The Library Vault

The readers have spoken.

The Tournament of Books has concluded, and the results are in! Middletown readers have voted Kristin Hannah’s The Women to be the 2025 Tournament of Books Champion! Going into the tournament, many foresaw this outcome–in fact, 65% of all brackets submitted this year predicted The Women to emerge victorious.

In a crowded field of 16 sublime books, however, nothing was certain until all of the votes were counted. Let’s take a look at the results from the 400+ votes cast this year, and see how “The Women” won.

NFC Print Division

The Non-Fiction Conferece (NFC) Print Division was comprised of the top nonfiction books at the Russell Library last year. Notably, The Wager by David Grann was making it’s second go-around in the tournament, after an unceremonious first-round shipwreck last year. Could things be different this time?

The first round of the NFC Print division offered decisive victories for The Wager and The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, which recounts the five month period between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the American Civil War. When they met in the second round, The Wager would prevail, securing it’s spot in the Formidable Four.

NFC Digital Division

The titles in the NFC Digital Division were the top nonfiction audiobooks and eBooks from the last year. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy also made it’s second appearance in the Tournament of Books this year, after being knocked out by Prince Harry’s memoir Spare the previous year.

Because of selection method for the Tournament of Books, most titles that qualify are newer releases. However, this is not always the case; one matchup in the NFC Digital division this year involved two books from 2018 and 2017 respectively, as James Clear’s Atomic Habits faced off against Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.

Killers of the Flower Moon and I’m Glad My Mom Died both advanced from the first round, setting up the most exciting matchup of this year’s tournament. By exactly one vote, Jennette McCurdy’s memoir secured it’s spot in the Formidable Four. Truly, every vote counts!

(Side note: if the swing vote had gone the other way, we’d have had an intriguing Grann vs Grann matchup in the Formidable Four. But if ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, then we’d all have a Merry Christmas.)

AFC Print Division

This division is comprised of the top Adult Fiction books checked out at the library this year. In addition to The Women, the most popular fiction books were Ann Patchett’s moving novel Tom Lake, John Grisham’s sequel The Exchange, and Lee and Andrew Child’s The Secret, one of the latest entries in the Jack Reacher series.

It seems The Women‘s popularity could not be stopped here. Hannah’s novel was the only one to achieve at least 70% of the vote, and she did it twice.

AFC Digital Division

If any book could challenge The Women, it might be one from the AFC digital division. Headlining this division are two novels from Rebecca Yarros’ wildly popular romantasy series, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame. There is also Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, returning to the Tournament of Books after a trip to the Formidable Four last year. Would one of these three books be the one to face off against The Women?

Nope! It was none other than Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, which involves an aquarium janitor searching for answers surrounding the disappearance of her son, with the help of a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus. With all due respect to Marcellus, many of the librarians here were surprised to see both of Rebecca Yarros’ novels go out in the first round, given their viral popularity on platforms such as TikTok. Perhaps the romantasy readers had a lower turnout because they were busy enjoying the latest novel in the series, Onyx Storm?

The Formidable Four & Championship Round

Finally, the last two rounds of the tournament. In the NFC, we have two books trying to make the most of their second year in the Tournament of Books. In the AFC, we have the tournament favorite, taking on Marcellus the talking octopus. That’s the beauty of the Tournament of Books–you never know what’s going to happen.

Remarkably Bright Creatures put up an admirable fight, garnering 43% of the vote, the largest vote share of any book to face off against The Women this year. Similarly, a somewhat-close decision in the NFC saw The Wager‘s journey coming to end.

In the championship round, Jennette McCurdy’s memoir was outmatched, though not outclassed. This year, The Women won with 63% of the vote. To me, this was an admirable redemption run for I’m Glad My Mom Died, which failed to make it out of the top 8 last year.

Kristin Hannah’s novel was the most checked-out book at the Russell Library in 2024, going out over 300 times (in print and digitally). An eye-opening and inspiring story about the forgotten sacrifices made by many women during the Vietnam war, The Women has clearly resonated with the Middletown community. If you’ve thought about picking it up and haven’t yet, consider this an official vote in favor of doing so!

The second annual Tournament of Books is, well, in the books! I hope you enjoyed following along, and maybe added a new book to your reading list! Only time will tell which books will qualify next year….

Happy reading!