Tournament of Books discussion
This topic is about
Beautiful World, Where Are You
2022 ToB General
>
2022 TOB Shortlist
C wrote: "I'm hoping I can figure out Discord when the tob rolls around... I'd rather it just stick to disqus... or some other form of old-timey comment thread. ..."You and me both. I'd prefer to just comment in the usual comments section, but I will, of course, go wherever the ToB tells me to.
Ditto! I've tried getting discord to work for me in the past and it was a non-starter.
Obviously I'd be all over a TOB Slack - I'm on Slack all day anyway.
I guess it'll be trial by fire stuff. If I can't make friends with Discord for TOB, it's never going to happen.
I have to wonder if the switch to Discord with it's concomitant confusion for most of us wasn't designed to protect the judges from the sometimes scathing remarks from the commentariat. i guess we'll see when we know more about how it works,
And …DONE!Another good year and by that I mean I didn’t hate any of the books although if the Rooney had been 10 pages longer I would have ended up hating it. The situation was deteriorating rapidly for me.
I haven't liked this year very much at all. I think maybe real life is just depressing to me so I want uplifting books and I've found so many of these to be depressing or "meh." Last year had more highs and lows for me. (I finished them all last year although most not in time for the tournament and I was glad I did even though there were quite a few I didn't like; there were also quite a few I loved! Such as Tender is the Flesh, Piranesi, and I really liked Luster and The Vanishing Half, etc. There aren't really any books this year I'm super excited about like I was those. :( And it bums me out!)This year I was trying to finish them all before the tournament but there have been so many "meh" books for me that I find myself lacking in motivation and slogging my way through so maybe reading every book isn't for me and I should only read those I really like from the beginning, although that probably would have ruled out a couple that I did end up liking! Such as One is Talking About This and The Echo Wife. Ugh, how frustrating.) I've started to wonder if I'm too picky or maybe I'm not smart enough to "get" why people like these books.
Here is my ranking so far:
1. Echo Wife (This is the only one I truly enjoyed - 4 stars)
2. Klara and the Sun - 3.5 stars
3. No One is Talking About This - 3.5 stars
4. Matrix - 3 stars
5. Intimacies - 3 stars
6. Several People are Typing - 2.5 stars
7. Libertie - 2.5 stars
8. Beautiful World, Where Are You? - 2 stars
9. When We Cease to Understand the World - 2 stars
I'm currently reading The Sentence and I think it's pretty good.
I had also started reading The Book of Form and Emptiness and wasn't a huge fan but I'll pick it back up to finish all the rest of it- it's long, ugh.
I still have to read all of these in their entirety- I'd better get a move on it! Although I might abandon my goal of reading them all and only read ones that advance or that people here think are really good.
Our Country Friends (I've heard mixed reviews on this and currently have it borrowed in eBook form from Libby so I'll give it a try.)
The Confession of Copeland Cane (I've heard bad things mostly, but the audiobook and eBook are on Hoopla so I might try it out.)
Nervous System (I haven't heard good things and don't even know where I could borrow this book so I'm thinking I might skip it as I feel like it's probably not worth the $9.99 to buy on eBook from Amazon.)
All's Well (I've heard good things and it's on Scribd so I plan to try it. I've been holding off on Scribd books so that I can try to binge-read during a free 30 day trial and this is one of them so I think I'll at least try it.)
Subdivision (I plan to try the audiobook that's on Hoopla.)
In Concrete (I think the eBook is in Scribd so I might try it although I don't have high hopes for it.)
The Trees (This book is my nemesis; the only place I can find it to borrow is at my local library in paperback and I haven't made it there to get it. I do want to read it though since so many here have said it is so good. I thought Telephone was okay last year. I liked the parts about his daughter but not really the parts about New Mexico even though that's my state, haha. And I really didn't like the parts about the female professor and their "relationship." It felt disjointed, like it was supposed to be several different books smashed together as one. Also I think I just really didn't like the narrator and I find it hard to like a book when I don't like the narrator. It was also very depressing, of course, which makes me not really want to pick up this new one by him but I plan to do it anyway. I just haven't yet. Ha.)
