From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable

Headshot
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Start date
August 1, 2025
Finish date
September 15, 2025
Discussion
2025 Tournament

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Showing 2 of 15 topics — 357 comments total
+ 2025 Tournament
Round E - 1 August - 15 September - Reservoir 13 vs Klara and the Sun vs Headshot
By Henk · 15 posts · 19 views
last updated Sep 16, 2025 02:12AM
Round E voting - 15 September
By Henk · 12 posts · 12 views
last updated Sep 14, 2025 10:36PM

What Members Thought

Henk
Aug 10, 2024 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Longlisted for the Booker prize 2024, a surprisingly punchy read 🥊
Divided in short sections, in a structure governed by the tournament of a girls boxing competition in Reno, many themes are touched upon in the 1 on 1 confrontations between the characters
You can’t train for a sport unless you believe you have control over your own destiny. The point of training is to change the outcome of the future. You train to change something you otherwise would have lost.

Headshot consists of short sections,
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Nadine in California
Jun 18, 2024 rated it it was ok
I got over half way, so I'm not considering this a DNF. I can appreciate what the author is doing, the match of character, writing and tone is perfect, but I just couldn't enjoy the reading of it. It had a depressing drabness that rarely speaks to me. I'll balance out my reaction by quoting Jonathan Lethem's superlative blurb for it, which bears zero relation to the first half of the book I read, but sounds like a Lethem sci fi novel I'd love to read. (I wonder if he actually read it or pulled t ...more
Irene
Aug 02, 2025 rated it liked it
Eight teen-age female amateur boxers compete in a small elimination tournament. Between descriptions of the rounds we hear the thoughts and background on each girl. This felt like a series of character sketches punctuated by punches. Muy revulsion toward the brutality of boxing as entertainment prejudiced me against this book.
Pamela
Sep 07, 2025 rated it liked it  ·  review of another edition
The story of a teenage girls’ boxing tournament - through each of the matches the reader sees the girls as individuals with their own way of looking at boxing and their opponents, their attitudes to victory and defeat, and what kind of life may await them after the tournament is over.

I enjoyed this much more than I was expecting, the approach is interesting and the prose is bold and direct in a way that reflects the subject matter. The characters of the girls are developed quickly and surely, bu
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Rachel
Oct 10, 2024 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Erika
Oct 12, 2024 marked it as to-read
Laurence Scherz
Aug 15, 2025 rated it really liked it
Heather(Gibby)
Jul 23, 2025 marked it as maybe
Kai Coates
Jul 24, 2025 marked it as to-read
Joe
Sep 09, 2025 rated it liked it