Turner House for the Win

We've done pretty well with our Morning News Tournament of Books brackets this year. So a shot of overconfidence helped us decide to go all in early and predict the winner of the entire thing as we enter the Zombie Rounds. We're feeling pretty confident of our chances (which should scare us), so we're going to call it.
In the Zombie Rounds, we're predicting The Turner House knocks out A Little Life, and we're fairly confident that The Sellout will put the smackdown on Fates and Furies (and I hope it hurts).
That leaves The Turner House up against The Sellout - a terrific pairing of books that each examine race and economic issues with very different styles.
Although we both absolutely love these two books, The Turner House has an edge for us. It has more depth and heart - hitting us right in the emotions with all the feels. The Sellout is more of a searing and sarcastic read, and while we loved its snarkiness, Turner House was a bit more accomplished and quietly compelling.
What an amazing first novel from Angela Flourney! And that makes us wonder, how many first-time books have taken it all in the Tournament of Books? We'll have to ask the Rooster.
And so we close out another month of March Book Madness with 16 fantastic books. It was especially fun having my daughter Aana join in on the calls this year! I may have to ask her to be a part of my fall predictions for the Man Booker Prize - if I haven't exhausted her with this whirlwind of a ride.
Until next year!

Down to the Quarterfinals

There were some major upsets over the last week in the sports version of March Madness, causing consternation in a lot of brackets. In reviewing The Morning New Tournament of Books, we've already had a couple of upsets, too.
I think the biggest one so far would be the loss of Fates and Furies, a book that many predicted would win the whole tournament. It is not one of my favorites, but I think it's safe to say that book will be back in the tournament's Zombie round, when two selections are chosen to "rise from the dead" to compete again. We'll see those zombies storming in just before the championship match.
But this week, it's all about the quarterfinals. So it's time for Aana and I to give you our predictions for who will advance to the semifinals. I correctly predicted 7 of 9 regular-play matches, but Aana predicted 8 out of 9, so she's feeling smug.
This week, we both selected the same books to win. Let's see what we predict will happen:

Quarterfinal Match #1

The Competitors: Bats of the Republic vs. The Sympathizer

Our Pick: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Why this one? Both of us liked both of these books, they were both creative and well written. But Bats didn't have the depth of feeling or the completeness that The Sympathizer did. The story in Bats was complex, almost too complex to understand at times. And while that makes it unique and interesting, it doesn't necessarily make it the best book in this contest. On the other side of the coin, it's the characters in The Sympathizer that are complex, reeling you in bit by bit until you're completely hooked. Like The Americans - a fabulous show on FX that just started a new season - you find yourself rooting for a protagonist who isn't entirely good, or entirely evil. So we're pulling for the Communist mole living in the US after the Vietnam War, trying to keep his identities straight while secretly sending information back to his Communist best-friend-slash-handler in Vietnam.
TOB match to be decided March 21.

Quarterfinal Match #2

The Competitors: The Turner House vs. Our Souls at Night

Our Pick: The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy

Why this one? This was a close one for us. Our Souls is a sweet book about two elderly neighbors who decide to go against convention to create their own way to find comfort together. Turner House is more like their boisterous neighbors, a big family that scraps and loves at top volume while trying to decide what to do about their mom and their family house. Ghosts, literal and figurative, are stirred up as they work through their past and present squabbles. And maybe that's part of the charm, that they are more alive somehow in their book, or maybe Our Souls is just a bit too quiet (Aana found Our Souls to be bland). We give Turner House the slight edge, but we also realize that Our Souls has steam in this tournament and could be the judges' choice.
TOB match to be decided March 22.

Quarterfinal Match #3

The Competitors: A Little Life vs. The Tsar of Love and Techno

Our Pick: The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra

Why this one? Another very close call, at least for Cheminne. She was in love with A Little Life, which was meant to be an allegory, but was for her just a distracting, disturbing, and terrific read. However, Tsar was even better - and for both of our judges was one of the most beautifully crafted books we've read in a long time. Although it's listed as a book of short stories, they are each intertwined and linked in such a way that it's more like a novel that moves seamlessly between characters and decades without losing its emotional grip on the reader. The setting is Russia, from the Soviet era to modern-day Chechnya, with politics the center of some stories, and character actors in others. But it's the writing that stands out, with sentences woven together like a tapestry of rough and soft threads: lyrical, painful, and tightly bound. This is one of our picks to go all the way.
TOB match to be decided March 23.

Quarterfinal Match #4

The Competitors: A Spool of Blue Thread vs. The Sellout

Our Pick: The Sellout, by Paul Beatty

Why this one? What an interesting matchup, or mis-matchup, to be honest. Spool is a lovely book, written by the amazing Anne Tyler who is at her best here. It's an ordinary story about ordinary people, but brought to life with Tyler's gift for spinning a tale. The Sellout, on the other hand, is a swaggering satire, strutting out all loud and proud to deal knock-out punches left and right. The key here is that The Sellout is clever and wry, with a topic that stabs a fork into one of society's rawest nerves. It's brave, bold, and hilarious, so it's our pick in this match.
TOB match to be decided March 24.

Round Two: Shoot and Score

It's round two for our prognostications for The Morning News Tournament of Books, and we're going into it feeling kinda frisky. We ended last week with a perfect score - calling 4 out of 4 matches. But the books this week are a little harder to call, so we aren't letting those on-target wins go to our heads. 

I'm the only one crazy enough to have read all of the books on the list, as I try to do every year, but this year I didn't give Aana enough time to finish them all, so there are two below that I'll call on my own.