Anita wrote: "I haven't liked this year very much at all. I think maybe real life is just depressing to me so I want uplifting books and I've found so many of these to be depressing or "meh." Last year had more ..."Anita, I think you have most of the hands-down best books still ahead of you (other than Nervous System, which I did find to be pretty depressing).
Phyllis, that is so good to hear and gives me the motivation to finish my goal of reading these. :) Thanks for letting me know!!
Anita wrote: "Phyllis, that is so good to hear and gives me the motivation to finish my goal of reading these. :) Thanks for letting me know!!"Also, Anita, if you'll message me your mailing address, I'll send you The Trees by Percival Everett. He is my personal favorite living American author, and I'm always glad to put his books into as many hands as possible. Then you can keep it or pass it on as you see fit.
The Trees is capital-G great. Subdivision I also really liked. So you've got some good stuff ahead.
I LOvED In Concrete (I could only find it in ebook on one of the three Overdrive libraries I subscribe to though)
I can mail a copy of In Concrete to you, no return needed. Just DM me your address. :-)
Anita wrote: "I haven't liked this year very much at all. I think maybe real life is just depressing to me so I want uplifting books and I've found so many of these to be depressing or "meh." Last year had more ..."Anita - I get what you're saying! I think you should try Copeland Cane in audio (since it IS a confession anyway -- I didn't read it that way though - I read it in print.)
I'm finding the books I have read so far just okay IMO. I think at this point I might be holding books from this year up against my favorites from Tournaments in other years, which is NOT the thing to do. I shouldn't be comparing all of these books to all other books at this point. I also feel like I haven't had a chance to get the great ones, or the books I'd like better, in my hands yet... I can't find The Trees, When We Cease to Understand the World or the Sentence anywhere.
My rankings so far:
No One Is Talking About This - 5 stars (beyond my fave, even though I thought I wouldn't like it!)
The confession of copeland cane - 4
Matrix - 3 1/2 maybe 4
The Echo Wife - 3 1/2
Libertie - 3
In Concrete - 3
Klara & the sun - 2
Intimacies - halfway done but meh
I have Subdivision, Book of Form & Emptiness & All's Well & Our Country Friends in the stack yet.
I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year.
A little over a week until the tournament starts!
C wrote: "I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year."This year there are only a couple of books I'd be thrilled to see winning. There are a handful more that were okay enough that I wouldn't roll my eyes if they won, but usually I have more that I'm enthusiastic about. I've also completed fewer this year than most...I tried them all, but then I looked at my non-TOB TBR and reminded myself that life is finite, and it would be much more fulfilling to move on to books I'd get more from.
It's a shame, really, I love being part of the discussions. But not enough to spend hours on something I'm not enjoying.
Elizabeth wrote: "This year there are only a couple of books I'd be thrilled to see winning. There are a handful more that wer..."Elizabeth, I'm in a similar boat but I'm hoping the tournament opens my eyes on things I missed that would make me appreciate some of the books more. Like maybe they still didn't work for me, but maybe I'll be less grumpy if they win.
Elizabeth wrote: "C wrote: "I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year."This year there are only a couple of books I'd be thrilled to see winning. There are a handful more that wer..."
I feel the same way! The Trees was fantastic, and I enjoyed a few others but otherwise... :/
I'm also not sure I'll finish in time. I just started Copeland, and also have Subdivision and Nervous System on deck.
C wrote: "Alison wrote: "Oh, well, I guess it's time to finally read the Rooney, it being up so early in the tournament and all."Alison - I think it starts bottom right and goes back down the other side? (..."
I retract my previous statement. I just noticed the brackets for last year did NOT go counterclockwise but top to bottom left side, then top to bottom right side. oops!
Elizabeth wrote: "C wrote: "I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year."This year there are only a couple of books I'd be thrilled to see winning. There are a handful more that wer..."
yeah this is definitely my sentiment this year as well. I was a completist last year for the first time so now that I've checked that box once I didn't feel the need to repeat the feat again this year, for exactly the reason you described. Life is too short and I have too many books to get to that I really, really want to read.
Phyllis, I'm sorry I just now saw your comment. I would love your copy of The Trees if you're still offering! :) I tried to message you my address but it says you're not accepting messages. Feel free to message me and I'll message you back, if it can work that way. (I don't really use Goodreads to talk to people usually and am not sure how it works). Thank you!!
Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment but I've been determined to try to get to all these books and so far I guess I'm glad. :) I finished The Sentence and did not love it but I guess I'm still glad I read it. I'm about to post my thoughts about it in the sub-forum to discuss that book so that this comment doesn't get too long!
I listened to more of The Book of Form and Emptiness and started really liking it! Or at least the parts about Benny and his mom. I can't say I like the parts where the book talks- that annoys me but I just listen to it so I can get to the other parts.
I took a break from that to start listening to Copeland so I could get to the play-in books in time now that I know/understand the schedule and dates. (Which I saw posted today on the Discord channel.) I like it so far and agree that audiobook is probably the best way to read the book. :) (Hoopla had both audiobook and eBook versions for me... I think it's also on Scribd but I can't remember.)
I also started reading Our Country Friends in eBook form and I'm only about 10% of the way through but I think I like it so far. :) The tone is interesting, reminds me of a Russian novel, ha. And the characters and subject matter so far sound pretty interesting. (I usually go into these blind without reading the blurbs as I hate spoilers of any kind! So I'm just trying to figure out what all it might be about so far.)
That's three books that have something to do with the Covid pandemic that I'm currently reading, plus I just finished The Sentence which was all about that, depressingly in some places, so I'm pretty tired of reading about it in books but I get that a lot of authors were writing about it last year so I'll press on.
Like many folks here, I don't feel passionate about any of these books winning the tournament this year, maybe for the first time ever? I still have to tackle Matrix and The Book of Form and Emptiness, but it'll be up to the Free Library of Philadelphia whether I get to them or not during the tournament. Here are the books I read, broken into segments, and placed in order of preference from "I would highly recommend this to others" to "this was an incredible feat of translation that I did not enjoy a single second of."
No One Is Talking About This
Trees
Beautiful World, Where Are You?
Intimacies
All’s Well
When We Cease to Understand the World
Echo Wife
Several People Are Typing
The Sentence
Klara and the Sun
Confessions of Copeland Cane
Libertie
Nervous System
Subdivision
Our Country Friends
In Concrete
Yeah... I remember specifically begging the ToB last year... please no covid books?!?! Did they go for ALL covid books?!?! hah
What I'm finding interesting is that for all the talk about how there were only a few good books on the shortlist, when people put up lists of the books in order of preference, everyone's top books are different. That bodes well for the discussions I think.
Alison wrote: "What I'm finding interesting is that for all the talk about how there were only a few good books on the shortlist, when people put up lists of the books in order of preference, everyone's top books are different."That is exactly what I am finding intriguing in the discussions here. Like you, Alison, I am looking forward to both lively discussions during the ToB and enlightenment from others about what they thought was brilliant in the books I enjoyed less.
I noticed that, too, Alison. I've finally finished -- my last book was Copeland Cane -- and I had assumed that everyone would think The Trees was the one to beat and everything else was an also-ran. Silly me! Here are my rankings:The Trees -- far and away #1
Several People are Typing
Subdivision
The Echo Wife
In Concrete
LIbertie
Matrix
The Confession of Copeland Cane
Our Country Friends
When We Cease to Understand the World
The Sentence
The Book of Form and Emptiness
Beautiful World, Where Are you?
Intimacies
Klara and the Sun
All's Well
Really, #8-14 are all kind of the same, 3 stars, and they could be in any order. I have no strong opinion about the play-in, but I did think that Copeland Cane, once I got into it, was the most intriguing. I was surprised at how blah I found the Erdrich and how tacked on I found the pandemic theme. The only book I truly loved was The Trees, and it almost rivals my favorite book of last year, Cloud Cuckoo Land. And the only book I truly hated was All's Well, although I still resent Klara & the Sun, since it read to me like Ishiguro plagiarizing his own work (Never Let Me Go).
Finished! Sad that the only year I’ve managed to read them all had so few I truly enjoyed. I loved The Trees and Intimacies—the rest ranged from “pretty good” all the way down to “please let this be over soon!” Here’s my attempt at rating:The Trees
Intimacies
Beautiful World
Book of Form and Emptiness
Sentence
All’s Well
Matrix
Klara and the Sun
Echo Wife
Copeland Cane
Libertie
Country Friends
Subdivision
Several People are Typing
No One is Talking about This
When We Cease tomUnderstand the World
In Concrete
Nervous System
I so love the TOB. It has become more sacred to me than most major holidays and the fact that I share it with only people who are online to me,,,,,, gives me pause. (and a smirk)Anyway, I freakin' love that everyone's list is a crap shoot. I am here for your analysis, arguments, pros/cons, all of it. Thank you.
