Tournament of Books discussion

Titles and judges announced for 2012!
http://www.themorningnews.org/article...

How many books have you read already? I only have 3! Got to get reading . . .

I think it's a good list! There are a few titles that I was already hoping to read and this will push me to get them done sooner.

I've read The Sense of and Ending, State of Wonder, and The Sisters Brothers. I'm a little saddened that Kalman's Pigeon English wasn't included, though. It was better than these three.

Darn, I've only read 2 of the 16. Several have been on my list, so now's the time to put them to the top of the stack. (So glad I stumbled upon ToB last year...it cracks me up, and gives me a good reading list!)

I've just put together a spreadsheet of availability, in case folks want to try to tackle a chunk of books before the tournament begins:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/c...

It'll take some planning, but B&N and Powells (through google books) are doing much better at competing with Kindle on titles this year than last. Likewise with Audible editions, if that interests you. I can see a way through to having read a dozen of the sixteen, but that's without having read the synopsis of all to see if I actually want to do that.

You gotta love a 47-hour audiobook.

Think I am off to my best start in years, have read 4 and currently tackling 1Q84... 3 more were already on my to-be-read list, so those will get prioritized... probably 'Marriage Plot' first as that's the only #1 seed that I have not read. Love ToB!

I've read only The Tiger's Wife so far out of this list. Started State of Wonder last night. Been reading a lot of David Foster Wallace lately (and laughing myself silly), so now I need to turn my attention to the ToB books.

I love this time of year. Only Tigers wife and Sense of an Ending have been completed by me. When I finish my non-related TOB book, I will be starting Devil all the Time. Usually I finish reading the TOB list by the end of the tournament (with many short nights), but it may be tough this year. Happy reading!

I have read six and liked Slavage the Bones the best so far, but I may be biased and the book may not be for everyone. But that could be said for several books on the list. I also liked Art of Fielding and Sense of and Ending.

I am dreading The Marriage Plot. I have heard nothing good about it at all with the exception of the initial hype that it received. I also think that 1Q84 was a disappointment and was not as good as it should/could have been.

Of the books I had never heard of I am looking forward to reading The Last Brother the most.

Thanks for starting the group - I will be interested to see what everyone else thinks of the tournament.

So far I've read seven (The Marriage Plot, Sense of an Ending, State of Wonder, The Tiger's Wife, The Art of Fielding, The Sisters Brothers and The Cat's Table) of the 16 TOB selections and am currently reading Hollinghurst's "The Stranger's Child." Hope to finish five or six more before the start of the tournament. Love this time of year!

Karen, I am very impressed.

I am almost done with "The Stranger's Child"--then I'll have read them all! I'd read eight already when they were announced and devoted my January to the rest. A very disappointing year, I felt; annoyance was my primary reaction to most of them. I particularly hated "1Q84" and "Salvage the Bones." I'm still pondering whether or not I still have the vitriol to come up with scathing reviews for them to post here at goodreads.

Does anyone want a copy of "Green Girl"? This is the one I had the most trouble locating--the only one I had to order online rather than buy locally or get through the library--and sadly, given the trouble I went through, I don't want to keep it. The others that I bought I am either going to keep or give to friends but I don't know anyone personally who is remotely interested in this one. I'm more than happy to ship it to the first person who'd like it--just message me your information. It's a short book and a quick read so even with the shipping wait you should have plenty of time to squeeze it in....

Clara wrote: "I am almost done with "The Stranger's Child"--then I'll have read them all! I'd read eight already when they were announced and devoted my January to the rest. A very disappointing year, I felt; an..."

So which was your favorite? Is Lightening Rods any good?

Michelle wrote: So which was your favorite? Is Lightening Rods any good?

"Lightning Rods" was one of my favourites! It's nowhere near the level of DeWitt's first book, "The Last Samurai," but it made me a staunch admirer of her in part because it is so different and shows such range. Very funny, satirical, and quite smart. I don't think it has much chance in the ToB because it's probably not for everyone, but I thought it was great. It's with "Open City," "The Marriage Plot," and "The Sense of an Ending" for my favourite reads from the batch. ("The Stranger's Child" I am also enjoying enormously though I can't say anything definitive until it's over.)

I expect the contest will be between "The Marriage Plot" and "The Art of Fielding" and perhaps the inexplicably (to me) popular "1Q84." I am just hoping that the last does not win--I felt like it was easily Murakami's worst book and I do not understand its near-universal acclaim--but fear that it will do very well. I'm rooting for the Eugenides, which, while flawed, was a great read and an intelligent book.

"The Last Brother" was good as well, though I felt like the ending, the last line really, came near to spoiling it all. Beautifully written, though; I'm glad it was chosen as this will surely give it a lot of deserved exposure. A lot of this years books had that problem for me of just terrible endings: "The Last Brother," "Swamplandia!," "The Art of Fielding," and of course "1Q84," which may actually have the worst ending of any book in recent memory.

