2022 TOB Shortlist competition

[Tim]

Anita wrote: "Thank you Mindy and Jenny. Thatat makes sense. Idk why I thought Everyone was the winner."

Because it should have been the winner....

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Anita wrote: "Thank you Mindy and Jenny. Thatat makes sense. Idk why I thought Everyone was the winner."

Because it was the best book. :)

[Tim]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: Because it was the best book. :)"

Ha! But I see we are going to disagree about =All's Well=....

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Tim wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: Because it was the best book. :)"

Ha! But I see we are going to disagree about =All's Well=...."

I'm really stuck on it. I liked her two previous books quite a bit. I think my main complaint is that she is too effectively bringing me into the narrator's experience and it's one I don't want....

[Ruthiella]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I think my main complaint is that she is too effectively bringing me into the narrator's experience and it's one I don't want....."

In that case I suggest you read a little more before you bail Jenny. Her experience will change dramatically.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Ruthiella wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I think my main complaint is that she is too effectively bringing me into the narrator's experience and it's one I don't want....."

In that case I suggest you read a l..."

Oh I got a taste of what happens in the bar and that was worse. Read the ending too. Lol, just not the book for me.

[Nadine in California]

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I think my main complaint is that she is too effectively bringing me into the narrator's experience and it's one I don't want..."

Exactly my feeling about All's Well, and about the author - I loved Bunny. I think I'll have to content myself with looking forward to her next book.

On another note, thank you Jenny for recommending Several People Are Typing on audio. I read a few pages of the print and I just couldn't get interested in it, but the audio grabbed me immediately. Such fun :)

[Isaac]

Just saw that the short list was in today, luckily in enough time to vote on a Zombie. Can't believe some of the omissions and inclusions. "The Echo Wife" was a passable sci-fi thriller, but definitely not award material, and yet it's on the shortlist and "Hell of a Book" and and "The Promise" are not. I love this weird little arbitrary book competition, but it makes no sense to me that we are given no reason why certain books are placed on the shortlist and others are not; if you establish a pattern that NBA and Booker winners compete in the ToB, there should be some rationale given when that pattern is deviated from. "Intimacies" was on the NBA longlist, but it certainly wasn't a favorite of mine; there's no good reason I can think of for it beating out "Infinite Country," "Detransition Baby," or "The Man Who Lived Underground." I'm not even sure how "TEW" and "Intimacies" better fit the theme of "tumult" than those. Still, I did enjoy "The Book of Form and Emptiness," "Matrix," "No One Is Talking About This," "Several People Are Typing," "When We Cease to Understand the World," and, yes, "Beautiful World, Where Are You," so it's by no means a completely disappointing list, I just don't know why certain books made it and others didn't. Ours not to reason why, ours but to read and die, I suppose.

[Maggie]

Isaac wrote: " I just don't know why certain books made it and others didn't. Ours not to reason why, ours but to read and die, I suppose."

True I guess, although I would *LOVE* it if they were a little more transparent on how they go from longlist to shortlist. My impression is that the threshold for getting on the longlist is mostly someone on the committee thinking the book belongs on the longlist (although I suppose I still have burning questions: who is on that committee? how are they chosen?), but I have no idea how they come up with the shortlist, and I would love to know. They're so transparent about everything once the tournament starts, but this feels like a black box.

Maybe this is a question for the new discord community... are people joining up over there? I joined and it seems pretty active! It's more convenient on mobile, but I think that I'll miss the more message board structure of this and disqus