My list is on my blog if you care. Whatever. Come on March 8 - it is the beauty and thrill of the conversation - I learn from you all.
I seem to be in the minority on this, but I was very impressed with this year's shortlist, with "The Trees" and "Book of Form and Emptiness" still left to read. There were only two that I've actively disliked so far, and even on those I can totally understand why many readers love them ("No One Is Talking About This" and "Beautiful World, Where Are You"). Looking forward to the usual TOB chaos to come.
Care wrote: "I so love the TOB. It has become more sacred to me than most major holidays and the fact that I share it with only people who are online to me,,,,,, gives me pause. (and a smirk)Anyway, I freakin..."
Aw, so great. I agree - the books could be bad - it's the ToB crew and discussions that matter. And of course I care, Care. Love that list. It's also fun to know today is Banana Cream Pie day... wish I had some!
Congrats to all completeists! Nice work! With other book obligations, I have only read eight so far, four on deck, can't find three, and three I didn't feel like getting to anyway.
I can only imagine the rage if Trees gets cut the first round.
C wrote: "I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year."I definitely don't share that impression. I had that feeling back in 2020 with only two Rooster worthy books, neither of which made that inexplicable final. But this year there are 4 books I can root for and 5 others I'd like to see do well. That 50% ratio has been typical of years other than 2020, so it feels like a good year to me this year.
Tim wrote: "C wrote: "I mean, I usually have a handful of books I would LOVE to see win each year."I definitely don't share that impression. I had that feeling back in 2020 with only two Rooster worthy books..."
I'm glad they worked better for you, Tim! I wouldn't want them to not be liked by everyone... Also, I probably didn't get a chance to read my favorites yet, at only half the shortlist completed...
C wrote: "I'm glad they worked better for you, Tim! I wouldn't want them to not be liked by everyone..."I've also been surprised at what Alison pointed out:
"...for all the talk about how there were only a few good books on the shortlist, when people put up lists of the books in order of preference, everyone's top books are different.
There are always some love-hate books on the list that stir polarized responses, but even considering those, it usually feels like there is some kind of broad consensus on the books. Not this year, though.
Kyle wrote: "I can only imagine the rage if Trees gets cut the first round."Long time TOBer, no rage left in me...but I will be sad.
Ones I'd be happiest to have win: The Trees, Matrix, or When We Cease to Understand the World. Second tier: Intimacies, All's Well, or even Our Country Friends.
The rest are meh. No hate reads, because I skipped reading the ones I thought might fall into that category. For me, life's too short to read just for the sake of being a completist, although I did enjoy doing it the years I made that a priority.
Kyle wrote: "I can only imagine the rage if Trees gets cut the first round."Not gonna lie, this would ruin my March and I can hardly stand to consider the possibility. The Trees, as Ellen noted in her list, is far and away my fave this year.
Sooooo excited!!
Not quite done, but I’ve got a long flight tomorrow, so I should be able to get through Beautiful World… and have full completist status for this year. Wooohoooo!I agree that The Trees is one of the real gems, but I also loved All’s Well, and I really hate that as a first round matchup! I’m also not thrilled by The Book of Form and Emptiness vs. When We Cease To Understand The World in the first round. All four of those are in my top tier, so it makes me sad that there’s no hope for more than two of them to reach the top 8. Although I suppose it would be more devastating if books I loved lost to ones that I was less impressed with, and if history is any indicator, my heart will be broken at least once.
Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed the books on the shortlist this year, especially since it’s wasn’t thrilled with it when it came out. I’m really loving seeing everyone’s rankings. I can’t wait to hear from those of you that loved the books I didn’t, I feel like every year one of you manages to help me see some of the books through completely new eyes.
Maggie wrote: "I agree that The Trees is one of the real gems, but I also loved All’s Well, and I really hate that as a first round matchup!.."Yeah, I was unhappy with this, too - I work my bracket to have them meet again in the finals, despite that.
