removing Graphic novels, children books, middel Grade and poetry but keeping Humor? Removing cooking books is fine but no more write ins is also strange
@@Rainbow3264goodreads has been owned by Amazon since 2013 so unfortunately these weird decisions for the site are nothing new. Amazon removing those categories basically tells us that they don’t really respect them and are only interested in pushing popular books to boost sales.
I read the title of your video and thought to myself "yeah same..." I can't believe they removed three categories crucial to literature: graphic novels, middle grade and poetry (my personal fav).....
I think with middle grade it might've been because people complain every year about Rick Riordan winning, and he finally spoke up about it last year. Like with fantasy people complained about fantasy romance so they could create separate category. With middle grade they could only exclude Riordan and it probably wouldn't look good even if that's what Riordan wanted.
While I'm happy they added the Romantasy category, they removed Children and Middle Grade, as well as Graphic Novels and Poetry. If a book competition excludes children..then how are we going to get adults who read? We should be promoting reading, instead of making it weirdly niche. Super disappointed.
I'm so excited about the Romantasy category! I was dreading Fourth Wing winning the Fantasy category (and have also been tired of all the SJM books) - happy it's finally separated out!
Goodreads needs to actually have humans look over statistics and also make choices (or add in option for write in votes). They cut MG/Child, Poetry, and Graphic Novels. Which had one of the highest number of votes for a category last year. They still have Humour as a section, which is very obvious there cause publishers and Amazon. They need to really redo everything. It is just a popularity contest with no human oversite for diversity.
This is an entirely different type of voting system. I don’t think Goodreads intends to be a book prize or have panel choose books. It’s a popular vote that people want to make into something else.
Girllll you need to drop this challenge definitely. Maybe make your own choose awards but with a twist, like inventing your own categories. Like 'books with ugly covers' or 'covers that dont live up to the book' or something, and then u name your winners. I def love see you talking, and rating speacially 😂 but i feel goodreads choice award drains your energy
I'm so happy they gave Romantasy it's own category. I know I'm not the only one who's tired of Sarah J Maas winning fantasy every year, non-romance books just can't compete with her popularity. Edit: I just finished watching, it's nice to hear my own pre-video thoughts repeated 🤣
„The Will of the Many“ by James Islington is my pick for best fantasy this year. It’s actually one of the top 3 books I read this year and I’m happy it’s included in the awards. If you haven’t heard of it yet I would suggest you check out if the premise sounds interesting to you. 😊 I read „The Sword of Kaigen“ by M.L. Wang last year and it is absolutely brilliant so I’m really looking forward to picking up „Blood over Bright Haven“!
This year they cut Children's & Middle Grade, Poetry, and Graphic Novels which is absurd to me. I’m glad they added a romantasy section after so many people have been complaining for years about SJM always winning fantasy, but the cutting of theee categories is so odd to me. Additionally to that, I’m honestly so disappointed in so many nominees this year, especially in the romance section (which I know isn’t your main genre). No BIPOC authors were nominated in that category, nor were any queer romances either. I’ve always kind of thought the GR choice awards were a popularity contest, but I really think this year proves it for me. I think Goodreads being owned by Amazon, and probably affiliated with Reese Witherspoon’s book club and big named publishers doesn’t really help. In my opinion, there’s so many better award programs out there that judge books than the Goodreads Choice Awards does.
I think the main issues are: Goodreads is an American company, most of the userbase is American white women in book clubs (BOTM, Reese, Oprah, etc), the awards are completely based on algorithm and users marking books as want to read and there is NO human oversight (which is sorely needed, so Fern Brady's nonfiction memoir about being an autistic woman who couldn't get diagnosed til 30 isn't in HUMOR just because she's a comedian). Also I was really hoping to vote for The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich for graphic novel 😭
"most of the userbase is American white women in book clubs (BOTM, Reese, Oprah, etc)" Uh... citation? Lol. American, sure, it's a U.S. company, but the rest seems a bit of a stretch.
@@RachelB.BookReferences Literally you can Google it? They post the demographics for their site. Women are 40% more present than men, 77% of the userbase is Caucasian, you can see exactly which books trend and get the most engagement (predominantly the book club books). idk what you want, but the receipts are super easy to find both on Goodreads and on other sites talking about Goodreads
Ha! Had the same reaction when I saw romantasy category! 😂 I'm one of the happy people 🎉 finally we can see some proper fantasy in the fantasy category! ❤
As soon as you mentioned Bright Over Bright Haven in your previous video I immediately bought it and I am nearly done with it now and don’t want it to ever end 😭😭😭 BEST read of 2023 by far and probably will be one of my all time favorites ever! Thank you for bringing it into my life🥰
For a romance recommendation on the goodreads awards: I'm currently reading Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. I read Part of Your World by her as well and and was surprised I loved it so picked this one up and I got through half of it in one sitting. Both books are cozy, funny, they have some serious topics and the male love interests are genuinely good dudes (maybe unrealistically so but I'm just here for a good time --let me have some delusions).
@emilyreads5207 Now that Ive finished it, I feel like what happens near the very end would bug her if she reads it. I did like it a lot more than Happy Place either way, though.
Both. Read both. Snow Flower is a book I will ALWAYS recommend. I also really enjoyed Dreams of Joy. I do recommend having tissues handy for both. @@revenge0lobster
The two books in the awards I am emotionally invested in are “The Will of the Many” and “Chain-gang Allstars”. They were so good. Other than that I am with you. I stopped caring about the goodreads choice awards.
