Tag Archives: National Book Awards

Awards: The Top Science + Literature Books Of 2025

Announcing the 2025 Science + Literature Titles - National Book Foundation

NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION (January 22, 2025): The National Book Foundation (NBF) and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today announced selected titles for the fourth year of the Science + Literature program.

Ramona AusubelThe Last Animal

The Last Animal: A Novel

Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House

“…follows two teenage sisters who join their mother—a paleontology graduate student—on scientific expeditions near and far. Ausubel’s novel captures the wonder of scientific discovery as Jane and her daughters navigate grief, sexism, and a journey to find a wooly mammoth and themselves.

Claire WahmanholmMeltwater

Milkweed Editions

“…dissects the vulnerability of parenthood and our natural world, with embedded erasure poems of Lacy M. Johnson’s “How to Mourn a Glacier” throughout the collection. Meltwater simultaneously mourns the disastrous effects of the climate crisis while finding moments of joy in the everyday through the eyes of a new mother.

Ed YongAn Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us:  Yong, Ed: 9780593133231: Amazon.com: Books

Random House / Penguin Random House

“…invites readers into the remarkable sensory worlds of birds, bugs, crocodiles, dogs, and many other animals to show us how these creatures experience the world. Yong argues that all creatures, humans included, have their own unique way of perceiving their surroundings, making the case for why we must collectively protect our biologically diverse planet.”

Fiction: The 2023 National Book Awards Longlist

2023 National Book Awards Longlist for Fiction - National Book Foundation

2023 National Book Awards Longlist for Fiction – National Book Foundation

National Book Foundation (September 15, 2023) – The ten titles on the list were chosen from four hundred and ninety-six submissions by publishers. Three authors on the longlist, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Justin Torres, have been previously honored by the National Book Foundation. The full list is below.

Nana Kwame Adjei-BrenyahChain-Gang All-Stars
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House

Aaliyah BilalTemple Folk
Simon & Schuster

Eliot DuncanPonyboy
W. W. Norton & Company

Paul HardingThis Other Eden
W. W. Norton & Company

Tania JamesLoot
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Jayne Anne PhillipsNight Watch
Knopf / Penguin Random House

Mona Susan PowerA Council of Dolls
Mariner Books / HarperCollins Publishers

Hanna PylväinenThe End of Drum-Time
Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers

Justin TorresBlackouts
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

LaToya WatkinsHoller, Child
Tiny Reparations Books / Penguin Random House

Book Review Podcasts: “Margaret Thatcher – Herself Alone” By Charles Moore (New York Times)

Margaret Thatcher Charles Moore“I don’t think you can think about British politics or British history without thinking about her a very great deal,” Charles Moore, the authorized biographer of Margaret Thatcher, says of his subject on this week’s podcast. “And to some extent, you can’t think about the history of the modern West without thinking about her a very great deal.”

The third and concluding volume of Moore’s 2,700-page biography is titled “Herself Alone.”

Adrienne Brodeur visits the podcast this week to discuss her new book, “Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me.” When Brodeur was 14, her mother confided in her about an extramarital affair she was conducting. “The temptation is to view a mother like this in sort of the ‘monster mother’ perspective, and the fact is, the most important thing for me in writing this book was to present a very nuanced portrayal of both her and of our relationship,” Brodeur says.

Also on this week’s episode, Alexandra Alter discusses the winners of this year’s National Book Awards; and Susan Dominus, A.O. Scott and John Williams talk about what people are reading. Pamela Paul is the host.