Hi everyone. For me the journey is always more satisfying than the destination. I get the opportunity to read many books that would most likely not come under my radar. Some are good, some not so much. But I can not respect a tournament that not once but twice (!) selected Normal People as the winner. There’s something about the judges, not all, that feel like they’ve got to make a controversial choice for some frustrating and inane reason. Are we going to have a special thread for the discussions?
Hi all -- excited about the ToB, as always. But I just registered for Discord, downloaded the app and all, but when I tried to register for the ToB chat? or whatever? I was told it was an invalid invite. Here was the message:"You finally got that invite to the super-secret Discord server you've been wanting to join, yes!
So... why isn't it working? There are a few reasons your server link may be 'Invalid'.
WHAT TO CHECK
Expiration: Your invite link may have expired. In this case, please contact the server owner and ask them for a new invite.
Invalid Code: You may not have a legitimate invite code. Please check your code and try again. Remember that invite codes -are- case sensitive!
Ban: You may have been banned from joining this server. Bans are based on IP address, so you would need to contact the server admins and ask them to revoke all bans in their Server Settings. Just because they remove your name, does not mean the invite will work.
100 Server Limit: A user cannot be a member of more than 100 servers. If you are in too many servers, you'll need to leave one before you can join."
Any insights? Should I be contacting Andrew and Rosencrans?
Ellen wrote: "Hi all -- excited about the ToB, as always. But I just registered for Discord, downloaded the app and all, but when I tried to register for the ToB chat? or whatever? I was told it was an invalid i..."That's strange...Yes, I'd contact Andrew/Rosecrans, or post a message in the Ask The Moderators section here. If it's happening to you, I'm sure it's happening to others and they'd want to fix it before tomorrow!
And just imagine if the chat were bereft of my presence!!!!
Ellen wrote: "And just imagine if the chat were bereft of my presence!!!!"That would turn TOB into a dystopian novel!
Have you followed from the link here: https://themorningnews.org/tob/ - that was the only way I was able to get into discord
Hi all, I've very late to the party! Can someone give me a brief rundown of what Discord is, and what it means to ToB? Thanks in advance.
Still struggling with my sign-in to Discord, and the ToB group. I have e-mails in to both. Does anyone know, is the play-in round today, or tomorrow?Lljones, I believe Discord is the platform that the chat will be on this year, rather than Disqus.
I've been at 15/18 since the end of January I think and made an executive decision to not read anymore. The remaining books didn't pique my curiosity as much as my TBR. I have all the play-in titles yet and the Ozeki which I started on audio but was daunted, discouraged, and then annoyed by the 18 hour run time. I may audio the play-in winner? We'll see.5 STAR BOOKS
The Trees
No One Is Talking About This
When We Cease To Understand the World
In Concrete
4 STAR BOOKS
All's Well
Subdivision
3 STARS
Intimacies
Matrix
Klara
Libertie
2 STARS
Echo Wife
Several People Are Typing
DNF
Beautiful World
Nervous System
Ellen wrote: "Still struggling with my sign-in to Discord, and the ToB group. I have e-mails in to both. Does anyone know, is the play-in round today, or tomorrow?"March 8, Tuesday, Play-In round verdict to be posted.
Matthew wrote: "I seem to be in the minority on this, but I was very impressed with this year's shortlist, with "The Trees" and "Book of Form and Emptiness" still left to read. There were only two that I've active..."I enjoyed this list more than last years (and I read much more than the 1st-yr-COVID list)! I was surprised to see the brackets on Discord are so diverged! After my judge-stalking, I thought most of the decisions obvious... so this should be a fun year for conversations for sure!
Tournament of Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Our Country Friends (other topics)Intimacies (other topics)
Matrix (other topics)
When We Cease to Understand the World (other topics)
The Trees (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Mona Awad (other topics)Sally Rooney (other topics)
Ruth Ozeki (other topics)
Sarah Gailey (other topics)
Katie Kitamura (other topics)
More...
I think that gets you a ::dustystick::
HAHA double points for book whining and ToB book ref..."
I'm with you, Jenny... I'm hoping I can figure out Discord when the tob rolls around... I'd rather it just stick to disqus... or some other form of old-timey comment thread.