The Morning News Tournament of Books contenders announced

The Morning News has announced the 16 contenders for the Tournament of Books. Now in its 11th year, the Tournament of Books is the grandaddy of basketball-style book competitions. The winning book takes home The Rooster, which so far has been just a title. I’m still hoping there will be a real rooster someday.

There haven’t been any public run-offs. After putting together a longlist of 62 eligible books, 15 of the final titles were chosen by the “embarrassingly small, parochial, mostly homogeneous Tournament of Books staff,” writes the Tournament of Books staff.

The 16th book was selected by the staff of an independent bookstore in Illinois, The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, and was the book they most frequently hand-sold: “All The Birds, Singing” by Evie Wyld, which has been flying under the radar elsewhere.

Like college basketball’s March Madness tournament, the Tournament of Books will take place in March. Those who want to weigh in can begin reading along now.

The Tournament of Books finalists are:

“Silence Once Begun” by Jesse Ball
“A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall” by Will Chancellor
“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
“Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” by Elena Ferrante
“An Untamed State” by Roxane Gay
“Wittgenstein Jr” by Lars Iyer
“A Brief History of Seven Killings” by Marlon James
“Redeployment” by Phil Klay
“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel
“The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell
“Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng
“Dept. of Speculation” by Jenny Offill
“Adam” by Ariel Schrag
“The Paying Guests” by Sarah Waters
“Annihilation” by Jeff VanderMeer
“All the Birds, Singing” by Evie Wyld

Book news and more; I’m @paperhaus on Twitter