Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Tournament of Books 2018 - long Long List


I had fun last year reading some of the books in the 2017 Tournament of Books, and have been eagerly anticipating this year's tournament.

The Morning News has published the 72 books that constitute the long list, from which the final contenders from the Tournament will be drawn.  That's a long list to whittle down to 18 finalists!

Here is the long list--I've noted the few that I'm familiar with. Open to recommendations! A lot seem dystopian, which I don't care for, and a few sound very tough to read based on subject matter.

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
American War by Omar El Akkad
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
Augustown by Kei Miller
Autumn by Ali Smith
The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch
Celine by Peter Heller - read and reviewed, one of the few books I really didn't care for
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackerman
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt
Dear Cyborgs by Eugene Lim
Eat Only When You’re Hungry by Lindsay Hunter
The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Extraordinary Adventures by Daniel Wallace
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
Huck Out West by Robert Coover - I'm intrigued, will add to TBR
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich- on library wait list, mixed review but I like the premise
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Ill Will by Dan Chaon
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Isadora by Amelia Gray
A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Kingdom Cons by Yuri Herrera
The Last Kid Left by Rosecrans Baldwin
The Leavers by Lisa Ko - currently listening too--really good!
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders - tried it and loathed it
The Locals by Jonathan Dee
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Eganm - on library wait list, sounds great
Marlena by Julie Buntin
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris
A Natural by Ross Raisin
The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge
Not Constantinople by Nicholas Bredie
One of the Boys by Daniel Magariel
The One-Eyed Man by Ron Currie
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein
Refuge by Dina Nayeri
Release by Patrick Ness
Savage Theories by Pola Oloixarac
The Secret Books by Marcel Theroux
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
Seven Surrenders by Ada Palmer
The Seventh Function of Language by Laurent Binet
Shadowbahn by Steve Erickson
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward - it's going on the TBR
Six Degrees of Freedom by Nicolas Dickner
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
Smile by Roddy Doyle
So Much Blue by Percival Everett
Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash
Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan
Things That Happened Before the Earthquake by Chiara Barzini
Ties by Domenico Starnone
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle
Void Star by Zachary Mason
White Tears by Hari Kunzru
The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

5 comments:

  1. I have read a handful of these. My favorite was The Idiot by Elif Batuman, but it might be an acquired taste. I thought it was so funny and relatable, but I can see where others would simply find it dull and unfunny.

    Of those I haven't read yet, I think I am most excited about the Jami Attenberg because I have never read any of her books and I have heard a lot of good things.

    Lincoln in the Bardo is 100% going to make the shortlist - having won the Booker and just being generally well loved. I liked it but am not sure it lived up to the hype. But it was very moving in parts, so definitely worth trying if it sounds interesting to you.

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  2. The Tournament of Books is a really neat concept. The list of books is also interesting. Dystopian books are so popular these days I suppose that it is not surprising that a bunch are included. Personally, I generally like them. Happy reading!

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  3. Wow, what a lot of books I've never heard of. I do recognize the authors more than the titles.

    I wrote a couple glowing blog posts about Lincoln in the Bardo. But I'm hesitant to read fiction about Abraham Lincoln.

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  4. I haven't read much new fiction this year and am also not a fan of dystopian novels... this list seems overwhelming. I'd like to try Pachinko and possible Lincoln in the Bardo.

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  5. Quite a long list. I'm hoping to get to The Leavers. I have read some of these but some of them didn't live up to all their hype.

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