So, you and Jamie both liked The Marriage Plot. My friends who have read it detested it - 1 star detested it! Isn't it interesting how some books move others in such different ways.

Michelle wrote: "So, you and Jamie both liked The Marriage Plot. My friends who have read it detested it - 1 star detested it! Isn't it interesting how some books move others in such different ways."

It really is interesting. I can't imagine 1Q84 getting such a positive response while I was so let down by it. And, once I'd completed it, I was surprised to see so many negative reviews of the Marriage Plot. Go figure!

I have been baffled by my reaction to books vs. others as well lately. Currently feeling like the real oddball out as I liked '1Q84' and am liking 'Marriage Plot' (about 2/3rds thru). I understand why folks would not like either book, but I think a lot of it has to do where you come in on the hype-praise / backlash / backlash-to-the-backlash continuum. I'd be curious if my reaction to 'Marriage Plot' would have been any different if I read it when it first came out. The mixed reaction pushed it way down my virtual to-be-read book stack (despite loving 'Middlesex') and it only re-surfaced thanks to ToB and it's leaning to be my favorite of the bunch.

The spectrum of taste never ceases to astound me! I finished "The Stranger's Child" last night and was shocked to find it has such a low rating on this site--I thought it was brilliant, have no complaints, and am adding it to my handful of favourites from the ToB batch. It reminded me enormously of an A.S. Byatt novel which is only ever a good thing for me.

Ed, I agree on the worthiness of "The Marriage Plot"--it's my favourite to win, though I think the popular favourites, "Fielding" and "1Q84," will make it a tough contest. Usually I'm able to chalk any disagreements about a book up to the very real presence of differences in taste but I truly don't understand liking "1Q84." (Which, by the way, I read half of a few days after it was released and put down planning not to finish it because I disliked it so much--I only picked it up again when it was tagged for the Tournament and found it just got worse, not better. So I'd like to exempt myself from the backlash continuum, though the fact that I had been a Murakami fan previously and had high expectations for this one probably is a factor.) I really want someone to sit down and explain to me how the book could be conceived as good. I like and agree with Scott Esposito's review at the Quarterly Conversation: http://quarterlyconversation.com/1q84...
He covers just about all of my complaints, though I'd add "philosophically simplistic" to a list of reasons why "1Q84" is objectively a terrible book. Yes, I said objectively. I'm confident that this one won't stand any sort of test of time.

Okay, this is my first TofB - I found out about it at the end last year and I had only read Skippy Dies. I am obsessing!!! I have read 9 and am reading The Strangers Child and listening to The Marriage Plot. I should have both of these completed by the time the tournament starts. I am hoping to eek in The Last Brother and maybe Open City, but that is doubtful.

Anyway, I pulled out the brackets and I am having the best time trying to decide which book will win in each round. I know this sounds nerdy, but I am having a blast. There are lower seeded books that I liked better than the higher seeded ones so it will be interesting to see how the underdogs do. Then in the third and fourth rounds, it will be really interesting to see who wins, especially if I have read them all!

This is wayyyy more fun than basketball!

Michelle, don't worry about sounding nerdy -- I do that every year! (Although I prefer "geeky," or perhaps "coolness-challenged.")

Michelle: We're ALL nerdy -- why else would we be cataloging our books and joining a book tournament? Just embrace your book-geekness; it's a beautiful thing!

Add me to the book nerd collection. I get excited every year to print off the TOB bracket. The bracket stays close to me over the months along with my highlighter and pencil for note taking. It is a relief to hear there are others :)

http://hungrylikethewoolf.wordpress.c...

Hungry Like the Woolf is doing a contest. Email in how you expect the tournament to fall! The prize, of course, is a book.

Thanks for the link Clara - I am contemplating my brackets again!

@Clara,

Thanks for the mention! Like the Tournament, the brackets are more fun the more people play. And to clarify, the prize is actually "two books from among my “best of” lists (2011 coming soon), the 16 ToB 2012 contenders, and Orion You Came and You Took All My Marbles." You can choose physical or e-book and the book will be new (not from my shelves).

I can say that, the more contenders I read, the higher The Marriage Plot is rising. I still found it sufficiently flawed that I have a hard time rooting for it. So far, The Sense of an Ending is my favorite.

Predictions are going to be hard this year, because, as you and others have pointed out, so many of the books get wildly different reactions.

I still have more to read, but am already excited for the Tournament to begin. I love this time of year.

I am happy to find other people nerding-out with me over this year's ToB!

It's going to be a very interesting run this year, I think!

