Tournament of Books discussion
2023 TOB General
>
2023 Shortlist
I regret to inform you all that the Instagram tag #tob2023 has been usurped by Taste of Birmingham 2023.
Just a reminder that you have until midnight Pacific time on March 7 (this coming Tuesday night) to enter your guesses into the bracket competition spreadsheet:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Kyle wrote: "I regret to inform you all that the Instagram tag #tob2023 has been usurped by Taste of Birmingham 2023."Alabama?
Kyle wrote: "I regret to inform you all that the Instagram tag #tob2023 has been usurped by Taste of Birmingham 2023."Oh no! Hopefully we can take it back once the tournament starts. ;)
I just finished Dinosaurs and had to completely redo my bracket. Finally! A pure delight from start to finish.
Agreed, Karen. It ended up being #1 for me, though I think I liked more of the shortlist entries than you did. My top picks: Dinosaurs, The Passenger, Book of Goose, Tx3, Sea of Tranquility, Seven Moons.
I finished number 18 today - completion status unleashed! Here's my ranking:
Babel
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Tomorrow x3
Olga Dies Dreaming
Dinosaurs
The Book of Goose
The Rabbit Hutch
Nightcrawling
Sea of Tranquility
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
Mercury Pictures Presents
An Island
My Volcano
Mouth to Mouth
The Violin Conspiracy
The Passenger
2 A.M. in Little America
Manhunt
It was a decent amount of four-star reads this year, and most of this ranking is close, where titles could easily swap with the one above or below it, but I guess it mostly comes down to cheering for any of the books in the top eight-ish spots to win. Babel and Seven Moons are nearly a tie, and my bracket has Seven Moons as the winner, but I might change that to Babel... Both were great!
I just became a completist, and my list feels similar to Lauren's in spirit. I'd be thrilled with most of the top half advancing to the end, and the last couple books are the price I paid to enjoy other books on the list I otherwise wouldn't have. Many of these could change with the book above or below it. I think I'm more positive about the list overall than many in this group, and I can't wait to gain more clarity from the Tournament and comment sections.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Babel
The Rabbit Hutch
Olga Dies Dreaming
Dinosaurs
Sea of Tranquility
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
The Violin Conspiracy
Nightcrawling
Mouth to Mouth
My Volcano
Mercury Pictures Presents
Book of Goose
Manhunt
An Island
The Passenger
2AM in Little America
I'll never understand why my faves always seem to congregate in the same quarter. :(
40 pp of Violin Conspiracy and all of Seven Moons for me. I'll make it!
Congrats, Zach! And y'all can do it, Audra and Ellen!
Thanks for the confidence, Lauren! And, I truly believe I can, except for my pesky social/extracurricular/work life getting in the way.
I'm sure hoping so! I'll have to devote every spare minute to it, and there aren't a lot of them.
I still have Nightcrawling to read and then I’ll be a completist for the third year!! Luckily this book is in the last matchup so no big deal if I don’t finish by Wednesday.
I’m so amazed by all of you! That’s dedication.This is my worst year ever, most of the books I was most looking forward to were pretty universally panned so I never even tried them. I’ve only finished 8, DNF’d 2. Of those 8, only 2 were 5 star reads for me…And I don’t feel so strongly about them that I’ll be sad to see them lose their rounds. Oh well, I’m very much looking forward to the discussions anyway!
Elizabeth wrote: "I’m so amazed by all of you! That’s dedication.This is my worst year ever, most of the books I was most looking forward to were pretty universally panned so I never even tried them. I’ve only fin..."
I'm with you Elizabeth...I think my reading tastes are changing. I just returned from the Tucson Book Festival and almost all the books I want to read are non-fiction. Temple Grandin, Candice Millard, Malcolm Nance, David Ambroz, Efren Oliveras, Dahlia Lithwick, Tova Friedman....these authors are writing the stories I want to read right now.
Well, if your reading tastes are changing, I think all of ours are, Janet. Most of us seem to have found this year's roster less than compelling. I won't know if it's me or the roster until afterwards when I settle down to read what's in my non-ToB TBR pile/list.
I was pleasantly surprised by Book of Goose, Dinosaurs, Maali Almeida, and An Island, so if nothing else the Tournament made me aware of those. (I was always planning on reading Babel - as I liked her previous books - and Sea of Tranquility/T&T&T came to my attention outside of the whole tournament.)
Hi Janet, thanks for schlepping down here for the TFoB! Such a great event. This is the first year I've missed...I work at UA so have no excuse really.
Mindy….I try to go every year….this year was exceptional I think. Ellen….for several TOB’s I was a completist but now I figure life is just too short to read a book I’m not interested in. And with what seems like more and more books published every year I need to choose wisely.
I wish I could do that! My silly need to finish every book I start is getting tiresome, and then there are all those book clubs and the ToB...I get very caught up in it all.
OK i was wrong yesterday, it doesn't start today. But it does start tomorrow! Woo! Get hyped!
Are we all preparing for tomorrow? Finishing that last book? Putting an out of office note onto all incoming emails? Doing all the laundry? Kissing all your friends and family goodbye for three weeks?
I just cleaned up the bracket prediction spreadsheet a bit.C, if you see this, you didn't pick a play-in winner but did everything else!
And friendly reminder you have until midnight Pacific to get your predictions in.
Praying that what is for me this year’s Overthrow (2 AM in Little America) gets overthrown tomorrow.
Congrats to all the completists this year. I didn't make it this year, and not for lack of time, either. Just ran out of steam before I hit =Violin Conspiracy= and =2 am...=.
Also, I'm afraid I was all too willing to DNF this year. In the name of giving the books that did speak to me more of my attention.
