10 books.

6 YA, 2 nebulous, and only 2 middle grade.

7 of the recognized titles already on our own initial list.

I’m pretty happy with this NBA longlist, I must say!

I’m also pleased to see the 60/40 split in favor of female authors for a nice change of pace. It’s still way whiter in terms of authors than it could be, but 20% not-white authors is better than average for recognition in awards* so that’s something?

*I need someone with real number crunching patience to chime in if I’m wrong. I’d like to be wrong on this one, and maybe last year’s Printz is the start of a larger trend of general diversity in terms of who and what is recognized, but looked at over time, I suspect the tendency has probably been white and male.

I am also, selfishly, pleased that a few personal favorites made the list: Walk on Earth a Stranger, Bone Gap, and Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda were all high on my list of books I genuinely enjoyed, although I’m not sure Simon runs as deep as, say, Bone Gap. Most of the others I haven’t read yet, although I plan to — even the nonfiction.

Shortlist predictions? I’m going with Symphony for the City of the Dead, X, Challenger Deep, Bone Gap, and The Thing About Jellyfish, which has a stunning cover. What say you all? And — because it always makes for a good conversation — what’s not here that you wish was?

(For more about the National Book Awards, including all the fine print and also all the other categories, visit nationalbook.org)