This reading list features the five nonfiction nominees for the National Book Awards. The winner be announced on November 18, 2015.
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Whale Tales: A Reading List
These four stories demonstrate humans’ multi-faceted relationship with whales–where politics, the environment and the economy intermingle with love, terror and cruelty.
Postwar New York: The Supreme Metropolis of the Present
Forty labor strikes on one day, French existentialists on the loose, and a 50-foot G.I. blowing enormous puffs of REAL smoke.
Papers
The Man in a Shell Sarah Miller This story, the first in Chekhov’s little trilogy, is a story within a story — all the stories in the trilogy follow this format — about a teacher named Burkin and a veterinarian named Ivan Ivanych who stop and spend the night at the home of a friend […]
When the Messiah Came to America, She Was a Woman
On the rise and fall of American utopia.
10 Outstanding Short Stories to Read in 2016
Below is a guest post from Mumbai-based writer-filmmaker—and longtime #longreads contributor—Pravesh Bhardwaj (@AuteurPravesh).
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
Our favorite stories of the week, featuring, The Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine, Pacific Standard, a co-investigation by NPR and ProPublica, and The New Yorker.
Whale Tales: A Reading List
These four stories demonstrate humans’ multi-faceted relationship with whales–where politics, the environment and the economy intermingle with love, terror and cruelty.
The Story Business: Four Stories About Independent Bookstores
“Job title: bookseller.” Every time I sneak a glance at the sheaf of employment forms and tax information, I can’t believe it. That job title is mine, now. It’s a lifelong dream come true, as cliche as that sounds. True to millennial form, I’m going to do Online Things for my local indie: blogging, tweeting, […]
‘It’s Yours’: A Short History of the Horde
How Ta-Nehisi Coates built the best comment section on the internet—and why it can’t last.

