I had a plan, a decade or so ago, to carry around the Booker Prize lists with me and steadily make my way through the winning selections as I made choices at the library or asked for books as gifts. As it happens, the plan didn’t stick and the list (which I had carefully formatted, printed, and folded up in my wallet) got misplaced.

I should have stuck with the plan. This morning I finished Eleanor Catton’s extraordinary novel, The Luminaries, winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize. It was the very best book I have read in a long time, and probably towards the top of any “favorites” list I might create. Simply put, it is clear to me that Eleanor Catton is a genius. How she imagined such a twisty tale of various perspectives is one thing – how she managed to put it all together in such a surprising and intriguing manner is quite another. Whatever you might expect of a plot set in the gold rush era of New Zealand, about 150 years ago, you’d probably be quite underestimating this tale. You might also be surprised to hear that Ms. Catton, aforementioned genius, was born in 1985 – she is the youngest author ever to win the Booker. In other literature award record breaking news, The Luminaries is the longest book ever to win the Booker. At 832 pages, this is a book that takes a bit of dedication.

Though I haven’t exactly made my way through the lists, I see that a few of my favorites either won or were shortlisted. Notably, Simon Mawer’s The Glass Room (shortlisted in 2009), Zadie Smith’s On Beauty (shortlisted in 2005), David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (shortlisted in 2004), Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal (shortlisted in 2003), Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (winner in 2000), Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (winner in 1997), and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance (shortlisted in 1996), are all books that I would heartily recommend.

The 2017 lists won’t be released until next summer, so we all have a bit of time to work through the backlog of winners and shortlisted selections. Happy reading!