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I absolutely loved The Raw Shark Texts--so inventive. I can't wait to read Maxwell's Demon and was pleasantly surprised it made the longlist, though I agree it's a longshot for the shortlist.

Also cosign to enjoying your talk with Rachel last night, Lark. Such an interesting discussion of motherhood and so many recommended books--loved it!

Elizabeth wrote: "Has anyone read Subdivision? It's just so...weird, nonsensical...."

It's going to keep being that. I liked it, but it sounds like it isn't going to be for you.

Did anyone else order TMN swag when they dropped the new items? My THE READING ROOSTER Classic Long Sleeve Tee just arrived after a long shipping delay and I'm super disappointed. The other shirts I've ordered were nice soft material but this is stiff, scratchy, cheap feeling material (and costs $45 before taxes and shipping). I know the main idea is supporting TMN, but yikes, it's super low quality and now I'm not excited to wear it. :( Curious if others ordered different new items that are better quality.

Lauren wrote: "Did anyone else order TMN swag when they dropped the new items? My THE READING ROOSTER Classic Long Sleeve Tee just arrived after a long shipping delay and I'm super disappointed. The other shirts ..."

Oh that's a bummer to hear. I just ordered the same shirt this morning. :/

Lauren wrote: "Did anyone else order TMN swag when they dropped the new items? My THE READING ROOSTER Classic Long Sleeve Tee just arrived after a long shipping delay and I'm super disappointed. The other shirts ..."

Oh no! Neither of the shirts I've gotten is soft, I never actually wear them. I was going to try ordering a sweatshirt instead, but I wonder if it's by the same supplier. :( I'd pay more for a better shirt!

Elizabeth wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Did anyone else order TMN swag when they dropped the new items? My THE READING ROOSTER Classic Long Sleeve Tee just arrived after a long shipping delay and I'm super disappointed. Th..."

I got the ROOSTERPALOOZA Women's Slouchy Tee last year and it's soft, so I think they use different manufacturers for the different designs. Maybe sticking with "slouchy tees" would work?

Lauren wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Lauren wrote: "Did anyone else order TMN swag when they dropped the new items? My THE READING ROOSTER Classic Long Sleeve Tee just arrived after a long shipping delay and I'm supe..."

Thanks for the tip! Yes, mine weren't slouchy (I'm small so I thought those would swallow me.) You're slim, so if you can wear them it'll hopefully be okay. Worth a try!

The shortlist is out!

Phyllis wrote: "The shortlist is out! "

What??? I wasn't ready for it this early. And I'm crushed. Happy about only a few of these, not sure if I want to rage read the Rooney (very surprised/concerned they're taking us there again), and am generally disappointed by the selection. :(((

The common theme among these is that they are the books that there was a wait for at the public library. Seriously, I have gotten more than 20 of the longlist books from the library already, and only TWO of them are on the shortlist. BLAH.

Also, neither the NBA or the Booker winner? I know we're not about traditional prizes, but I am surprised.

Maggie wrote: "The common theme among these is that they are the books that there was a wait for at the public library. Seriously, I have gotten more than 20 of the longlist books from the library already, and on..."

Yeah I have a bunch of longlist books checked out that I don't know what to do with now... I'm currently listening to The Shimmering State but with it not being on the shortlist it feels like I don't need to pay attention to it now, haha.

Phyllis wrote: "The shortlist is out! "



Dang it! I thought I was doing so well with having read several from the longlist!!! I haven't read ANY on the short list. I better start putting some books on hold at my library ...

Oh my gosh, the majority of these I have no interest in reading. Why did they not include The Promise or Hell of a Book or The Man Who Lived Underground ???? Those were practically made for TOB, they'd be so good to discuss! Why another Rooney? Why No One is Talking About This again??? And 2 of the books (Nervous System and In Concrete) are so obscure my library doesn't even have them.

I've read 5 of these, DNF one (Subdivision.) Glad for The Trees and the Labatut and the Ozeki, and Intimacies was good...I'll read the Erdrich, although this is supposedly a bit weaker than her others. And I honestly don't know if I'll be reading more. Why did they choose these? It's like some of the weird longlist choices, they seem completely random, like someone threw darts. Bah humbug!

