Next Year's ToB - What Book Do Want Included?

Although it's only a few months into 2016, a few books have already been published this year. And many more have been announced, with varying amounts of fanfare. Are there any books you'd like to see included in next year's tournament?



I loved The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie and I think it's off-beat and interesting enough to warrant inclusion in the next contest.

Tell me more, RidgewayGirl! I loved reading Thorstein Veblen in college, so I'm intrigued my a novel that references him in the title.

>2 zhejw: Thorsten Veblen is someone Veblen is interested in and writes about (given her name, she's either going to love him or hate him). Anyway, here's my review:

Elizabeth McKenzie's novel was delightful. Witty, self-assured and charming; I enjoyed this book enormously. Set in Palo Alto, The Portable Veblen concerns Veblen, a free spirit living in an old cottage at the end of a cul de sac in Palo Alto. Working a pink collar job at the university, she meets Paul, an up-and-coming medical researcher. So up-and-coming that he is promptly poached by a large pharmaceutical firm that wants to market his invention - a kit that allows for brain injuries to be treated by Army medics at the scene of the injury. Paul and Veblen fall in love, but they have very different visions of their future. Paul is being wooed by a much more affluent lifestyle than he's ever experienced, and Veblen loves her tiny cottage and simple lifestyle.

The story of Veblen and Paul is not so simple as one wanting status that the other finds abhorrent. Both have families that they are still having trouble dealing with. Veblen's mother is a controlling hypochondriac, who nonetheless dearly loves Veblen, and her father is in a mental institution. Paul was raised by hippies who grew pot and made furniture out of found objects. They're both intent on shaping their lives partially in reaction to their upbringing. What's lovely about this book is that McKenzie never goes for the easy answer. All of her characters are understandable, and even likable in their own ways, even when their actions are harmful to others. Also, there is a squirrel.

After a stretch of reading serious books doing inventive things to the story-telling process, it was wonderful to read a more traditionally (mostly) constructed novel. McKenzie has written an excellent book about families, and how they affect us, even in how we choose to be different from them and she's done so in a manner that charmed me.

I'm not as up on what's coming out over the next year, but the recent book that came out that I'm most looking forward to is Arcadia by Iain Pears. I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost and Stone's Fall - both were my favourite book of the year in the year I read them. So I'm totally on board with this one. It seems like my library's lost their copy, though, so it'll be a bit.

The other thing coming out shortly that I'm really looking forward to is Tell the Wind and Fire, by Sarah Rees Brennan. It's a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities, but with more agency for the heroine, which changes a bunch of things in the story, apparently. It's YA, but good YA's made it in a couple of times before, so... who knows?

>4 WinterFox: Hey, bad YA has made it in before - did you read Adam (although that was "new adult").

And I loved An Instance of the Fingerpost. I'll have to read Stone's Fall.

I have a few so far I'm interested in seeing -



Mr Splitfoot - Samantha Hunt
The Queen of the Night - Alexander Chee
The Vegetarian - Han Kang

I'm also keeping an eye on future releases this year - especially Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Here I Am and Emma Cline's The Girls.

>5 RidgewayGirl: Oh man, Adam - no, I didn't read it, because I remember reading the judgment and commentary around it and being like, wow, if those are the tropes you're pulling, then nope. I have a bunch of trans and queer friends, and that kind of representation was more likely to just make me angry than be edifying, so I decided to pass. ^^;

Stone's Fall is also really good - it doesn't use the same structure as Fingerpost, instead doing three time periods in three cities, moving backwards, but it's got the character building and the historical stuff and the writing that really drives it home.

I loved The Year of the Runaways, which was a Booker finalist last year and was just published in the U.S. Similarly, The Chimes which was on the Booker longlist, could make for some interesting conversation, but I don't see it making the list. The Booker judges and those who follow the Booker appear to be the only people aware of it.

>6 KLmesoftly: All three of those covers are awesome.

>4 WinterFox: "New adult?" Ugh, I just broke my eyes rolling them.

Oh, looks like Nozlee just combed through the full list of recs from the thread from yesterday, and compiled a big list of 2016 things, if you go back and look at the ToB page. Definitely some interesting stuff I missed in there - I didn't realize Matt Ruff had a new thing coming out, for instance. Could be worth a look!

>11 WinterFox: Jeez, like my wish list needs to be any longer. A lot of great names on that list. This is a great time to be a reader, so many riches.

Also thinking I have to read both finalists sooner rather than later after reading the final commentary.

Looking over my wishlist, All the Birds in the Sky seems a good fit for the ToB. Haven't read it yet, though.

I didn't think I had much on my list until I looked over Nozlee's compilation. My library hold lists are now full-up.

The next ones I'll get my hands on will probably be:
Innocents and Others - Dana Spiotta
The Queen of the Night - Alexander Chee
The Vegetarian - Han Kang
Tell the Wind and Fire - Sarah Rees Brennan

I'm just excited about reading everything, always.

Man, I nearly read Stone Arabia like 3 times and it never happened. Maybe I'll have better luck with Innocents and Others?

More people reading Tell the Wind and Fire! I am looking forward to it so much. I've read all her other books; having a stand-alone one will be a good change of pace.

I don't seem to be able to find Nozlee's compilation or a link to it, can someone provide the list or a link?

>16 Kristelh: If you scroll to the bottom of the commentary, where the comments start, on the final judgment page (so http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/ still), the list should be there as the featured comment! Does that work for you?

