Orange Prize Appreciation Post

I'm currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun, which is the winner of the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction and loving it.  It struck me just how many good books I have read have been either Orange winners or on the short-list.  It's got to the point where I will pick a book up solely if it has won the prize, because I know it will be good.  The balance between being literary and pretentiousness is just right.

Prize Winners I Have Read and Loved:
The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver (2010)
We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver (2005)
Small Island - Andrea Levy (2004)


Short-Listed Books I Have Loved:
The Accidental - Ali Smith (2006)
The White Family - Maggie Gee (2002)
White Teeth - Zadie Smith (2000)
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (1999)

Orange Books I Have Been Meaning to Read for Too Long:
The White Woman on the Green Bicycle - Monique Roffey (2010)
The Outcast - Sadie Jones (2008)
The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (2007)
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss (2006)
The Night Watch - Sarah Waters (2006)
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - Marina Lewycka (2005)
Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2004)
The Siege - Helen Dunmore (2002)

The full list of Orange prize winners and the yearly short-list can be found here.  What do you think of the prize?  Have you read any winners?