I was trying to decide whether to buy Nervous System, and saw this from a review:

"Dark, dark, dark. Deals with cancer, mass graves, DEATH, disease, black holes, annihilation, obliteration, nothingness, a family with the most terrible luck, exile, chronic pain with no solution and no end in sight, and a physics dissertation."

Yeah, no.

Elizabeth wrote: "I was trying to decide whether to buy Nervous System, and saw this from a review:

"Dark, dark, dark. Deals with cancer, mass graves, DEATH, disease, black holes, annihilation, obliteration, nothin..."

Yes, this was one of my 2 Hard No's, along with the Sally Rooney. I've read 6 (esp. loved The Trees and Matrix) and have varying levels of enthusiasm for 10.

I'm also a little disappointed with the short list and I have this vague feeling of disappointment in the long list. I don't know if it's me or the list. I just don't feel the hum of buried gems, as I did with past years. Hopefully In Concrete, The Confession of Copeland Cane and Subdivision, three books I've never heard of, will be those gems.

This year I'll be happy to let books that excite me jump ahead of the less than exciting Tournament ones on my TBR.

I have read 5, I also rank every books on a scale of 1-5, and typically have time to get to the ones that are graded 3+ and all the longlist books chosen hit this threshold of having piqued my interest just enough. Sad by the books we already lost, especially Hell of a Book. I finished The Promise last night and wish I would have DNF'ed it when I felt the urge about a quarter of the way in. Will not miss it. Very pumped about the Labatut, and most sad for the Binet.

Interesting that 3 of these were published by Graywolf, which only publishes around 30 books a year.

Nadine wrote: "I'm also a little disappointed with the short list and I have this vague feeling of disappointment in the long list. I don't know if it's me or the list. I just don't feel the hum of buried gems, as I did with past years. Hopefully In Concrete, The Confession of Copeland Cane and Subdivision, three books I've never heard of, will be those gems..."

Not just you. This was such an amazing list for fiction, so many incredible books I read and more i'm looking forward to reading, which I would've loved to talk about here. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to get a better understanding of how these were chosen.

Kip wrote: "I have read 5, I also rank every books on a scale of 1-5, and typically have time to get to the ones that are graded 3+ and all the longlist books chosen hit this threshold of having piqued my inte..."

Kip, thanks for finding me one gem in the long list that I'd have missed - the Binet sounds terrific.

Only a week to choose the Zombie!

(And you should promptly pop over to choose The Trees, okay? Okay.)

I am reading A Calling for Charlie Barnes and loving it�.sooo disappointed in this shortlist.

Glad it's not just me feeling disappointed. I reread the list several times because I couldn't shake the feeling that I wasn't reading it correctly. No Hell of a Book? No The Final Revival of Opal & Nev (which you should all get to from the longlist, imo)? I'd love for them to pull back the curtain on the decision-making process, that's for sure.

Re: The Sentence, by Erdrich: I am psyched for that one as I've actually heard it's a departure from her usual fare but in a very good way. So I guess that's my shortlist solace. I will not be a completist this year, that I'm certain of. :(

I am in the middle of Hell of a Book right now and I think it's brilliant, so I'm disappointed that it did not appear on the shortlist. Seems like a natural TOB book.

Otherwise I'm going to withhold judgement on the overall list until I've read more. I've read seven of the titles so far, and the only ones I disliked are the Rooney and the Lockwood. So I'm hoping that since I already have them out of the way, my experience with the rest of the shortlist will range from good to great. I love that Matrix made it - it is so well written and the discussion should be interesting.