Aana is known for regularly finding 4- and even 5-leaf clovers, so I'm going to hope that her luck rubs off on us and lets us call a perfect game, or bracket as the case may be.

So let's play ball!

The Contest: The Game of Life

The Competitors: A Little Life vs. The New World

Cheminne Picks: A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara

Aana Picks: A Little Life,  by Hanya Yanagihara

Why this one, Cheminne? Both of these books do have a common thread - it's the idea of what a life is worth, and how someone survives whatever life throws at them. For The New World, that includes how one survives death. Yes, survives. Jim is a chaplain at a hospital and he asks for his head to be frozen after death, to allow him to live again in the distant future. His wife Jane, a surgeon at the same hospital, is completely caught off guard, only finding out about Jim's plan after he (and his head) are already gone. Alternate chapters look at Jim's future self and Jane's rage against the machine and company that took him there. But here's the core issue I had with the book - I didn't care about either one of them. They left me as cold as the cryogenic tank Jim was frozen in. 

But oh - A Little Life. I cared very deeply for the characters in A Little Life. In fact, it's one of the books that will definitely stay with me for a long time. It's the story of four college friends, Jude, Willem, Malcolm, and JB - but it really centers on Jude. He has a secret, much like Jim in The New World, a horrific childhood that haunts his present and his future. Through his friends, Jim finds a family, but not quite security, still haunted by the all-too-real demons that make him feel less than worthy of the love his friends offer. The New World is 158 pages and I couldn't wait for it to end. At 700 pages, A Little Life seemed too short. That says it all.

Why this one, Aana? Honestly, I didn’t read either of these. I’m going to go with what mom says because mom almost always knows best.  [Good call, says mom.]

TOB match to be decided March 15.

The Contest: International Match

The Competitors: The Book of Aron vs. The Tsar of Love and Techno

Cheminne Picks: The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra

Aana Picks: The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra

Why this one, Cheminne? First, let it sink in that I chose a book of short stories to win this contest. If you read this blog, you know that I dislike short stories for the most part. Tsar, however, reads like a novel, with lines that connect and lives that intersect in fascinating ways. The writing is lyrical and lovely; so good, in fact, that I kept a few lines aside to treasure. Like: "The stomach is not the only organ that hungers." Or: "You remain the hero of your own story, even when you become the villain of someone else's." This is one of my top three books in TOB this year, so I hope it continues to rise in the ranks. 

On the other side of the coin, I also loved The Book of Aron. It is a heart-wrenching and often painful story of Polish Jews walled up in their ghetto, and centers on a real-life character, Dr. Korczak, and a fictional character, a young boy named Aron. For Aron, the harsh and frightening realities of war, poverty, and hunger bring challenges and opportunity as he finds himself working both with smugglers and the Gestapo. As Aron's family disappears one by one, he ends up in Korczak's orphanage, trying to help the doctor feed and clothe the hundreds of children he has taken in. It was difficult to choose between these two books, as both are gripping and well written. But Tsar's ability to make me feel every emotion on the spectrum in one simple sentence is what took it over the top for me.

Why this one, Aana? It’s amazing. The stories in this book are all about Russia from the Soviet era to the modern day. Every story is beautiful in its self-contained singularity, but even more beautiful when you start to realize that they all fit together. This book shows that seemingly small decisions or coincidences in one person’s life can have extremely significant, profound effects in the lives of others. The characters in these stories are all flawed, but the reader will be able to identify with some part of each and every one – whether it’s the devastating devotion of a mother to her wayward child or the need to seek out any shred of information on a missing loved one. However serious the subject matter of these stories, they’re told with a cleverness and dark humor that I think is genius. Swimming in toxic waste, being forced to work in a garden as a prisoner of war, and trying to get arrested in order to avoid being drafted to serve in Chechnya are all described with a mix of candor and pique that is irresistible. Seriously, this is a must-read for anyone, whether you enjoy short stories or not. Oh, and a tip: the audiobook is great because the narrators are Russian speakers.

TOB match to be decided March 16.

The Contest: The Odd Couple

The Competitors: A Spool of Blue Thread vs. The Story of My Teeth

Cheminne Picks:  The Story of My Teeth, by Valeria Luiselli

Aana Picks: A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler

Why this one, Cheminne? As much as I hate to think about John Irving more than I have to, it would have been very intriguing to see Avenue of Mysteries paired up with The Story of My Teeth - both about men and Mexico. In fact, I almost wonder if the creators of the brackets thought Irving was a shoo-in when they set this up. But that was not to be since Anne Tyler's book was the one that advanced from the Play-In Round. And it may surprise Aana to see that I chose Teeth over Tyler, but despite the off-putting idea of the title, The Story of My Teeth was a surprisingly refreshing new idea in literature for me. On the surface, it is the story of Highway, a self-made auctioneer in Mexico who is determined to own Marilyn Monroe's teeth. So to pay for them, he auctions his own teeth and tells prospective buyers fantastical lies, that each tooth belonged to a famous person like Plato or Virginia Woolf. Once he owns Monroe's (supposed) teeth, he has them put into his own mouth, but they are later stolen by his once-abandoned son. Believe it or not, that isn't the most interesting part of this book. Once his teeth are stolen, Highway ends up in a strange and unsettling encounter with clowns that leaves the reader wondering what is reality and what is not, who is telling lies, and where the truth really lies. At the end, you realize that the reader is really part of the story, and is able to (invited to) interpret it as they like. I loved that surprise ending and the unusual invitation of a writer to make the reader part of the story. The book was actually written for, and inspired by, an art exhibition and is in itself a work of experimental art.

