Tag: The Rooster

A Night with The Morning News and The Tournament of Books

March 25, 2014 by Drew

(TMN co-founders Rosecrans Baldwin & Andrew Womack introducing the evening) Well, I think I’m sufficiently recovered enough now. But, boy, that sriracha shot… The Tournament of Books, as readers of this blog will know, happens every March over at The Morning News. We’re deep in it right now, with the championship coming up on Friday 3/28. But last night (Monday, 3/24) a whole load of people took time off from commenting fiercely via the internet to come celebrate the Tournament’s […]

Categories: Events, Features • Tags: Andrew Womack, Choire Sicha, Drew Broussard, Elliott Holt, Events, Features, Field Notes, Housing Works, Housing Works Bookstore, I Want to Show You More, Jamie Quatro, John McElwee, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Marisha Pessl, My Struggle, Night Film, Roger Hodge, Rosecrans Baldwin, Sriracha, The Morning News, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books, The Tournament of Books 2014, ToB X, Tumblr

The Tournament of Books 2014: Predictions

March 3, 2014 by Drew

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for book lovers – it’s Tournament of Books time! I’ve been an avid follower of the tourney for several years now and, as the games move into their tenth year, I’ve decided to do a little pre-match prognostication. The playoff round happened this morning, so let’s take a look at what comes next. Some important qualifications: as of the time of this writing, I’ve read 13 of the 17 entrants – and […]

Categories: Features • Tags: A Tale for the Time Being, At Night We Walk in Circles, Books, Eleanor & Park, Features, Hill William, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Life After Life, Long Division, Prediction, Predictions, Prognostication, The Dinner, The Goldfinch, The Good Lord Bird, The Lowland, The Luminaries, The People in the Trees, The Rooster, The Signature of All Things, The Son, The Tournament of Books 2014, The Tuner of Silences, ToB X, Woke Up Lonely

The Good Lord Bird

January 24, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: After young slave Henry Shackleford’s father gets killed over a misunderstanding involving famed abolitionist John Brown, he is forced to flee his little town along with Brown… who thinks he’s a girl. Thus begins a curious stretch of years for Henry, now nicknamed Onion, as he travels around Kansas and later the rest of the country in disguise – and as Brown races towards his date with destiny at Harper’s Ferry. The Review: I love the underdog story of […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: American History, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, History, James McBride, John Brown, Literature, National Book Award, Politics, Race, Reviews, The Civil War, The Good Lord Bird, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2014, ToB X

The Accidental

May 12, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: A charming woman bluffs her way into the house of a rather ordinary English family during their summer vacation in Norfolk. What starts off innocuous becomes life-altering for all of them and leaves none of them the person they were before the summer began. The Review: What a fucking waste. Sorry. I’m actually not all that angry at this book. I’m more annoyed. Not frustrated – frustration isn’t a bad thing in literature, not necessarily – but […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Ali Smith, Fiction, Literature, Penguin Inks, The Accidental, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2006

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

January 31, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Oscar de Leon, a young Dominican boy, grows up an overweight, socially awkward nerd. Of course as it turns out, it might not entirely be his fault – there’s been a curse on his family, a fukú, for generations and he’s just the most recent one to be on the receiving end. The Review: How has it taken me so long to read this book? After all the awards, all the hype… is it because I was […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: BookClub, Fiction, Junot Diaz, Literature, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2008

The Sisters Brothers

September 21, 2011 by Drew

The Short Version: During the Gold Rush, the Sisters Brothers (Eli and Charlie) are known as two of the most dangerous men in the West. Their most recent assignment is to track down a man, kill him, and steal a formula he has developed – a formula that would make the owner a rich man. This is the story of that job. The Review: My dad has always loved Westerns. I remember going out West for a family vacation and staying […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Fiction, Patrick deWitt, The Rooster, The Sisters Brothers, The Tournament of Books 2012, Western

Wolf Hall

May 7, 2011 by Drew

The Short Version: The story of Thomas Cromwell, real-life figure from the reign of Henry VIII. We get a brief glimpse of his life as a boy and then jump forward to his time with Cardinal Wolsey and his eventual rise to Henry’s chief advisor. Meanwhile, in England, Henry is working to fracture the church, Anne Boleyn is working her way into his heart and bed, and most of the English court is playing a double game while they wait to […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Biography, Fiction, Hilary Mantel, Historical, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2010, Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall

A Visit From The Goon Squad

March 12, 2011 by Drew

The Short Version: “Time’s a goon, right?” – Bennie Salazar. Music, love, death, life, money, New York City, time. A collection of interconnected short stories about people involved, even peripherally, in the music business. But really? A collection of stories about us. The Review: I’m not even sure that I can approach this book in any rational way at the moment. I just finished it and felt the need to get some of my thoughts out but I’m having trouble […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Short Stories • Tags: 6, A Visit From The Goon Squad, Fiction, Goodreads Book Club, Jennifer Egan, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Short Stories, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2011

Cloud Atlas

June 10, 2010 by Drew

Hmm. What to even say about this book. It has been on my radar for a while – it won the Rooster at Tournament of Books a few years ago and it keeps coming up on lists of the most important/best books of the last ten years. Last twenty years. Last half century. And it is. It is a work of art, an intricate puzzle-box of a book that rewards a little extracurricular thought. But it is also lacking a […]

Categories: Cannonball Read II, Fiction, Literary Challenges, Literature • Tags: Book #48, Cannonball Read II, Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell, Fiction, Literature, The Rooster, The Tournament of Books 2005

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books