And It's On! Here's the Shortlist

http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-2017-tournament-of-books-shortlist-and...

I've read five and am reading a sixth book on this list. I've got some reading to do!

Great. Excited. Too bad I've only read one. But I have two at home waiting for February reads.

My friend texted me as I was heading home for lunch that the list was up so I nerded out over lunch going over the list and placing my holds with the library.

I've read four and have two more from the list on hand from the library already. Excited to get some reading done.

Ones I've read in order of how I enjoyed them. I'm sure this list will change around quite a bit going forward with those last two going further and further down the list.

Most intrigued to read Mister Monkey and Sudden Death.

1. The Mothers
2. Underground Railroad
3. My Name is Lucy Barton
4. The Vegetarian

>4 LittleTaiko: That's exactly how I spent my lunch, too. And was delighted to be able to get all of the books save one from the library.

How exciting, I've read 5 and my turn for the The Vegetarian should be soon.

I had to wait until after work but I am happy to report all but two are at my library and one of those I already own so now to get them and strategize how to get so many read.

Whoof, I have read zero of these. Well, a bunch of them are at the library, so I'll get to it. I'd just finished Imagine Me Gone and had sort of hoped that'd make it in, but such is the way of the Rooster!

>8 WinterFox: My library hold for The Wang Vs. The World just came in. Not sure whether to read it now, or after the tournament (which will mean getting on at the end of a very long holds list).

I'm reading The Nix now. I have very mixed feelings about it.

>9 RidgewayGirl: Kay I selfishly want you to read The Wang Vs. The World so you can tell me how it is! I'm 35 waiting with 8 copies, so it will be a while.

>10 lsh63: I guess I'll be reading it then. Thanks for the excuse!

I stopped by the library yesterday and saw the Elizabeth Strout book on the shelf, but I had forgotten my book list and wasn't really sure if it made the list or not, so decided to leave it. They are open for a few hours this afternoon so maybe I'll run over and see if it's still there. I've only read one so far and I won't fit all of them in before March so I'll be watching what people like (I'm looking at you, Kay) to decide which others to read.

ETA: Just remembered, they're closed today and tomorrow for the holiday - Drats!

Betty, read My Name is Lucy Barton. It's very good and it's short, so you'll have time to read something else. And Strout has a new book being published this year about some of the characters in My Name is Lucy Barton.

Yeesh, I've been off LibraryThing for MONTHS. The short list coming out reminded me that this group existed. Looking forward to mingling with you fine folks again!

>9 RidgewayGirl: - I kind of want you to read it too since I didn't like it very much which means most likely you'll enjoy it. :)

I finished Homegoing which was okay but not my cup of tea. I can appreciate what she was trying to do, but only having one chapter for each member of the family did not allow me enough time to particularly work up much enthusiasm for anybody. Now, on to Mister Monkey which so far is entertaining enough, but unless it knocks my socks off towards the end wouldn't be at the top of my list.

>14 McDirk: Good to see you here!

>15 LittleTaiko: I'm reading Mister Monkey, too and I'm enjoying it.

I've finished Grief is the Thing with Feathers, which was very short and lovely and melancholy. I have absolutely no idea how it will fare in the competition.

I've read Homegoing which I loved and I now have read The Throwback Special which I also appreciated. But once again you have many characters with only bits and pieces of information. It worked for me but others might not like it. I thought it was a great example of male inner life.

I'm almost finished Mister Monkey and I'm loving it. I'm a huge fan of inter-related short stories, so this is right up my alley, but Prose is doing such a lovely job of tying the people together -- basically, each chapter follows a different person associated with a shabby off-off Broadway production of a musical based on the children's book, beginning with one of the actors, and proceeding through a few audience members and circling back to the cast of the play. So that's another book I'm happy the Tournament made me read.

I finished Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. I've posted my review.

Finished Mister Monkey today and really enjoyed it. Right now, it's the top of my list I think.

Picked up the next batch of ToB books from the library so have 9 now to get through. Just wish that three of them weren't so long - The Nix, Sport of Kings, and Version Control.

Not sure which book I'll read next, but am leaning towards Sudden Death since it combines tennis which I love and art I believe.