Why this one, Aana? I didn’t read either of these either, but The Story of My Teeth sounded really creepy and I didn’t like the premise.

TOB match to be decided March 17.

The Contest: The Satirical Sides

The Competitors: The Sellout vs. The Invaders

Cheminne Picks: The Sellout, by Paul Beatty

Aana Picks: The Sellout, by Paul Beatty

Why this one, Cheminne? These books again have a common idea - holding a mirror up to society's ills. The Invaders, however, never really satisfies with its all-too-common idea of a fish-out-of-water, a second wife who isn't accepted into the social set that her husband swims in. When she commits a horrific act, she finds herself rebelling against the rules set in place by money and class. The final denouement of a hurricane washing clean the small coastal Hamptons-esque town was too much for me, though. It was a set-up that didn't pay off, for a story that's been told one too many times. 

That cannot be said about The Sellout, a raucous raunchy satire that reminded me of Chris Rock's in-your-face comedy. Nothing was sacred or off limits and it made me laugh out loud. Not something you would normally say about a book that covers slavery, racism, discrimination, violence, and police brutality. But it is funny - with a kernel of pain thrown in to remind us that it isn't really funny at all. The central character, never really given a name, is raised by a social scientist father who loves to use his son as an experiment. When his father dies, and his town is removed from the map, the narrator decides he will also experiment with society's norms, determined to bring his town back. He's joined by Hominy, an actor who played stereotypical black roles in early movies and who is now upset that his fans might not be able to find him with the town gone. He begs (literally) to have the narrator take him on as a slave, and the two of them segregate their new version of their old town. In a time where race is becoming a defining issue in the presidential campaign, The Sellout is the most brutal and honest conversation about race we may have this year. Maybe all the candidates should read it, too.

Why this one, Aana? The Sellout was hilarious. It’s a Swiftian satire in which the narrator proposes a return to segregation as a solution for the problems associated with racism. Interestingly, in this book, segregation also seems to be a solution for the problems associated with ignoring racism or trying to pretend that racism doesn’t exist. I think most readers will be able to identify with the themes presented and I hope nobody takes it too seriously, because this book is FUNNY. It’s got a sense of style that many new books lack, and the characters are just cool in a way that a lot of authors don’t seem to get these days. It’s a great read that will really make you think. I think a lot of the essence of the story can be summed up in this quote by the main character: “I’ve whispered racism in a post-racist world.”

TOB match to be decided March 18.

Are You Ready to Rumble?

I may not be a sports buff, but I do live in the South, where March Madness is as serious as a heart attack and where even the smallest child knows how to fill out a bracket.

This first week of March, as my fellow Southerners start heating up decades-old basketball rivalries, I am going to fill you in on my bracket, or who I would select as the winner of each pairing in the first round of The Morning News Tournament of Books. In my opinion, this is the best of the playoff games for bookworms. And this year, it’s a family affair as my daughter Aana weighs in with her draft picks, too.

Interestingly, this week we seem to have the same taste in books. So we mixed things up in how we tell you about the books. I can promise you we won't always agree.

Here's how this will work: Today we’re going to look at the first five pairings to tell you how we would judge them. At the end of the week, we’ll review how the judges called each contest, and we’ll tell you more about each book.

Feel free to offer your own color commentary as we move through the month-long contest.

Now it’s time for the tip-off – so blow that whistle!

The Contest: Play-In Picks

The Competitors: Avenue of Mysteries vs. A Spool of Blue Thread

Cheminne Picks: A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler

Aana Picks: A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler

Why this one, Cheminne? Let me explain this as succinctly as possible - John Irving is a misogynist who loves to write about himself. Every book follows that formula and this one is no different. Anne Tyler, on the other hand, does what I admire so much – she illuminates the ordinary and shows us all that every life is worth examining and celebrating. Her words are spare and unsentimental and the family she writes about in Spool is candid and familiar. No contest.

Why this one, Aana? I never even read A Spool of Blue Thread, but anything is better than John Irving. He comes off like a pompous older man who thinks he knows everything about everything. It’s almost like some wealthy older Anglo guy took a trip to Mexico and now he “just knows” the Mexicans, he “just gets them, ya know?” I really didn’t need all the insider information on beta blockers and Viagra either. It’s like getting stuck talking to your aging, wealthy, bigoted boss at a Christmas party after he’s had a few. It’s pretentious and creepy. Not recommended.

TOB match to be decided March 8. 

The Contest: The Fighters

The Competitors: Fates and Furies vs. Bats of the Republic

Cheminne Picks: Bats of the Republic, by Zachary Thomas Dodson

Aana Picks: Bats of the Republic, by Zachary Thomas Dodson

Why this one, Cheminne? Both of these books have something to hide. One of them makes the secret worth the search; the other does not. What they both share, unfortunately, is familiarity. Fates is a story that should surprise, especially when you hit the Furies section of the book. But by the time you reach that second half, you feel as if you’ve been watching a married couple bicker in front of you for hours at dinner. Which is basically the premise of the book, so the “surprise” is more like relief when it comes. Bats is much more entertaining, but would be even better if we hadn’t had a few years of books that already included maps, hand drawings, diagrams, and scrapbooks to help tell the tale. What saves Bats is that it still is a unique story-within-a-story that keeps your attention through till the end.

Why this one, Aana? Buy this book in hardcover! The illustrations and cover lining are awesome. I really liked how the author reveals a little at a time about each character and their history. In some places, you can get a little lost, but it’s well worth it. The way the stories intertwine is really interesting and will definitely keep you turning the pages. Also, there is an envelope marked “DO NOT OPEN” at the end of the book. Do not open it until the very end, no matter how much you may want to peek! It’s much more rewarding that way.

