Tournament of Books discussion

TOB Camp 2021 has been announced!
See the link to vote from the Longlist for what you'd like us to read this summer & enter to be one of the readers discussing your experience of a chosen book.

Longlist:
100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell
The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
Popisho by Leone Ross
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

SO early this year! Anyone want to say what they are write-in voting for? I have so many ideas but not sure I will actually use that write-in vote... these choices are great (but there are so many great choices this year.) Also, Great Circle sounds interesting but LONG.

My six are:
100 Boyfriends
Detransition, Baby
Everyone Knows Your Mother's a Witch
Peaces
Popisho
There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job

It's a great list - I've never heard of seven of them, which is what I love about the ToB

Thanks for making this folder, Amy!

I'm thinking to go with these six, but it's a tough choice since I want to read pretty much all of these...

100 Boyfriends
The Arsonists' City
Detransition, Baby
Infinite Country
Peaces
Whereabouts

I'm going to think about it a few more days though.

Oh and in case anyone's favorite doesn't make it into camp, I see that Interior Chinatown was on the Camp long list last year but didn't make it - so there will still be hope!

I went with
100 Boyfriends
Detransition, Baby
Everyone Knows Your Mother's a Witch
Peaces
No One Is Talking About This
There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job

I just finished Detransition, Baby and hope it gets picked. It will be a worthy contender for sure.

After a lot of agonizing I chose:

Detransition, Baby
The Arsonists' City
No One is Talking About This (I'm reading this now and really enjoying it...)
Peaces
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
Whereabouts

I'm an outlier in DNF'ing Priestdaddy so I've been shy about 'No One'. I wanted to like Priestdaddy, but the writing defeated me. She'd write a single sentence of perfect wit, then follow it with more sentences that riff on the original one, equally clever, but just too much. I'm very sensitive to 'trying too hard' humor. On the other hand, I love the TV show Angie Tribeca which is gag-a-second ridiculous, so go figure!

Of the longlist I have only read two so far - Detransition Baby and No One is Talking About This.
Here are the six I chose for the competition:
1. Detransition, Baby
2. The Arsonists' City
3. Popisho
4. Great Circle
5. Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
6. Whereabouts

I picked

The Arsonists’ City
Detransition, Baby
Everyone Knows
Infinite Country
Klara
Whereabouts

Nadine wrote: "I'm an outlier in DNF'ing Priestdaddy so I've been shy about 'No One'. I wanted to like Priestdaddy, but the writing defeated me. She'd write a single sentence of perfect wit, then ..."

I'd try the sample for No One before you decide, because it'll give you a good idea of what the book is like. I think I understand what you're saying about the riffs in Priestdaddy, it was sometimes too over the top, but I don't get the sense she's trying to hard here or forcing the humor...It's really been an enjoyable read for me.

Elizabeth wrote: "Nadine wrote: "I'm an outlier in DNF'ing Priestdaddy so I've been shy about 'No One'. I wanted to like Priestdaddy, but the writing defeated me. She'd write a single sentence of per..."

Thanks! I was hoping for some encouragement ;)

It's a great list. A nice mix of books I've been meaning to read and a few I've not even heard of. Here's my vote:

Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job
Popisho
Infinite Country
Klara
Whereabouts

I also love how Great Circle sounds, but damn it's long!

Nadine wrote: "I'm an outlier in DNF'ing Priestdaddy so I've been shy about 'No One'. I wanted to like Priestdaddy, but the writing defeated me. She'd write a single sentence of perfect wit, then ..."
I had Priestdaddy on my list for ages but didn't make it - but I did read No One and have to admit not at all to my taste. First part was absolutely incomprehensible. Very good article in the New Yorker that was more interesting than the book!

Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

reply | flag *

Throwing my hat in the "Priestdaddy was not for me and I'm not sure her new book is for me either" ring.

Here's my other, more controversial hot take...neither was Klara and the Sun.

