Tournament of Books discussion

The final champion -
Interior Chinatown vs. The Vanishing Half (which rose from it's Opening Round grave to win its zombie round!)
aaaaalllll the judges back in the booth

Final decisions! https://themorningnews.org/tob/2021/c...

What a fun tournament this year! Thanks Amy for organizing all the goodread threads! I hope 2021 is a year of more reading for you!

oh, man, I got to #2 and I was skimming along and skipping over the names of the judges but when I got there I could just say "Sean Hooks wrote this." Which says something about him, I suppose, that he has his own unique way of putting things.

The judgments are artfully ordered for maximum dramatic tension :)

I am delighted that in another 16 years, IC will be in Champion of Champions contention!

Is Sean Hooks the most smug judge in ToB history. I wondered what books he does actually like but then realized I would have to read more of his opinions and moved on with my life.

I audiobooked IC and loved it, and now that I know its not the best way to appreciate it, I am excited to revisit it in a couple years.

Yes, the disdain just oozed from the Hooks judgment. Left a bad taste.

But happy with this year's tourney and the winner. I would have been fine either way, actually, which is not something I normally feel and that speaks to the high level of the shortlisted books. What a lovely way to spend the month of March. Thanks everyone!

Kip wrote: "Is Sean Hooks the most smug judge in ToB history..."

Not even close, I'm afraid to say.

Tim, I really appreciated all of your book quotes throughout the tournament, as always. Thanks for doing that. :)

So much fun...For me, this feels like the best year we've had, from the books to the judges to the commentariat, and one of my favorite Rooster winners. I'm so sad it's over!

Amy, thank you SO MUCH as always for all the hard work you put in keeping our little group running!

Bretnie wrote: "Tim, I really appreciated all of your book quotes throughout the tournament, as always. Thanks for doing that. :)"

It's my pleasure. Thank you!

I guess I didn't see too much of a problem from Hooks, but he's still way better than the "these are both children's lit" judge from the TOTOB who completely dismissed both of her assigned reads.

Elizabeth wrote: "So much fun...For me, this feels like the best year we've had, from the books to the judges to the commentariat, and one of my favorite Rooster winners. I'm so sad it's over!

Amy, thank you SO MUC..."

Agreed on all fronts!

I just want to say that I finally fairly recently finished all the TOB books for this year, albeit about 6 months late after the tournament was way over. haha.

What I realized that in most cases, if I loved a book, it didn't advance, and if I hated or disliked a book, it advanced. I guess I have really bad taste in literature?!

I wasn't a big fan of Interior Chinatown and found it too gimmicky and too hard to follow which parts were real life and which were on the set of the TV show.

I hated Red Pill. And Memorial. I was mostly annoyed by We Ride Upon Sticks.

I LOVED Piranesi! And Tender is the Flesh. That one really surprised me with how much I liked it. Also I really liked Shuggie Bain. And The Resisters. I wasn't a huge fan of the storytelling structure of The Down Days but I liked the concept and think of it often as we stay stuck in this current pandemic. And I really liked The Vanishing Half so at least that one almost made it. lol

I thought Telephone and Breasts and Eggs were pretty good but a bit boring. Sharks had an interesting concept but went off the rails for me.

I guess what I learned in this process is that I like different genres of books than I thought I did. I used to be really into literary fiction but now I feel drawn to dystopian and fantasy. I would like to read more books like Piranesi, Tender is the Flesh, The Resisters and the Down Days, if anyone has any suggestions?

I was rather frustrated with the judges but overall I'm glad I read all the books! Also I read Clap When You Land, which I later noticed had been on the Long List, and I wonder why they didn't pick it over some of the others because it was so good!

Anita wrote: "I guess what I learned in this process is that I like different genres of books than I thought I did. I used to be really into literary fiction but now I feel drawn to dystopian and fantasy. I would like to read more books like Piranesi, Tender is the Flesh, The Resisters and the Down Days, if anyone has any suggestions?,..."

Anita, my genre tastes took the same trajectory yours did - I still read a lot of lit fic, but I'm increasingly drawn to dystopian and fantasy - which I now tend to lump into a general category of 'speculative fiction' - meaning the book isn't strictly realist. Here's a few recommendations off the top of my head - I'm sure there would be so many more if I looked through my annual reading lists. For dystopians: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (this is technically a mystery, but it was the world that captivated me. I liked her book Moxyland a bit less, but still good; Golden State by Ben H. Winters; Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton was actually fun for a dystopian world. For all round speculatively creative: Smoke City by Keith Rosson (one of my all time faves!) and a short story collection I just read, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker. Even though you didn't like Interior Chinatown, you might like Yu's first novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - kind of philosophical sci fi, but it's short and not heavy.

Anita wrote: "I would like to read more books like Piranesi, Tender is the Flesh, The Resisters and the Down Days, if anyone has any suggestions?"
Hi Anita. You might try:
Temporary, by Hilary Leichter
Or What You Will, by Jo Walton
Outlawed, by Anna North
The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
The Mermaid of Black Conch, by Monique Roffey
They are all a little sci-fi-ish or at least magical and a bit dystopian, but they all pretty much defy being classified into a single genre.

Anita wrote: "I just want to say that I finally fairly recently finished all the TOB books for this year, albeit about 6 months late after the tournament was way over. haha.

What I realized that in most cases,..."

It depends on which part of Tender is the Flesh you liked, but I feel like it's part of a growing movement of disconcerting female writers from Argentina, so along those lines I'd also recommend:

Die, My Love by Ariana Harwicz
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

I also think you'd like the growing numbers of feminist-weird lit coming out of South Korea like:

The Vegetarian by Han Kang
The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-eun
Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah

A few more random titles to recommend, that seem to combine bodies and meat:
The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter
Kassandra and the Wolf by Margarita Karanapou
The Taste of a Man by Slavenka Drakulic
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
The Pisces by Melissa Broder

What a great list, Jenny!