2016 - Possible Contenders

[Lark]

Jennifer wrote: "now i am imagining a scenario where the final 16 is created based on some sort of community input/voting. (though how this could be accomplished fairly, without inappropriate manipulations... i have no idea. damn internet! haha!)
"

Now this idea I would hate, for the same reason I hate the zombie round, because the weird outliers that no one has heard of will be left out entirely.

[[deleted user]]

Poingu wrote: "Tina wrote: "Oh no, Poingu, that would be awful! No one person should have so much power! : ) "

I guess, but personally I think they should ask ME because I would do a Mary Poppins job of it (pra..."

No doubt about it! LOL

[emily]

Poingu, thank you so much for recommending Fifteen Dogs! i loved it, and have recommended it to many. it rests at that perfect balance point of raising big questions while also being fully enjoyable and moving. my favorite book of the year, so far.

[Juniper]

Poingu wrote: "Now this idea I would hate, for the same reason I hate the zombie round, because the weird outliers that no one has heard of will be left out entirely."


fair enough. i do think something needs to be tweaked with the whole zombie round thing. it's never seemed to function well, in my mind.

your 'mary poppins' comment made me laugh! :)

[Lark]

emily wrote: "Poingu, thank you so much for recommending Fifteen Dogs! i loved it, and have recommended it to many. it rests at that perfect balance point of raising big questions while also being fully enjoyabl..."

Terrific! I was a little nervous recommending such a readable book to this august group. I also liked Mort e , a book that bends ever closer into genre territory, but like Fifteen Dogs it has depth along with some terrifically interesting sentient animals.

[Juniper]

André Alexis is great! i am glad to hear positive feedback on his newest book!! i haven't got to it yet, but hope to do so this year.

[Lark]

Jennifer wrote: "André Alexis is great! i am glad to hear positive feedback on his newest book!! i haven't got to it yet, but hope to do so this year."

Jennifer, I would love your recommendations about which of his novels to read next. He is a new author for me.

[Juniper]

Poingu wrote: "Jennifer, I would love your..."

Childhood is one i thought was very good!! Pastoral received great critical attention, but i have not yet read it.

[Lark]

Jennifer wrote: "Childhood is one i thought was very good!! Pastoral received great critical attention, but i have not yet read it."

thanks Jennifer!

[Jan]

Jennifer wrote: "i am imagining a scenario where final 16 is created based on some sort of community input/voting...."

Hmm, have to disagree with you, Jennifer. I would hate to see the TOB selection become a popularity contest. The zombie voting is bad enough, since they end up being kind of the lowest common denominator...the books that have gotten the most mainstream coverage and been the most widely read. I really value the editorial eye and judgment that the TOB brings, and that's what always produces at least a couple books I never would have read otherwise (or even heard of, in some cases) that end up being great reads, or at least well worth a look. The Goodreads readers' choice awards are a nice popularity contest if that's what you want. The TOB needs its quirks. And really, if we're picking 16 books out of all that's published in a given year, ANY method is going to leave out tons of great stuff.

[Juniper]

Jan wrote: "Hmm, have to disagree with you, Jennifer. I would hate to see the TOB selection become a popularity contest. "

my comment was really just a 'hmm?' i can't really see it working well in practice, and it was just a thought triggered by the general discussion on the topic of tournament transparency.

[Sherri]

I'm about 100 pages into "Where Did You Sleep Last Night. It's trippy and crazy and I don't want to put it down. This would be a great quirky book pick for the tournament. For those of you who've recommended All My Puny Sorrows, I saw that Miriam Toews blurbed this book. It's a bit hard to get ahold of, but my library was willing to buy it.

Also, I saw that Jeff Vandermeer recommended Beauty Is a Woundon Twitter. I hadn't seen it on any list, so I thought I'd mention it.

[Juniper]

Sherri wrote: "I'm about 100 pages into "Where Did You Sleep Last Night. It's trippy and crazy and I don't want to put it down. This would be a great quirky book pick for the tournament. For those..."

i have a copy of it too, and i am looking forward to this read! i am so glad you are finding it 'unputdownable' - that's a great thing in a book. :)

[Jan]

Jennifer wrote: "Jan wrote: "Hmm, have to disagree with you, Jennifer. I would hate to see the TOB selection become a popularity contest. "

my comment was really just a 'hmm?' i can't really see it working well in..."

No problem, Jennifer. Thanks!!

[Tiffany]

Lljones wrote: "Anyone else looking forward to this one?

Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick DeWitt"

This just made my day.

[Lark]

I'm halfway through and utterly entranced by Loving Day by Mat Johnson.

[Deborah]

Poingu wrote: "I'm halfway through and utterly entranced by Loving Day by Mat Johnson."

It is fabulous, isn't it?

[Lark]

Deborah wrote: "It is fabulous, isn't it?"

