Tournament of Books discussion

Hey all, Nozlee Samadzadeh here -- I'm an editor at The Morning News and have helped produce the ToB for the past few years. Soon (soon!) we're going to be announcing the 2014 Tournament of Books; this year is the tenth anniversary of the Tournament, which is kind of unbelievable.

In the meantime, I wanted to ask you all: what was your #1 favorite book in 2013? It doesn't necessarily have to be the book you think will be in the ToB -- I know there's already a thread in this group compiling predictions for the longlist. Just the one book published in 2013 you were the most excited about.

Hi there, great to hear the announcement is coming soon. The ToB is so much fun.

Maybe this isn't a fair response as i haven't finished reading it yet, but so far The Goldfinch is fantastic. It's the first book I've read by Tartt and I'm pretty blown away (no pun intended).

Of those I've read in full, Revenge and Harvest left a strong impression.

I think I was the most excited about Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, by Sara Gran. And it totally delivered on the anticipation!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. I am glad they did not go head to head for the Booker as I think I enjoyed Life After Life a little more but The Luminaries is brilliant!

My favorite book of the year was Ozeki's "A Tale for the Time Being"... the "best" book (which I also loved) was Atkinson's "Life After Life"

NOS4A2, Night Film, and The Dinner. I can never pick just one.

I'm gonna echo Ms.P a bit with NOS4A2 and NIGHT FILM - but I want to also say that Kevin Barry's DARK LIES THE ISLAND is maybe the best collection of short stories I read in a very strong year for the format.

The only two that I've given 5 stars to this year (so far) and they really impressed me: Life After Life and Transatlantic. But, I'm in the middle of The Goldfinch and looking forward to reading The Luminaries and A Tale for the Time Being.

Have to second Jen on Donna Tartt's Goldfinch but Adiche's Americanah is a close second!!

My favorite book from this year is, alas, genre fiction.
Lexicon by Max Barry was big fun. Pynchon's Bleeding Edge was great too.

So many, so hard! But I know that top of my list is Life After Life.

It's a close tie between The Goldfinch and I Want to Show You More by Jamie Quatro.

Tenth of December, The flamethrowers, bleeding edge

Mountains Echoed

Most unexpected --- The Golem and The Jinny

Strangely, my favorite book this year (so far) was non-fiction: Salt, Sugar, Fat.

But in fiction, my favorite so far has been The Burgess Boys. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one. And the runner-up: Life After Life.

MADDADDAM by Margaret Atwood! Not just because I love palindromes, either.

I agree with Jess, Maddaddam was awesome :)

The Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell were definitely my favorites! I can't wait for the long list!

A Tale for the Time Being was my favorite. It is such a thrill to have a new book by Ozeki. But I liked a lot of books this year. The one I've liked most recently is The Signature of All Things.

Three of my favorites (Goldfinch, Night Film & Maddaddam) have already been named, so I will suggest The Son by Philipp Meyer. It's not my usual choice for genre, but I could not put it down.

my recommendation, and the book i have been most excited about in 2013 (and with the ToB in mind) is:

* The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi is the only 2013 book I've given 5 stars, but Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being is so very very close.

HILD! Hild. Also Hild. Easily the best book I've read this year. I love genre fiction, but I think pigeonholing this book that way is a massive mistake-- it's beautifully, engrossingly historical and huge in its conceptual territory and so beautifully written. It's feminist without being political; it just takes the lives of women seriously, lots of different women in lots of different social positions, at different ages, over time. I want every bro who's ever claimed "historical accuracy" re: the endless rape overtones and undertones of George R. R. Martin's corpus to be made to read this book. Also probably everyone ever. In conclusion: Hild.

Zanromanoff wrote: "HILD! Hild. Also Hild. Easily the best book I've read this year. I love genre fiction, but I think pigeonholing this book that way is a massive mistake-- it's beautifully, engrossingly historical ..."

I just started Hild. I think I'm 20 pages in and it's so engrossing that I had a hard time putting it down so I could go to work today.

a friend's brother self-published a scifi thing called What A Piece of Work is Man. that was a pretty neat book.
other than that and a few of this year's tob books, all I ever get to read is composition theory and rhetoric textbooks.

I've read so many good books this year…but I think I might say either Life after Life or A Constellation of Vital Phenomena are my two tops, followed closely We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and A Tale for the Time Being.

However, I haven't read The Goldfinch, The Lowland, or The Luminaries yet, and I'm looking forward to them.

Without a doubt for me, Night Film.I have been trying to read several of the pieces that continue to come up on lists: Constellation of Vital Importance, The Son, The Childhood of Jesus...etc... but after Night Film, they feel like I am walking on glass. Night Film was so thought provoking, allusionally embedded and intellectually presented that nothing is comparable.

Life after Life delighted me most, followed closely by The Good Lord Bird. It's been a great year in books!

You'll never pick it, but Tirza by Grunberg is the best book of 2013. Can't wait to see the list.

I really, really wanted to say Bull Head by John Vigna because I love it but the Ruth Ozeki book is fucking amazing, so.

Sorry Nozlee, can't pick just one. :) "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson, "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" by Anthony Marra, "The Last Policeman" by Ben Winters, "Transatlantic" by Colum McCann, and "Bring Up The Bodies" by Hilary Mantel. Also, I was blown away by the first Claire DeWitt book, "City of the Dead," which is unfortunately too old for the tournament, but based on that alone I would back "Bohemian Highway" too.

Americanah by Adichie was definitely my favorite so far this year.

Let Him Go by Larry Watson; Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff; Enon by Paul Harding; The Returned by Jason Mott; The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain.

I'm reading The Goldfinch right now and I love it so much I never want it to end. So that's my vote!

Dianah wrote: "Let Him Go by Larry Watson; Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff; Enon by Paul Harding; The Returned by Jason Mott; The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain."

What an interesting and eclectic listing. I have not read all of them, but I am excited for the new suggestions.

Zanromanoff wrote: "HILD! Hild. Also Hild. Easily the best book I've read this year. I love genre fiction, but I think pigeonholing this book that way is a massive mistake-- it's beautifully, engrossingly historical ..."

I would also vote Hild. It's so rare that a novel has so much fascinating information in it about history and also such intriguing insights into the human condition and how its heroine grows and changes from a child with odds stacked against her to a shaper of history. The comparison to Game of Thrones is made a lot -- I made it myself when I recommended this book to my fellow GoT-lovers! -- but probably Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies are better comparisons, for their scrupulous historical accuracy and utterly real portraits of fallible humans who changed the world.

I loved The Goldfinch, but hands down my favorite of 2013 was The Woman Upstairs. I'm not sure why it isn't getting more love on the end-of-year lists, but I thought it was great.

Happy to see others that I loved mentioned here, though--Night Film and Lexicon were both fantastic reads.

My favorite book that I read last year (published in 2012 so not eligible for ToB, alas!) was Saga, Volume 1. Even if you're not a comics person, it is worth a read. Beautiful artwork, weird/fabulous story, great characters.

Ami wrote: "I loved The Goldfinch, but hands down my favorite of 2013 was The Woman Upstairs. I'm not sure why it isn't getting more love on the end-of-year lists, but I thought it was great.
..."

i really loved that book a lot too, ami!! (view spoiler)[ all these months later, i'm still going (in my mind, sometimes out loud) "OH NO SHE DIDN"T!!!" (hide spoiler)] i have also been surprised it hasn't received more attention. though, here in canada, the book was long listed for the 2013 giller prize. (i felt so certain it would make the shortlist, so was surprised when it didn't.) messud's mother is canadian and she spent much of her childhood in toronto, and she holds citizenship here, i believe. hence her inclusion in the giller prize. people forget about her canadian connection.

The Interestings is my favorite so far, followed by We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is my favorite so far.

Brewster by Mark Slouka. Please, please let it make the ToB list.

Tenth of December is the best book I've read since last year's tourney. Hard to imagine 15 books as good as this in the TOB.

The Son and Life After Life are my two favorites so far. I have just started The Goldfinch and The Luminaries is up next. Agree about Brewster, Childhood of Jesus, and Tenth of December deserving spots on the ToB list

I've spent the day trying to guess what will be on the ToB this year.. I hope the list is out in December like it was last year! There are so many books I haven't read yet, but I'd have to go with Night Film!

Also, I haven't read it yet, but I'd really like to see (and am looking forward to) Doug Dorst's/ JJ Abrams 'S' as the odd choice there usually is in each ToB.

C wrote: "Also, I haven't read it yet, but I'd really like to see (and am looking forward to) Doug Dorst's/ JJ Abrams 'S' as the odd choice there usually is in each ToB."

i was wondering about that this weekend too - it was reminding me of Building Stories, sort of. i also have not read it yet. it seems to have a quirk-factor and i have read a couple of positive articles about it (though have avoided anything too review-y, so as to not stumble into spoilers.)

Childhood of Jesus. Hmmm. Maybe a play-in with The Testament of Mary? That one is novella length but very powerful, although I listened to the audiobook of Meryl Streep reading it and that may have skewed my judgment. :-)

This has been amazing. So many surprise candidates!

As you might have seen, we officially announced the tenth annual Tournament of Books -- ToB X -- on The Morning News today:

http://www.themorningnews.org/post/th...

We're keeping track of all of your favorite books on this thread, but you should also feel free to shout out your choice on this survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FT7CX7P

And don't forget to apply to be the ToB X reader judge -- to be considered, tell us in an email, in less than 100 words, why you’d make an excellent judge for this year’s tournament. Make sure you include your contact information. Deadline is 11:59 p.m., 12/2/2013. Email talk@themorningnews.org, subject: ToB X Reader Judge.

Yay!