I am game to read almost any book and will attempt to read the full short list as I do every year even though there are some books I’m sad to see left off. However, I feel like I need to express my love for And Then the Gray Heaven. I knew it wouldn’t make the short list but it is one of the books that was not on my radar before that I’m so glad I picked up. I would sum it up as a sweet book about grief. I feel like sweet sounds like a terrible way to describe a book you love but that is the feeling I keep coming back to. It is so warm and tender even though it is about tremendous grief and loss. And it highlighted how few books by non-binary authors with non-binary characters I have read which I will now work on rectifying. It might be one of my top books of the year. Discovering an hidden gem and finding a new fave is always my favorite part of the ToB! Look forward to starting the short list! Now back to lurking�

Emerging from lurking to add my reaction to the list. I was excited to see the list so early, but not excited about what’s on it. I’ve read 12 of the long list but only three of the short one (Klara, the Lockwood, and the Sally Rooney), and based on their descriptions am not looking forward to most of the 15 that are left. I’m busy sorting my library books into 4 piles:

1. Short list books I have on hand:
Echo Wife
Intimacies
Libertie

2. Long list books headed back to the library:
The Promise
second place
Nightbitch
Maxwell’s Demon

3. Long list books I’m keeping cuz I think I’ll enjoy them
The other black girl
Good neighbors
Dream Girl
Edie Richter
Wayward

4. Other library books I’ll be keeping just for fun:
Lorna Mott comes Home
Morningside Heights
The War for Gloria
The Charm Offensive

I also have the Love Songs of W.E.B. Dubois checked out and will be starting that today—I imagine that will keep me busy for at least a week. I just finished Hell of a Book and loved it so much—I’m glad I got to it before the short list or I might have set it aside.
One thing I like about the list is that most of the books are on the shorter side—I count 11 under 300 pages. I don’t like how many seem to include science fiction elements. I’m trying to keep an open mind but I feel so much less enthusiastic about the books than in years past. I probably won’t tackle it seriously for another few weeks, and then will intersperse books on the list with others that have more appeal.

Well. I shall hope against (likely vain) hope that the third Rooney will be the charm for me.

I guess these tournament hosts are just determined to get me to rethink my assumptions -- always a healthy habit to cultivate. :-)

Elizabeth wrote: "Only a week to choose the Zombie!

(And you should promptly pop over to choose The Trees, okay? Okay.)"

I second that zombie vote!

In ToB trivia, including the 2022 shortlist (and not counting summer camp), there are now 37 authors who have had two or more books compete in the ToB. Of those, four authors have had three books in the ToB:
Gary Shteyngart;
Hari Kunzru;
Lauren Groff; and
Percival Everett.
Two other authors had two books in the ToB in back-to-back years:
Cormac McCarthy; and
Roberto Bolano.
The other 31 authors with two books in the ToB are:
Ann Patchet;
Brit Bennett;
Colton Whitehead;
David Mitchell;
Dexter Palmer;
Hanya Yanagihara;
Hilary Mantel;
Ian McEwan;
James McBride;
Jennifer Egan;
Jesmyn Ward;
Jesse Ball;
Jhumpa Lahiri;
Julian Barnes;
Kaitlyn Greenidge;
Kate Atkinson;
Kazuo Ishiguro;
Louis de Bernieres;
Louise Erdrich;
Lydia Millet;
Margaret Atwood;
Marlon James;
Michael Ondaatje;
Mohsin Hamid;
Richard Powers;
Ruth Ozeki;
Sally Rooney;
Susanna Clarke;
Uzodinma Iweala;
Valeria Luiselli; and
Ya'a Gyasi.

Additional fun fact: none of this year's (2022) judges have ever before been a judge in the ToB, and none of them have authored a book that has ever been in the ToB.

I imagine they tried to get a mix of books that a lot of readers will recognize, of authors who've appeared here before so you know the organizers like them (Everett, Groff, Shteyngart), and a few possible lesser-known gems. Looks fairly well like a typical ToB shortlist to me, then!

I've read the Lockwood and loved it, am listening to "When We Cease to Understand the World" and loving it as well, I'll actually read the physical book too though. If you have any interest in quantum physics (and why wouldn't you! :) ) you'll find it fascinating.

What a bizarre list that I'm trying to keep an open mind about.

I'm disappointed we won't be discussing Detransition, Baby or A Calling for Charlie Barnes, but here we go!

oh gosh oh gosh. I DNF'd the Rooney, and gave 5 stars to In Concrete if that helps anyone!

