You can check out the official post here.

I’ve read (only) two so far so I’ve got 16 books to read before March!

My already reads:

“The Matrix” by Lauren Groff — I have been a Groff fan for a very long time now. This is so unlike everything she’s ever done, it’s wild to think the same person wrote this!! Heh. I would say I liked this book, thought a lot of it was so unique and outstanding, but did not 100% die for it. (I did buy it for someone as a Christmas gift, however…) It definitely has a bit of a “written at a remove” feel to it. I could see this winning the tournament because it’s so unlike what the rest of the world is writing right now and also because it’s got SUCH buzz… OTOH, I think it would be easy to prefer something more modern, something that’s perhaps civil rights focused vs women in the middle ages focused, something less mystical and more modern. (Here’s my goodreads review. How am I able to keep goodreads up to date, but not my own blog, is a question for the ages.) (p.s. and JUST NOW I learned that this is based on a real person, thank you New York Review of Books.)

“Libertie” by Kaitlyn Greenridge — This book was overhyped, for me. I read about it EVERYWHERE and then I read it and did not think it was as amazeballoons as advertised. But the talk about the book definitely also had that vibe of “if you don’t like this book, what is wrong with you” so… I didn’t feel like the writing was at a tour de force level–the story did some interesting things, and some things that didn’t seem like they fit. I could see this winning the tournament as it’s a historical novel that also deeply ties in to our current-day problems. Like The Matrix, it’s received a LOT of buzz: Roxanne Gay gave it ifive stars.