TOB match to be decided March 9.

The Contest: The Obfuscators

The Competitors: The Sympathizer vs. Oreo

Cheminne Picks: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Aana Picks: The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Why this one, Cheminne? First I have a bone to pick with TOB - Oreo was originally published in 1974. Yes, it was re-released in 2015 (the year for the books in the contest), and yes it's a good book. However, there were 80 or so other good books that should have been put into the short list. Okay, rant over. When placed in a match against The Sympathizer, Oreo makes a lot of sense for this list. Both books center on a protagonist who has something to hide or discover. Oreo is a girl who is black and Jewish, on a search for her father in a clever twist on a classical odyssey tale from Ancient Greece. The plays on words and mixes of dialects made it both fun and frustrating. Ultimately, the character in The Sympathizer had more depth and meaning for me. The layers were more interesting to peel back: French and Vietnamese, Communist masquerading as capitalist, loner finding love, spy hiding in plain sight. There were many more puzzles to piece together, particularly by the main character himself. Having spent so many years wearing masks to suit whatever situation he happened to be in, he actually may not remember who he really is. Fabulous book that ultimately was much more impactful.

Why this one, Aana? I loved both of these books, so this contest was really hard for me. Oreo gave us a heroine for the modern age, with amazing writing and clever turns of phrase. I mean, she refers to getting her period as "Flag Day." The Sympathizer gave us an anti-hero whose story was as twisted as his moral compass. The story opened my eyes about aspects of the Vietnam War I never knew about, and I found myself sympathizing with the sympathizer. What decided this contest for me was that I eventually got a teeny bit tired of all the puns and wordplay in Oreo. Read both! They're great! A side note - Oreo was originally published in 1974, which is around the time period in which The Sympathizer is set. Not sure what it's doing in the Tournament of Books for 2016, but oh well...

TOB match to be decided March 10. 

The Contest: The Smack Down

The Competitors: The Turner House vs. Ban en Banlieue

Cheminne Picks:  The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy

Aana Picks: The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy

Why this one, Cheminne? This was really an unfair fight – The Turner House is 3 times bigger, and Ban is poetry. Turner is a fully-thought-out book with a beginning, middle, and end, and Ban is written as if it’s the original sketch of an idea rather than a published book. In a perfect world, Turner should have been pitted against A Spool of Blue Thread – it would have been a fairer fight. Both of those books center on families coming together to decide what to do with aging parents and the emotions that inevitably are stirred up in those situations. In that match-up, I still would have selected Turner. The contemporary setting of Detroit and themes of upside-down mortgages gave it a realism that was both unsettling and engaging. There were almost too many characters - but what do you expect in a family with 13 children? Turner also, refreshingly, didn't wrap it all up with a neat and tidy bow, instead letting the story play out more realistically.

Why this one, Aana? Because Ban en Banlieue was not my cup of tea. I should’ve known when the nice lady at Barnes and Noble informed me that Ban en Banlieue would be in the poetry section if it had been in stock. It’s not that I don’t like poetry, it’s just that most poetry doesn’t engage me. This book not only didn’t engage me, I found it totally incomprehensible. At least it was only 109 pages. I appreciate the thought and meaning behind it, just not the vessel for delivering said thought and meaning. It seemed more like someone trying to describe a vague dream they had of a piece of performance art than a cohesive story. Or maybe a performance artist drunkenly writing notes about their upcoming work. If you’re not going to allow nonfiction, Tournament of Books, then PLEASE – no more “poetry!”

TOB match to be decided March 11.

The Contest: The "Evildoers"

The Competitors: Our Souls at Night vs. The Whites

Cheminne Picks:  The Whites, by Richard Price

Aana Picks: The Whites, by Richard Price

Why this one, Cheminne? The TOB Rooster has a sick sense of humor. Why else would the sweet Souls be paired up with the gritty Whites? Both books do offer a look at what happens when you do the "wrong thing," but in Souls it's more about going against the norm and forgetting about what everyone else thinks. Against any other book, Souls might have won. But against the full-throttle-rush-ride of The Whites, it just didn't have the juice. The Whites was the one book on this week's list that I could not put down - it was a slithery look at the underbelly of New York's darker streets and the cops that take justice into their own hands. The Sympathizer and The Whites are my "books to watch" so far in this season's tournament. 

Why this one, Aana? I thought Our Souls at Night was a very sweet book about older people doing whatever they wanted and saying "to hell with everyone else." I think the author may have intended the events in the book to be somewhat shocking, or at least out of the ordinary, but to me it was just a sweet, melancholy story. The Whites, on the other hand, was truly shocking and gripped you by the throat throughout the story. It was visceral and intense, which I found more engaging than Our Souls at Night. Fans of The Departed (like me) will love The Whites.

TOB match to be decided March 14. 