I would've sworn Jesse Ball was TOB'd every time he published a book but maybe he is just longlisted a lot.

Phyllis wrote: "In ToB trivia, including the 2022 shortlist (and not counting summer camp), there are now 37 authors who have had two or more books compete in the ToB. Of those, four authors have had three books i..."

Thanks for these stats! Tons of repeats...

I’m most sad that Charlie Barnes didn’t make the short list. I’ve only read two so far, much reading to do!

I had Several People Are Typing out from the library, so started reading this afternoon (after finishing the beautiful Chouette!) I figured I'd just give it a few pages, but I'm already about halfway through. A really fast read, and surprisingly I'm really having fun with this. (Confession: I'm so out of it I didn't even know Slack was a real thing! It's been many, many years since I've had a real job. Still getting a kick out of this, it's like reading The Office.)

The list about two weeks early!  What a treat!  Sorry y'all but now I'm hoping that 'No One Is Talking About This' takes down the Rooney. harhar.  I'm not reading the Rooney.  It's surprising 'No One' gets another chance because I felt in the minority of loving that book... but then it has been up for so many awards this year.  I haven't read them yet, but the books I'm most sad to see not included from the longlist are Hell of a Good Book (surprising!), Fight Night and Civilizations.   I was very wrong about what they were going to pick this year.

I'm amused that Fiona Dourif is a judge, but surprised her amazing role in Dirk Gently isn't mentioned!  It's a literary show, at least.  Otherwise, looking forward to mostly writer judges!!

I'm a little disappointed in the short lead time here...like, why even have a longlist 68 books long if we're only gonna get a couple of weeks to get a jump on it? I'm all in regardless.

I made a shortlist spreadsheet if you're interested. I added an audiobook length column and a column indicating whether or not they're available on Scribd. Okay, let's do this!

Bob wrote: "I'm a little disappointed in the short lead time here...like, why even have a longlist 68 books long if we're only gonna get a couple of weeks to get a jump on it? I'm all in regardless.

I made a..."

I like knowing earlier! Though if I had known it would be THIS early, I probably wouldn't have amassed this gorgeous stack of twelve longlist books I have hardly touched yet and only three ended up on the shortlist. I mean, I will (hopefully) get to them eventually, but now it will take longer. This stack looks three feet tall.

Lauren wrote: "I'm crushed. Happy about only a few of these, not sure if I want to rage read the Rooney (very surprised/concerned they're taking us there again), and am generally disappointed by the selection. :((("

I wasn't expecting it this early, either. I read 7 longlisters over the Thanksgiving break and only 2 of them made the shortlist. Typical for my predictive skills.

I'm happy to have the short list this early, though:

Really, really disappointed that Rooney is back again. If they were going to do that to us, the least they could have done was put it up against Franzen in the wild card round with, I dunno, is there another EL James book this year?

Overall, though, half the books are books I would have read anyway, and apart from *that* book, there's only one that made the list that I gave a meh in my longlist preview

Pleased to see that Percival Everett is getting another shot at it, too. Looking forward to cheering that one on with Phyllis.

What I was wondering, though, is if instead of having a zombie vote, we could have an exorcism vote: a book (*cough* Rooney *cough*) that we could prevent from rising from the dead to ruin this tournament and 2026's tournament of champions.

Despite that one blot on the slate, it looks like a pretty good list to me. But here are the books I was disappointed we won't get to hash out in the comments:

(read)
=Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch=
=A Calling for Charlie Barnes=
=Nightbitch=

(not read)
=Civilizations=
=Cloud Cuckoo Land=
=Harlem Shuffle=
=Jaguars' Tomb=
=Milk Fed=

Matthew wrote: "I am in the middle of Hell of a Book right now and I think it's brilliant, so I'm disappointed that it did not appear on the shortlist. Seems like a natural TOB book..."

That's my one long list DNF. Felt like it was trying so hard to be Paul Beatty, but couldn't quite pull it off. Can you help me see the brilliance? I was looking forward to it when I started it, but got impatient with it well before I gave myself permission to put it aside.

