Tournament of Books discussion

well, it's out early, pleasantly surprising us!

The Shortlist and Judges

You've got a little over 2 weeks for the Zombie Poll which is at the bottom of the page. Vote for your favorite (or play strategic if you're crazy like that) by Dec 30th

Can we add sub-groups for individual books ourselves, Amy, or is that something you and Tina do? (Just wondering, don't want to pressure you at all, you've already done so much work.)

Also, seeing the categories set up for the rounds made me ridiculously excited. I am such a nerd. (Although didn't we just finish last year's? How is this happening so fast?)

I made a listopia list in case you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Yaaaay! I am crossing my fingers for Washington Black vs My Sister, the Serial Killer!

Bretnie wrote: "Yaaaay! I am crossing my fingers for Washington Black vs My Sister, the Serial Killer!"

Weren't you behind me on the SPL list for My Sister, the Serial Killer? How did you get it before me? I'm still waiting, #25 on the holds list.

Bob wrote: "I made a listopia list in case you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1..."

Thanks Bob!

Tina wrote: "Bretnie wrote: "Yaaaay! I am crossing my fingers for Washington Black vs My Sister, the Serial Killer!"

Weren't you behind me on the SPL list for My Sister, the Serial Killer? How did you get it b..."

It's available as a peak pick! There were lots of copies at the Southwest Branch!

Bretnie wrote: "Tina wrote: "Bretnie wrote: "Yaaaay! I am crossing my fingers for Washington Black vs My Sister, the Serial Killer!"

Weren't you behind me on the SPL list for My Sister, the Serial Killer? How did..."

Yay! I should have guessed that, based on how many copies they ordered. I'll go get it tomorrow. Thanks!

Elizabeth Arnold wrote: "Can we add sub-groups for individual books ourselves, Amy, or is that something you and Tina do? (Just wondering, don't want to pressure you at all, you've already done so much work.)"

I'm on it, Elizabeth!

I was pleasantly surprised to see the shortlist released so early and on my 65th birthday to boot!

Happy birthday, Drew! 😀

Drew wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to see the shortlist released so early and on my 65th birthday to boot!"

Happy birthday!

Drew wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to see the shortlist released so early and on my 65th birthday to boot!"

Happy birthday!!

Hard not to look at The Mars Room and Overstory as early favorites, with There There and Washington Black not far behind. I'm surprised at A Terrible Country being there, since it placed dead last on one of the lists you guys made. That didn't stop me from reading it, as I'm a sucker for expat novels in Eastern Europe. Anyone else have thoughts on who will snatch the cock-a-doodler this year?

Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be good audio candidates?

Drew wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to see the shortlist released so early and on my 65th birthday to boot!"

I have only known you for a short time Drew but I hope you have a wonderful birthday. :)

Drew wrote: "I was pleasantly surprised to see the shortlist released so early and on my 65th birthday to boot!"

Happy birthday, Drew!

Gretchen wrote: "Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be good audio candida..."

Gretchen, both Washington Black and So Lucky were great audio books for me - the first in particular.

Jen wrote: "Gretchen wrote: "Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be g..."

Oh and I thought Speak No Evil lent itself really well to audio too. Good narration also.

Gretchen wrote: "Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be good audio candida..."

I listened to Washington Black, The Overstory, There There, My Sister The Serial Killer, and Census all on audio and enjoyed all of them. The preceding order is probably how I would rank them as audio experiences which is nice, because I did not do that on purpose.

My Sister the Serial Killer was wonderful on audio!

I'm listening to the Dictionary of Animal Languages, and while I'm loving the narrator, its unique and wandering format makes it a bit more challenging to follow if you're not paying close attention. I will probably re-read it in print when I'm done.

Gretchen wrote: "Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be good audio candida..."
I tried Call Me Zebra on audio and had to bail before the end of the first chapter. I could not stand the narrator, but I did try listening to it in between Irish and English narrators. The narrator's voice was very shrill and I could hear something in her mouth as she was speaking.

I highly recommend Milkman on audio.

I've been cramming the longlist and most of the books that I picked did not make the shortlist BUT two of my favorites so far, "Washington Black" and "The Italian Teacher," did make it so that's a good sign. (The only one that I read and didn't like was 'The Immortalists' though I feel like that would have been fun to discuss if it had made the cut)

I have holds on a bunch of the shortlist books now, will see if the extra few weeks give me time to get to more of them this year.

Amanda wrote: "I highly recommend Milkman on audio. "

I second Milkman on audio. So wonderful to listen to.

Tina wrote: "Elizabeth Arnold wrote: "Can we add sub-groups for individual books ourselves, Amy, or is that something you and Tina do? (Just wondering, don't want to pressure you at all, you've already done so ..."

Thanks so much, Tina! Can't wait to discuss the books!

Does anyone know if Amazon has had its 50% off book sale yet? Did I miss it, or are they not doing it this year?

Gretchen wrote: "Excited to see this come out in time to plan for Holiday reading.

I'm listening to many more audio books this year. Does anyone have thoughts on which of the shortlist would be good audio candida..."

I listened to Milkman as audio book and thought it was great.

Good golly my predictions for the shortlist were so, so wrong. Ugh. So there's no way I can read everything by the Tournament, so trying to be strategic now. Sounds like There There, Washington Black, and House of Broken Angels are must-reads, so those will be the first I tackle. After that, wide open.

Someone randomly gave me a copy of Warlight a couple months ago. Anyone tackled it?