>20 LittleTaiko: We agree on a book! I liked Mister Monkey quite a bit, too.

I've now begun Version Control.

Ran by the library yesterday and managed to get My Name is Lucy Barton and The Mothers which was on the express shelf and needs to be back in a week. My library doesn't have a lot of the TOB books so I might have to get them from ILL if I can.

Kind of surprised myself by finishing The Throwback Special before Sudden Death. Started both of them but found myself getting caught up by The Throwback Special. It did a nice job juggling multiple characters and portraying the male pysche. It helped that I remember what a big event it was when Theismann broke his leg. My parents had watched the game and were talking about it the next day. Alas, I was too young to stay up to watch Monday night football so didn't see the play. Though, now that I think about it, it's probably just as well - very gruesome sounding.

I've finished The Mothers which is only my second book from the shortlist, but I can't decide which of the two I liked better. I guess for right now I'll go with:

1. The Underground Railroad
2. The Mothers
3. My Name is Lucy Barton
4. The Throwback Special
5. All the Birds in the Sky

ETA: I've decided to keep track of which order I like the books in here.

Betty, in my opinion, you're choosing books that should make it through a few rounds.

I'm still reading Version Control and it's not bad -- it's just that sort of science fictiony alternate world thing is not my favorite genre. So I've also started All the Birds in the Sky and it's also speculative fiction, but this time in YA form. It's fun to read, though.

I've read
Homegoing
The Throwback Special
Grief is The Thing with Feathers
The Vegetarian

I like all 4, my favorite is Homegoing but I am not sure that it is actually the greatest example of literary work, I just really like it. I like all the others quite a bit too. I did not find Grief and The Vegetarian to be entirely enjoyable reads but I think they both are deserving of high literary merit.
I find it hard to rate books. This year I am trying to use criteria to be more fair in comparing books and rating them but it still feels wrong to compare one type of book to another when I can appreciate them for different reasons. Oh well, if I ordered them according to my rating of them, and it is likely to change with time because my initial impression often changes with aging.
1. Homegoing
2. Grief is the Thing with Feathers
3. The Vegetarian
4. The Throwback Special

Just finished The Sport of Kings. It's a contender, if only because Big Important saga-type books tend to do well against smaller, more intimate ones.

I've finished reading My Name is Lucy Barton but didn't like it as much as some others have. I'll be interested to see what it goes up against in the tourney.

>28 dudes22: I didn't like My Name is Lucy Barton all that much either. I can understand why it made so many awards lists, but it just didn't appeal to me.

On the other hand, I just finished The Throwback Special and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was going to skip it, as I'm not much of a football fan, but decided to try it out as it's such a short book. I was happy to discover it's not just about football, and I found some parts quite melancholy and others parts hilariously funny.

It's been interesting reading the various reactions to these two books.

Just finished Sweet Lamb Of Heaven by Lydia Millet this morning. It took me awhile to get into this book but yesterday afternoon I finally got on a roll. I have a lot of questions about this book and would love to discuss it. I also found some things to be troubling. Anyway I can see reasons why this made the list.

When I went on the library site this a.m. before going out to do errands, I saw that one branch had All the Birds in the Sky and the other had The Throwback Special. So I stopped to get the first one but by the time I made it to the other branch, The Throwback Special had already been checked out. The librarian told me she knew who had checked it out and they were fast readers, so I put it on hold and hopefully will get it next week. I also saw Homegoing and Moonglow at the first branch, but they were both on the 7-day express shelf so I decided to give them a pass for now.

>30 Kristelh: Sweet Lamb of Heaven sounds as though it will generate a great discussion in the comments section. I have a copy and will get to it as soon as I've finished All the Birds in the Sky and Version Control.

>31 dudes22: I'm reading All the Birds in the Sky now and I'm enjoying it.

>32 RidgewayGirl: - I'm only about 20 pages in but I do like the tone of the writing.

I now have a tie for my least favorite books of the tournament so far. Just finished We Love You Charlie Freeman and pretty much disliked it. It started off okay and then just got weirder and weirder. It joins The Vegetarian as the books I've liked the least.