Two interesting comments on the tournament:

1. I subscribe to a magazine, Bookmarks. It is just a magazine with a lot of different reviews in it. Most of them are for fairly current books, but then it will have different topics with reviews of older books that may fit in those topics. They tallied the "best book lists" of 22 top reviewing publications (NY Times, AV Club, etc). The result in this "tally" gave The Marriage Plot the top "best" followed by The Tigers Wife and Art of Fielding. 10 of the 16 TOB books were included in the 17 best fiction books.

2. There is a list in Goodreads listopia called 2012 TOB (http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/16...). It has The Sisters Brothers and Art of Fielding tied for first.

HMMM, the suspense is building!!!

Hey, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm sponsoring a contest on my blog centered around the Tournament of Books. Round One picks start today:
Forever Overhead Tournament of Books Contest.

I look forward to the Tournament of Books every year and I'm really excited about this one - some good match-ups where I'm not at all sure how it's going to go. State of Wonder vs. The Sisters Brothers is the big question for me!

Nice run-down of the tournament over at Book Riot:
http://bookriot.com/2012/03/05/2012-t...

Here are their odds:

State of Wonder 4-1

Art of Fielding 8-1
Salvage the Bones 8-1
Swamplandia! 8-1
Tiger's Wife 8-1

Cat's Table 12-1
Marriage Plot 12-1
Stranger's Child 12-1

Last Brother 16-1
Lightning Rods 16-1
Open City 16-1
Sense of and Ending 16-1
Sister Brothers 16-1

1Q84 24-1
Green Girl 25-1
Devil All The Time 32-1

I previewed the Tournament here: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/lik...

I wasn't that jazzed about this year's tournament before I sat down to write about it. But when I started looking at it in more detail, I realized how open-ended it seems this year. No big favorites, very little cannon fodder.

I do think O'Neal is overestimating the chances of State of Wonder. I think The Tiger's Wife is the favorite, but I also think The Sisters Brothers could sneak in to a victory. But really, it's almost anyone's game.

Gayla wrote: "I previewed the Tournament here: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/lik...

I wasn't that jazzed about this year's tournament before I sat down to wri..."

I agree with you about O'Neal's assessment of State of Wonder. And I'm starting to get some buzz from The Tiger's Wife that has me regretting that it wasn't one I got to in time. I shouldn't have let the library's wait list deter me.

Awesome preview, Gayla!

I think I am the only person who didn't love The Tiger's Wife. *ducks and hides* As a debut, it is great and I sense the potential Téa Obreht has for wonderful storytelling but I don't think her first novel really has the oomph to stand up to some of these other competitors. But...that's just me! Haha!!

I too liked The Tiger's Wife but didn't love it. Read this back in 2011 so it isn't as fresh in my mind as some of my other favorites. Am interested to see how far it progresses in the tournament.

I agree with Karen and Jennifer. Obreht shows amazing potential and her debut novel was engaging, but there is better talent in the TOB. I am looking forward to reading her next piece of work.

Agree with Susan, Karen and Jennifer...liked but didn't love Tiger's Wife. Susan--"engaging" is the right word to describe it. It's a 3.5 starrer, but I gave it 4 for just pure pleasure of reading, even though it wasn't outstanding.

The first pairing is up.

Pleased with Emma Straub's decision!

The second match has been judged.

I'm now 1 for 2, but today's was the only contest in which I'd read neither book.

Sigh. Like most of you, I am now also 1 for 2. I’m surprised by today’s decision. The 50 pages of Salvage the Bones that I did manage to read (before I decided the blood and guts would be too much for me) showed Ward as a much better writer than DeWitt. And Judge Binelli was right…even with the crude and shock-jock factor of Lightning Rods, it did get very boring half-way through. And I don’t agree with Mr. Guilfoile’s assessment that it was fun to be “punked” by the novel. It just seemed lazy.

I was surprised too. I'm hoping Salvage the Bones will come back in the zombie round. I know it won one of the bigger awards, but I think it lost to Lightning Rods for undeserving reasons.

I'm so bummed -- my favorite, The Devil All the Time, went down first thing. Sigh. I think it has zero chance of coming back as a zombie. Again, sigh.

Today's face-off...for those who don't want to go search or have it bookmarked.

I am not a fan of today's decision. :/

I’m seeing a trend in the discussions from the judges and commentators. Most of them seem to be authors themselves and give lots of kudos to writers who are “ambitious” or try for something new. As a reader, that doesn’t work for me. I don’t give points based on that factor alone…if a writer is ambitious but fails, then it’s simply not a great book. If the author is ambitious and succeeds then hell yes, extra points. But how can you say one book is better than another simply for trying? I give the most points for great writing and secondly for a well-told story…innovation is simply extra credit.

Not unhappy with today’s verdict (my bracket is shot to hell anyway). To me, both novels had their good and bad points, but overall I enjoyed Tiger’s Wife more.