The longlist for this year's National Book Awards, and why YOU should be interested!

Hi, all! This is from Kasey... I hardly ever post to the blog any more, just as me, just my recommendations. But here it is, and I used a HUGE cheat list.

In my probably not-so-humble opinion, the National Book Awards are THE award list to look at for books. Looking for a new list of choices for book club? Look at the Nt'l Book Award nominees for the year. Looking for a new author? Check out who won the Nt'l Book Award over the past several years. Tired of what's touted on TV, or what's in the drugstore racks... feel the algorithms at Amazon just don't get you? Look no further.

The National Book Award nominees and winners are just the right balance -- beautifully written, with obvious talent, but not so ivory tower or hoity-toity that they aren't accessible to someone without a degree in literature.

I'd say more, but I'd rather you peruse the list. I suggest picking one title (or more, if you're ambitious) and trying to read it before the awards are announced November 16. I just happen to know a great little indie bookstore that will give you a great deal on any of these titles ;)


LONGLIST FINALISTS FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS 2016:
FICTION:
• Chris Bachelder, The Throwback Special (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan)
• Adam Haslett, Imagine Me Gone (Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group)
• Paulette Jiles, News of the World (William Morrow/HarperCollinsPublishers)
• Karan Mahajan, The Association of Small Bombs (Viking Books/Penguin Random House)
• Elizabeth McKenzie, The Portable Veblen (Penguin Press/Penguin Random House)
• Lydia Millet, Sweet Lamb of Heaven (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Brad Watson, Miss Jane (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Doubleday/Penguin Random House)
• Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn (Amistad/HarperCollinsPublishers)

NONFICTION:
• Andrew J. Bacevich, America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History
• Patricia Bell-Scott, The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice
• Adam Cohen, Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
• Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right
• Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
• Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War
• Cathy O’Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
• Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
• Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition
• Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

POETRY:
• Daniel Borzutzky, The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press)
• Rita Dove, Collected Poems 1974 – 2004 (W. W. Norton & Company)
• Peter Gizzi, Archeophonics (Wesleyan University Press)
• Donald Hall, The Selected Poems of Donald Hall (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Jay Hopler, The Abridged History of Rainfall (McSweeney’s)
• Donika Kelly, Bestiary (Graywolf Press)
• Jane Mead, World of Made and Unmade (Alice James Books)
• Solmaz Sharif, Look (Graywolf Press)
• Monica Youn, Blackacre (Graywolf Press)
• Kevin Young, Blue Laws (Alfred A. Knopf)

YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE:
• Kwame Alexander, Booked
• Kate DiCamillo, Raymie Nightingale
• John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell (Artist), March: Book Three
• Grace Lin, When the Sea Turned to Silver
• Anna-Marie McLemore, When the Moon Was Ours
• Meg Medina, Burn Baby Burn
• Sara Pennypacker & Jon Klassen (Illustrator), Pax
• Jason Reynolds, Ghost
• Caren Stelson, Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story
• Nicola Yoon, The Sun Is Also a Star