The audio of The House of Broken Angels is very good, and the narration brought the story to life for me. I also liked the narrator of A Terrible Country, a man, who does a great Russian grandmother voice.

Hi everyone!

I'm kind of a lurker/passive friend of the tournament. I don't read a lot of fiction outside of sci fi (i'm in grad school so that has eaten up a lot of my usual casual reading time) each year, so I use the Rooster as kind of a cheat sheet for the years best fiction. I look through the long list and star any books that sound really interesting to me. Then I try to buy/borrow 10 books from the shortlist to read through before the tournament starts...needless to say I'm loving the extra time this year. Anyway, there were 7 books picked that I had starred:

Census
The Mars Room
My Sister the Serial Killer
The Overstory
Parking Lot Attendant
There There
Warlight

I'm wondering if any of you could recommend 3 more for me to look into? I'm fine with them not being a story I would normally read, that's kinda the point of this tournament for me, pull me out of my comfort zone. Reading through your comments it sounds like I should strongly consider Washington Black?

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

A lot of us are voting for The House of Broken Angels for the zombie round. It’s a novel with a lot of heart that also touches on the problems of immigration...well worth a read.

Washington Black is wonderful too!

Janet wrote: "A lot of us are voting for The House of Broken Angels for the zombie round. It’s a novel with a lot of heart that also touches on the problems of immigration...well worth a read."

Interesting. Definitely timely. Thanks!

Dustin wrote: "I use the Rooster as kind of a cheat sheet for the years best fiction) ..."

Thanks for de-lurking Dustin! I too use the TOB to guide my contemporary fiction reading each year. All my other reading is devoted to playing catch up with back-catalogs and classics.

I can't really advise you because I've only read four and you listed them all already! I usually let library availability be my guide if I don't know which one to tackle next.

Welcome, Dustin!

I haven't read it yet, but Washington Black seems likely to go deep into the tournament, so that's a must-read. The Italian Teacher is very good, and The House of Broken Angels is my favorite of those I have read.

Caroline wrote: "I've been cramming the longlist and most of the books that I picked did not make the shortlist BUT two of my favorites so far, "Washington Black" and "The Italian Teacher," did make it so that's a ..."

I agree about The Immortalists. French Exit (much to my surprise) wasn't my cuppa either but I really would have enjoyed seeing discussions and commentary about it.

So Lucky, because Nicola Griffith is amazing, and she started in spec-fic so I am curious to see how she brings that perspective to this novel.

Dustin wrote: "Hi everyone!

I'm kind of a lurker/passive friend of the tournament. I don't read a lot of fiction outside of sci fi (i'm in grad school so that has eaten up a lot of my usual casual reading time) ..."

Welcome Dustin! I'll throw 3 additional recs your way:
Speak No Evil
Washington Black
Milkman (on Audio)

Peggy wrote: "Good golly my predictions for the shortlist were so, so wrong. Ugh. So there's no way I can read everything by the Tournament, so trying to be strategic now. Sounds like There There, Washington Bla..."

I've read it. It wasn't for me. But that doesn't mean it isn't for you!

Still pretty blown away that Flights (not a book of short stories, BTW) didn’t make the list. A gorgeous and wonderful novel.

Topher wrote: "Still pretty blown away that Flights (not a book of short stories, BTW) didn’t make the list. A gorgeous and wonderful novel."

I haven't read it yet, but from the description alone, it seems a perfect fit for the ToB.

Last night I watched this interview/reading with Heidi Sopinka, author of A Dictionary of Animal Languages. The book is flowing so much better for me now that I understand her thought processes and inspiration for the content and the format of her novel. It sort of gave me my bearings and let me go back to focusing on the lovely writing and interesting story line. I'm listening to it, but I plan to buy the hardback this weekend and re-read it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qki1...

That's the one book that isn't available in either of my library systems. I've ordered it via ILL, and I can only hope it comes in in time...

Ellen wrote: "That's the one book that isn't available in either of my library systems. I've ordered it via ILL, and I can only hope it comes in in time..."

Ellen, I'm listening to it on Hoopla. Maybe you can find it there.

Sherri wrote: "Last night I watched this interview/reading with Heidi Sopinka, author of A Dictionary of Animal Languages. The book is flowing so much better for me now that I understand her thought processes and..."

Thanks for the link Sherri. I am going to buy my own copy of this delightful novel myself.

Ellen wrote: "Peggy wrote: "Good golly my predictions for the shortlist were so, so wrong. Ugh. So there's no way I can read everything by the Tournament, so trying to be strategic now. Sounds like There There, ..."

Thanks, Ellen! It's not speaking to me as I read the back cover, so it might go to the bottom of my Tournament pile. Sorry, Warlight!

Anybody else's Kindle look even remotely like this? I've probably only read a quarter of them. Obviously I have a buying problem. 464 books?

Elizabeth Arnold wrote: "Anybody else's Kindle look even remotely like this? I've probably only read a quarter of them. Obviously I have a buying problem.

464 books?"
I think you are in good company Elizabeth. LOL! Bob showed us a picture of his physical TBR shelves (last year?) and it was AMAZING! I keep my read and unread mixed so I can't really "see" how many of them are TBR.

Elizabeth Arnold wrote: "Anybody else's Kindle look even remotely like this? I've probably only read a quarter of them. Obviously I have a buying problem.

464 books?"

I thought I was bad, since I currently have 142 TBR on my Kindle, almost all of them from Netgalley. My physical TBR pile is even worse though :-(