You Do You

I've always been slightly rebellious (okay, my mom just laughed at the use of the word "slightly"), so I've never been one to read something because it's a best seller, or because someone else tells me that a book is "important."
In today's New York Times Book Review section, I loved reading a debate about this very idea: Is a book good because it's "LIT-ra-ture," or because it's just fun to read?
I believe that, much like a Twinkie, the middle is where the good stuff happens. On one end you have what you're supposed to read, and almost never do. And on the other end, the things that you're slightly embarrassed to admit you read. Much like admitting that you ever ate a Twinkie.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Henry James, William Faulkner, Plutarch, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. And I also enjoy the books that I call "popcorn books," those by Dick Francis and Agatha Christie. They aren't on any classics lists, but I love them and gobble them down like popcorn. In fact, I have every single one of the Dick Francis books - 49 if you're counting.
But tell me that I have to read something just because everyone else thinks it's fabulous and I balk. Because I'm usually let down (thanks a lot, Dan Brown and Jonathan Franzen) and the attention is often not worth the blather.
Frankly, it's why I gravitate to book awards like the Man Booker and the Morning News Tournament of Books - the nominated books are usually good to fantastic, amazingly well written, and creatively entertaining (except for that John Irving thing, but more about that in another post).
The middle is occupied by wizards like Jo Rowling and Elizabeth George, who create indelible characters while pulling us completely into their worlds. Or by Jo Nesbo and Robert Harris, who paint mesmerizing visions of worlds we don't occupy.
And I've read breathtaking writing - crying (hard) over Harrison in Pigeon English, holding my breath over the pain suffered by Dorrigo in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and sighing when Marie-Laure finally meets Werner in All the Light We Cannot See. The middle even made me change my mind over apocalyptic novels after I read Station Eleven. The middle is really satisfying.
So don't let anyone tell you that your favorite author isn't a good one. Or that you aren't intelligent enough to "get it" if you don't like James Joyce. You read what you want. You do you. And we'll meet in the middle.

The Books That Should Have Made the List

One of the best things about contests, brackets, and opinion pieces is the second-guessing game - talking about what should have happened, who should have been chosen, and what might have been. The founders of The Morning News Tournament of Books not only recognizes that, they encourage it. They fully admit that their entire process is subjective and full of errors and omissions, and they welcome other ideas and arguments as part of the bracket process.
So who am I to deny them that bit of fun? I definitely have some opinions already about which books were left off this year, and which ones should win (more on that later). So Aana and I compiled a short list of nominees that aren't on the "official" TOB list, but should be.
Speaking of second-guessing, I'm wondering if I should have allowed Aana to join in on this blog. She selected the books that I wanted to put on our short list, which made me go back to the well. Luckily for her, I read a lot. Otherwise, this could have gotten ugly at a very early stage.
Feel free to second-guess our second-guessing in the comments section below!

The "What Were You Thinking" List of Nominees

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
An Aana Selection
Constance Klopp (based on a real woman) is a hero for the modern woman, who makes sacrifices and sticks her neck out to protect her family. This book really stood out for me because it’s so easy for an uppity woman to identify with the main character. She’s curious, brave, strong, and does what she has to do, but she also comes off like a real person with insecurities and secrets. It’s even more remarkable that Ms. Klopp was a real person who stuck it to the man! I think she would’ve gotten along well with Oreo (of Oreo, a book that was chosen for TOB's brackets). AG

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
An Aana Selection
More historical fiction with strong female characters. I loved this book for its atmosphere. It’s easy to put yourself in the story and feel what the main characters are feeling. Isabelle is headstrong, unstoppable, and heroic. She refuses to be daunted by the horrors of war and throws herself into the fight. In the same vein as Dead Wake (see below), this story shines a light into an aspect of history that most people don’t know all that much about – the women of the French Resistance during World War II. I think we’ll see this book return as a movie in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned. AG

Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg
A Cheminne Selection 
A good-time girl from the Lower East Side of New York lives the hectic life of a Jazz Age baby, working at a theater during the day, and dancing with a fever pitch at night. But when the Depression hits, she reinvents herself and her neighborhood, helping those who need a hand during the dark days of joblessness and hunger. Decades pass and this "saint" of the Village is hidden in history, until someone finds her diary and starts to uncover who Mazie really was, and how she impacted so many others in a trying time. This book made TOB's long list, but was left off the short list, which I think is a crime. Not to give too much away, but after reading almost the entire short list, this book is better than quite a few that are included on the bracket. Maybe a Zombie round will bring this fabulous book back! CTS

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich
A Cheminne Selection
There is a mountain near my parents' house in Virginia named Bull Mountain, which I confess is the first reason I started reading this book. But the Southern noir, the history of moonshining (which my own family shares), and the mystery at the core of the story were the hooks that kept me reading. This tale of family ties between fathers and sons and the generations of hardscrabble Georgia country folk is gripping and shocking, and keeps you turning pages till the very end. It's a fabulously written novel of how our family history affects us in ways we never imagined. CTS

The "Why Doesn't TOB Include Non-Fiction" List of Nominees

Dead Wake by Erik Larson
An Aana Selection
OK so they don’t allow non-fiction books in The Tournament of Books. But they also used to disallow books by people who write for The Morning News, and you saw how All the Light We Cannot See got on the list (and won) last year. Anyway, I think Dead Wake should be allowed because it’s a brilliant retelling of events leading up to one of the most momentous episodes in modern history. How much does the average person remember from history classes about the sinking of the Lusitania? Probably not a lot, but this book brings it to life and puts you right there on the steamer and in the U-boats. It illustrates what people on both sides might have been thinking and feeling, and makes history real. Not a lot of authors can do that! AG

Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson

A Cheminne Selection

If you aren't familiar with The Bloggess, go to her website right now. I'll wait. If you were able to get through a single post on that site without guffawing, then you need to see a doctor because something is seriously wrong with your sense of humor. Jenny Lawson on paper shouldn't be funny - she wrestles with mental health demons like serious depression, agoraphobia, and anxiety. But the way she deals with them is through a completely twisted (and spit-your-drink-through-your-nose) sense of humor and brutal honesty. For some, she's a light in a dark tunnel, allowing them to laugh at their own struggles. For others, she's just the funny bomb. CTS

Book Bracket Fever

Can you feel the excitement building? The brackets are out, the teams are gearing up, everyone is ready for some serious March Madness! I love book season!
Wait...what did you think I meant? The only season and the only bracket worth caring about is The Morning News Tournament of Books! Any other "sport" pales in comparison. 