>17 WinterFox:, thanks, that worked.

Wow - that's quite a list. I'm excited to see that Liz Moore - The Unseen World has a new book coming out as I really enjoyed Heft when I read it a couple of years ago.

I am reading The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray which is one of the books on the list.

I finished The Lost time Accidents. Posted my review. I liked it. I think it has potential.

Now that The Vegetarian won the Man Booker International I'll be very surprised if it doesn't make it into the ToB! I have my fingers crossed, I really liked that one.

I finally read The Queen of the Night last week and was so blown away - if I could only get one of my favorites onto the shortlist in 2017 this is the one I'd pick, it's such a work of art and I would love to read what the judges/essayists and commentariat have to say about it!

I read Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist recently as well and could see it making at least the longlist; it's an imperfect, but very gripping and compelling character-driven novel about a few narrators (a mix of protestors and police) during the 1999 Seattle WTO riots.

>22 KLmesoftly: I've seen mixed reviews for The Queen of the Night, but Alexander Chee is such an engaging person that I'd like to read it and am waiting to run across a copy.

The other two titles also seem likely to at least make the (enormous! 84 titles last time) long list.

I'm reading Why We Came to the City by Kristopher Jansma now, and it feels like the kind of book that might make it to the Rooster.

I'm currently reading The Vegetarian and will report back on my thoughts once done.

Hadn't heard of The Queen of the Night until reading this post yesterday but then the author turned up on a podcast I was listening to this morning. Seems like a sign that I should try to read it so am now on the waiting list at my library for a ocpy.

>23 RidgewayGirl:

I doubt you would , but do you remember any of the outlets that have been negative about The Queen of the Night off the top of your head? I'm hosting a groupread/discussion on another forum next month and have been reading a lot of reviews and am actually surprised to see not much negative response - usually longer books especially tend to be controversial (you can't not have a strong opinion about something you've spent almost 600 pages with, especially something that's such an emotional rollercoaster they had Hanya Yanagihara of A Little Life infamy give a pullquote for the cover)!

So far the biggest criticism I've seen personally is on minor historical details like a character stepping out to take the air in Paris during a time when the stench outdoors would have driven people inside as much as possible - a small thing, but a valid critique of a book that has been presented by the author as the result of 15 years' research. Still, it's probably my favorite new novel of 2016 so far.

>25 KLmesoftly: It was a New Yorker piece. I only skimmed it now, as I'm planning to read the book and don't want it colored by the review, but the first few paragraphs seemed familiar.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/alexander-chees-the-queen-of-the-ni...

>25 KLmesoftly:

Ooh, thank you! I like this review and don't actually think it's that much of a critique - I agree with the assessment that basically, this book is RIDICULOUS unless you jump wholeheartedly into the "this story is an opera and if you don't already know what that means you will learn and you will love it with all of your being" thing. The opening scenes DO feel absurd and almost comedic when you remove them from that context.

It's like A Little Life, last year's epic melodrama, in that way, a book that I thought failed at its attempts to become a fairy tale where The Queen of the Night succeeded.

I'll have to think more on the criticisms in the last two paragraphs - my gut reaction is disagreement, but then I read the book in a 7-hour marathon session rather than gradually so it would have been hard to lose the threads of the plot!

(Joan and I will have to agree to disagree on finding the lengthy descriptions of fashions excessive - I loved the aesthetics of the book! I'm usually not a very visual person when I read but this one felt very vivid to me.)

Was not terribly impressed with The Vegetarian but can see where it would be an interesting tournament book. I'd be interested in the discussion surrounding it.

I also just read Tuesday Nights in 1980 which I enjoyed quite a bit and would like to see make the long list.

Reviving this conversation to say that I would be surprised not to see The Underground Railroad on the ToB next year. Another possible is The Girls by Emma Cline.

Anybody heard of or read possible candidates lately? Next year I'm going to try to read most of the candidates.

>29 sturlington: I'd think that both of those books would be shoo-ins, but I've learned not to expect a book to make the ToB. I would be surprised if The Underground Railroad isn't included though. I just finished it and thought it was brilliant. The touch of unreality to a realistic novel is something the choosers of the ToB books tend to like.

I'm really enjoying A Gambler's Anatomy by Jonathan Lethem, and it strikes me as being the kind of novel that the Rooster selectors tend to go for. I think it will at least make the long list (especially since that list usually has upwards of 80 books on it).

I suspect that The Girls by Emma Cline will make the cut, although I didn't rate it very highly. It has a lot of hype surrounding it.

Only a few months until we get to see the longlist!

I have to say that while I've read a lot of books this year, very few of them are ones that I think are going to be qualified for this. Coming up, I've got Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett, and Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett, and those'd both seem to be plausible choices based on what I've heard.

Probably the book I'd like to see make it the most that I've read this year is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer, which is the sort of sci-fi novel that I can see showing up and hanging out for a couple of rounds, even if I have been holding off on recommending it too much until the sequel comes out in February. But it's a very solid work on its own.

A Gambler's Anatomy turned out to be another WMFuN, but the tournament likes those, so I think it will at least make the long list.

Sounds plausible, although I'm definitely not in the mood for that at the moment. It actually looks like I'm going to be heading for Innocents and Others next, after finishing up The Swan Riders by Erin Bow.

The long list has been revealed. I've opened a thread.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/243063