Phyllis wrote: "In ToB trivia, including the 2022 shortlist (and not counting summer camp), there are now 37 authors who have had two or more books compete in the ToB. Of those, four authors have had three books i..."

Thanks for this!

lark wrote: "I would've sworn Jesse Ball was TOB'd every time he published a book but maybe he is just longlisted a lot."

I'd be happy if that were true....

Just wanted to add that I really liked the Rooney, for anyone here who needs to be part of that support group. ¯\_(�)_/¯

Tim wrote: "Lauren wrote: "I'm crushed. Happy about only a few of these, not sure if I want to rage read the Rooney (very surprised/concerned they're taking us there again), and am generally disappointed by th..."

YESSSSSSS to the Exorcism! I am making myself read it, but, for God's sake, WHY? There are longlist debut novelists who could really use the boost vs. bringing more coals to Newcastle (or its Irish equivalent ....)

I've read six, will definitely read six more, including two of the three play-ins.

The Trees is for sure my Zombie pick.

Disappointed to see Libertie, which was enjoyable but seemed completely conventional.

Tired of thinking about No One is Talking and Klara, which I guess is the downside of the summer tournament.

Miffed at having the great Louise Erdrich in a play-in.

On the fence about the Rooney, so thanks,@ Zach, for the encouragement. Like I always need encouragement to get more books. :-)

Kinda relieved that we don't have Franzen, although I'm planning to read it anyway.

Happy to have discovered a quirky book that sounds like fun, In Concrete, thanks to the short list and the enthusiasm of a couple members of this community. That's what it's all about for me.

Praying for more reading-hours in the day so I can also keep up with my other December reading: Palmares for a buddy read in the latest litfic group, and Cloud Cuckoo Land for my IRL book group. Good problems to have, eh?

Zachary wrote: "Just wanted to add that I really liked the Rooney, for anyone here who needs to be part of that support group. ¯\_(�)_/¯"

Listen, I am really hoping to be able to join you there. I'm just not especially sanguine that I'll be able to.

Zachary wrote: "Just wanted to add that I really liked the Rooney, for anyone here who needs to be part of that support group. ¯\_(�)_/¯"


LOL I haven't read it yet so I'm glad to see this. I don't understand why some people hate her books so much.

I am laughing out loud at us - I think we must be the grumpiest gusses of book readers in the world! The ToB gods give us both the longlist and the shortlist way early, leaving us lots more time to read the books before March, and we complain. They give us a shortlist with 11 female authors out of 18, authors of a wide range of ethnicities & backgrounds, three books in translation, one debut novel, and chock-a-block full of genre-leaning literature (including romance, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, and coming-of-age), and now we complain the major award-winners aren't on the list. I didn't stop to count the small versus large presses, but I see a significant number I know to be small press. Gosh y'all, there are only 18 books on the list - what more can they do to make us smile?

Nadine wrote: "I don't understand why some people hate her books so much."


If =Normal People= had taken a bow and left the stage graciously after its defeat at the hands of =Fleishman is in Trouble=, I think we would all be looking back with more tolerance. But instead, it dragged its rotten corpse out of the ground and into the ring to compete again.

And then it had the ill grace to send =My Sister, the Serial Killer= and =The Underground Railroad= (and really, shame on Jessa Crispin for letting that happen: unperceptive readers sometimes mistake =Gulliver's Travels= as a book for children, but I expect our judges to be a little more perceptive than that) and =The Orphan Master's Son= home in the Tournament of Champions - three great travesties of justice - before threatening to win it all and forever tarnish the Rooster.

That's why.

Tim wrote: "Nadine wrote: "I don't understand why some people hate her books so much."


If =Normal People= had taken a bow and left the stage graciously after its defeat at the hands of =Fleishman is in Troub..."


Ah. I was not ToBing back then, so I missed all of that. And Underground Railroad, My Sister the Serial Killer, and Fleishmann (which I can never spell because I want a "c" in there) were all pretty great books, so I think I understand now.