Anyways I voted for Yellowface because I did love it for what it was but appreciate the criticism that she could’ve explored more on classism, Weyward, Happiness Falls, Happy Place, had to skip romantasy lol I do like that genre I’m just not up to date with the new releases 😅, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (my favorite read of the year!!), had to skip sci-fi, Silver Nitrate, The Stolen Heir (this category was surprisingly tough! I had a couple that I really enjoyed), Five Survive, Adelaide, & sadly I had to skip the other categories bc I didn’t read enough non fiction this year. I hope to get to Britney’s memoir before the year ends but not before voting closes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I found one interesting book in the Biography section: The Six, the untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts. Going to check that one out, for sure!
You may be interested in Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, in the non-fiction section. It starts by discussing her and Naomi Wolf (you picked up her femist book a couple of months ago) being confused for each other, but then goes deeper into how people become right wing, anti-vaxers, anti-lockdown etc. It opened my eyes to others experiences and how they could completely switch from left to right in seemingly no time at all!
I am sooo happy for the Romantasy category because i got some new recommendation but yeah Fourth Wing will win there. I am super sad about middle grade, poetry and graphic novels. About Blood over bright haven I think it is not there because it is not traditionaly published. I have a feeling that they don't put self publish books in the awards.
Some self pub do make it but goodreads is weird about it's nominees. It's a mix of the amount of people who have read it, the rating, and the amount of times it was shelved.
I just finished Tom Lake. Wasn’t quite a 5 star, but it was very much worth reading. It’s a story about choices and circumstances, relationships and family. Meryl Streep did a beautiful job with the narration.
Blood Over Bright Haven was my favourite book of the year too. I think the reason why it wasn’t nominated is because it doesn’t have many ratings. I think M. L. Wang is a fantastic writer and I hope her books gain some popularity
Love your videos. My personal opinion only. You can't go wrong with Maame and Tom Lake. Not because of Goodreads. They were just good books. Did a book club for Maame last night and it was well received. Hope you enjoy them. Can't wait to see what you do next!
My favourite mystery thriller is all the sinners bleed by SA Cosby. I am so glad that got put into the nominees this year because it was such a good book in my eyes. I am glad you read it. Also good reads nominees were mostly books I had no interest in. I think I voted like 2-4 categories because they were the only ones I read and liked. The rest were just overhyped books that didn’t interest me.
I could see an argument for taking out middle grade, maybe about how the awards are voted on my mostly adults so that category wouldn't be reflective of actual popularity amongst the target demographic?, but I genuinely can't understand the graphic novel one. Graphic novels are only getting more popular so it makes no sense
From the non-fiction category I recommend ultra-processed people, especially the audiobook. It’s very eye-opening and the narration is engaging (it includes interviews too) and it’s written in a way that is easily accessible. Everybody should read /listen to it.
I know you didn't love it, but Tress of the Emerald Sea I think is worthy of winning the category. I DNF'd A Day of Fallen Night. Couldn't stand the writing style. I liked Blood over Bright Haven a lot, but I much preferred Sword of Kaigen. I felt more emotionally attached to the characters in that one. I didn't give any 2023 fantasy release five stars this year, but I give like 8% of the books I read five stars. I wouldn't be mad if Amina won fantasy. I think it has a shot, but I think Bardugo and Sanderson are most likely to win. Sanderson hasn't won it before I don't think, but not like he needs to win lol.
I've seen quite a lot people loving Sanderson's works but not his humor, which is fine. I happen to love it so Tress was exactly my cup of tea, especially because the story's narrator is my second favorite character in Cosmere. I really disliked Sword of Kaigen's writing style, is BOBH's style similar? I've been thinking of reading it, but still kind of hesitant.
@@yyuna7 yeah Sanderson's humor doesn't always work for me. It completely didn't in Medieval Wizard's Handbook, but Tress struck the right balance for me. BOBH is more plot driven and the themes are very heavy handed (like RF Kuang's books). The writing style is probably similar, to SoK but the books felt so different to me that I can't say for sure,
I'm happy about the Romantasy category just because those books tend to win because of their mass appeal, so I'm glad they're getting their own space! I've read a few in each category but didn't love ANY of them 🫢 For Horror I give Rouge a 4⭐ and really had a great time reading it so it might be my choice for that. Also I loved Ninth House but Hell Bent was not as good imo🫠 I do not think 2023 releases were great, it feels like a very meh reading year in general!
I pretty much only read crime thrillers from the thriller genre. It feels like the genre is so swamped with domestic thrillers but vintage crime thrillers are good stupid fun. Tom Lake is EXCELLENT. It’s such a simple story but there’s so much quality in the writing and small character details.
Can I recommend from Best History&Biography category - The Six: The Untold Story of America's Women Astronauts. I tried it as an audiobook and I really enjoyed it. Otherwise, I haven't read any of the other books in the other categories, so I'm starting to question if I'm behind or if I'm just not interested in the Choice Awards anymore.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism is my favorite Grady Hendrix, but I quite enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House. It was very silly and gory and played into a lot of horror cliches (intentionally) - so quite light and fun.
I read pretty niche books, and not a lot of new releases (especially because I get everything from the library), so I've hardly ever been able to vote for this award. I really feel like all awards are popularity contests, though, even the Booktube Prize, which I loved the idea of in the beginning (and judged the first couple years), because they focus on the big publishing houses, which have more money and reach to market their books. 🤷♀️ I mostly just don't pay attention to awards now, because I generally disagree with the results.
