Goodreads Choice Awards 2021 - what are your votes?

[ufcasey]

Voting started today for the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2021.  This year there seems to be only two rounds of voting, opening and final. Another change is that the opening round no longer lets you do a 'write-in' vote so you are limited to only the options that Goodreads lists for each category. They have also eliminated some of the categories (science, technology, food, and cookbooks are included in the Nonfiction category; picture books are included in the Middle Grade & Children’s category).

What books are you voting for this year (please include the category too)? Bonus points if you also list books you have read in that category but are choosing NOT to vote for.


The categories:
Fiction
Mystery & Thriller
Historical Fiction
Fantasy
Romance
Science Fiction
Horror
Humor
Nonfiction
Memoir & Autobiography
History & Biography
Graphic Novels & Comics
Poetry
Debut Novel
Young Adult Fiction
Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
Middle Grade & Children's

[ufcasey]

Here are my votes/books read:

Fiction
We Are the Brennans
(I haven't read any others) 

Mystery & Thriller
The Night She Disappeared
(I have also read The Survivors, Apples Never Fall, and The Last Thing He Told Me)

Historical Fiction
Malibu Rising
(I have also read The Rose Code and Great Circle) 

Fantasy
The Last Graduate
(I think that book should be labeled YA; I also read A Spindle Splintered)

Romance
Act Your Age, Eve Brown
(I have also read Neon Gods, The Soulmate Equation, and It Happened One Summer)

Science Fiction
no vote or books read

Horror
no vote or books read

Humor
no vote
(I have read Year Book)

Nonfiction
no vote or books read

Memoir & Autobiography
no vote or books read

History & Biography
no vote or books read

Graphic Novels & Comics
no vote or books read

Poetry
The Hill We Climb
(I haven't read any others)

Debut Novel
We Are the Brennans
(I haven't read any others)

Young Adult Fiction
no vote  or books read

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
no vote
(I have read Iron Widow)

Middle Grade & Children's
Best Nerds Forever
(based on my son reading it and liking; he hasn't read any of the others)

[travella]

I wasn't overly excited about many of the categories this year. I read a lot of new books this year so I figured more of my favorites would make the list, but no.

Fiction: Cloud Cuckooland,3*. It was between that or The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, which I also gave 3*.

Historical Fiction: The Paris Library. One of my favorite books of the year.

Science Fiction: Project Hail Mary, also good.

The rest of the lists I either didn't read any of the books or didn't like the books that I read from the list. I do have Local Woman Missing and Crying in H Mart on my to read list. I added three more books that sound like they might be good, but I probably won't get to them before final voting.

[rootbeerfloat]

Historical Fiction: Malibu Rising
- also reading Final Revival of Opal and Nev (not rated yet)

Fantasy: A Court of Silver Flames

Romance: Act Your Age, Eve Brown
- also read Soulmate Equation (good), While We Were Dating (good), One Last Stop (fine), Life's Too Short (fine), and The Heart Principle (ok, but painful)

YA Fantasy/Sci-Fi: Any Way the Wind Blows

I didn't include those I plan to read, but haven't yet.

[tacokick]

I’m disturbed that Malibu Rising was in the Historic Fiction category 😭

I didn’t love any in general fiction but I did read a lot of them.

ETA: I voted for a couple of categories but I’m always surprised what’s in there. Some of them are the worst books I read that year out if all the books, not just that category.

[Vespasia]

Categories with more than one book are in rough order of preference.

Non-Fiction:
I am in the middle of Once There Were Wolves but otherwise haven't read any of the nominees. If I finish before voting closes I might come back.

Historical Fiction:
The Rose Code - my choice but it was close
Malibu Rising - this was good but I'd prefer to see it under Fiction. It didn't feel very historical both in terms of the era and while reading the book itself. 
Great Circe - probably better written than Rose Code but eh
Hour of the Witch - another well written book but I just didn't enjoy it at all

Fantasy (I have not yet voted):
Ariadne - I picked this one because I loved it and I think it fits the category better
The Last Graduate - amazing but I don't think Fantasy but 
The Witch's Heart - good but I wanted to like it more than I did
For the Wolf - fun but not great

Science Fiction:
Project Hail Mary - the other two books were good but this was the easiest decision of the categories
The Echo Wife
Constance

Horror:
Final Girl Support Group

[abs]

Ooh I always enjoy voting in these and seeing the outcomes.

