Tournament of Books discussion

In the general thread, they posted that anyone can start this, so here I am... hoping, begging, and praying for a good list of books that I can read that will get me ahead on the longlist!

(Last year, I had only read 5 of the longlist when it was released... hoping for a better outcome this year!)

So use this thread to post about books that fit the ToB mold and may end up on the long/short list for the 2026 tournament!

(Mods, I'm unable to make a new folder for this thread, so feel free to move it to the appropriate place!)

I would recommend Kevin Wilson’s new book Run for the Hills. I don’t know if it’s edgy enough, or has the “it” factor the selection committee likes, but I really enjoyed it.

Here's the appropriate list. Please add to it as you discover books that you think would be good in the tournament.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...

I really enjoyed Women, Seated. The translator was Jeremy Tiang, who chooses some very interesting novels to translate.

Thanks for the list, Alison!

I am notoriously bad at figuring out what will be on the list, but I just started Deep Cuts and I think it has some possibility. The voice feels so unique.

Run for the Hills was definitely pretty fun!

Kyle wrote: "Run for the Hills was definitely pretty fun!"

Here to third Run for the Hills--great, new spin on road trip novel

Between Run for the Hills, Road to Tender Hearts, and When We Were areal it is the year of road trip novels. I think Road to Tender Hearts was my favorite of the three.

I just added a wonderfully weird one, The National Telepathy. Its first person accounts of a few episodes involving a sloth in amongst a shipment of Indigenous people that are to be used in a human zoo-type display in Argentina. I recommend that one!

I'm actually reading another, out-of-the-ordinary road trip novel--this one set in the 1500s as a couple of acolytes transport the recently exhumed body of a saint to a waiting monastery. One of the miracles attributed to the saint is the heavenly aroma the body emits that makes some people feel...randy, others hungry. The body is never safe. Unfortunately, Recital of the Dark Verses was published in 2023 but woulda made a great TOB book. Sorry for the digression.

I read that! Strange little road novel indeed. If you want another strange medieval road trip novel that scratches similar but less esoteric itches, check out To Calais, in Ordinary Time.

I kind of liked the new Adichie, but she did kind of lean into her criticisms by having a smart, proud African woman belittled by American liberals for not sharing their values.

If I could figure out how to add a book to the list I would add Killer Potential by Hannah Dietch. I found it through Rupi Thorpe’s Instagram. It would make for a lively discussion and strong opinions.

If you go to the list on a computer or switch to the desktop view, there is a second tab for adding books. I am fairly sure you can't do it from the app unless I have simply not found the correct setting for that.

I added the recent Amy Bloom, because I welcome any excuse to talk about Amy Bloom books.

Tilt, by Emma Pattee. An excellent debut.

Totally recommend The Slip

I just finished Guy Gavriel Kay's "Written on the Dark", which is in the fantasy genre (despite its lack of almost any fantastical elements - he mostly writes somewhat alternative histories about people getting caught up in events bigger than themselves) but was still probably one of the best written books I've read all year.

Kyle wrote: "I just finished Guy Gavriel Kay's "Written on the Dark", which is in the fantasy genre (despite its lack of almost any fantastical elements - he mostly writes somewhat alternative histories about p..."

I've really liked the books of his that I've read and it would be fun to throw this kind of thing (historical fantasy?) into the mix.

Thanks for that mention, Kyle and Allison. I had never heard of Guy Gavriel Kay, and this (as well as his past novels) looks intriguing.

I added The Director by Daniel Kehlmann.

Added Beasts of the Sea and The Hounding. Two different historical fictions doing interesting but very different things with animals.

I read Flashlight while listening to The Emperor of Gladness. They really complement each other.
Also I'm almost done with The Bright Years. I have no idea why this is rated so high. It makes The Wedding People seem like high lit.

Out today is the new R.F. Kuang. I know she's very hit-or-miss with this crowd, but I'm looking forward to it - looks like a take on Inferno with a dark-academia twist.

Also, I scanned Goodreads's fall release list, and we've got new stuff from

-Oyinkan Braithwaite ("My Sister the Serial Killer")
-Angela Flournoy ("The Turner House")
-Mona Awad ("Bunny")

A few 2025 books I've finished recently:

Universality by Natasha Brown. Just didn't get the feel for this book. A book ostensibly about class (I mean, is that a giant metaphor on the cover?), really felt like a book about grievance--everybody's got one. Maybe that's where the title's from.

On Earth As It Is Beneath is one of my favorite books of 2025 so far. Gritty, grimy, it doesn't reach the heights of her previous book in my estimation, but this is a worthy novel. Powerful author; has shades of early Cormac McCarthy.

Archive of Unknown Universes felt half-baked to me.

Anyone else get to Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart? I enjoyed this one immensely though it felt like it was for children--perhaps due to the child narrator.

Also, just started The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey and am finding it quite consumable. While it may be an awkward fit in the tournament, it's worth a conversation I think.

