Tournament of Books discussion

space for discussing Kawai Strong Washburn's "Sharks in the Time of Saviors" (our Summer Camp winner)

Didn't catch it during summer camp, but dang, I loved it! The writing, sentence-to-sentence, was spectacular, and each of the characters felt so fully realized. Excellent book, and had I finished it before the Zombie deadline it may have been my pick.

Kyle wrote: "Didn't catch it during summer camp, but dang, I loved it! The writing, sentence-to-sentence, was spectacular, and each of the characters felt so fully realized. Excellent book, and had I finished i..."

I also loved this one and continue to think about it, months later. I wanted to use my zombie vote for it but since I didn't hear about anyone else voting for it I figured my single vote wouldn't do much. I hope it does well in the tournament!

I think I voted for Sharks, but now I can’t remember! So good!

Chrissy wrote: "I think I voted for Sharks, but now I can’t remember! So good!"

Oh, I hope you did and that it has a chance if it needs to rely on zombie votes!

This was the surprise hit of the summer! I loved this book and almost gave it my zombie vote, but I had to give it to my beloved local writer, Bryan Washington.

Perfectly narrated audiobook!

Gail wrote: "Perfectly narrated audiobook!"

Good to know! I loved it in print, so maybe I'll listen to it soon for a second round.

Lisa wrote: "This was the surprise hit of the summer! I loved this book and almost gave it my zombie vote, but I had to give it to my beloved local writer, Bryan Washington."

Oh, have you met Bryan Washington? After meeting many authors at last year's Texas Book Festival he still stands out as one of the most personal authors I've met and I wanted to just hang out with him all day. I also love seeing Houston represented in literature (even though I'm an Austinite).

Coming out of lurk mode to say that I'm listening to this right now and loving it.

I loved this one last summer. I don’t know if I’ll have time to reread it before the tournament. I still have so many left!

Mina wrote: "Coming out of lurk mode to say that I'm listening to this right now and loving it."

This is a book that works so well as audio. I listened to it over the summer and think about it often.

Wow I'm the outsider then as this book just did not land for me. I could not find purchase in the story or connect to the characters at all. I agree that there are some gorgeous sentences but it never truly cohered. I feel like I really missed something here.

Peggy wrote: "Wow I'm the outsider then as this book just did not land for me. I could not find purchase in the story or connect to the characters at all. I agree that there are some gorgeous sentences but it ne..."

You're not alone Peggy - I also had connection problems. my nonspoilery review

I admired the story and its premise and I think the author took big bold chances with how he let the story unfold...no easy answers here. What kept me from loving it were the narrative voices of the siblings—the first-person voices of confused teens just didn’t make for an enjoyable read for me. It’s one of those books that I think would have benefitted from a more elegiac and poetic authorial voice, and to be written in third person. That wasn’t the author’s vision obviously but he could have pulled it off...the mother’s voice is so beautiful and poetic at times and I found myself wishing the whole book was more like her voice.

lark wrote: "I admired the story and its premise and I think the author took big bold chances with how he let the story unfold...no easy answers here. What kept me from loving it were the narrative voices of th..."

Great editorial advice from my point of view, Lark! I found the children more tolerable as kids than as adults though - maybe because of the proximity of the mother, whose voice I liked so much. Having just read a book narrated by a wonderful father (The Resisters), I now would have liked this book to take the same route with the wonderful mother.

Yes, lark nailed it! I really longed for a third person narrator/voice in this. The revolving narrative voices, especially the kids as you all note, prevented me from embracing this book, despite its great premise.