Tournament of Books discussion

Starting a new topic for Summer Camp!

WOOHOO! I threw my name in for activity leader since I'm done with school and funemployed.

Any guesses as to which 2023 releases fit into these "vibes"?

Historical women in harsh lands
Southern (California) gothic
Every love story is an unconventional love story
Do you believe in magic?
Let's go abroad (with three lone girls)

Anyone wanna venture any guesses as to what some of the possible books may be, based on the themes they posted? I think the new Victor LaVelle might be one

haha looks like you beat me to it, jess

Great minds, etc!

Historical women - lone women by victor lavalle seems like an obvious pick for this. I wonder also about Emilia Hart's "Weyward."

Kind of sad I won't have a guaranteed head start for the actual ToB, like we did in previous summers. So far none of my reads this year seem to fit any categories so I'm quite curious to see everyone's guesses!

Ok, here are my guesses for which books might appear in camp this year.

Carmen and Grace (love?)*
Inside the Wolf (women?)*
The Last Russian Doll (women?)
Bad Cree (magic?)
The Sense of Wonder (love?)
Vanishing Maps (magic?)*
Moonrise Over New Jessup (women?)
Before We Were Innocent (girls abroad, I'm very confident about this one)
Shark Heart (this one no longer fits since Andrew just confirmed there are no August pub-date books, but I love the cover)
Lone Women (women)*
The Villa (abroad?)
After Sappho (women?)
Big Swiss (love?)
Chlorine (magic?)*
Chain-Gang All-Stars (love? magic?)*
Sea Change (love? magic?)*
Small World (gothic?)
Victory City (women? magic?)*
VenCo (magic?)*
The Shards (gothic)
Sing Her Down (women)*

The starred ones are what I'd most like to see on our list, so that lends to voting for these vibes:

Historical women in harsh lands
Every love story is an unconventional love story
Do you believe in magic?

Lauren wrote: "Ok, here are my guesses for which books might appear in camp this year.

Carmen and Grace (love?)*
Inside the Wolf (women?)*
The Last Russian Doll (..."

Wow, Lauren, great sleuthing! (I’ve hardly been following new releases at all this year, and you’ve just exploded my TBR.)

Elizabeth wrote: "Wow, Lauren, great sleuthing! (I’ve hardly been following new releases at all this year, and you’ve just exploded my TBR.)..."

Ditto, ya killin me here, Lauren!

Oops, I somehow missed 10 more I found yesterday. Sorry for the expansion of your TBRs!

Künstlers in Paradise (gothic?)
Commitment(gothic?)*
Chrysalis: A Novel (magic)
The Haunting of Alejandra (magic)*
Greek Lessons (love)
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (magic)*
Open Throat (gothic)*
Maddalena and the Dark (magic?)
All-Night Pharmacy (gothic?)
Family Lore (magic?)*

Adding these books and stars makes me reconsider my votes... I'm definitely voting for "Do you believe in magic?" and likely still "Unconventional love story," but I'm now questioning "Southern (CA) gothic" vs. "Historical women in harsh lands."

Has anyone already voted for their preferred vibes?

I have -- and ironically, they're all the ones you DIDN'T vote for! "Historical women...", "Southern (CA) Gothic", and "Let's Go Abroad." I thought "Magic" might mean magical realism, my least favorite genre, and romance, unusual though it may be, is just not my thing. As soon as I saw "Historical" and "Lone" applied to women, I thought Victor LaValle, and it's so on my list already, I'm totally psyched.

Lauren wrote: "Has anyone already voted for their preferred vibes?..."

Yes, I went with Historical women in harsh lands, Southern (California) gothic and Let's go abroad. I was mainly intent on not having the magic theme win, because that's not my favorite thing. I'm excited to find out what the books are in each theme.

Nice suggestions for the topics!

I like this idea of theme books

I have a couple more suggestions for Historical Fiction in a Harsh Land:
Night Wherever We Go by Tracey Rose Peyton
River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela

Suggestions for Every Love Story Is An Unconventional Love Story:
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane
The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz
In Memoriam by Alice Winn

Suggestion for Do You Believe in Magic?
We Are a Haunting: A Novel by Tyriek White

Suggestion for Let's Go Abroad:
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea

The themes I choose:
Historical women in harsh lands
Every love story is an unconventional love story
Do you believe in magic?

Beverly wrote: "Nice suggestions for the topics!

I like this idea of theme books

I have a couple more suggestions for Historical Fiction in a Harsh Land:
Night Wherever We Go by [author:Tracey Ro..."