I finished up Sudden Death today! Can't really say I loved it, but it came together a bit more than I thought it was going to by the end. So I think I'm trying My Name is Lucy Barton next. Trying to get through some of the shorter ones.

I've finished Version Control and it's an intriguing book. It's about time travel, but it's a subtle take on the subject. While the ending was weak, the rest of the book and especially the chapters leading up to the ending were brilliant.

I'm almost done with All the Birds in the Sky and just picked up The Throwback Special from the library.

Did you like All the Birds in the Sky, Betty? I'm about halfway through.

Having just finished All the Birds in the Sky, I have to say this is my least favorite book so far. (But, then again, I've only read 4.) I liked the first part when Laurence and Patricia were young but not as much as the book went on. Maybe it's because I'm not that much a fan of science fiction and so don't appreciate whatever the author was trying to do/say.

Next I'll be reading The Throwback Special.

>39 dudes22: I really liked All the Birds in the Sky, but I don't think it's up to being in the tournament. It was a fun, inventive YA dystopian novel, and while it was certainly imaginative, it didn't rise to the level of the other books in the competition.

>40 RidgewayGirl: - Hmmm. I wasn't thinking of it in terms of the TOB exactly. I've only read a few so far and you're right about it not being as good as those. I guess I didn't realize that it was a YA book either.

I don't know if it's categorized as YA, but it had that feel to me. Which is not to say that a YA novel couldn't compete and win the ToB - just not this one.

I have to agree. Even though I haven't read a lot of TOB books, they were all better than this one.

I saw on Facebook that the brackets will be announced this week! Really curious as to these books are going to be paired.

I'm still struggling with Sudden Death for some reason. I fear it's cleverer than I am. Also started The Nix since it's due back at the library on Saturday and so far not eligible for renewals.

Ooh, brackets! I know how they decide the seeding from 1-4, but I've always been curious about WHICH 1-seeds are paired with which 4-seeds, and which 2s to which 3s. Just random selection?

>45 McDirk: I'd like to know, too. There are always pairings I'd love to see and they never, ever happen.

Anybody have any guess as to which books will be seeded #1?

My guesses, not based on my personal preferences are:

Underground Railroad
Homegoing
The Nix
My Name is Lucy Barton

That last one is one I'm the least confident in, maybe should have gone with Moonglow.

The brackets have been released!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9IKmXfuudVvQXFFMlphRjZBOEk/view

>47 LittleTaiko: Version Control seems a likely contender as well. I think The Vegetarian might also make it into the final round. And my personal favorite is Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

Yea! Now I can prioritize my reading. Figures that I've got the bottom right bracket basically completed since that will be last. Once I finish The Nix and Sudden Death, I can move on to Black Wave while working through Sport of Kings.

I finished Sweet Lamb of Heaven, about which I have mixed feelings. As some of you have already mentioned, I think it will generate an interesting discussion. I suspect my feelings about this book are affected by the dull and toneless audiobook narration, which the author did herself. There are good reasons for hiring a professional to do the narration job!

I also finished Homegoing, which I enjoyed very much. I'm glad it made it on the TOB shortlist, but I'm not sure it has the originality or impact that I normally associate with a TOB winner.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through The Underground Railroad right now, and I've got All the Birds in the Sky up next.

I'm almost finished with The Throwback Special which will be the 5th book I've read and none of the ones I've read are up against each other. I may try to get one of the opposing books so I have one bracket at least.

I have one opposing bracket Homegoing and Sweet Lamb of Heaven. I will work probably do one of the pre tournament books next after I finished with My Name is Lucy Barton.

>53 Kristelh: Yeah, I've only got two brackets where I've read both books. For every single other bracket, I've read one of the two.

Time to read more quickly. There's less than a month until play opens.

Finally finished Sudden Death this weekend and I'm still not completely sure what it was about, which is a feeling that I apparently share with the author himself.

Page 203 - “As I write, I don’t know what this book is about.” Well if he doesn’t know then how the hell am I supposed to know?

Parts of it were quite funny though so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Also read Grief is the Thing with Feathers which was just outstanding.

