Episode Details

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This post was an original Subtack Live that aired on September 18, 2026.

Awards season has landed — and the 2026 National Book Award (NBA) fiction longlist is stacked. Deedi Reads joins the pod to break it all down.

Deedi from the Deedi Reads Substack joins What to Read Next for a special crossover covering all ten titles on the 2026 National Book Award fiction longlist — from Marlon James's queer epic The Disappearers to Valeria Luiselli's Beginning Middle End. We also dig into the Hugo Awards, the biggest NBA snub of the year, and how to build a budget-friendly award-season TBR using your library

📚 Books Mentioned

• Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Fantasy, Dark Academia, Horror |
• Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• Red Ants by Kimberly Blaeser — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Short Stories, Horror
• Dèy by Edwidge Danticat — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction |
• Pretend You're Dead and I Carry You by Julián Delgado Lopera — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
• Python's Kiss by Louise Erdrich — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Short Stories
• The Disappearers by Marlon James — Buy on Amazon | Borrow on Libby | Literary Fiction, Crime
• Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli — Buy on Amazon |

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