It's always a mystery to me how we come together every year, have the same books in common, and have such wide ranging opinions about them. It surprises me each time how so many of you can be so wrong!
When I first started with the Tournament, I was being exposed to a lot of books I wouldn't have picked up on my own, so they all felt like revelations to me. Now I know how to look for those books, so I attribute that difference in excitement I feel over the books this year to the diminishing level of surprise. When I check my notes, the ToB has always had about a 50% hit rate with me, and it's not so different this year.
Of course, I am still really looking forward to the scrum of the commentariat.
Anyhow - my top picks for this year, in no particular order:
=The Passenger=
=The Book of Goose=
=Seven Moons...=
=Dinosaurs=
And my glad to have read them:
=Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance=
=Mercury Pictures Presents=
=Mouth to Mouth= (despite the very end)
=The Island=
My hope is "An Island" wins the play-in round, but I'd be fine with "My Volcano" - 2AM was aggressively okay.
I've got the books for the first 6 days of judgements read, and am hoping the weekends give me time to read the ones later in the bracket. Strategically timed reading, that's the ticket. So far The Passenger is easily my favorite, Babel easily the most overrated (IMO!) - out of all the books Babel has the highest average Goodreads rating, despite its 4 seed.
I feel like tomorrow's play in round is my low-stakes warm up (where I don't have a preference who wins), before the left side of the bracket starts breaking my heart, where each match-up I have a strong preference.Also my zombie vote regrets are in high gear right now.
See, I just forget what my zombie votes are, so I don't feel bad.
Tim! Remember in my earliest years of ToB when you and I never agreed on (checks notes) anything? This year, we have the same favorites. Have I evolved? Have you? Did someone put something in my water? ;-)I’m teaching all day tomorrow so I will be late to the party, but I only managed to read one of the three play-in round books, so I’ll mostly be checking in to see what the rest of you thought of them.
Cheers to a great tournament, folks. However things turn out, I’m so glad to know and read with all of you.
I'm very excited to be (and disagree) with MY PEOPLE. Remember to leave out corn, millet, and the shredded remains of last years losing selections overnight to feed the rooster who'll visit us in the morning.
Risa wrote: "Tim! Remember in my earliest years of ToB when you and I never agreed on (checks notes) anything? This year, we have the same favorites. Have I evolved? Have you? Did someone put something in my wa..."(Supplement to earlier message to Tim: I adored Tx3, which you did not, and I was annoyed by Mouth to Mouth, which you were not. So, all is still right with the world. ;-)
Risa wrote: "Tim! Remember in my earliest years of ToB when you and I never agreed on (checks notes) anything? This year, we have the same favorites. Have I evolved? Have you? ..."Oh, my tastes have definitely evolved. Now, with the exception of your inexplicable love for TX3, you are one of readers I use as a touchstone. ... Maybe it is something in the water....
Also, for those who aren't already saturated with book lists, the Women's Prize longlist was announced today. Many of these books are new to me, and I find that exciting! https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co....
Risa wrote: "Also, for those who aren't already saturated with book lists, the Women's Prize longlist was announced today. Many of these books are new to me, and I find that exciting! https://www.womensprizef..."
You read my mind....so many debuts. I'm busy culling to see which ones are currently available in the U.S.
Tim wrote: "Risa wrote: "Tim! Remember in my earliest years of ToB when you and I never agreed on (checks notes) anything? This year, we have the same favorites. Have I evolved? Have you? ..."Oh, my tastes h..."
LOL! I found Tx3 charming. I know it has flaws, but it won me over.
Kip wrote: "I just cleaned up the bracket prediction spreadsheet a bit.C, if you see this, you didn't pick a play-in winner but did everything else!
And friendly reminder you have until midnight Pacific to ..."
KIP! Thank you so much for catching that, as I wouldn't have checked. I had picked the playin winner, so I'm not sure what happened. But I'm glad I had a chance to fix it.
Looking forward to the start! Tomorrow!!!
Risa wrote: "Also, for those who aren't already saturated ..."How did a memoir make the fiction prize list?
Kyle wrote: "See, I just forget what my zombie votes are, so I don't feel bad."I do this every single year, glad I am not alone.
Tim wrote: "Risa wrote: "Also, for those who aren't already saturated ..."How did a memoir make the fiction prize list?"
I can't quite figure it out, except that the author chose to give the character who is certainly "her" a different name? ....
Risa wrote: "Also, for those who aren't already saturated with book lists, the Women's Prize longlist was announced today. Many of these books are new to me, and I find that exciting! https://www.womensprizef..."
Nice, I'm in the middle of The Bandit Queens right now.
Tim wrote: "Risa wrote: "Also, for those who aren't already saturated ..."How did a memoir make the fiction prize list?"
I just went through the list... which is the memoir?
Homesick, by Jennifer Croft. From the author's website: "The book was written in Spanish first, as a novel called Serpientes y escaleras, and then as a memoir in English, called Homesick. Neither the Spanish nor the English is a translation."So, it's memoir... ish?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/bo...
Forgive me if this has been asked before, but will the primary conversations about these matchups be here in Goodreads or over on Discord? I’ve been participating in both up to this point, but it will be difficult to do that during the actual tournament. Are you all staying here or heading over to Discord tomorrow?
Tournament of Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West (other topics)No Country for Old Men (other topics)
All the Pretty Horses (other topics)
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies (other topics)
The Bees (other topics)
More...
If no one else has time to do it, this evening I'll start setting up discussion groups for the matches. I think GR will only allow me to start a certain number each day, so if I start now, I think there will be time to have them all ready before March 8 when the ToB begins.