Every year, when Emmy season arrives, the entertainment world scrambles to catch up. The nominations list drops, critics dust off their hot takes and outlets scramble to produce prediction pieces overnight. But at BookTrib, we like to think we were already ahead of the game. We have been talking about these shows for months, linking them to the best books to read once the credits roll. If the Emmys are about celebrating television at its peak, then our pairings prove one thing, books are still the foundation of great storytelling.
So instead of giving you the same roll call of who got snubbed and who might win, we are taking a different route. Think of this as your secret Emmy playbook, part prediction (the kind we have been making all along) and part discovery, pairing the buzziest nominations with books that echo their themes, obsessions and atmospheres. The Emmys may crown the winners Sunday night, but with the right stack of books, you win either way.
Severance
[27 nominations]
We knew Severance would be the juggernaut this year. Back in January, we already linked its unsettling world of office politics and identity dissection to novels that dig into workplace satire and existential dread. If you missed it, here’s our feature Love AppleTVs “Severance”? Try These 9 Workplace Novels.
But here’s the twist, the one book that feels eerily aligned with Severance right now is Ling Ma’s Severance. The title alone seems prophetic, but beyond that, Ma’s novel about a zombie-like workforce grinding through late capitalism feels like a sister text to the show.
If Adam Scott walks away with the statue Sunday night, it will only confirm what we have been saying all along that Severance has perfected the art of turning work into horror.
The White Lotus
[23 nominations]
We never doubted that Mike White’s dissection of wealth, desire and bad vacations would sweep through the nominations. When Season Three hit earlier this year, we gave you 11 Cures for Your Season Three “White Lotus” Hangover, a curated list of books steeped in envy, betrayal and privilege gone wrong.
Now that the Emmys have confirmed what we already knew, it is time to lean into a pairing that bites as hard as the series. Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods delivers the same atmospheric unease, set against a backdrop of missing children, tangled family loyalties and the hidden rot beneath privilege.
It is a story about what people will do to protect their image and what they sacrifice in the process, a theme White Lotus viewers know all too well. If the show wins big, consider this novel the perfect afterparty read.
The Last of Us
[16 nominations]
Before the Emmy nominations dropped, we paired the survival epic with books that match its brutal beauty, Books of Survival and Sacrifice That Echo “The Last of Us”. And we stand by those choices.
But since Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal are both in the running, we will take it a step further. For those who crave the same haunting mix of tenderness and terror, The Passage by Justin Cronin is the touchstone novel. The Last of Us may be adapted from a video game, but its soul belongs to literature and Cronin’s masterpiece proves that the journey through ruin is as much about the bond between two people as it is about the apocalypse outside.
The Bear
[Outstanding Comedy Series nominee]
The Bear turned kitchen chaos into prestige television and we were on it the moment knives hit cutting boards. Our Love “The Bear”? Try These Delicious Culinary Books roundup captured the obsession. With Jeremy Allen White up for another Emmy, it only makes sense to double down on our pairing.
Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential remains the essential book for anyone who wants to understand the frenetic pulse of professional kitchens. The Bear may be about family, grief and perfectionism, but at its core, it is about what it takes to survive the fire. And Bourdain, with his raw confessions and behind-the-line storytelling, remains the godfather of that narrative.
Hacks
[14 nominations]
We have not yet given Hacks the full BookTrib treatment, but its Emmy showing makes it unavoidable. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder’s sharp, biting comedy about generational clashes in the comedy world deserves a book pairing that captures its acidic wit.
Nora Ephron’s I Feel Bad About My Neck is a perfect fit, a collection of essays that balances humor with pathos and the truth about aging, gender and ambition. Hacks is not just a comedy, it is a conversation about legacy and reinvention and Ephron was writing that script long before Deborah Vance hit the stage.
The Penguin
[24 nominations]
Matt Reeves’ Gotham spinoff has officially become a heavyweight and Colin Farrell’s transformation into Oswald Cobblepot is Emmy-nominated proof. For viewers hungry for more gritty crime sagas, we suggest diving into Richard Price’s Lazarus Man. Like The Penguin, Price’s novel captures the underbelly of urban life, where crime is as much about power and image as it is about violence. If The Penguin takes home gold, consider Price’s novel your perfect continuation.
The Diplomat
[Outstanding Drama Series nominee]
Keri Russell’s performance in The Diplomat secured her a nomination and the show itself landed among the heavyweights in Outstanding Drama. For readers who want to extend that fix, The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter offers the same taut combination of international intrigue, diplomacy, and espionage. Rimington, herself a former MI5 director, brings a real-world edge to the genre that makes the stakes feel just as high as the series itself.
The Emmys may hand out statues, but at BookTrib we hand out roadmaps to keep the story going. While shows come and go, books live on … So, yes, we called it months ago, and Sunday night will simply prove it once more, when TV and books converge at the intersection of obsession, imagination and discovery.