The tournament has been in play for 12 years, and for four of those years I've been providing you with my predictions and commentary, sometimes hitting the basket and sometimes hitting the rim. Last year was my best year for stats - I called it right down to the winner, which was tough because two of my favorite books (Station Eleven and All the Light We Cannot See) were in the finals.

This year, the tournament and I are shaking things up a little bit. ToB is adding a "play-in winner," which is similar to its Zombie rounds of the past. Two books will compete before the actual tournament, vying for a chance to enter the Big Show - kind of like a wild card match.

I'm also adding a spin - this year in the form of my daughter Aana, a book-obsessed geek who is reading almost as many books as I am each year. She'll bring a different perspective because her tastes aren't the same as mine (ahem, short stories), and we might mix it up a little in who we think will win each match. She's definitely a wild card. 

So what teams - or books - are in play? Each year the committee throws a ton of nominations into the mix to create its long list, which this year offered 86 selections, and then through some form of subjective hocus pocus, ToB narrows the list down to 17 books. In a few weeks, Aana and I will debate whether something important was left off that list and if we actually agree that all of the books on the short list deserve to be there (spoiler alert: a big no from us both on John Irving).

Here are the contenders - links will take you to Powell's Books, the sponsor for the tournament:

Ban en Banlieue, Bhanu Kapil

Bats of the Republic, by Zachary Thomas Dodson  

The Book of Aron, Jim Shepard 

Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff 

The Invaders, by Karolina Waclawiak 

A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara 

The New World, by Chris Adrian and Eli Horowitz 

Oreo, by Fran Ross 

Our Souls at Night, by Kent Haruf 

The Sellout, by Paul Beatty 

The Story of My Teeth, by Valeria Luiselli 

The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen 

The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra 

The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy 

The Whites, by Richard Price

And then we have our two play-in contenders: Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread and John Irving's Avenue of Mysteries (which I can tell you right now Aana and I do not predict to win anything).

So there you have it, the 2016 Tournament of Books! Are there any selections you think should have been included? Any books on here that you've already read? Let me know in the comments below! And look for the first installment from Aana and me soon!

Meanwhile, here is a copy of the bracket so you can fill it in and start some friendly wagers with your friends and neighbors - all of whom I'm sure are ready to play/read along. Right?

Review: The Orphan Master's Son

For the second year in a row, a Zombie book has won the Tournament of Books, brought to you by The Morning News. Last year, I completely disagreed with the overall winner. This year, although it wasn't the book I selected to win, I am very happy that The Orphan Master's Son took home the coveted Rooster prize.

With North Korea becoming more provocative every day with its talk of war and destruction, this is an apt time for a book about life in the bafflingly combative country. Adam Johnson paints a vivid picture of a country that is secretive, brutal, and as self-destructive as anything else.
Pak Jun Do is the "son" from the title, who grew up in an orphanage run by his father. He learned early on to live two lives, pretending that his father was not related to him so that he could remain in the orphanage.
Jun Do (whose name is a definite nod to John Doe), grows up both anonymous and a mirror of whatever others want to see in him. He becomes a kidnapper for the state, grabbing whoever the country's leaders need from the shores of South Korea and Japan – like a doctor, or a sports pro, or even a prospective bride for a prominent politician.
His life of secrecy, and an ear for other languages, later makes him the perfect spy to be posted on a fishing trawler, listening to radio transmissions from other countries. A pivotal encounter with the U.S. Navy changes everything when Jun Do and his shipmates create a story about one of their number being thrown to the sharks, rather than having to tell the authorities he has escaped. They even go so far as to give Jun Do a severe wound from a dead shark's mouth to lend credence to the story.
Returning to the shores as a "hero," Jun Do is selected by the government to pretend to be a diplomat. His newest mission is to fly to Texas on a secret trip to get concessions from the U.S. government. When he expresses doubt about his ability to convince the Americans of his new identity, his handler Dr. Song tells him, “Where we are from, stories are factual. If a farmer is declared a musical virtuoso by the state, everyone had better start calling him maestro. And secretly, he’d be wise to start practicing the piano.”
That single quote gets to the heart of this book, and really defines why North Korea could be teetering on the verge of an un-winnable war. The trip to Texas also brings into focus the conundrum that we who have lived in freedom cannot understand about those who have lived under a totalitarian government.
As Jun Do visits the ranch of an influential senator, he looks through family photos and is almost overwhelmed by what he sees: “This was a family start to finish, without wars or famines or political prisons, without a stranger coming to town to drown your daughter.”
But when asked if he would ever want to remain in the U.S., particularly since he has no family ties himself in North Korea, Jun Do asks, “Are there labor camps? Mandatory marriages? Forced-criticism sessions? Loudspeakers?” When he is told that there are none of those things in the U.S., he responds: “Then I’m not sure I could ever feel free here. In my country everything makes simple, clear sense. It’s the most straightforward place on Earth.”
Jun Do returns to his country and to yet another identity. But this time, his new persona is a high-ranking official, and Jun Do has the opportunity to reveal his true self through this facade.
After all, as one of the people he meets in Texas tells him, “A John Doe has an exact identity. It’s just yet to be discovered.”
Although it's a work of fiction, Adam Johnson has added enough of the real-world North Korea to his book to bring the country to life – including details like actual kidnappings, the strange Vinalon fabric that is unique to North Korea, the deprivation, and the sheep-like following that the people seem to have for their government.
Given the almost mind-boggling declarations of superiority coming from Kim Jong-un, The Orphan Master's Son at least offers some sort of explanation, that this is a country that is propped up by its lies to the point where almost no one knows what the truth is anymore.