I am suprised Painted Devils the follow up to LItlle Devils by Margaret Owen wasn't there. I would have defenetly voted for it, because it was soooo good, my favourite of the year
I’m not an historical fiction girlie, but I absolutely loved North Woods (I’ll admit I bought it because of the catamount on the cover :D). My fave book of 2023 so far. It tells the story of a house over a few centuries and the variety of inhabitants that live there - human and animal. I blew through it in one day.
I am currently reading blood over bright haven, and this year i have also read sword of kaigen which was the best of 2023 for me. I feel like i have found a new favorite author! Blood over bright haven is so good that when i read it i feel like I’m 100% inside their world, i have to give myself a few seconds when i finish reading to realize that I’m not lol, but anyway i will be forever raving about this author and thank you for introducing M.L. Wang to me with the sword of kaigen recommendations in your videos!
Stone Blind which was in the fantasy category was a nominee for the women's prize so if you're planning to read more of that award nominated books you can try this one?
Shamelessly unrelated: please add to the video idea list “if you loved The Martian and/or To Be Taught if Fortunate”. Please I need more like that 😂 And actually related: The In Between by Hadley is my nonfiction pick but I’m biased as I’ve watched her journey. I’m PISSED that Making It So isn’t on here because I know if Shatner had released his book in time for good reads to be a thing, it would have been nominated.
It feels like the Goodreads choice awards are the Allure beauty awards of the book world…. All marketing. Also, petition for you to listen to the Tom Lake audiobook. It was so fantastic, it felt like listening to a movie in the best way ❤ Hoping mama Pear is doing well.
Loved - Fourth Wing, The Only One Left, Lady Tan's Circle of Women, Love Theoretically, and Assistant to the Villain. Liked - In the Lives of Puppets, The Wishing Game, Hello Beautiful, Beyond That the Sea, All the Dangerous Things, Happy Place, Romantic Comedy, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, The Ferryman, and How to Sell a Haunted House. Could not get into - Tom Lake, Homecoming, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, and Tress of the Emerald Sea. I do agree that there are a lot that should be on these lists that are not and that this is a popularity contest, but I think that's what they mean it to be.
For the romance category I would recommend Yours truly by Abby Jimenez, it's the companion to part of your world. It has mature characters and it deals with important topics. Surprisingly this year, the only category I've read a lot from is romance, the other categories have books I've never even heard of
My best friend recommended Assistant to the Villain to me. She reads a lot but rarely loves anything enough to recommend. That might be a fun book club nom. :) no pressure, of course. I can’t with GCA. I appreciate the new category freeing up space in SFF but my favorites are very rarely included in anything unless they’re already established authors.
Memoirs I'm voting for The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by by Hadley Vlahos. I don't usually read memoirs but this book was really special for me because it deals with loss and this year I dealt with loss and it gave me hope and it was beautiful in some parts.
I'm so much the same about mystery/thriller! I LOVE a good one, but I'll usually have to read 5 or 6 mid ones before coming across a really great one 😩😩
I thought I had actually read more current releases this year, but I've only read 2 from all the categories put together: Spare by Prince Harry, which started off a reading slump at the beginning of the year, and The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman, which I enjoyed but wasn't my favorite of the series. I did think of you when I saw the Butt book on the nonfiction list.
It seems weird to me that nearly every book FB ads ever threw at me for Book of the Month club was in one of those categories. The only ones with truly unique titles I hadn't really noticed being flung at my face were the memoirs, history, & humor. It's honestly really disappointing. Only one book I read this year made it to any of this lists... I voted for it. I'll have 2 books from the whole list before the year is out, but I haven't read Bookshops & Bonedust yet.. I've only had it a week.
Most of the time I agree with your reviews but I loved Yellowface and read it so quickly. It was interesting to get that much background information on publishing.
I too have been having an existential crisis with thrillers. I find so many of them to be mediocre or stupid but I keep picking them up and I need to stop 😅
I read some of the nominess this year but I don't feel like voting for most of them because they were fine but like nothing I would vote for. Planning on reading a few nominees that I am interesting in (e.g. The Long Game, Starling House, Sword Catcher) because of that
After your recommendation for Blood Over Bright Haven, ended up purchasing and it is amazing! Almost done with it and really don't want it to end. Your recommendations never dissapoint!
I listen to the Thursday Murder Club as audiobooks and love them to bits. I didn't get far with the first one from the page. The narration makes it for me.
The Light Pirate is such a good sci-fi book! I am really into dystopian stories etc. This one is climate fiction and it was scary how close it felt to reality. The writing is beautiful too!
I read The Light Pirate (which was in the sci-fi category) and enjoyed it but not sure if it would be your thing or not. It’s more literary apocalyptic vibes than sci-fi?? But it feels very realistic in its portrayal and feels like it could actually happen. However, it IS slow paced, character driven, and a bit depressing so 🤷♀️
No hate to the majority of booktok and goodreads but my taste rarely ever overlaps with the popular new releases there. especially now with three categories having been replaced by romntasy I know I wont be needing to check the Goodreads Choice Awards. Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club series was a fine audiobook for me but they decided to change the narrators to one after the second book. Since the narration was what it sold it for me I will sadly not read the other two books its such a let down also quality wise
The only nominated books I read this year were two from the Historical section. Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan, and The Wager by David Grann. I thought both were really good. I voted for The Wager and I recommend it to people who like history/adventure/mutiny/shipwreck/scurvy/suspected cannibalism/survival stories.