Fiction:
The Guncle
I also read and enjoyed Golden Girl and That Summer.

Mystery/Thriller:
The Good Sister
Also read and enjoyed Local Girl Missing, The Night She Disappeared, and The Push.

Historical Fiction:
Malibu Rising (as others noted it's not historical fiction though?!)

Fantasy:
A Court of Silver Flames

Romance:
It Happened One Summer
I have read most of these. Loved Shipped, The Heart Principle, and The Soulmate Equation. Liked The Love Hypothesis, Life's Too Short, and the Ex-Talk. Hated People We Meet on Vacation. While We Were Dating wasn't all that great either. I still want to read Neon Gods.

Debut Novel:
The Push

YA:
The Hawthorne Legacy

Middle Grade:
Daughter of the Deep

[litskispeciality]

I just posted over in Married Life. These lists remind me that I don't read enough new stuff, but I think this year is a lot more commercial you get nominated because you're a big name author. I have on my TBR/Overdrive hold including: "The Plot", "The Last Thing He Told Me", "Hour of the Witch", just super long lists.

I also can't believe Nicholas Sparks is still on this list. Between the stuff that came out years ago about him being a huge homophobe (not shocking) and he writes the same 3 plots over and over. #booksnob

[ssmjlm]

I didn't vote in every category because so many of the "it" books were mediocre at best.

Here's a copy/paste of my post from ML:

The Guncle was ok - lots of gay stereotypes that turned me off. Also a very "coming of age" story that seemed to forget that the kids mom died in the beginning of the book.

The Last Thing He Told Me - TERRIBLE, would not recommend. Not only is it an eerily similar plot to The Marriage Lie, the woman got catfished basically, there were events that had no timelines, characters just sort of disappeared, and the TWIST, was awful.

Second First Impressions - really good, loved it

The Heart Principle - needs a huge TW in it. A lot of emotional abuse, gaslighting, and elder physical abuse (IMO). Not the story you thought you were getting.

The Spanish Love Deception - too long and again, a very similar plot to other books. It was self published, so I think once the publisher edits it, it might be good.

The Soulmate Equation - very good, loved the single parent angle. Strong female lead.

People We Meet on Vacation - whiny millennials unite to not communicate for 10 years

The Road Trip - not great, too much back and forth. Characters had no depth.

I tried to read It Happened One Summer, but had to DNF.

[just]

Fiction
No vote since didn't love any (read Black Buck, One Two Three)

Mystery and Thriller
Voted Harlem Shuffle (also read The Survivors, The Plot, The Maidens, The Last Thing He Told Me)

Historical Fiction
Voted Opal & Nev (also read Great Circle, The Four Winds, Malibu Rising)

Humor
Voted Yearbook 

Non-Fiction
Voted This is Your Mind On Drugs (also read A Swim in a Pond in the Rain)

Memoir and Autobiography
Voted Crying in H-Mart (also read Aftershocks)

History and Biography
Voted Empire of Pain (also read On Juneteenth, Four Hundred Souls, Zero Fail, The Bomber Mafia)

Debut
Voted Opal and Nev (also read Black Buck)

YA Fiction
Voted Yolk (also read Ariostotle and Dante, Concrete Rose)


Categories with none read
Fantasy, Romance, Sci Fi, Horror, Graphic Novel, Poetry, YA Fantasy, Middle Grade

[aurora]

Wow, I have only read a single book from Amy category: Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo (nonfiction). I liked it, but looking through the list made me realize I'm really not in the loop.

[ssmjlm]

I can’t believe some of the books that won. They’re terrible and two were almost exact copies of other books. Not like same trope, but a copy.

[tacokick]

Dec 10, 2021 14:25:32 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

I can’t believe some of the books that won. They’re terrible and two were almost exact copies of other books. Not like same trope, but a copy.

I didn’t like many of the choices this year. Several were the absolute worst books I read the whole year! Like was I reading the same book?