Cinderella (Zombie) Story

There's always that point in any competition where some broadcaster mentions "a Cinderella story," or as Bill Murray said in Caddyshack, someone "outta nowhere."

In basketball this month, we had Harvard and that fun group from Florida Gulf Coast. (For those of you shaking your head in disbelief that I would know anything about sports, I gently point out that I do read the news. And I've seen Caddyshack like 100 times.)
In the king-daddy of all book tournaments (or at least the one that's the most fun) known as The Morning News Tournament of Books, we had some serious upsets. All of the books that were "shoo-ins" to win have been knocked out, including powerhouses like Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, and Chris Ware's Building Stories.
Instead, the readers brought back The Orphan Master's Son in the infamous Zombie Round of the tournament. That's a round that allows a popular vote to bring one book "back from the dead," or to revive a book that was previously knocked out of the tournament. I still contend the NCAA would benefit from a zombie.
And now, in a repeat match-up from March 19, The Orphan Master's Son is pitted against The Fault in Our Stars. There is no surprise for me that Orphan Master's Son is back; it really never should have left the competition in the first place. The Cinderella story here is Fault. 
It's been a crazy ride in this tournament, and turnovers have been key, with even the perennial commentators noting that there have been some odd judgments, but an overall enthusiasm among the judges and readers for this year's slate of contenders.
I agree it was a great list of books, but I still don't think that Fault, as good as it is, should be in the final round. Of course, it's easy for me to be a Monday morning quarterback (or Thursday morning in this case). It's a lot harder to judge between two essentially good reads when each person's taste is so subjective.
We'll learn who the champ is tomorrow, and I'll give you a full review of the winner. Until then, remember that it isn't over till it's over.
These sports cliches were brought to you by the letter Z for zombie.

What a Bracket

For bigger version, go to TOB.

Today is National Bracket Day, so it's a good time to review my bracket. And no, there are no recognizable sports names on there at all. You've come to the wrong blog for that.
I am, of course, referring to the bracket for this year's Tournament of Books, brought to you by The Morning News. And evidently, I am the worst bracket-filler-outer in the history of bracketology.
Let's review.
I said that The Fault in Our Stars would lose to The Round House. Wrong.
I said that Where'd You Go Bernadette would beat out The Orphan Master's Son. Wrong. 
* Justification Time: I did tell you that I had a hard time choosing between the contenders in those two match-ups. See proof here.
Now we get to a bright spot. I totally called the contest between Building Stories and Dear Life. It was impossible for Alice Munro to win that one. Building Stories is so totally different that it will take a better book than hers to beat it. We'll see how it moves up. It will be paired next against Beautiful Ruins, which, against my prediction, beat out The Song of Achilles. It should not have won, but I was wrong again.
Beautiful Ruins frustrated me. It could have been such a good book. Commentator Kevin Guilfoile notes the same problems that I have with Jess Walter's book: One of the narratives works better than the other. And that is exactly why Song of Achilles should have moved on.
I was wrong again in my call about May We Be Forgiven vs. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Neither one of these should make it to the finals in my estimation, but May We Be Forgiven was the worst of the two. It was a bit too much of a pile-on by the end of the book. I stopped believing that any human, particularly the protagonist, would be involved in so many near-farcical experiences.
I also think that the wrong book won in Arcadia vs. How Should a Person Be. The commentators seemed to struggle with this one as much as I did, and I contend that the book you would choose is completely based on what age demographic you fall into.
After all the wrong calls, it's nice to be able to point out that two of my favorites are still in the game: Gone Girl and Bring Up the Bodies. The Girl can definitely bring the pain for the flawed Beautiful Ruins in a match-up later this week.
And Hilary Mantel has proven what a vicious fighter she can be against the Duchess of Cambridge, so imagine how much hurt she can inflict on How Should a Person Be's Sheila Heti on Friday. It's a matter of maturity.
So I only called 3 out of 8 contests. That won't stop me from predicting the Final Four:
The Orphan Master's Son
Building Stories
Gone Girl
Bring Up the Bodies
That's if a zombie doesn't come along to wreck my bracket again. Don't know what I mean? Click here.

The Scarlet L (for Loser)

I'm a loser, right off the bat. But in all fairness, I told you I might be.

Who is not a loser? John Green.

I didn't call the winning book in the first round of the Tournament of Books. Today, judge Edan Lepucki (staff writer for The Millions) selected The Fault in Our Stars over The Round House.
If you've been following along on this blog (and I know you have), then you saw my call for The Round House here.
Lepucki's commentary is spot-on and fair, for the most part. He calls out author John Green for making the teens Hazel and Augustus a little too glib and charming in Stars, even comparing their patter to the movie Juno. I agree. I also liked TOB commentator John Warner's comparison of Green to John Hughes. That's true, too.
But where Lepucki and I will have to disagree is on the point he makes about Louise Erdrich's inability to take the reader from "idea to experience."
One of my most-important gauges of a writer's talent is that very ability, to immerse me so thoroughly that when I look up from the book I'm almost disoriented. It isn't just a matter of being "true to life," it's to convince me that what I'm reading is real and that I'm living it alongside the characters.
Erdrich's writing pulled me right into hot summer days on a reservation in North Dakota, and the fear and pain that surrounds the crime at the center of the novel. As much as I loved Stars, it was just a bit too over-the-top and almost implausible in places (for example, the spontaneous trip to The Netherlands for two teens with cancer). Lepucki himself even admits that he found Green's book to be "too slick" and "contrived" in places.
Yes, this was a hard call.  In fact, if Lepucki had selected The Round House, I'd probably be telling you about how I cried and cried over Stars, and how he really should have selected it as the winner.
But I'm a loser, baby.
On to tomorrow, and the head-to-head battle between The Orphan Master's Son and Where'd You Go Bernadette?. Cross your fingers for me.

