Reflecting the incalculably far-reaching effects of the global pandemic, COVID-19 is addressed in three of this year’s Longlisted titles. Most closely tied to the ongoing pandemic, David Quammen interviewed close to 100 scientists and health officials in order to record the scientific response to COVID-19—from the frantic efforts to trace its origins to the development of an effective vaccine, and the ongoing quest to understand the disease’s long-lasting impacts in Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.