Wow, great list! I added these to my TBR. Thanks!

Ellen wrote: "I have -- and ironically, they're all the ones you DIDN'T vote for! "Historical women...", "Southern (CA) Gothic", and "Let's Go Abroad." I thought "Magic" might mean magical realism, my least favo..."

Ah, good point. While I can enjoy books with love, I also don't like to read romance. I assumed the organizers would pick books that are more on the literary and less on the romance side for that category, but it's a risk.

I'm considering voting for "southern (CA) gothic" but I don't think I want to read The Shards, so I'll need to keep thinking about this.

I saw a review of La Tercera this morning, and it sounds fantastic. Since it could fit with the "historical women" category, I'm now committed to voting for that vibe.

The only 2023 books on my shelves right now came from Parnassus First Editions Club.

The Upper Country - historical women?
The Sun Walks Down - historical women or magic?
I Have Some Questions For You - historical women?
The Making of Another Motion Picture Masterpiece - Southern California
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home - love story?

Then there is also a memoir but they won’t choose a memoir will they? I gotta get started on these books!

How do you people deal with a TBR that grows 100+ books per year!!
I just look at my bedside table and am mildly stressed out that there's another bookshelf of mostly-unread stuff.

Could Girls and Their Horses be considered Southern (California) gothic?

@Kyle. My tbr is ridiculous. Every year at the end of the year i try to get it below 50 books. realistically, i wont read more than that from a TBR because I get too excited about new releases. if they are really important for me to read, they will bubble up somewhere again. it depends partly on how many books you read per year, and how you want to balance older vs recently released books.

Kyle, do you ever just wish that all authors would Just. Stop. Writing? for like, 3 years? I could have some pretensions towards catching up if that would just happen. My tbr list is a punch line.

Ellen, I have thought that so many times. I thought maybe the early Covid years would disrupt publishing enough that I could catch up… that didn’t work out for me the way I fantasized.

The good news is that sometimes I just forget why I even put a book on a list so I erase it.

And I always try it anyway [insert eyeroll here] and then, because I have great trouble abandoning a book, keep on trucking through it. Sigh.

I mean, there's also the fact that I keep finding books from the 19th and 20th centuries to read as well. I just found a new re-issue of a George S. Schuyler (Harlem Renaissance writer) serial from the 1930s about a secret society of black people plotting to overthrow white supremacy. And I'm like hell yes, how can I not read this?

Kyle wrote: "I mean, there's also the fact that I keep finding books from the 19th and 20th centuries to read as well. I just found a new re-issue of a George S. Schuyler (Harlem Renaissance writer) serial from..."

I've been reading classics, I decided last year that it was time to make a dent in my bucket list. And with Book Depository closing, I recently bought a ton off that list just because I prefer the UK covers, and this felt like my last chance to get them at a decent price. So that's killing my reading of new fiction, especially since I have to read these more slowly. (Really enjoying them, though.)

Kyle wrote: "I mean, there's also the fact that I keep finding books from the 19th and 20th centuries to read as well. I just found a new re-issue of a George S. Schuyler (Harlem Renaissance writer) serial from..."

Yes I remember seeing this in a preview of this year, excited to get to it.

I've decided to stop being intimidated or frustrated by "too many books" and just enjoying being surrounded by books that hold wonders yet undiscovered. I'm fortunate to have a little budget to spend on books each month, so I buy those that I really, really want to read, and others that I want to read eventually just go onto a list. I like to move around genres from book to book, so I usually switch it up between a new release from an author I love, a classic I've been meaning to get to, a translation, and an author I've never read before -- that is a cozy mix for me that makes me feel as if I'm progressing through the TBR mountain. Although sometimes I do go on an author binge and try to read all of someone's backlist.

Like...Percival Everett, for example??? ;-))

We should get the 2023 Camp TOB reading schedule today according to a post over at Discord!

!!!!!!

Discord is telling me Andrew is on Spotify now. I want to turn it off, like you would for kids playing video games when you want them to do homework. ;)

https://www.tournamentofbooks.com/cam...

Thanks for the link!

I think this is shaping up to be a great summer camp - it's the first year I want to read every one! I hope they make the thematic pairings permanent.

I have to admit that I hadn't even heard of three of the books -- but I'm especially excited about the last two, since they're both already on my list. So now I have to get hold of the others!

Ellen wrote: "I have to admit that I hadn't even heard of three of the books -- but I'm especially excited about the last two, since they're both already on my list. So now I have to get hold of the others!"