Oh! VenCo needs so much more attention that it's had!!!!!? It was slow going but the ending makes it soooooo worth the effort. I'm really excited for the sequel!
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself was so good! It reads a lil more like lit fic than sci fi, but I loved the premise. And When Crack Was King in the History category was also amazing!!
I read six in the fiction category (currently reading the seventh ) and I felt underwhelmed by the list. I ended up voting for The Conelly’s of county Down. Voted for Weyward! I loved it. It didn’t seem like historical fiction though . Voted for All The Sinners Bleed. Voted for Divine Rivals in YA fantasy Voted for Britney Spears The woman in Me in memoir.
I wasn't crazy about Weyward either. I liked two of the stories, but the modern day one I didn't like at all. I think you would like the Puritan period story. You don't need to read them all. You could skip over the other stories. I really liked where the story went at the end. Hope the ribbon came out.
I went through them and only read 3 total and i feel like i havent even heard of most of them. I know ive been focusing more on my backlist this year but i was expecting to recognize more of them.
Of the two books from this year that I've read and would want to vote for, one of them doesn't have a high enough rating (The Terraformers) and one of them just isn't there (The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels). There are a few that I'm glad are there even though I haven't read them yet, but... I've complete moved over to StoryGraph because I cannot with Goodreads anymore. It'll be a sad day when the unnamed one's memoir beats out the MLK memoir, though...
Omg Emily I read I Who Have Never Known Men last week and I *adored* it, easiest 5 stars ever! Thanks so much for your continued hyping that finally made me read it!
My main genres are science fiction and fantasy, but I haven't read almost any of the nominees (and what I have read was not that great). But I loved the Bandit Queens which is in the debut category. I think you would like it, too. Dark humor, complex female relationships, serious female issues.
Do you like legal thrillers? I just read The Fall Girl by Marcia Clark & it was a quick, interesting read that kept me guessing. Also, John Grisham has so many good ones; The Whistler & The Judge’s List have strong female characters.
I loved Starter Villain by John Scalzi. I voted for Assistant to the Villain for romantasy, The Wishing Game for debut, and Hello Beautiful for fiction, all of which I also loved. The rest of the categories I will have to try to read some of the nominees before voting.
For romance, I highly recommend Abby Jimenez, she is similar to Emily Henry I find. I think you would love The Will of the Many by James Islington. It's a magical school and such an amazing story.
When I saw System Collapse on the list and it wasn’t even released yet, I was left scratching my head. Do only ARC readers count and not everyone else? I really don’t understand.
@@BookswithEmilyFox Obama's won two years ago, I'm pretty sure. Goodreads have a dumb rule that a book can be nominated if it's released before the final round ends. I think there should be a September cut off, but let's be honest, the goodreads awards are just another of amazon's tactics to drive sales for christmas so they will never cut new releases.
I will maybe give Blood over Bright Haven a read, I liked the Sword of Kaigen. In terms of it not being in the Awards, I think Goodreads only nominates books that have been traditionally published, so that is maybe a reason its not there.
![โรงเรียนดัดสันดาน นักเรียนเถื่อน..!! [โรงเรียนไดเม่]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vRKPeXn4Fl4/mqdefault.jpg)
It’s the “Amazon really wants you to buy this book” awards
They own Goodreads right?
Or big trends from book tok lol
hhhhh
Took the words right out of my mouth…
@@allisonryder4781they sure do
removing Graphic novels, children books, middel Grade and poetry but keeping Humor? Removing cooking books is fine but no more write ins is also strange
Omg I didn’t notice they removed poetry, but I felt something was missing
I assume this is due to the fact that goodreads is now owned by amazon :/
@@Rainbow3264 Amazon bought goodreads in 2013?
I knew it made no sense that I've read 1 book for the whole awards! Its because graphic novels and children's are missing! Why did they do that?
@@Rainbow3264goodreads has been owned by Amazon since 2013 so unfortunately these weird decisions for the site are nothing new. Amazon removing those categories basically tells us that they don’t really respect them and are only interested in pushing popular books to boost sales.
I read the title of your video and thought to myself "yeah same..." I can't believe they removed three categories crucial to literature: graphic novels, middle grade and poetry (my personal fav).....
Yeah, like why????, I was so happy about de romantasy category, but then they go and get rid of 3 categories.
They should have removed humour if anything…
Dang. Graphic novels and middlegrade were two of my favs 😢
I think with middle grade it might've been because people complain every year about Rick Riordan winning, and he finally spoke up about it last year. Like with fantasy people complained about fantasy romance so they could create separate category. With middle grade they could only exclude Riordan and it probably wouldn't look good even if that's what Riordan wanted.
I would always read all the books nominated for poetry. Am so disappointed this year it was cut.
While I'm happy they added the Romantasy category, they removed Children and Middle Grade, as well as Graphic Novels and Poetry. If a book competition excludes children..then how are we going to get adults who read? We should be promoting reading, instead of making it weirdly niche. Super disappointed.
I'm so excited about the Romantasy category! I was dreading Fourth Wing winning the Fantasy category (and have also been tired of all the SJM books) - happy it's finally separated out!
