I read A Strange Piece of Paradise in January of this year. I wrote a review of it on January 13. I think that I started it in January, not December, but I can't find confirmation. So is it fair to include this book on my list of books I've read for 2007??
I am setting what seems to be a reasonable goal at this point: 12 books.
Showing posts with label General Information. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General Information. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Friday, March 30, 2007
Tournament of Books
THE TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS
March 8, 2007 - The Morning News is doing its annual Tournament of Books. It's a lot of fun. Today there are interesting reviews of Half of a Yellow Sun and Absurdistan...the two books that went head to head in the first round. Half of a Yellow Sun came out as the winner.
March 9, 2007 - Another round...this time between the Echo Maker and The Emperor's Children. The winner is here.
March 12, 2007 - Not a great review of Brookland, which is on the NYT Most Notable List. It went up against Firmin. Check out the results here.
March 14, 2007 - I was looking forward to Round five with two NYT Most Notables facing off (and both books I want to read): Arthur and George, by Julian Barnes AND One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson. They both got good reviews (which made me especially happy because I just purchased both of these books in the last two weeks), but one came out ahead as the better mystery of the two. Check it out here.
March 15, 2007 - Colin Meloy writes a witty and original review to expose today's winner in the TOB. The Lay of The Land faces off against a book I've never heard of - English, August.
March 16, 2007 - A surprise winner today over at TOB. Apex Hides the Hurt and Alentejo Blue are both reviewed for Round Seven. Are the rest of you enjoying this as much as I am?
March 19, 2007 - Hope everyone had a grand weekend...now back to the tournament. Round eight - whereby Against the Day is pitted against a short, graphic novel: The Pride of Bahgdad. I have to admit, I would probably never read either one of these books. Check out the not so surprising winner here.
March 20, 2007 - We are onto the next tier of the challenge...officially Round Two, Match One. Half of a Yellow Sun came up against The Emperor's Children. I thought it would be a blow away win for Adichie's beautiful book, but it seems the judge actually didn't really like either book! To read the review and see who won "by default" go here.
March 21, 2007 - The first day of Spring and Round Two, Match Two at the Tournament of Books. Lots of people have been waiting breathlessly to see Firmin face off against The Road. From the small amount of information I've gleaned about these two books (sorry, haven't read either - YET), I didn't think it would be much of a competition. And it wasn't. At least according to judge Mark Sarvas. See the results here.
March 22, 2007 - Round Two, Match Three. I'll warn you right now - if you intend to read either of these books you might not want to read Maud Newton's lengthy reviews with spoilers included. Here's another judge who apparently liked neither book too much. Lay of the Land receives a bit more of her verbal thrashing, but One Good Turn doesn't fare well either. Click on over to The Morning News to view the results of this match.
March 23, 2007 - So here we are in the final match of Round Two - Alentejo Blue vs. Against The Day. How can someone really determine which of these two books is "the winner?" They are of vastly different styles. It would be like me trying to choose which I like better: chocolate or reading (I love them both and couldn't possibly choose one over the other!). At any rate, Sam Lipsyte admits to not having finished reading Pynchon's massive tome, but that doesn't seem to impact the judging. Once again there is a fair amount of negative comments for both books. Go here to see the results.
March 26, 2007 - We are in the semi-final round and what a way to kick it off with Half of a Yellow Sun pitted against The Road. I've read the former, and loved it. The latter is on my TBR pile for May. Elizabeth Gaffney admits to loving both books (finally a judge who enjoyed the books!) and having a difficult time choosing the winner. To see her pick, go here.
March 27, 2007 - In Match Two of the Semi-finals Against the Day faces off with One Good Turn. Apparently Judge Sasha Frere-Jones didn't think it necessary to actually read both books. In fact, she'd already made up her mind before reading either book. Does this seem a little meaningless to anyone else? Results are here.
March 28, 2007 - So today is the Zombie round where they resurrect a "loser" and pair it with a winner. The Road vs. Against The Day. You already know which one wins, right? Here is what I've been pondering. How did Pynchon's giant tome make it into the semi-finals when almost no one can even finish reading it?
March 29, 2007 - One Good Turn goes against Absurdistan in the final Zombie round. Rosecrans Baldwin writes an interesting review of these books - one that will likely keep me from reading either book for a long time. To end the suspense, go here for the winner.
The Championship Round
March 30, 2007
THE ROAD vs. ABSURDISTAN
March 30, 2007
THE ROAD vs. ABSURDISTAN
And so, The Tournament of Books comes to an end. All the judges voted and the winner has been chosen. I bet 99% of you can guess who steamrolled over the competition to become number one!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Visitor Map
Some of you may have noticed the new addition to our side bar: A Visitor Map.
By clicking on the map you can see where visitors are coming from...and the map also provides little blue stars to visually observe visitors.
Thank you to KookieJar who suggested we put one of these on this site.
By clicking on the map you can see where visitors are coming from...and the map also provides little blue stars to visually observe visitors.
Thank you to KookieJar who suggested we put one of these on this site.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
CLARIFICATION of Rules by Wendy
I have had some questions concerning the rules of this challenge, so wanted to clarify...
