The Nonfiction Files 7: The 2025 National Book Award Longlist

Initial thoughts on this year's longlist, from what I've read to what I plan to skip.

The National Book Award’s longlist for nonfiction is here and I’m going to break down the list for you. Every year I attempt to read the entire longlist, I have yet to do it, but I won’t let that little fact stop me. In the words of three time National Book Award listed author, Hanif Abdurraqib, “There’s Always This Year”.¹

Before we dive into the list, here is your friendly reminder that the 2025 Nonfiction Reading Guide will only be available until September 22nd, that is ten days from now. So, like, get on it².

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General List Thoughts

I like this list.

It has been a strong year for nonfiction. I have been impressed by so much of what I’ve read this year, and while I was bummed not to see a few faves on the list (Black in Blues, There Is No Place for Us, Original Sins) I am looking forward to reading most of these books, many of which were barely or not on my radar.

In case you missed it, I shared my annual prediction reel on Tuesday. I post these every year, and usually only get 2/10 right. This year, again, I only got 2/10 right.³ I am nothing if not consistent.

Of the books listed, I have read (and loved) two, had heard of seven. I plan to read six, and will be skipping two. More on all that below. Six of the books are from Big Five Publishers, with Penguin Random House having four of those six books. Considering PRH’s share of the market, having 40% of the books on the list doesn’t feel as bad as it could (or has in the past).

What does stand out to me a bit is how many of the books are memoir/personal writing. Without knowing the books well, it appears 7-8 have at least some memoir present in the book. Most of these books seem to be memoir and reporting, but I am still struck but how many have memoir at all — as opposed to straight history, or science, or reported journalism. Still, it feels like a lot compared to last year’s list which had 4-5 and in 2023 the list had 4 and in 2022 only 2-3.⁴

Also, shoutout to the judges because for the NBAs they are asked to read⁵ about 500-600 nonfiction books, that’s no joke.

Ok, now on to thoughts on each book.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf)
I have been screaming about this book all year long. Legit. I read it back in January and haven’t shut up about it. El Akkad’s collection of essays that examine the power and hypocrisy of Empire anchored in the atrocities in Gaza is worthy of all the recognition. When I reviewed it earlier this year, here is what I had to say.

I loved this book. These essays are morally clear and artistically compelling. El Akkd takes pains to make his arguments in prose that indict the reader without fully alienating us. A literary calling in of sorts. He helps us see things more clearly. It is a fine line he balances and does so with such confidence as to wow at every turn.

I also got the chance to interview Omar El Akkad on The Stacks and it was an incredible conversation. He is such a thoughtful person with a real attention to rigorous consideration.

Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books)
I did predict this book correctly, though I haven’t read it yet. It is now at the tip top of my TBR. This work of history tells the story of Edward McCabe who hoped to create a state in the Union that was governed for and by Black people. I have never heard of Mr. McCabe and know this story is going to be full of racism and systemic oppression that will just piss me TF off.

Caleb was on The Stacks for his first book We Refuse to Forget, and we love this sophomore book glow up!

Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy by Julia Ioffe (Ecco)
I am sure this book is great, but I am not likely to read it. For whatever reason, my own moral failing perhaps, I have struggled to read books about Russia for the last few years.

For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising by Fatemeh Jamalpour and Nilo Tabrizy (Pantheon Books)
My current read is King of Kings, which is about the Iranian revolution of the 1970’s and as I have been reading I have been thinking about how little I know about the country since. So it feels personally serendipitous for For the Sun After Long Nights to be on the list. This one is about the 2022 women-led protests in Iran told from the perspectives of two journalists who covered it.

Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Another book I absolutely loved this year. In 2017, Yiyun Li’s eldest son, Vincent, died by suicide at sixteen. In 2024, Yiyun Li’s youngest son, James, died by suicide at nineteen. This is her meditation on these facts of her life. I said upon completion (and in the footnotes of this review) that this is my pick for the Pulitzer in memoir next year. It is that good. Here is more of what I had to say about this memoir⁶

Yes, this one is sad, but maybe not in the ways you’re thinking. It isn’t weepy and searching. It is a look at grief that is much more thinking than feeling, by design. What moved me most was the clarity with which Li discussed grief; not just what she went through, but also how she dissects grief language and art.

The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam by Lana Lin (Dorothy, a publishing project)
When I tell you I know absolutely nothing about this book, I mean that with every fiber of my being. I had never even heard of the publisher. So allow me to just share what the marketing copy says:

At heart a candid chronicle of her partner Lan Thao’s life journey from Việt Nam during the war, and her own troubled history as a gender-queer Taiwanese American, Lin draws in subjects as varied as photography, cancer, tropical fruit, 9/11, and Eve Sedgwick’s eyeglasses, weaving an intimate landscape of living that is also a critical investigation of race and gender.

Yes, I will be reading this. It sounds amazing. Plus it is only 224 pages.

Run the Song: Writing About Running About Listening by Ben Ratliff (Graywolf Press)
I am not super excited about this book, but I will give it a shot. I used to run and I always listened to music, so I do have this obvious entry point. It might be too esoteric for me, I’m also not a huge music person but I am going to give it a shot. It is basically a mediation on music and running from Ratliff, who is a music critic.

Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care by Claudia Rowe (Abrams Press)
I already know, you already know, I am all in on this one. Any book about the fucked up systems in the USA is going to be a yes for me. Not to mention it is explained as being told “through the stories of six former foster youth”. I hadn’t heard of this book, which is likely the only reason I hadn’t read it already. I will say though, I did read Rowe’s earlier book The Spider and the Fly and I really didn’t like it. It was true crime that went a little too literary she seemed a little too involved. I am considerably more enthusiastic about this book, but I’m also going in little more cautious than I might otherwise be.

When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas (Riverhead Books)
This book from a California firefighter and anthropologist, covers a brutal six month fire season. The book shares pieces of his life as a Los Padres Hotshots—the special forces of America’s firefighters— weaved together with “ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples' oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis.” I mean, it sounds kind of amazing, especially given the fires that rocked my city, Los Angeles.

The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life by Helen Whybrow (Milkweed) Editions
Respectfully, I won’t be reading this book. I am not a nature girlie, and this year I am also decidedly out on memoir. A memoir of a woman who raises Icelandic Sheep is just not going to be getting my attention this year, especially when Elizabeth Gilbert’s (possibly unhinged) memoir is an option.⁷

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I am really excited about the list. I can’t wait to dive in, once Elizabeth Gilbert is done with me. I want to hear from you about the list:

• What did the NBA judges get right? What did this miss?

• What books will you be prioritizing?

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1. I will not be reading the full list this year, more on that soon.

2. Or don’t and regret it in like 15 days when you need a good nonfiction read.

3. Ok, so in my mind I have 3 right, because I just knew One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This was going to be on the list, but then I got tripped up by the NBA’s old citizenship rules. I couldn’t remember if he was eligible by the new rules, and didn’t include him. But I’ve been saying since I read the book in July that it would be on lists at the end of the year. It doesn’t count on the record, but in my heart I got it.

4. I am giving you a scale because some of the books really depend on how you slice it. Last year’s winner, Soldiers and Kings, I would say is not memoir, but the author shows up a lot in the book because he is an anthropologist and was embedded with his subjects. But, you might think that counts as a memoir element. I’ll let you decide.

5. Judges do not have to finish every books, and often times they divide the list for initial review.

6. Basically the only one I have liked this year, not really, but close.

7. Yes, I started. Yes, I’m already on a ride. No, I am not sure if I would like to stay on much longer. Starting to get nauseous.