Loved Detransition, Baby and voted for it and Infinite Country, Great Circle, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, Peaces and 100 Boyfriends

Never done the ToB summer camp thing before but now that I'm looking forward to a summer without doomscrolling taking up a bunch of my time, I shall! I went with

1)Detransition, Baby
2)Infinite Country
3)No One Is Talking About This
4)Peaces
5)There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job
6)Whereabouts

I am really hoping No One Is Talking About This is not in the summer camp. I didn't enjoy reading it, don't want to talk about it, and can't imagine who in the future I would recommend the book to. As I said in my GR review:
"It has two parts, both written in fragments. Part one is irrelevance about online irrelevance. Part two ripped my soul from my body; about a beautiful little girl, shimmering stardust, who came and went from the world in six months and a day."
There are so many other good books on the longlist that I'd rather share & discuss with folks.

Voting ends tonight!

I only went with four choices, because I'm pretty evenly opinionated on the others (they mostly sound great):

Infinite Country
No One Is Talking About This
There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job
Everyone Knows Your Mother is A Witch

So... when are we expecting to get the short list for camp? :eyes:

Ruthiella wrote: "I just finished Detransition, Baby and hope it gets picked. It will be a worthy contender for sure."

This just got left OFF the shortlist for the Women's Prize, and many feel it should have been ON, so that makes it even more of a contender for something I want to read.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Ruthiella wrote: "I just finished Detransition, Baby and hope it gets picked. It will be a worthy contender for sure."

This just got left OFF the shortlist for the Women's Prize, and many feel it ..."

I liked Detransition Baby better than the Lockwood book. Hoping it gets picked up here.

The list is up! I'm halfway happy with the results... Sad to see Infinite Country, 100 Boyfriends, and The Arsonists' City missing (and I'm not looking forward to No One is Talking About This), but otherwise it's a decent list.

June 2: No One Is Talking About This, first half
June 9: No One Is Talking About This to the end
June 16: Detransition, Baby, first half
June 23: Detransition, Baby to the end
June 30: Klara and the Sun, first half
July 7: VACATION 🌴
July 14: Klara and the Sun to the end
July 21: Whereabouts, first half
July 28: Whereabouts to the end
Aug. 4: Peaces, first half
Aug. 11: Peaces to the end
Aug. 18: Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, first half
Aug. 25: Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch to the end
Sept. 1: Announce summer champion

I'm sad to see some of the options go as well. Does anyone remember if books that were possibilities for Camp, but not chosen, have shown up in the regular TOB?

I'm looking forward to Whereabouts (which was just released this week), and Everyone Knows!

Has anyone read Peaces? From the reviews it looks...different. (I'm not really a fan of Oyeyemi, I've never been able to get into her books.)

Elizabeth wrote: "I'm sad to see some of the options go as well. Does anyone remember if books that were possibilities for Camp, but not chosen, have shown up in the regular TOB?"

Interior Chinatown and We Ride Upon Sticks were both possibilities for last year's Camp TOB. So, there's a definitely a chance of seeing some of these again!

Elizabeth wrote: "... Has anyone read Peaces? From the reviews it looks...different. ..."

I've read Peaces, and I enjoyed it. It's a pretty funny (and short) frolic, with an underlying big thought that doesn't really become clear until the end, but not preachy in the least. It is pretty fantastical though, so if you don't enjoy that sort of stuff, well then . . .

Emily wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "... Does anyone remember if books that were possibilities for Camp, but not chosen, have shown up in the regular TOB?..."

Also, the official announcement of the Camp longlist expressly said summer camp books can all be included in the regular ToB. It's just that the summer camp winner gets an automatic slot.

Phyllis wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "... Has anyone read Peaces? From the reviews it looks...different. ..."

I've read Peaces, and I enjoyed it. It's a pretty funny (and short) frolic, with an underlying big thought..."

There's a review in this weekend's NYTBR: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/bo...

I'm intrigued, so I'll give it a try. But I'll admit I don't have much patience with stories that confuse me!