Goodreads needs to actually have humans look over statistics and also make choices (or add in option for write in votes). They cut MG/Child, Poetry, and Graphic Novels. Which had one of the highest number of votes for a category last year. They still have Humour as a section, which is very obvious there cause publishers and Amazon. They need to really redo everything. It is just a popularity contest with no human oversite for diversity.
Obv it’s pay to play. Even last yr empire of the vampire wasn’t included. It’s dodgy.
This is an entirely different type of voting system. I don’t think Goodreads intends to be a book prize or have panel choose books. It’s a popular vote that people want to make into something else.
Girllll you need to drop this challenge definitely. Maybe make your own choose awards but with a twist, like inventing your own categories. Like 'books with ugly covers' or 'covers that dont live up to the book' or something, and then u name your winners. I def love see you talking, and rating speacially 😂 but i feel goodreads choice award drains your energy
I do! I have my random awards (th-cam.com/video/TqKWTVQewbA/w-d-xo.html) that I post after the normal end of the year videos lol
I'm so happy they gave Romantasy it's own category. I know I'm not the only one who's tired of Sarah J Maas winning fantasy every year, non-romance books just can't compete with her popularity.
Edit: I just finished watching, it's nice to hear my own pre-video thoughts repeated 🤣
„The Will of the Many“ by James Islington is my pick for best fantasy this year. It’s actually one of the top 3 books I read this year and I’m happy it’s included in the awards. If you haven’t heard of it yet I would suggest you check out if the premise sounds interesting to you. 😊
I read „The Sword of Kaigen“ by M.L. Wang last year and it is absolutely brilliant so I’m really looking forward to picking up „Blood over Bright Haven“!
This year they cut Children's & Middle Grade, Poetry, and Graphic Novels which is absurd to me. I’m glad they added a romantasy section after so many people have been complaining for years about SJM always winning fantasy, but the cutting of theee categories is so odd to me. Additionally to that, I’m honestly so disappointed in so many nominees this year, especially in the romance section (which I know isn’t your main genre). No BIPOC authors were nominated in that category, nor were any queer romances either. I’ve always kind of thought the GR choice awards were a popularity contest, but I really think this year proves it for me. I think Goodreads being owned by Amazon, and probably affiliated with Reese Witherspoon’s book club and big named publishers doesn’t really help. In my opinion, there’s so many better award programs out there that judge books than the Goodreads Choice Awards does.
I think the main issues are: Goodreads is an American company, most of the userbase is American white women in book clubs (BOTM, Reese, Oprah, etc), the awards are completely based on algorithm and users marking books as want to read and there is NO human oversight (which is sorely needed, so Fern Brady's nonfiction memoir about being an autistic woman who couldn't get diagnosed til 30 isn't in HUMOR just because she's a comedian).
Also I was really hoping to vote for The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich for graphic novel 😭
"most of the userbase is American white women in book clubs (BOTM, Reese, Oprah, etc)"
Uh... citation? Lol. American, sure, it's a U.S. company, but the rest seems a bit of a stretch.
@@RachelB.BookReferences Literally you can Google it? They post the demographics for their site. Women are 40% more present than men, 77% of the userbase is Caucasian, you can see exactly which books trend and get the most engagement (predominantly the book club books). idk what you want, but the receipts are super easy to find both on Goodreads and on other sites talking about Goodreads
I'll pass on Goodreads getting woke.
“Goodreads getting woke”? Representation is woke? They’ve had many queer romances and BIPOC authors in their awards before. Stop being a clown
Ha! Had the same reaction when I saw romantasy category! 😂 I'm one of the happy people 🎉 finally we can see some proper fantasy in the fantasy category! ❤
As soon as you mentioned Bright Over Bright Haven in your previous video I immediately bought it and I am nearly done with it now and don’t want it to ever end 😭😭😭 BEST read of 2023 by far and probably will be one of my all time favorites ever! Thank you for bringing it into my life🥰
It’s so good I want to reread it!!
For a romance recommendation on the goodreads awards: I'm currently reading Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez. I read Part of Your World by her as well and and was surprised I loved it so picked this one up and I got through half of it in one sitting. Both books are cozy, funny, they have some serious topics and the male love interests are genuinely good dudes (maybe unrealistically so but I'm just here for a good time --let me have some delusions).
Agreed that Yours Truly was a good book! And much better than Happy Place
@emilyreads5207 Now that Ive finished it, I feel like what happens near the very end would bug her if she reads it. I did like it a lot more than Happy Place either way, though.
You should pick up The Will of the Many. It’s one of my top books of the year.
Lady Tans circle of women was really good and based on a true history.
I just re-read Peony in Love last week and wanted to look into another one of her books; couldn't decide between Lady Tan and Snow Flower.
Both. Read both. Snow Flower is a book I will ALWAYS recommend. I also really enjoyed Dreams of Joy. I do recommend having tissues handy for both. @@revenge0lobster
Lady Tan is my book club’s pick for January.
The two books in the awards I am emotionally invested in are “The Will of the Many” and “Chain-gang Allstars”. They were so good.
Other than that I am with you. I stopped caring about the goodreads choice awards.
Goodreads cutting categories was so annoying! I finished my voting and was like wait what that’s it?!
