March Madness Approaches!
Oh, I am filled with geek joy. Not for the NCAA tournament, but for the Morning News Tournament of Books 2009! They’ve published the contenders (see below), and you can become a fan at Facebook.
Care to join me in nerdishly obsessing over some of the best books of last year? I read along with the tournament last year, and found some of my favorite books of the year. I’ve only read one from this year’s list–My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru–but it was a good one. And several others were already on my TBR radar. I’m off to scan reviews and load up my library request queue.
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
2666, Roberto Bolano
A Partisan’s Daughter, Louis de Bernieres
The Northern Clemency, Philip Hensher
The Lazarus Project, Aleksandar Hemon
My Revolutions, Hari Kunzru
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen
The Dart League King, Keith Morris
A Mercy, Toni Morrison
Steer Towards Rock, Fae Myenne Ng
Netherland, Joseph O’Neill
City of Refuge, Tom Piazza
Home, Marilynne Robinson
Harry, Revised, Mark Sarvas
January 13th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Hurrah! This sounds great, and you can definitely count me in. I did, after all, find one of my favorite books of last year (and perhaps all time!) through the tournament - Then We Came To The End.
Time to start putting in requests at the library, me thinks!
January 14th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Woo hoo! Who cares about silly sports?
Hey, are you on Facebook? I am: amycrea.
I dunno, though…I read The White Tiger and was seriously underwhelmed.
January 14th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I am on Facebook and am off to find you there, now.
FYI, I’m on facebook under my real name. Many regular readers know my real name, but if I haven’t and you want to find me at FB, let me know.
I’m not sure about this list, either. There are things on it that I deliberately didn’t read, like 2666, and a bunch of things like Edgar Sawtelle and House on Fortune Street that I want to read, but aren’t on it.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Well, certainly very few (if any) of the judges for ToB will read all of the novels on this list, so I think it’s acceptable for someone to use it as a guide to inform her reading, but not necessarily follow it blindly. If there’s something on there that really doesn’t appeal to you as a reader, then I see no need to force yourself through it. In that vein, I don’t know that the roster for the ToB should supplant one’s own reading priorities. No reason you still can’t read Edgar Sawtell and House on Fortune Street (the latter, I’ve never heard of, btw)!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Thank you so much for posting this! I am making mention of this in my blog as well. I’ve not read any of these books, so I’m going to get right on it!