It's getting close to the end of the year, so the book reviews will start showing a little more steadily...I have to make sure that I'm getting them all in so that I can start working toward announcing the winner of my favorite book for 2011 by the first week of 2012.
Today, since we've completed slots 1-5, it's time to fill up some wild card slots. Each group of 5 books gets an additional 2 books to go into the bracket. These will go on the right side of the bracket so that it will essentially be winners vs. wild cards for the most part.
I'm going to recap each bracket and winner and then add the wild card winners for brackets 1-4 :
Bracket 1 -
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Winner : House Rules by Jodi Picoult
And now taking the first two wild card slots...
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult - I loved the flow of the book and the development of the characters, but did not enjoy the fact that Picoult used the obvious link of Salem to witchcraft.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - An easy, modern styled read from Austen, but a rather rushed ending.
Bracket 2 -
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
Winner : Jane Eyre by Jane Austen
Wild card winners for bracket 2...
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen - An attention getting tale of a man's life in a travelling circus during the depression.
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory - The first installment in her Cousins' War series. The story of the War of the Roses from the point of view of Elizabeth Woodville, the queen of the House of York.
Bracket 3 -
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Winner : (the woman whose name I love to say) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Wild cards?
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards - A dichotomous tale resulting from a man's choice to give away his Down Syndrome afflicted daughter.
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute - A historical fiction novel telling the love story of an English woman with an inheritance and an Australian soldier turned cattleman.
Bracket 4 -
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
Dune Road by Jane Green
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
The Beach House by Jane Green
Winner : The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory
And the wild cards are...
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - Historical fiction novel about a young girl sold into the life of a geisha during WWII.
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory - The third entry in the bracket for Philippa Gregory and the story of Katherine of Aragon, Princess of Spain and Queen of England.
and finally...
Bracket 5 -
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Mary: Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Winner : The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Moving on to wild card status (with ratings of 3/5?!?!) :
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Historical fiction about a family of missionaries in the Congo during the revolution.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - Yet another historical fiction novel (I'm sensing a theme here) - this one about the life of past criminal Jean Valjean during the French revolution.
Tada! So now the bracket looks like this...
And yes...there are a couple brackets ready to move forward. Nope. I'm doing them all at the same time. Too bad.
I love these posts so much. I cannot WAIT for the brackets!
ReplyDeleteohh, I like your brackets! I am like 20 or more book reviews behind on my 52 books thing...maybe I will try grouping them and doing a quick mention instead of a review for each one...you've got me thinking here...
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you're liking the bracket system. Next year will be a little more refined. It will be putting one book into each slot to compete against each other in true tournament style. Darian will also have his own bracket. He's setting a goal of 32 books for next year. My goal will be 64.
ReplyDelete