Kyle wrote: "Out today is the new R.F. Kuang. I know she's very hit-or-miss with this crowd, but I'm looking forward to it - looks like a take on Inferno with a dark-academia twist."

I bought Katabasis in hardback (I was meh on Babel but loved Yellow Face) and it is a stunning objet d'art and will look amazing on my shelf. Also, dark academia is my jam.

I read "The Devil Three Times" by Rickey Fayne a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to like it -- and there were some bits that I really did, but it also felt like it could have been 100 pages shorter and wouldn't have suffered for it. It definitely could be good conversation fodder, though.

Other books from this year I've read, but I'm not sure they're ToB material:

"When the Moon Hits Your Eye" (John Scalzi) - really enjoyed it, but I love anything Scalzi writes. I'll concede this isn't his best work, though.

"When the Tides Held the Moon" (Venessa Veda Kelley) - Loved this book. Beautiful prose and the author is an artist, so the book was gorgeous to look at. On the surface, this looks like it should be a fluffy romance novel, but there are some great themes to explore and discuss.

"Atmosphere" (Taylor Jenkins Reid) - Yes, it's popcorn. But, man. As a child of the 80s who wanted nothing more than to go to Space Camp, I LOVED this one.

"A Marriage at Sea" (Sophie Elmhirst) - It's non-fiction, so I'm guessing that disqualifies it from ToB (still new-ish here, so I'm learning the ropes). But that's ok. This book has all sorts of potential, but outside of the the shipwreck part, it's kinda meh. A lot of the other bits feel more like trying to bump up the page count, because the actual story could be told in about 40 - 50 pages.

https://lithub.com/heres-the-longlist...

NBA long list!

How many of those aren't even out yet? heh

I recently saw an interview with Sam Sussman, author of The Boy From the North Country, and his book looks amazing. I haven't read it, but I can tell it's going to rip my heart out when I get my hands on it.

https://themorningnews.org/email/a603...

ToB adding a horror pop-up this fall?

ha! fun.

I don't envy anyone trying to fit The Terror in though. that's a monster of a book, no pun intended

Kyle wrote: "ha! fun.

I don't envy anyone trying to fit The Terror in though. that's a monster of a book, no pun intended"

But The Terror was already ON my tbr list. I actually just took it off the shelf....

Kip wrote: "https://lithub.com/heres-the-longlist...

NBA long list!"

I've read Flashlight (loved it) and The Antidote which I found entertaining.

I am not fully committing to a ranking, but North Sun: Or, The Voyage of the Whaleship Esther is likely my favorite book I have read this year.

Anyone find Buffalo Hunter Hunter endless?

Audra wrote: "Anyone find Buffalo Hunter Hunter endless?"

I felt like the 'modern day' sections could have been taken out and the book would have been stronger for it.

I'm working on "How to Dodge a Cannonball" right now at the recommendation of this group and it is legit hilarious. Definitely enjoying it, thanks for the heads up on it.

I finished Endling a few days ago. It's really weird, but in a good way. It has some laugh out loud moments in spite of the heavy subject matter. And you'll have a new appreciation of snails when you finish!

I liked Endling a lot.

I just finished The Director, which is dark and real and terrifying and marvelously written. It's going to stick with me for a long time and would be an excellent ToB pick.

I just a saw this on today's NYT book review email. They like it a lot too. Looking forward to checking this one out.

Lark wrote: "Audra wrote: "Anyone find Buffalo Hunter Hunter endless?"

I felt like the 'modern day' sections could have been taken out and the book would have been stronger for it."

Now that I've finally finished it, I agree.

Also loved Endling.

Despite Heart the Lover having a terrible cover, it's magnificent.

And So Far Gone is also excellent. There are so many potentially great books being published this year, that we might have a truly great ToB.

I really liked So Far Gone.

Ooh, that’s on my library hold list! Just have to find some time.

NBA Short List:
2025 Finalists for Fiction:

Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic

Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Karen Russell, The Antidote
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
A Strange Object / Deep Vellum Publishing

Bryan Washington, Palaver
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Peggy wrote: "Kyle wrote: "Out today is the new R.F. Kuang. I know she's very hit-or-miss with this crowd, but I'm looking forward to it - looks like a take on Inferno with a dark-academia twist."

I bought Kata..."

The ungainly (and sometimes syntactically incorrect) sentences in Babel drove me around the bend. I, too, like Dark Academia but I cannot invest in a doorstopper if the prose is mediocre. Perhaps Katabasis will be better on that score than Babel was. But until readers I trust confirm that, I am going to stay away.

Ehrrin wrote: "NBA Short List:
2025 Finalists for Fiction:

Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Grove Press / Grove Atlantic

Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Knopf /..."

Though a whaling story doesn't sound like my thing, I am pleased to see a nonprofit press represented on the NBA shortlist, and for that sake alone I would be willing to give 'North Sun" a go if it makes the ToB longlist.

Has anyone read Loca by Alejandro Heredia? I've just started it and I'm really enjoying this debut author's work.