Tag: percival everett
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2025 Tournament of Books: James vs. Martyr! (again)
OK, there’s not much point rehashing what I said the last time these two faced off. I still think James is the better book. My judgment on the judgment This is a vote by all the judges, and since last year I did a handy little table, I figured I’d repeat that again this year. I…
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2025 Tournament of Books: The Extinction of Irena Rey vs. James
This would have been my finals matchup had the judging gone my way. Instead, these two books face off in the zombie round. James, as I’ve said every time it comes up, is the best book of 2024, the one that people will be reading decades in the future. The Extinction of Irena Rey, as good…
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2025 Tournament of Books: James vs. Martyr!
I kind of feel like there is only one book that comes close to meeting James in terms of excellence and lasting impact out of the books of 2024, and that’s Martyr! but at the same time, I also feel like this it’s mostly because of the promise that Martyr! shows for Akbar’s oeuvre going forward, so for…
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2025 Tournamet of Books: James vs. Headshot/The Book of Love
We come into the quarterfinals and this particular match-up is one for which my choice is foreordained. James is the best book of 2024, end of discussion. And yet I suppose I should discuss. Headshot certainly has its fans, but while it has aspects I can admire, it didn’t manage to continually suprise and amaze in…
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2025 Tournament of Books: James vs. The Book Censor’s Library
The first “regular” match of the tournament also feels like an unfair match-up. On the one side, we have a small-feeling book, The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa (a new name to me), on the other side we have the goliath, Percival Everett’s major publisher (how did this take so long?) debut coming on…
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My favorite reads of 2024
Somehow, this year, I managed to blow past my previous records for numbers of books read and end the year with 154 books read. As usual, a full accounting of the books is at Goodreads. My favorite books of the year, in no particular order. The Wedding People by Alison Espach. This starts out seeming…
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If I were asked for my ten books of the 2000s for the New York Times list
Not that they asked, but if they had, I went through my reading log and did the painful winnowing down of books I’ve read published in 2000 or later down to ten “best” books (the last seven to get cut really hurt) to the following (in order by publication date): Housekeeping: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson…