Play Book Tag discussion

The next series of posts will indicate the winners of our 32 bracket voting round.

BRACKET A

Kingsolver, Barbara v.
Ozeki, Ruth

Hellenga, Robert v.
See, Lisa

Morrison, Toni v.
Reid, Taylor Jenkins

Follett, Ken v.
Hannah, Kristin**

**only round with outcome significantly impacted by "extra" earned votes in this bracket

BRACKET B

Connelly, Michael v.
Towles, Amor

Haruf, Kent v.
Strout, Elizabeth

Patchett, Ann v.
Kinsella, Sophie

Hoffman, Alice v.
Alyan, Hala

BRACKET C

Boyne, John v.
Moriarty, Lianne**

Bowen, Rhys v.
Atwood, Margaret

Backman, Fredrik v.
Center, Katherine

Ishiguro, Kazuo v.
Bradbury, Ray

**only round with outcome significantly impacted by "extra" earned votes in this bracket

BRACKET D

Turow, Scott v.
Delinsky, Barbara

Michener, James v.
King, Stephen

Austen, Jane v.
James, P.D.

Bujold, Lois McMaster v.
Christie, Agatha**


**only round with outcome significantly impacted by "extra" earned votes in this bracket

I'm not as surprised this time around after seeing who won the initial round. Two of the authors I picked to be in the top four are still in the running though my top two are out. I'm having fun reading the different authors.

Oh... this makes me sad:

Haruf, Kent v.
Strout, Elizabeth

I have one coming up by him... hopefully this month? And I like him. I've only read one by her and I don't like her. LOL!

ETA: 2/4 of my picks for the top remain. 4/4 made it through the first vote, so I lost two of them this time around. :-( The person I had picked for 2nd place is out.

And there remain two authors I don't think I'd heard of before this!

Some of these are surprising to me.

I miraculously still have 3 of my 4 guesses in the running, including final 2 and winner. And when I say 'guesses', I mean GUESSES! Wasn't quite at the flip a coin level... there was some minimal thought. The 3 still in it are writers I generally like a lot if not all their books, have a following and a lot published, have writing chops to be still read 50 years in future, and are cross genre. Those weighed into my picking them initially. The one ousted this round was purely a popular genre writer and I think I picked because I had a bunch in my TBR.

My top two and winner are still in!

I have a question. For those who really like this Bujold, which wiped out JK Rowling early on, and now Agatha Christie, what would you guys recommend as a first or entry way book?

@ Amy, I would recommendThe Curse of Chalion . which was my first by her-Fantasy, but because you read and liked
The Tethered Mage (remember you sent it to me), I think you would like this one

@Amy - Now that Bujold made it this far, I plan to start with The Curse of Chalion which I have in my ebook TBR for some reason...probably relating to Feminerdy Book Club possible reads list. But she has a big backlist and some are more crime fiction I think. Need to look more closely. Could there be an alternative history?

Linda wrote: "Some of these are surprising to me."

The only one that really surprised me this round was Bujold. I had not even heard of her before this activity.

Was not sure how some of the pairings would go, and many of them were quite close! I love Elizabeth Strout so was happy to see she remained.

I am writing this down! The curse of the Chalion!

Amy wrote: "I am writing this down! The curse of the Chalion!"

You go girl! Let me know know to like it

Anita, can I ask specifically what is meant by:

"only round with outcome significantly impacted by "extra" earned votes in this bracket"

Does it mean that without any "extra" votes, the opposing author would have won? Or is it something else?

Exactly, Joy. If there are asterisks next to a pair, the extra votes cast flipped the winner. In the remaining pairs, there may have been extra votes cast, but they didn't change the outcome.

Thought people might find it interesting to see how the earned votes did or did not sway the decisions.

It’s so interesting thanks Anita!

Anita wrote: "Exactly, Joy. If there are asterisks next to a pair, the extra votes cast flipped the winner. In the remaining pairs, there may have been extra votes cast, but they didn't change the outcome.

Thou..."
Thanks, Anita! Yes, I find it very interesting.

I agree, I find this quite interesting.

Anita wrote: "The only one that really surprised me this round was Bujold. I had not even heard of her before this activity...."

She's one I hadn't heard of, as well.

Anita wrote: "Thought people might find it interesting to see how the earned votes did or did not sway the decisions..."

I found that interesting! I like that you added it in.

Amy wrote: "My top two and winner are still in!

I have a question. For those who really like this Bujold, which wiped out JK Rowling early on, and now Agatha Christie, what would you guys recommend as a first..."

That's tough. My first book by her that I liked both times is Falling Free, but there are a few others I gave 4 stars two in the Vorkosigan space opera series. That's a prequel and how she said to start later, but the other place to start there is Shards of Honour which usually shows up in a two volume set called Cordelia's Honor now.

I haven't read any of her books that aren't Vorkosigan, but she has won many awards and it's space opera, not hard core sci fi.

Well, dang, because the person I put the most extra votes against won and participation points made no difference! Not that I am surprised and since I didn't make any guesses and am playing for participation points only (and there are some authors I would rather not read--a fair number, actually) it doesn't affect me as for placing in the guessing game. But that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I was sure Christie would win even though I like Bujold better.

I'm happy about the results overall. I didn't do a great job at guessing the winners, but ... I have books I really want read for almost every one of the remaining authors. That's a win for me.

I was sure Christie would win too. I have a few more I really want to read. I read Shards of Honour by Bujold, but I don't plan to continue.

This has me wondering how other sci-fi authors might have done in this competition. Becky Chambers has a lot of fans here.

Some of the winners surprised me, but I am glad to see Morrison made it through-Christie being knocked out shocked me! I only have 1 author left in the running

Karin, if you are playing for participation points only, you should not be casting them as votes. They are separate, and you would need to be tracking them separately. I am a little confused about your statement above, but I will double check today to make sure I have indicated the right winners (where votes made a difference).

I am sorry, Karin. I see you are tracking votes! Yay! Your message confused me a bit, but you are following the protocols.

My two main favorites are out :( but there are still a couple of others that I like that are in there.

I also was shocked to see Christie knocked out. Though I've read more by her this year (so far) than in previous years, and I'm okay with taking a break now.

I was also surprised to see Towles win. He's a great author and I love his works, but he has only three books.

Three of my original picks are still in the running.

Just when Taylor Jenkins Reid and Kent Haruf made it to the top of my TBR too! Oh well...

Lyn wrote: "Just when Taylor Jenkins Reid and Kent Haruf made it to the top of my TBR too! Oh well..."

Yeah, my next audio will be Kent Haruf, too.