Dang, the library has some crazy long holds for the first two!

Bretnie wrote: "Dang, the library has some crazy long holds for the first two!"

It's because you have a lot of Summer TOB readers in your area, I'm assuming.

Yikes some of these will only be in hardcover and Everyone Knows is not even out yet!

There is no chance in hell (har har) that my public library will purchase Everyone Knows. They actively weed out any titles with obvious LGBT and/or Satanic themes (although they have one copy of Detransition, Baby, wonder how that slipped through) and the pentagram is going to count it out for sure.

I want to support these authors but don't tend to buy hardcovers unless they are from my top five keep forever type peeps. I might be using some of my Audible credits (which I ultimately pay $15 ish for, about the cost of a trade paperback.)

I don't know why I'm nickle and diming this but that's my thought process. $15 = fine. $25 = woah what?

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Yikes some of these will only be in hardcover and Everyone Knows is not even out yet!

There is no chance in hell (har har) that my public library will purchase Everyone Knows. They actively weed o..."

Ugh, how horrible of tax-supported libraries to proselytize by policing what their patrons can read. I'm cushioned from this sort of thing in the northeast, I can't even imagine this happens anymore.

Do you not read e-books at all? I don't buy hardcovers either, aside from the library (and Libby) I get all my new fiction through Kindle.

Elizabeth wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Yikes some of these will only be in hardcover and Everyone Knows is not even out yet!

There is no chance in hell (har har) that my public library will purchase Everyon..."

Yeah my library's pretty notorious... I was happy when they added Hoopla because they don't seem to censor it.

eBooks, I only tend to buy when they're $5 and under, but read a lot of them as ARCs and library books. It's just a weird thing.

Yeah, I'm not sure I will get a chance to get these books in my hands in time for the discussions. I hope all of you have more luck! I was hoping Infinite Country would have made the list just because I had a copy already.

Guess I am lucky out here in "no one reads land". I can get all of them now except Witch which 2 of my 3 libraries have ordered. Unfortunately they sometimes take forever to process new books so hope I can get it in time.

Yeah, everything but Peaces has a long hold list here (although I'm 5th out of 30 on 14 copies of Whereabouts, had bought Klara and Detransition, Baby, and have No One is Talking About This checked out now. I've requested the Galchen for purchase, so I should be first on line.

But this is always an issue with camp, it's a shame because I'm sure participation would be higher if they focused on books from indy presses, or books not as well known.

I was able to get Everyone Knows as an arc from NetGalley, so that might be an option for those who can't get it.

Heather wrote: "Throwing my hat in the "Priestdaddy was not for me and I'm not sure her new book is for me either" ring.

Here's my other, more controversial hot take...neither was Klara and the Sun.

Loved Detran..."

I really enjoyed Priestdaddy, and listened to it in audio. She's funny. But the new one is definitely not for me. I was into it enough in the first half but the derailing into the baby.. I really just don't get what she was going for.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: I was into it enough in the first half but the derailing into the baby.. I really just don't get what she was going for.

It was so disjointed the only thing I could think is this is purely autobiographical.

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I really enjoyed Priestdaddy, and listened to it in audio. She's funny. But the new one is definitely not for me. I was into it enough in the first half but the derailing into the baby.. I really just don't get what she was going for. "


I agree with you 100%. I was really enjoying the beginning, I think I needed the airiness and light flippancy, and I actually voted for it for camp. But around 70 pages in I started getting annoyed, and about halfway through I was done. The hold list is long, so I decided to be a good citizen and return it unread knowing I'd never pick it up again. Oh well!

Elizabeth wrote: "Yeah, everything but Peaces has a long hold list here (although I'm 5th out of 30 on 14 copies of Whereabouts, had bought Klara and Detransition, Baby, and have No One is Talking About This checked..."

There is something to that idea - maybe using Camp as a way to include six fourth seed long shots so one of them definitely makes it into the tournament... but with indie presses/ fourth seeds, there would probably be the same problem with availability.