I hadn’t either, and I love that! I’ve only read The Birthday Party, a tough read, and I’m guessing some will hate it, but I thought it was really good..

Well, as it turns out, Elizabeth, of my three library systems, only yours has it (and it looks like they have 4 cc!). It was one of the ones I hadn't heard of previously. And Couplets: A Love Story, btw, is cataloged as poetry, so it must be in verse? that is, actuall, er, couplets?

Ellen wrote: "Well, as it turns out, Elizabeth, of my three library systems, only yours has it (and it looks like they have 4 cc!). It was one of the ones I hadn't heard of previously. And [book:Couplets: A Love..."

It's all written in couplets! I read a sample and I kind of love it. I have it on hold. Do you want to borrow my copy when I'm done?

Thanks! But I just put it on hold myself, at Somerset County. I should have it in a couple days!
It's The Birthday Party that only MCL has...but I'll wait to get that one.

Lone Women is currently on sale for kindle at amazon. The Birthday Party is available on Hoopla.

I'm happy with this list. Half were on my read-soon list and the other three were unknown to me. And no Bret Easton Ellis!

Thanks for the heads-up on Lone Women. I remember The Changeling was a pretty great book, so I'm looking forward to this one.

Oooh I hadn't realized Luis Alberto Urrea had a new book coming out! Looks like it should be published in a couple weeks.

Oh and excellent guessing Lauren and Beverly!

Last week was intense with the packed-schedule work retreat I had in Denver. I'm just now able to find a few minutes on my laptop to sort out my feelings about the summer camp list.

-I'm shocked Before We Were Innocent isn't one of the "three lone girls abroad" picks. Since the description of Western Lane gives no indication that the book has anything to do with that "vibe," I'm giving myself a pass since I couldn't have guessed that one. ;)

-Even though I love poetry, I'm not super interested in Couplets, but since it's short, I'll give it a try.

-I'm sad The Birthday Party isn't available on audio, and I'm not sure if I want to purchase a print copy or try to figure out how to use the Hoopla version. Alison, or other Hoopla users: Is it possible to transfer Hoopla ebooks to my kindle, or am I expected to read a whole book on my phone? I've only used Hoopla for audiobooks. (And saw that Western Lane is available there on audio - yay!)
*Edit: It looks like no, it's not possible to send Hoopla ebooks to kindles. :(

-I'm dreading Big Swiss and since the library wait time is 10 weeks I need to decide if I'm going to skip it or use an audiobook credit for it...

-While I'm not eager to read more WWII stories (not because they're not important or I haven't enjoyed them in the past, but because there are too many of them), I'm a big fan of Luis Alberto Urrea and will likely buy a print copy of this one.

-I really want to know what the picks were for the vibes that weren't chosen. Do you think we can get the organizers to divulge that info? :)

Lauren wrote: "I'm sad The Birthday Party isn't available on audio, and I'm not sure if I want to purchase a print copy or try to figure out how to use the Hoopla version. Alison, or other Hoopla users: Is it possible to transfer Hoopla ebooks to my kindle, or am I expected to read a whole book on my phone? I've only used Hoopla for audiobooks. (And saw that Western Lane is available there on audio - yay!)
*Edit: It looks like no, it's not possible to send Hoopla ebooks to kindles. :("

Yeah, it’s unfortunately not possible, and I hate that because I refuse to read books on a phone or laptop. BUT once in awhile (and I actually did this for The Birthday Party), I’ll get the Hoopla and have my phone or tablet read me the screen. It’s not ideal, since the book is basically narrated very badly, but since the sentences were so long and convoluted for this book, having that voice while I read through the print really helped me get through it. (After I was used to his writing style though, reading became easier.)

Lauren wrote: "-I really want to know what the picks were for the vibes that weren't chosen. Do you think we can get the organizers to divulge that info? "

I actually asked Andrew this on Discord! I wish they’d let us know.

Lauren wrote: "-Even though I love poetry, I'm not super interested in Couplets, but since it's short, I'll give it a try."

I listened to it on audio in one setting and enjoyed it more than I expected! Maybe my expectations were low since I don't love poetry, but the author narrates it and it feels more like a poetic novella than strict poetry.

Who else volunteered to facilitate the discussion of a book? I'm excited but also nervous about this.

That’s so funny. I was just thinking about that. They are waiting for more volunteers because they don’t want to have to choose me! I’m sure that’s not what you’re thinking. Just me. :)

I volunteered but haven't heard anything. I'm figuring I won't be chosen because I've been a"camp counselor" 2x before!