Anyways I voted for Yellowface because I did love it for what it was but appreciate the criticism that she could’ve explored more on classism, Weyward, Happiness Falls, Happy Place, had to skip romantasy lol I do like that genre I’m just not up to date with the new releases 😅, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (my favorite read of the year!!), had to skip sci-fi, Silver Nitrate, The Stolen Heir (this category was surprisingly tough! I had a couple that I really enjoyed), Five Survive, Adelaide, & sadly I had to skip the other categories bc I didn’t read enough non fiction this year. I hope to get to Britney’s memoir before the year ends but not before voting closes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I found one interesting book in the Biography section: The Six, the untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts. Going to check that one out, for sure!
You may be interested in Doppelganger by Naomi Klein, in the non-fiction section. It starts by discussing her and Naomi Wolf (you picked up her femist book a couple of months ago) being confused for each other, but then goes deeper into how people become right wing, anti-vaxers, anti-lockdown etc. It opened my eyes to others experiences and how they could completely switch from left to right in seemingly no time at all!
I agree. Goodreads hasn't had very many good books the past couple of years.
I am sooo happy for the Romantasy category because i got some new recommendation but yeah Fourth Wing will win there. I am super sad about middle grade, poetry and graphic novels. About Blood over bright haven I think it is not there because it is not traditionaly published. I have a feeling that they don't put self publish books in the awards.
Some self pub do make it but goodreads is weird about it's nominees. It's a mix of the amount of people who have read it, the rating, and the amount of times it was shelved.
I just finished Tom Lake. Wasn’t quite a 5 star, but it was very much worth reading. It’s a story about choices and circumstances, relationships and family. Meryl Streep did a beautiful job with the narration.
Blood Over Bright Haven was my favourite book of the year too. I think the reason why it wasn’t nominated is because it doesn’t have many ratings. I think M. L. Wang is a fantastic writer and I hope her books gain some popularity
We’ll make sure of it!
Does Goodreads ever nominate self published releases?
@@kristina_rrnot frequently but theres some in the romance category if im not mistaken
@@renata374 interesting! I don’t read romance, so I didn‘t know that
goodreads choice awards are disappointing this year. especially not having a middle grade category anymore
Love your videos. My personal opinion only. You can't go wrong with Maame and Tom Lake. Not because of Goodreads. They were just good books. Did a book club for Maame last night and it was well received. Hope you enjoy them. Can't wait to see what you do next!
My favourite mystery thriller is all the sinners bleed by SA Cosby.
I am so glad that got put into the nominees this year because it was such a good book in my eyes.
I am glad you read it.
Also good reads nominees were mostly books I had no interest in.
I think I voted like 2-4 categories because they were the only ones I read and liked.
The rest were just overhyped books that didn’t interest me.
Sad they removed the graphic novel category 😢
I could see an argument for taking out middle grade, maybe about how the awards are voted on my mostly adults so that category wouldn't be reflective of actual popularity amongst the target demographic?, but I genuinely can't understand the graphic novel one. Graphic novels are only getting more popular so it makes no sense
I read the will of the many and it was amazing
From the non-fiction category I recommend ultra-processed people, especially the audiobook. It’s very eye-opening and the narration is engaging (it includes interviews too) and it’s written in a way that is easily accessible. Everybody should read /listen to it.
Emily Wilde has become half of my personality this year. I really hope it wins Fantasy!!
Same!
So glad to hear your continued ringing the Blood over Brighthaven horn, I read this upon release and nothing else I’ve read this year compares ❤❤❤
I know you didn't love it, but Tress of the Emerald Sea I think is worthy of winning the category. I DNF'd A Day of Fallen Night. Couldn't stand the writing style. I liked Blood over Bright Haven a lot, but I much preferred Sword of Kaigen. I felt more emotionally attached to the characters in that one. I didn't give any 2023 fantasy release five stars this year, but I give like 8% of the books I read five stars. I wouldn't be mad if Amina won fantasy. I think it has a shot, but I think Bardugo and Sanderson are most likely to win. Sanderson hasn't won it before I don't think, but not like he needs to win lol.
I've seen quite a lot people loving Sanderson's works but not his humor, which is fine. I happen to love it so Tress was exactly my cup of tea, especially because the story's narrator is my second favorite character in Cosmere.
I really disliked Sword of Kaigen's writing style, is BOBH's style similar? I've been thinking of reading it, but still kind of hesitant.
@@yyuna7 yeah Sanderson's humor doesn't always work for me. It completely didn't in Medieval Wizard's Handbook, but Tress struck the right balance for me. BOBH is more plot driven and the themes are very heavy handed (like RF Kuang's books). The writing style is probably similar, to SoK but the books felt so different to me that I can't say for sure,
I'm happy about the Romantasy category just because those books tend to win because of their mass appeal, so I'm glad they're getting their own space! I've read a few in each category but didn't love ANY of them 🫢 For Horror I give Rouge a 4⭐ and really had a great time reading it so it might be my choice for that.
Also I loved Ninth House but Hell Bent was not as good imo🫠
I do not think 2023 releases were great, it feels like a very meh reading year in general!
I pretty much only read crime thrillers from the thriller genre. It feels like the genre is so swamped with domestic thrillers but vintage crime thrillers are good stupid fun.
Tom Lake is EXCELLENT. It’s such a simple story but there’s so much quality in the writing and small character details.
Can I recommend from Best History&Biography category - The Six: The Untold Story of America's Women Astronauts. I tried it as an audiobook and I really enjoyed it. Otherwise, I haven't read any of the other books in the other categories, so I'm starting to question if I'm behind or if I'm just not interested in the Choice Awards anymore.
