Tournament of Books - Chicago

The Tournament of Books is an annual "March Madness" battle royale among "the year's best novels," pairing two books each round in a month-long elimination tournament. 

Rather than rush to read all the books before March, however, we'll be reading two books per month as a bookclub, meeting the second Sunday of the month in the West Loop, with each month following one of the first round brackets of the official tournament and discussing as a group which book we enjoy better; forming our own brackets as well as a collective group bracket.

Will your bracket match the official one?

Book readings for the year:

January 2026: If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard and The Mind Reels by Fredrik deBoer 

February 2026: We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad

March 2026: The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers and The Burning Heart of the World by Nancy Kricorian

April 2026: Katabasis by R. F. Kuang

May 2026: The Director by Daniel Kehlmann and The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward

June 2026: Blob by Maggie Su and Flesh by David Szalay

July: Too Soon by Betty Shamieh and The Unveiling by Quan Barry

August 2026: Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel and The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

September 2026: The Passenger Seat by Vijay Khurana and What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

October/November 2026: Endling by Maria Reva and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

November/December 2026: Catch-up meeting and overall review of this year's brackets