Tournament of Books; Pulitzer Prize Let Down

It has been a while since I have been able to post so there is a bit of catching up to do.

The Tournament of Books is now complete.  In the final round The Sisters Brothers took on Open City.  I tried reading the former and loved the latter.  The Sisters Brothers won decisively.  It was a great tournament.  I'll have to give The Sister Brothers another chance.

In other book competition news, the Pulitzer Prize for literature was announced this week.  The three finalists were (click the titles for my reviews):

• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
• The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace

Amazingly, the Pulitzer committee could not agree on a winner so no one won!  Author Ann Patchett had a lot to say about the committee's shortcoming in a NYT's piece (click here).  Having read two of the three nominees and being familiar with the legend of the last, I'm surprised and very disappointed.  The committee is comprised of three judges and a consensus of two of three wins.  Each judge must have been locked into one candidate and refused to budge.  Meanwhile a year goes by without an award, without recognizing great literature and without giving literature a much needed publicity boost.

Finally, when it comes to recently read books, there are two that I'd add to any reading list:

Open City by Teju Cole (simply gorgeous)

Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau (thought provoking and worthwhile)

In the non-fiction world, brace yourself for the forthcoming fourth volume of Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson series.  If you have not read Caro before you have missed the greatest master of biography.  The NYT Magazine did a terrific piece on him (click here).

Meanwhile, don't let the stacks of books overrun you and happy reading.

Tournament of Books Update

The first round and part of the second round of the 2012 Tournament of Books are now complete.  Some serious upsets (and my bracket is a mess now).  Here is the recap (winners are in bold)


Round 1
Sense of an Ending v. The Devil All the Time
Lightning Rods v. Salvage the Bones
1Q84 v. The Last Brother
Tiger's Wife v. The Stranger's Child
Sisters Brothers v. State of Wonder
The Cat's Table v. Swamplandia!
Marriage Plot v. Green Girl
Art of Fielding v. Open City

Round 2
Sense of Ending v. Lightning Rods
1Q84 v. Tiger's Wife

Remaining match ups in Round 2
Sisters Brothers v. Swamplandia!

Marriage Plot v. Open City

Several of my favorites are eliminated (Sense of an Ending, Tiger's Wife(!!) and Art of Fielding).  Maybe they make a come back in the zombie round.  Stay tuned for further updates....

Tournament of Books 2012

The Tournament of Books (March Madness for Book Lovers) has started.  The bracket is below.  Very exciting to follow. The first round is posted tomorrow.  I think this is the year of the new novelists.  Based on that, my picks are as follows:








Round 1:
Sense of Ending
Salvage the Bones
1Q84
Tiger's Wife
Sisters Brothers
Swamplandia
Marriage Plot
Art of Fielding

Round 2:
Sense of Ending
Tiger's Wife
Sisters Brothers
Art of Fielding

Round 3 (it may change depending on the Zombies):
Tiger's Wife
Art of Fielding

Winner:
Tiger's Wife


Good luck, enjoy and stay tuned for updates.

2012 Tournament of Books

March Madness is coming!!  The Tournament of Books announced its competitors for the 2012 Tournament of Books.  For those who don't recall, the Tournament (in its eighth year) is the book lover's answer to the NCAA tournament.  In March, the contenders below will be bracketed and compete for the Rooster Award.  Exciting stuff!!

Of this year's contenders, I've read six of the books and know a fair amount about five others.  Plenty to read in the coming weeks.

The selection committee announced that this year they wanted more diversity.  They've accomplished that.  There are some serious 2011 heavyweights in the group below.  The Man Booker prize winning Julian Barnes is included.  Two other Man Booker contenders, deWitt and Hollinghurst, are also included.  The Orange Prize winning newbie Obreht (and one of the favorites of the year) is in the crowd.  The National Book Prize, Ward, winner is listed.  Two of the writers were The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 (Obreht and Russell).  Harbach's entry was one of the most anticipated (and expensive) of the year.  And, of course, there are some literary big hitters, Ondaatje (English Patient), Murakami (beloved by many) and Eugenides (Virgin Suicides).

The Sweet Sixteen are:

• Nathacha Appanah, The Last Brother
• Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
• Teju Cole, Open City
• Helen DeWitt, Lightning Rods
• Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers
• Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot
• Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding
• Alan Hollinghurst, Stranger’s Child
• Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
• Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
• Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife
• Michael Ondaatje, The Cat’s Table
• Ann Patchett, State of Wonder
• Donald Ray Pollock, Devil All the Time
• Karen Russell, Swamplandia
• Kate Zambreno, Green Girl

Over the few weeks, there's a lot of good stuff to read.  Of course, I'll keep you posted with color commentary.

On a personal note, today marks the beginning of year two of this blog.  Writing this blog and interacting with fellow readers over this last year has been fun and gratifying for me.  The growth of this blog has astounded me.  The number of hits has grown exponentially from a couple of hundred in a month to thousands!  I'm humbled by the depth of the readership and the interest in what I have to say about books.  As always, I appreciate any feedback and look forward to sharing year two with you.  Happy reading!