My Best Friend’s Exorcism is my favorite Grady Hendrix, but I quite enjoyed How to Sell a Haunted House. It was very silly and gory and played into a lot of horror cliches (intentionally) - so quite light and fun.
I read pretty niche books, and not a lot of new releases (especially because I get everything from the library), so I've hardly ever been able to vote for this award. I really feel like all awards are popularity contests, though, even the Booktube Prize, which I loved the idea of in the beginning (and judged the first couple years), because they focus on the big publishing houses, which have more money and reach to market their books. 🤷♀️ I mostly just don't pay attention to awards now, because I generally disagree with the results.
Great books with gorgeous covers are "The Mermaid the Witch and the Sea" by Maggie Tokuda-Hall and "Salvaged" by Madeleine Roux
I am suprised Painted Devils the follow up to LItlle Devils by Margaret Owen wasn't there. I would have defenetly voted for it, because it was soooo good, my favourite of the year
I’m not an historical fiction girlie, but I absolutely loved North Woods (I’ll admit I bought it because of the catamount on the cover :D). My fave book of 2023 so far. It tells the story of a house over a few centuries and the variety of inhabitants that live there - human and animal. I blew through it in one day.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs was great! I would recommend that one.
they cut off some categories this year, like graphic novels and middle grade, which surprised me.
What about a vlog centered around books with cats on the cover 😂😂 I would love that hahahhaa
Do you have access to my note app? Ill have a vlog that will be called “I’m a crazy cat lady” 😂 I have a few books with cats in them in my list
If you are looking for more cat books and like graphic novels you should try 'The complete Chi's Sweet Home' part 1 by Konami Kanata.
I am currently reading blood over bright haven, and this year i have also read sword of kaigen which was the best of 2023 for me. I feel like i have found a new favorite author! Blood over bright haven is so good that when i read it i feel like I’m 100% inside their world, i have to give myself a few seconds when i finish reading to realize that I’m not lol, but anyway i will be forever raving about this author and thank you for introducing M.L. Wang to me with the sword of kaigen recommendations in your videos!
Stone Blind which was in the fantasy category was a nominee for the women's prize so if you're planning to read more of that award nominated books you can try this one?
Shamelessly unrelated: please add to the video idea list “if you loved The Martian and/or To Be Taught if Fortunate”. Please I need more like that 😂
And actually related: The In Between by Hadley is my nonfiction pick but I’m biased as I’ve watched her journey. I’m PISSED that Making It So isn’t on here because I know if Shatner had released his book in time for good reads to be a thing, it would have been nominated.
It feels like the Goodreads choice awards are the Allure beauty awards of the book world…. All marketing. Also, petition for you to listen to the Tom Lake audiobook. It was so fantastic, it felt like listening to a movie in the best way ❤ Hoping mama Pear is doing well.
She is! She’s now 9lbs!! She was so skinny when I first took her in and she’s finally at a good weight
Loved - Fourth Wing, The Only One Left, Lady Tan's Circle of Women, Love Theoretically, and Assistant to the Villain.
Liked - In the Lives of Puppets, The Wishing Game, Hello Beautiful, Beyond That the Sea, All the Dangerous Things, Happy Place, Romantic Comedy, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, The Ferryman, and How to Sell a Haunted House.
Could not get into - Tom Lake, Homecoming, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, and Tress of the Emerald Sea.
I do agree that there are a lot that should be on these lists that are not and that this is a popularity contest, but I think that's what they mean it to be.
For the romance category I would recommend Yours truly by Abby Jimenez, it's the companion to part of your world. It has mature characters and it deals with important topics. Surprisingly this year, the only category I've read a lot from is romance, the other categories have books I've never even heard of
Where do you buy your sweaters? You always have such stunning colors!
My best friend recommended Assistant to the Villain to me. She reads a lot but rarely loves anything enough to recommend. That might be a fun book club nom. :) no pressure, of course.
I can’t with GCA. I appreciate the new category freeing up space in SFF but my favorites are very rarely included in anything unless they’re already established authors.
Memoirs I'm voting for The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by by Hadley Vlahos. I don't usually read memoirs but this book was really special for me because it deals with loss and this year I dealt with loss and it gave me hope and it was beautiful in some parts.
I'm so much the same about mystery/thriller! I LOVE a good one, but I'll usually have to read 5 or 6 mid ones before coming across a really great one 😩😩
I bought Blood over Bright Haven based off of your recommendation and it sounds like a book i will find interesting 😊
I'm glad you're changing to the Hugo/Nebula awards next year, the nominees definitely seem like less of a popularity contest than Goodreads
I thought I had actually read more current releases this year, but I've only read 2 from all the categories put together: Spare by Prince Harry, which started off a reading slump at the beginning of the year, and The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman, which I enjoyed but wasn't my favorite of the series. I did think of you when I saw the Butt book on the nonfiction list.
It seems weird to me that nearly every book FB ads ever threw at me for Book of the Month club was in one of those categories. The only ones with truly unique titles I hadn't really noticed being flung at my face were the memoirs, history, & humor. It's honestly really disappointing. Only one book I read this year made it to any of this lists... I voted for it. I'll have 2 books from the whole list before the year is out, but I haven't read Bookshops & Bonedust yet.. I've only had it a week.
