ToB 2016: Shortlist Predictions

We've had the 2016 Tournament of Books longlist for a while now and after obsessively staring at it, I think I've narrowed it down to the 16 I'd like to see in the tournament. There are 86 books in the longlist, so I'm bound to be (very) wrong, but here's my crack at it.

1. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
2. City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
3. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
4. Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson
5. You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman
6. Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
7. The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray
8. Lovers on All Saints Day by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
9. Gaza, Wyoming by Seth Colter Walls
10. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
11. The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
12. Loving Day by Mat Johnson
13. Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera
14. A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
15. After Birth by Elisa Albert
16. A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball

So that's my list - do you have a best guess at the short list?

Mostly I Don't

I do not read Christian novels
I do not read Romance novels
I do not read Sexy Vampire novels
I do not read Self-Published novels

But sometimes I do.

Books Acquired: Saga Vols. 2 & 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Saga

Volumes Two & Three
Brian K. Vaughan / Fiona Staples

Image Comics

Published July 2, 2014 / March 25, 2014

I never did a post about acquiring the first volume of the amazing graphic novel Saga, but these showed up on Wednesday and I wanted to be sure that I posted about it.

See, I succumbed to the internet hype and purchased Saga: Volume One on a whim. When it arrived I read it slowly and treated it like it was a regular novel. I loved every page, every panel, every weird bit and piece of it. After I turned the last page, I called out: "BRING ME THE INTERNET! I MUST READ MORE SAGA!"

And now I have them and I'm super excited about it.

Graphic novels aren't something I've read much of in the past. There was this once, but for the most part, I'm new to all of this.

If you're curious for more about Saga, check out this io9 post on 10 Reasons You Should Be Reading Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga

Books Acquired: High as the Horses' Bridles by Scott Cheshire

High as the Horses' Bridles

Scott Cheshire

Henry Holt and Co.
Published July 8th, 2014

I got this in a LibraryThing giveaway and I'm really excited to read it!

from the publisher:

An urgent, electric debut novel about inheritance, belief, and a father and son divided by a dangerous prophecy

It’s 1980 at a crowded amphitheater in Queens, New York and a nervous Josiah Laudermilk, age 12, is about to step to the stage while thousands of believers wait to hear him, the boy preaching prodigy, pour forth. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Josiah’s nerves shake away and his words come rushing out, his whole body fills to the brim with the certainty of a strange apocalyptic vision. But is it true prophecy or just a young believer’s imagination running wild? Decades later when Josiah (now Josie) is grown and has long since left the church, he returns to Queens to care for his father who, day by day, is losing his grip on reality. Barreling through the old neighborhood, memories of the past—of his childhood friend Issy, of his first love, of the mother he has yet to properly mourn—overwhelm him at every turn. When he arrives at his family’s old house, he’s completely unprepared for what he finds. How far back must one man journey to heal a broken bond between father and son?

In rhapsodic language steeped in the oral tradition of American evangelism, Scott Cheshire brings us under his spell. Remarkable in scale—moving from 1980 Queens, to sunny present-day California, to a tent revival in nineteenth century rural Kentucky—and shot-through with the power and danger of belief and the love that binds generations, High as the Horses’ Bridles is a bold, heartbreaking debut from a big new American voice.

See also this great interview with Scott Cheshire at Electric Lit 
And also this piece written by Cheshire for Harper's entitled "God Lives On Lemon Street"
Oh, and you wanted an excerpt from High as the Horses' Bridles?  Well then head over to Killing the Buddah.

Books Acquired: Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois

Cartwheel

Jennifer duBois

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published May 20th, 2014

from the publisher:

When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colorful buildings, the street food, the handsome, elusive man next to her. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn't come to Argentina to hang out with other Americans. Weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. As the case takes shape - revealing deceptions, secrets, and suspicious DNA - Lily appears alternately sinister and guileless through the eyes of those around her: the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction. But who is Lily Hayes? It depends on who's asking. Full of psychological suspense and rare moral nuance, Cartwheel investigates how we decide what to see - and to believe - in one another and ourselves.