1. There are no set numbers of books you have to read.
2. Books read should be from the 2006 NYT Most Notable Fiction OR Non fiction lists (see lists already posted to this blog).
3. If you choose to read both non fiction and fiction, at least 75% of the books read should be from the fiction list. This is so we have enough overlap to be able to share and discuss books.
4. Participants are encouraged to cross-post their reviews of books to this blog. Feel free to include a link to the original review on your own blog.
5. When posting, please use appropriate labels. For example: fiction, non fiction, etc... When posting a review, please include a label for the Title of the book so that others can quickly look at and read all reviews for that book in one place.
6. You do not have to select books "in advance"... but you are free to do so if you want to (many participants are creating provisional lists which are subject to change).
Whew! I think I've covered it all.
Thanks for your participation...I hope this will be a fun and rewarding experience for all!
1. There are no set numbers of books you have to read.
2. Books read should be from the 2006 NYT Most Notable Fiction OR Non fiction lists (see lists already posted to this blog).
3. If you choose to read both non fiction and fiction, at least 75% of the books read should be from the fiction list. This is so we have enough overlap to be able to share and discuss books.
4. Participants are encouraged to cross-post their reviews of books to this blog. Feel free to include a link to the original review on your own blog.
5. When posting, please use appropriate labels. For example: fiction, non fiction, etc... When posting a review, please include a label for the Title of the book so that others can quickly look at and read all reviews for that book in one place.
6. You do not have to select books "in advance"... but you are free to do so if you want to (many participants are creating provisional lists which are subject to change).
Whew! I think I've covered it all.
Thanks for your participation...I hope this will be a fun and rewarding experience for all!
Friday, February 23, 2007
Hallo, all!
The New York Times Notable Book Challenge was the brainchild of the brilliant Wendy at caribousmom, who proposed a personal (and later, group) challenge based on the New York Times'* annual list of Notable Books. In 2007, the challenge goes, choose a feasible number of books from the 2006 list that you would like to read over the course of the year (Wendy chose 20, like a champ) .
There is a certain distinctive beauty to this as a group challenge, I think. We are all choosing our challenge books from a relatively limited list, so there is considerable overlap (as well as room for inspiration and temptation to include previous unconsidered books in our annual reading). To take advantage of this, I thought it would be convenient to have a single, group blog where participants in the challenge can cross-post the blog entries and reviews that relate to the challenge, where those who are interested can find all these reviews in a single place, and where a central discussion can be fostered that will be in dialogue with our individual blogs.
If you already are participating in the challenge and would like to join this blog (or if you are new to the challenge but would like to join our illustrious ranks), please leave your email address in a note in the comments on this message, and I will drop you an invitation to become a co-author. If you would prefer not to post your email address publicly, you can leave it for me in a private message on the LibraryThing account I have created for this blog: NYTNotable. Be sure to click the button that says "private."
The LibraryThing account is also helpful because it includes all the books on our "long list," and you can use it to access all kinds of LibraryThing features relating to these books: all the reviews and ratings by fellow Thingers, discussions that mention these books in their forums, publication date, author websites, and a chance to examine what the libraries of those who have read or own these books look like.
To get things rolling, I will now head off to cross post a review of the only book I have read so far for the Challenge (my goal is 12): Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky. When you have joined, pop on over here and introduce yourself. Let us know what your challenge goals are, and be sure to post any reviews or comments you have accumulated over the first two months of the challenge.
* OK - here's a question relating to my ongoing obsession with the plural "'s". Is the possessive of "New York Times" "New York Times' " because the word "times" is plural, or "New York Times's" because the newspaper itself is singular?
There is a certain distinctive beauty to this as a group challenge, I think. We are all choosing our challenge books from a relatively limited list, so there is considerable overlap (as well as room for inspiration and temptation to include previous unconsidered books in our annual reading). To take advantage of this, I thought it would be convenient to have a single, group blog where participants in the challenge can cross-post the blog entries and reviews that relate to the challenge, where those who are interested can find all these reviews in a single place, and where a central discussion can be fostered that will be in dialogue with our individual blogs.
If you already are participating in the challenge and would like to join this blog (or if you are new to the challenge but would like to join our illustrious ranks), please leave your email address in a note in the comments on this message, and I will drop you an invitation to become a co-author. If you would prefer not to post your email address publicly, you can leave it for me in a private message on the LibraryThing account I have created for this blog: NYTNotable. Be sure to click the button that says "private."
The LibraryThing account is also helpful because it includes all the books on our "long list," and you can use it to access all kinds of LibraryThing features relating to these books: all the reviews and ratings by fellow Thingers, discussions that mention these books in their forums, publication date, author websites, and a chance to examine what the libraries of those who have read or own these books look like.
To get things rolling, I will now head off to cross post a review of the only book I have read so far for the Challenge (my goal is 12): Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky. When you have joined, pop on over here and introduce yourself. Let us know what your challenge goals are, and be sure to post any reviews or comments you have accumulated over the first two months of the challenge.
* OK - here's a question relating to my ongoing obsession with the plural "'s". Is the possessive of "New York Times" "New York Times' " because the word "times" is plural, or "New York Times's" because the newspaper itself is singular?
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