The Final Draft

The coveted TOB Rooster.

Today is finally the first official day of the Tournament of Books, hosted by The Morning News and sponsored by Nook by Barnes & Noble, with top books vying for the coveted Rooster crown.
As you know, I've been furiously reading the finalists since they were announce a few months ago. And today the last of the 16 nominees was announced. Luckily for me it was the one I read, Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk. Given all of the press surrounding this book, I was fairly sure it would be the one of the three war-themed Pre-Tournament books chosen. To see the judge's official review, and the color commentary from TOB, click here.
On Friday, I gave you my picks for four of the pairings in the tournament. You can see those here.
I have to tell you, these next four pairings are more difficult for me. Some of my favorite books in the tournament are pitted against each other, making a judgment hard to call. But here goes:

The Contest: Youth in Revolt
The Competitors: The Round House vs. The Fault in Our Stars
The Winner: The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
Why It Won: It pains me to have to choose between these two books. The minute I finished The Fault in Our Stars, I tweeted that this book would win the tournament if it was judged solely on the number of tears shed. It is an amazing story of a teenage girl who meets a boy at a cancer support center – and it is much more uplifting than you might imagine that would be. But, by a hair, The Round House is slightly better. Perhaps it was the fact that Louise Erdrich weaves a grittier, more realistic, story. The voice of the 13-year-old Joe in Round House rings truer. It is a tough tale, though, as Joe recounts the year that his mother was brutally attacked on their reservation, and how he and his friends investigate the crime.

The Contest: A Tussle Between Travelers
The Competitors: The Orphan Master's Son vs Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
The Winner: Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple
Why It Won: Again, TOB, you have given me a very hard contest to judge here. These are two very different books about people who find it difficult to live in their environment, and who travel far away to learn more about themselves. But they are not at all close to the same type of book, so it's tough to pit two such disparate tales against each other. The Orphan Master's Son is a fictional look at the brutal life of a North Korean "nobody" named Jun Do (and yes, the reference to John Doe is purposeful) who improbably ends up traveling to Texas and impersonating a high-ranking official. Bernadette is a funnier take about a mom who has trouble fitting into life in Seattle and in figuring out who she is. When she disappears, her daughter Bee learns more than she bargained for about her mom and their life together. For me, it wasn't that one was infinitely better than the other, it came down to how much I believed each character. But it was still close.

The Contest: The Wild Card War
The Competitors: Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk vs. May We Be Forgiven
The Winner: Billy Flynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain
Why It Won: Neither one of these are perfect books: Billy Flynn reminded me a lot of a plotline from HBO's series The Pacific, and Forgiven just kept piling more and more improbable situations on the protagonist. But Billy Flynn was a book that I kept putting down – and that's a good gauge of a book's impact for me. I read so quickly and there are very good books that I fly through. So when I stop reading to set a book down, it's a sign that I want to, or need to, think about it; that I'm savoring it. I needed to think a lot about what I read in Billy Flynn, and about the day-in-the-life of U.S. soldiers on a Victory Tour after a tough battle in Iraq. Forgiven is a hard look at a flawed man who inherits his brother's kids, who has to figure out how to deal with them, and who has to come to terms with the fact that his brother is a murderer. Good initial theme, but then the author kept adding to the "hero's" angst with strange bedfellows and segues that take away from what could have been a great core story.

The Contest: The Alternative Altercation
The Competitors: Dear Life vs. Building Stories
The Winner: Building Stories, by Chris Ware
Why It Won: This one was no contest for me, and that isn't fair to Alice Munro. First, I'm not a Munro fan, so it was going to be hard to win me over. Second, I'm not a short-story fan, so that was going to make it even hard for Munro. But then Chris Ware's book arrived on my front porch, and it was basically three strikes against Munro. Ware takes storytelling into another dimension with his box full of tricks, finding inspiration in art forms from comics to manga to architectural drawings to even the Little Golden Books of our youth. Each piece builds upon itself (hence the title) to tell a story in very few words of the ups and downs of a lonely woman. It's groundbreaking, and a very tough competitor for Munro's drier tales.

Bracking Up the Possiblities

If Fracking can be a word, so can bracking.

I'm using it as a verb to describe how one sets up a bracket, March-Madness style. Because The Morning News has outdone itself with the design of this year's Tournament of Books bracket.
Designed by Liz Meyer, the new look twists the old school bracket into an attractive maze, pitting the 16 finalists  against each other. Feast your eyes on the lovely bracket to the right. You can download a high-res version on the TMN website.
The showdown begins on Monday, with the pre-game event where judge Nathan Bradley selects his favorite from these three books: The Yellow Birds, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and Fobbit. I've been waiting a while for this contest to determine the 16th book (mainly because I'll need to read it).
Tune in tomorrow as I begin bracking, a.k.a. the point where I tell you which books I would select in each of the first round's contests. I've already given a few hints on Twitter, so follow me at @ReadEatThink if you want some off-the-cuff commentary.