hager Cohen
• The Sealed Letter, Emma Donoghue
• Half Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
• The Forgotten Waltz, Anne Enright
• The Flying Man, Roopa Farooki
• Lord of Misrule, Jaimy Gordon
• Painter of Silence, Georgina Harding
• Gillespie and I, Jane Harris
• The Translation of the Bones, Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book, A.L. Kennedy
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
• The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
• Foreign Bodies, Cynthia Ozick
• State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
• There but for the, Ali Smith
• The Pink Hotel, Anna Stothard
• Tides of War, Stella Tillyard
• The Submission, Amy Waldman

I got five of my twenty guesses: There but for the, State of Wonder, Half-Blood Blues, The Forgotten Waltz, and Gillespie and I.

The good news:

• My girl Cynthia Ozick! I don’t think Foreign Bodies is her best work, but I’m still happy to see her on the list.
• Ali Smith was snubbed for the Booker, so it’s nice that she made this longlist.
• I didn’t know Roopa Farooki had a new book out! I really liked The Way Things Looked to Me, so I’m excited to read this one.

The not-so-good news:

• The Submission. I know it’s timely and all, but it’s just not a very good novel.
• No Silver Sparrow. I really loved this book and I would have been overjoyed for it to make the list. I have every intention of talking about how great this novel was until you all break down and buy it.
• No Blow on a Dead Man’s Embers? How could the judges possibly have resisted that title?

We’ll find out the shortlist in April and the winner will be crowned on May 30. Until then, happy reading!