The tournament begins today! Here are my picks!
Play-in Round – Avenue of Mysteries v. A Spool of Blue Thread: Currently working on Avenue of Mysteries and kinda diggin’ it. Didn’t finish A Spool of Blue Thread.
Fates & Furies v. Bats of the Republic: Admittedly, I haven’t (yet) read Bats, and heard it was very good. But, damn, Fates & Furies. That book was a beast, and I believe, a TOB finalist.
The Sympathizer v. Oreo: This one is mostly a guess. I started both of these books, but finished neither. However, the way in which Oreo was written just didn’t work for me, and it didn’t seem to work for several other bloggers I know. Also, I kinda felt cheated by this because it was originally published in the 1970s.
Turner House v. Ban en Banlieue: I didn’t get to Ban en Banlieue and I didn’t finish Turner House. Basically, this was a toss up. #noshame
Our Souls At Night v. The Whites: Loved Our Souls at Night, didn’t finish The Whites. It was like watching an episode of Law & Order. Our Souls was a lovely story, and one of my TOB faves.
A Little Life v. The New World: I haven’t read The New World, but A Little Life got into my head and hasn’t left.
The Book of Aron v. The Tsar of Love and Techno: Book of Aron was good, but not great. Tsar was bloody fantastic, and I project, a TOB semifinalist.
Avenue of Mysteries (play-in) v. The Story of My Teeth. I had to stop the audiobook of The Story of My Teeth after about 10 minutes–that’s a new record. ‘Nuff said.
The Sellout v. The Invaders: The Sellout is my favorite TOB read and my favorite to win. I couldn’t finish The Invaders.
Check back for updates, and to see how well I’m doing! What are your picks?!
Mine is going up tomorrow, but our Eastern Conferences (hehe) look almost identical! I wish I had read more of the books because it was SO hard to choose, even with 8 read.
Is that the right side or the left side?! LOL
I’m hoping to someday get to a couple of those I missed, esp. Bats of the Republic. I’ve looked at it at the bookstore, and it’s really, really cool! (If I get into my grad school, perhaps I’ll treat myself!!!)
The Whites was like a BAD episode of Law and Order. 😀 I liked The Sellout, but The Invaders really touched me for some reason. My real life guess is that The Sellout actually beats it 😀
I only managed ~40 pages of The Whites before I moved on. I don’t dislike mysteries, but the whole NYPD thing feels so overdone at this point.