Yes! And it also is making me wonder if it's time to call high social satire written by African American men a 'movement'--in the last few months Loving Day, Welcome to Braggsville, and Delicious Foods have been among my most enjoyable reads, and they also seem to share a thread of common exuberance with 2014 TOB winner The Good Lord Bird.

[Brooks]

Mat Johnson's last novel, Pym, was excellent - if not a little bonkers (in a good way). I'm looking forward to Loving Day.

And I'm thrilled about Undermajordomo Minor too!!

[Deborah]

Poingu wrote: "Deborah wrote: "It is fabulous, isn't it?"

Yes! And it also is making me wonder if it's time to call high social satire written by African American men a 'movement'--in the last few months [book:L..."

Interesting that you found a common thread with The Good Lord Bird. I really enjoyed Welcome to Braggsville and Loving Day but didn't care for The Good Lord Bird at all. I wonder if that had anything to do with the historical setting; the other two books are set in modern times.

[Deborah]

Has anybody else read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry? I loved it.

[[deleted user]]

Deborah wrote: "Has anybody else read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry? I loved it.

It wasn't on my radar, and it looks like a great read. Thanks!

[Lark]

Deborah wrote: "Has anybody else read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry? I loved it.

"

Thanks Deborah, this looks great. I wish there were more in-translation contenders but it seems they have a tough time in TOB as well as in every other book award contest.

Re Good Lord Bird--I actually haven't read it yet. I've started it many times but the prose overwhelms me. I do think it belongs in the same category of novel as other recent satires by African American men, though. Loving Day and Delicious Foods and Welcome to Braggsville felt like they had a lot in common in terms of satirical treatment of serious themes.

[Gayla]

I always feel like I have a hard time evaluating translated books because I never know how faithful the translation is. Or whether flaws in style are due to the original author or the translator.

[Lark]

Gayla wrote: "I always feel like I have a hard time evaluating translated books because I never know how faithful the translation is. Or whether flaws in style are due to the original author or the translator."

Me too. I'm glad to have the translations but it's hard to know just how close they are to the original experience. Even reading in the original language I wonder about all the filters between me and the author, though, because of cultural differences and so many other things. I just read Der Vorleser (The Reader) by Bernhard Schlink and for most of the book I felt there was no way I could feel it the same way as a German reader would.

[Juniper]

Deborah wrote: "Has anybody else read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry? I loved it."

i have not yet, but i have a copy and hope to get to it soon! glad to hear your endorsement, deborah! :)

@gayla & @poingu -- i do like to read translated books, and i do often wonder about the process. (at ambitious moments, i think about going back to school to improve my french enough to become a literary translator. heh!)

a recent example for me:when i read My Brilliant Friend, i found it a bit tricky settling in as the translation seemed awkward to me. but by the end of this first book in the series, i realized that the language and translation had to do with the dialect of the area and people ferrante was writing about, and it had stopped being a curiosity or distraction. books 2 & 3 have been standout reads for me this year.

at other times, a translated read can be so engrossing and beautiful, i can't help but feel the translator has done a tremendous job!! Sheila Fischman does amazing french-to-english work and i have loved Ru, Mãn, and The Douglas Notebooks.

i am also a big fan of the work of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky! (not that i speak russian!)

[Ed]

Hi Folks,

Another great (and big!) list from The Millions - Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2015 Book Preview

http://www.themillions.com/2015/07/mo...

Guessing a lot of books already on our radars, but was quite struck w/ the number of short story collections from some big and/or ToB familiar names.

[Beth]

Thanks for posting Ed. I start to think I'm doing well with reading TOB contenders until I see this kind of list. I don't read many short story collections, but that may change this year.

[Juniper]

i was really hoping the list would be posted today... so it was a great start to my monday, earlier this morning. glad you shared it here, ed. :)

[Sherri]

I was cruising through the list thinking yeah, I already knew all this, and then - RON RASH HAS A NEW NOVEL!

Did anyone of you discover something on this list you didn't know was coming, but you're really excited about now?

September is going to be a huge release month.

[Sue]

Yes! Colum McCann's collection of short stories!

Sherri wrote: "I was cruising through the list thinking yeah, I already knew all this, and then - RON RASH HAS A NEW NOVEL!

Did anyone of you discover something on this list you didn't know was coming, but you'..."

[Juniper]

Sherri wrote: "September is going to be a huge release month. "

as i was reading down the list, i was very much going "september, FTW!!!" then i hit october.

i think september does edge it out just a bit though. :)

[Beth]

Yes, Sue. I did not realize Margaret Atwood had a new stand alone coming out!

[Juniper]

Sherri wrote: "Did anyone of you discover something on this list you didn't know was coming, but you're really excited about now?"

oh, forgot to answer this:

there was only one: i somehow managed to miss that Umberto Eco has a new one coming, Numero Zero (already out in some places).

[Julie]

The Margaret Attwood seems to be the collection of Positron episodic installments previously published.

