Tournament of Books discussion
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ToF 2025 - chat and info
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A quick update on judges:We need at least five more volunteers in order to run the tournament. If you have some availability in the summer, we'd love you to sign up. When you register, you can indicate the months that will work for you.
Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
It’s fun and rewarding! You know you’ll be reading the books anyway, why not share your thoughts?!
Phyllis wrote: "..., could you possibly list in a comment here, the 4 ToB books and the 4 non-ToB books, with their author names..."Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Poor Deer by Claire Oshetsky
The SafeKeep by Yael van der Wouden
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Two-Step Devil / Jami Quatro
I Make Envy on Your Disco by Eric Schnall
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru
We're making progress on our judging pool, but we still need at least 3 more judges:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
Alright, I'll do it again. Since it was fun last year. And if anyone didn't do it last year, I will say it is fun and you should do it this year.
Kyle wrote: "Alright, I'll do it again. Since it was fun last year. And if anyone didn't do it last year, I will say it is fun and you should do it this year."I've done it the last two years in a row, and I wholeheartedly concur. It's a blast that I highly recommend! For someone else this time though, as both prior years I was on PTO for parental leave (yay union-negotiated renewed contract that netted me 6 more weeks off before last June after 6 weeks off in 2023 for my second daughter's birth...for a total now for any new parent of 12 weeks, which for this country seems solid), but I do not have that working in my favor this year and regrettably cannot again be a late-join judge due to necessity (I'm a lurker in the commentariat due to time constraints, so I have been reluctant but loved each TOF experience).
For anyone thinking of doing it though, it's like a zombie vote but you keep the book you want alive (admittedly only for whatever round you're judging, but still...the power! lol). Plus voting for which of the remaining books you want for champion is great, regardless of how it turns out.
Thanks for the judging endorsements, Kyle and Adam! For anyone who's willing to help out, we could still use a couple more judges and/or alternates:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
Judges and alternates - you should have received an email from me today to confirm your participation. If you didn't, please let me know. Thanks!
I finished a ToF book yesterday (Two-Step Devil) and realized we do t have threads set up to talk about the books. Is that something folks would use during the summer as the judges are deciding? If so, would 4 threads, one for each first round match, be enough? Or I could just start one main pre-tournament book discussion thread, and keep matchups for when we have judgements to talk about? Or maybe 2 threads, one that is spoiler free?
I would welcome threads for each of the books! I'm working on one myself (that I probably won't end up judging, unless it gets to the finale) and would like to chat about it.
I feel like the volume of traffic we get here isn’t high enough to make 8 separate threads worth it? I guess what I’ll offer is that if you would like to discuss a book, start a thread in this section (anyone can do that). Just title the thread “ToF 2025 - book name” so it is clear.
I started three threads - one for the two books I have finished and one for the book I'm reading now. Goodreads stopped me after that so I'll put up more tomorrow!
I added one for Glorious Exploits and I Make Envy. I finished Exploits a couple of weeks ago and will start I Make Envy this evening.
Two weeks left to read before zombie voting closes! I am in the middle of my 7th book and just got the hold on the 8th.Here's the link for zombie votes again:
https://forms.gle/GA3jxzXxmY8PWx8R8
One week to go for the zombie poll! I’m working on my last book and should make it.
I’m unsure where to post this question, but this seems to be the most active thread at the moment. Has anyone heard if there will be a Camp TOB this summer? I’m guessing not since we haven’t heard anything yet, but I usually enjoy the discussions, so I was hoping there would be one.
Gwendolyn wrote: "I’m unsure where to post this question, but this seems to be the most active thread at the moment. Has anyone heard if there will be a Camp TOB this summer? I’m guessing not since we haven’t heard ..."I was just thinking about that too! I think the ToB organizers said it would be something different this year. I'm assuming it will be a low-key situation, but hopefully we'll hear some news soon.
On May 15, Andrew posted on Discord and said a summer announcement was coming soon - nothing since then.
EmilyP wrote: "On May 15, Andrew posted on Discord and said a summer announcement was coming soon - nothing since then."Thanks! I hope we hear something soon!
Just a few more days to get your zombie vote in! Poll closes the evening of May 31, probably about 9:30 Pacific. It will be a close call (unlike last year), so every vote counts. Please don't vote more than once on purpose, but if you can't remember whether you've already voted, feel free to submit. I will check for duplicates and delete the earlier one once I close submissions.
ToF Round 1 judging is officially over! Thanks to all of our judges. If you are a Round 2 judge, you should have received your two book assignments via email. If not, please let me know.
What were the results of round one? Or is that a secret for now?
The tournament results are in September, similar to how the actual tournament runs. No spoilers till then!
Chrissy wrote: "The tournament results are in September, similar to how the actual tournament runs. No spoilers till then!"Ok thanks.
We are almost ready to start the tournament! The schedule is entirely up to us, so I’m interested in opinions about start date and pacing. We can start as soon as all judgements have been submitted (which should be tomorrow, but sometimes life happens) but we can also wait if people are still trying to get all 8 books read in order to follow along. I don’t expect any news out of the official Tournament on next year’s long list till much later in the fall. What say we all?
I have one book yet to read. I’ll just suggest start date September 8 and it would be nice to slow it down. Maybe 2 or 3 judgements a week? What does everyone else think?
I think a September 8 start date sounds lovely. That would let everyone get past the labor day weekend and let us begin on a Monday. If judgments were released on Mondays and Wednesdays, then we would have our ToF wrapped up by the end of October, which seems like it would be perfect for the ToB long list release sometime in November.
That timeline and pacing sound excellent to me - thanks everyone!I had forgotten which books were on this list, but I just scrolled back to check… I’m happy to see that I already read them all earlier in the year. :)
I think 3 matches a week is a good pace, M/W/F. Stating on the 8th is a great plan.
somehow i missed this whole deal! luckily, i've read half the books already. time for some audiobook bingeing to follow along! really looking forward to it.
Phyllis wrote: "I think a September 8 start date sounds lovely. That would let everyone get past the labor day weekend and let us begin on a Monday. If judgments were released on Mondays and Wednesdays, then we wo..."I like the idea of starting on Sept. 8 and releasing 2 judgements a week.
The 2025 Tournament of Favorites has come to a close! Thanks to all who participated!I want to open up a conversation about the future of this project. Our participation was significantly down this year, and I'm not sure the demand is there to continue. Besides a coordinator or two, we need judges, and if the active group is down to 20 people or less it feels like maybe a different format would be better.
If you have thoughts about what direction we should go (with, I think, the goal of spending time during the ToB off-season discussing books from the long list and maybe others as well), please either post them in this thread or direct message me with your ideas.
Thank you Chrissy for ALL the work you have given to this project. I appreciate you!
Tournament of Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Two-Step Devil (other topics)There Are Rivers in the Sky (other topics)
Two-Step Devil (other topics)
TOB Longlist
The Safekeep - Yael van der Wouden
Glorious Exploits - Ferdia Lennon
Poor Deer - Claire Oshetsky
I Cheerfully Refuse - Leif Enger
Non-TOB
Two-Step Devil - Jamie Quatro
There Are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak
Blue Ruin - Hari Kunzru
I Make Envy on Your Disco - Eric Schnall