Have started High Dive because it's due back to the library next and every time I pick up Black Wave which I should be reading since it's up early in the bracket, I get through the first page and find myself putting it back down. Oh, also have 100 pages to go on The Nix - was loving it but the last third is really starting to become tedious.

I am currently reading The Sport of Kings and The Nix (audio). I really like first and so far the audio of the Nix is well done.

Stacy, I have got to get to both Black Wave and High Dive soon!

I'm reading Sweet Lamb of Heaven and I'm loving it. I'm sorry it goes up against Homegoing.

Nearly done with Mister Monkey and it is super lovely. A very enjoyable read, lots of interesting stuff going on. A far sight more enjoyable than Sudden Death. Next will be Sweet Lamb of Heaven, since it seems people are pretty high on it here! ^_^

I did like Sweet Lamb of Heaven, but it's certainly not going to be to everyone's taste.

I'm halfway through Moonglow and a third of the way through We love you, Charlie Freeman. Then I'll have just two books and whichever book wins the play-in round (sports books aren't my thing, so I'll read the winner, but not the others. Having said that, I hope Sudden Death wins as it looks the most interesting) to read. I'm looking forward to the start of the Tournament!

I am currently reading The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan. It's really about so much more than horse racing.

I've read The Throwback Special which was more about the internal life of men than about football.

I've heard that Sudden Death is difficult and doesn't make much sense. Even to the author.

I am only 1/2 way through The Sport of Kings. I like it but a little bogged down right now because I am doing that one and The Nix which is also so very long.

Finished The Nix which started off strong and then slumped along through the end and High Dive which was a much lighter book than expected. One of my favorites from the tournament though I don't know if it's really the sort of book that should win.

Next up is All the Birds in the Sky - only a few chapters in and am finding it just okay. Maybe it'll pick up.

>60 Kristelh: - I don't think any of the sports books are much to do with sports as they are about the lives around that particular sport. Which is probably why I'm having a hard time getting into Sport of Kings - I love horse racing and really want it to get to the racing part instead of this family dynasty bit.

>61 LittleTaiko:, I agree that The Nix started strong and I found the second half harder to push through. I think the author could have tightened it up a bit. I am probably going to do High Dive next for audio.

I've finished We Love You, Charlie Freeman and it definitely felt like a first novel. There was a long stretch in the middle that was well done, and the author really nailed a sense of rising dread, and then at the end she soft-pedaled things.

Now beginning Black Wave.

I finished The Underground Railroad, which was terrific. I also finished Moonglow and All the Birds in the Sky. They were both enjoyable but I can't see them winning the tournament.

I'm about three-quarters of the way through the audiobook version of The Nix and liking it an awful lot so far. It might make it to the top of my list. Yes, it rambles all over the place but I'm loving every part of the journey. It reminds me a little of The Goldfinch, but it's much funnier.

Finished All the Birds in the Sky and really, really was not a fan of it. If it wasn't for it being a tournament book I might not have finished it. Almost done with Sweet Lamb of Heaven which is weird yet oddly enjoyable.

After that, I really do have to read Black Wave, maybe I can finally get past the first page after two false starts.

>65 LittleTaiko: I've heard it improves once she leaves San Francisco. I'm not there yet, though.

Tournament starts tomorrow!! Any thoughts on who will win the play-in round?

My preference would be for The Throwback Special to win since I liked it best out of the three, though Sudden Death would be interesting purely for the commentary. Haven't actually finished Sport of Kings; if it wins then that will be the push I need to actually finish it.

The sports books are the only ones I haven't read, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the show tomorrow. I am so excited about the start of the tournament.

Congrats on getting through so many books, I did not achieve so many, only about half. I did read a few of the Sports books. I really liked The Sport of Kings but also liked The Throwback Special a lot as well.

Well, first day and I am a loser. I read 2 of the 3 books, not reading Sudden Death because I owned it and the other two were library books and Sudden Death the pre game playoff.

>70 Kristelh: My copy of Sudden Death is waiting on the library hold shelves.

I really liked The Throwback Special and am disappointed it did not move on, but not having read the other two, I can't compare them. I'm considering reading Sudden Death now.

I also finished The Nix, which I absolutely loved, and The Mothers, which didn't excite me nearly as much.