[Lark]

I was looking at the nominees for the Kirkus Review Prize this morning, a long-long list of fiction works that have been/will be published from November 2014 to October 2015:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/prize/n...

There are a lot of intriguing titles on their list of nominees. Probably the list includes all 16 of next years' TOB books, somewhere on there. Last year's Kirkus winner was TOB longlisted Euphoria and The Paying Guests was a finalist.

[Juniper]

i loved Euphoria!! :)

[Lark]

Jennifer wrote: "i loved Euphoria!! :)"

I loved it too and it also inspired very fine discussion in my IRL book club about whether it's ok to mess with someone's biography to the degree Lily King did--that maybe King should have changed more, or alternatively less, about Mead's life when writing a novel inspired by her.

[Juniper]

oh, that would have been an interesting discussion. i keep thinking it makes for a great in-person book club read. :)

[Jan]

I don't normally read The Wall Street Journal, but someone shared a note about their recent article highlighting Seth Meyers booking authors. I love that he's doing this, and especially that he's having authors like Marlon James and Hanya Yanagihara who write very challenging books. The article is behind the firewall, but I believe if you enter the title, "Seth Meyers’s ‘Late Night’ Literary Salon," into your search engine, you should be able to get to it.

[Lark]

I was just poking around for books I may have missed reading so far in 2015 and came across a Jan 1 article that began:

A new novel from Kazuo Ishiguro, his first in 10 years, is arguably the literary event of the year.

Uh, no! It didn't happen. The Buried Giant got decidedly mixed reviews and was a disappointment to many of his ardent fans.

It got me thinking how little splash so many novels by the top-tier literary authors this year seem to have made, including Toni Morrison's God Help the Child, Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread, T.C. Boyle's The Harder They Come, Howard Jacobson's J, Ben Lerner's 10:04, Jane Smiley's Early Warning...they just seem to not have made much of a cultural impression even in the smallish world of literary fiction. Or?

[Juniper]

has anyone read The Meursault Investigation? i was just reading about this novel in bookmarks magazine, and it sounds like a ToB book... it was rated 4-stars, and both the l.a. times and new york times rated it 4 ½-stars, fwiw. :) though the fact it's international and a translated work doesn't bode too well, i suppose.

another book that seemed interesting in bookmarks was The Affinities, by Robert Charles Wilson. and then that got me thinking a bit about genre reads in the ToB.

[Lark]

Jennifer wrote: "has anyone read The Meursault Investigation? i was just reading about this novel in bookmarks magazine, and it sounds like a ToB book... it was rated 4-stars, and both the l.a. time..."

I read it Jennifer and it delighted me, very smart, very humane, and such a perfect companion to L'Etranger that I wonder why no one wrote it before. It makes no sense without having read L'Etranger, however. So there are a few layers working against it for TOB, not just that it's a translation, where it's already got an uphill battle to be noticed but also because it derives much of its power from being the counter-argument to Camus.

[Juniper]

i wondered about that bit too, poingu. but they put the 3rd book in a series in contention this year, so i used that as a bit of a measuring stick for a contender benefiting from context of previous works, but the ToB going ahead anyway. (though i realize the situations are different.)

[Jan]

Jennifer, I second what Poingu said. I recently read this and loved it. I recommend reading or rereading The Stranger so it's fresh in your mind, since there are a lot of close parallels and responses built in. The Stranger feels extremely dated now, reading it with feminist and post-colonialist eyes.

[Sherri]

Good timing - this just came through my Twitter feed. John Warner's reactions to some of the 2015 books he's read so far. The Sellout would top his "best of" list right now.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifesty...

[[deleted user]]

Sherri wrote: "Good timing - this just came through my Twitter feed. John Warner's reactions to some of the 2015 books he's read so far."

Thanks for the heads up on this, Sherri! I added a few more to my TBR.

[Ed]

Here's this year's Booker Prize long list, tho with ToB leftover "Brief History" and "Lila" from last year. Anything else?

Did You Ever Have A Family - Bill Clegg (US)
The Green Road - Anne Enright (Ireland)
A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James (Jamaica)
The Moor's Account - Laila Lalami (US)
Satin Island - Tom McCarthy (UK)
The Fishermen - Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria)
The Illuminations - Andrew O'Hagan (UK)
Lila - Marilynne Robinson (US)
Sleeping on Jupiter - Anuradha Roy (India)
The Year of the Runaways - Sunjeev Sahota (UK)
The Chimes - Anna Smaill (New Zealand)
A Spool of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler (US)
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara (US)

[Lljones]

Atkinson's AGIR didn't make the Booker long list, damn it! But there's still time to vote for her on the Not The Booker shortlist!

[Holly]

The Atkinson snub is off to me. Oh well. I've only read The Green Road so far, which I really enjoyed because Anne Enright is awesome, but it's not a Booker Prize book, I don't think. I've had quite a few of those on my TBR list for a while, so I'll have to boot them up. A Little Life is finally coming up for me at the library (1/43!), I'm excited.