What goes into a 'Book to Talk About'?

With only a month or so to go before World Book Day, the committee has released the shortlist for the Books to Talk About prize. And here it is: Steve Aylett, Lint (SnowBooks) Priya Basil, Ishq & Mushq (Transworld) Jenny Downham, Before I Die (RHCB) Eliza Graham, Playing with the Moon (Pan Macmillan) Joshilyn Jackson, Gods In Alabama (Hodder) Candi Miller, Salt & Honey (Legend Press) Pauline Rowson, In Cold Daylight (Rowmark) Rupert Thomson, Death of a Murderer (Bloomsbury) Jonathan Trigell, Boy A (Serpent's Tail) Angela Young, Speaking of Love (Beautiful Books)

There's a month for voting at the Spread the Word site, after which the lucky winner will be £5,000 the richer.

For anyone who follows the book prize merry-go-round it's an unusual list, with no AL Kennedys, Anne Enrights or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies. There are seven first novels, but no Dinaw Mengestu: there's a strong showing from independent presses, but no Catherine O'Flynn.

But a quick glance at the list they were picked from, assembled by "industry experts", shows that the Kennedys, Enrights, Adichies et al were never in with a sniff. The 3,000 "book lovers" who've been discussing these titles since November couldn't have picked Rajiv Chandrasekaran's Imperial Life in the Emerald City even if they'd wanted to, no matter how talkaboutable it may be.

It looks like a clear case of "ask a funny question, get a funny answer". What, after all, is a "book to talk about"? Is it really a book with "serious issues, character-led drama and often a splash of humour" as the committee suggests? Don't we just want to talk about good books? Whatever they might be ...