Ooh also - I got The Unmaking of June Farrow and it’s really good! Witches and cozy vibes. Unique story also! I think you’d like it
Most of the time I agree with your reviews but I loved Yellowface and read it so quickly. It was interesting to get that much background information on publishing.
How to Sell a Haunted House put me in a reading slump for a month. That's how horrible it was.
😢 I enjoyed it.
I ordered Blood Over Bright Haven because of you! 😁 It shipped in 2 days even though Amazon said like 5 weeks.
I've given up on it completely the year a Sarah J Trash book was selected for the best fantasy award.
I too have been having an existential crisis with thrillers. I find so many of them to be mediocre or stupid but I keep picking them up and I need to stop 😅
I read the description for Fourth Wing and went like ”yeah they’re just selling this on tropes”
I read some of the nominess this year but I don't feel like voting for most of them because they were fine but like nothing I would vote for. Planning on reading a few nominees that I am interesting in (e.g. The Long Game, Starling House, Sword Catcher) because of that
haven't used goodreads in over a year, storygraph easily wipes the floor with them
After your recommendation for Blood Over Bright Haven, ended up purchasing and it is amazing! Almost done with it and really don't want it to end. Your recommendations never dissapoint!
Chain Gang All Stars was great -- nominated in several categories
I think you would love shark heart. Or hate it. One or the other. It is a very fast read so it’s worth trying
I listen to the Thursday Murder Club as audiobooks and love them to bits. I didn't get far with the first one from the page. The narration makes it for me.
I would really recommend the wishing game. It's So heartwarming and I think you would like it if you also liked the house in the cerulean sea.
The Light Pirate is such a good sci-fi book! I am really into dystopian stories etc. This one is climate fiction and it was scary how close it felt to reality. The writing is beautiful too!
Yes! I had books I wanted to do write in votes for and we can't anymore :(
I read The Light Pirate (which was in the sci-fi category) and enjoyed it but not sure if it would be your thing or not. It’s more literary apocalyptic vibes than sci-fi?? But it feels very realistic in its portrayal and feels like it could actually happen. However, it IS slow paced, character driven, and a bit depressing so 🤷♀️
No hate to the majority of booktok and goodreads but my taste rarely ever overlaps with the popular new releases there. especially now with three categories having been replaced by romntasy I know I wont be needing to check the Goodreads Choice Awards.
Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club series was a fine audiobook for me but they decided to change the narrators to one after the second book. Since the narration was what it sold it for me I will sadly not read the other two books its such a let down also quality wise
The only nominated books I read this year were two from the Historical section. Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan, and The Wager by David Grann. I thought both were really good. I voted for The Wager and I recommend it to people who like history/adventure/mutiny/shipwreck/scurvy/suspected cannibalism/survival stories.
Oh! VenCo needs so much more attention that it's had!!!!!? It was slow going but the ending makes it soooooo worth the effort. I'm really excited for the sequel!
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself was so good! It reads a lil more like lit fic than sci fi, but I loved the premise. And When Crack Was King in the History category was also amazing!!
I've only read one book in the horror category - A house with good bones but I won't vote for it. I hope I'll read more before the first round ends.
I read six in the fiction category (currently reading the seventh ) and I felt underwhelmed by the list. I ended up voting for The Conelly’s of county Down.
Voted for Weyward! I loved it. It didn’t seem like historical fiction though .
Voted for All The Sinners Bleed.
Voted for Divine Rivals in YA fantasy
Voted for Britney Spears The woman in Me in memoir.
I wasn't crazy about Weyward either. I liked two of the stories, but the modern day one I didn't like at all. I think you would like the Puritan period story. You don't need to read them all. You could skip over the other stories. I really liked where the story went at the end.
Hope the ribbon came out.
I went through them and only read 3 total and i feel like i havent even heard of most of them. I know ive been focusing more on my backlist this year but i was expecting to recognize more of them.
Pick up Starter Villain! It had me cackling and it's a great popcorn read. Add it on a day you need joy.
Of the two books from this year that I've read and would want to vote for, one of them doesn't have a high enough rating (The Terraformers) and one of them just isn't there (The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels). There are a few that I'm glad are there even though I haven't read them yet, but... I've complete moved over to StoryGraph because I cannot with Goodreads anymore. It'll be a sad day when the unnamed one's memoir beats out the MLK memoir, though...
I see that The Goodreads Choice award nominations are filled heavily with Book of the month selections.
Omg Emily I read I Who Have Never Known Men last week and I *adored* it, easiest 5 stars ever! Thanks so much for your continued hyping that finally made me read it!
Yayyyy 🎉🎉
starter villain was soo funny and the cats in this book are the best 🥰
I just bought Blood Over Bright Haven. You've got me excited to read it
Ink Blood Sister Scribe is very good. I'm reading it at the moment and pleasantly surprised
My main genres are science fiction and fantasy, but I haven't read almost any of the nominees (and what I have read was not that great). But I loved the Bandit Queens which is in the debut category. I think you would like it, too. Dark humor, complex female relationships, serious female issues.
I’m currently reading VenCo and I think you might like it! It’s about witches
Which one did you like more upon reading first? Blood over bright haven or The poppy war?
I haven't read Blood Over Bright Haven yet but I LOVED the author's other book. I also really enjoyed Will of the Many. Highly recommend!
You should read The Will of the Many by James Islington! I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it but it’s undoubtedly my pick for best fantasy!
Do you like legal thrillers? I just read The Fall Girl by Marcia Clark & it was a quick, interesting read that kept me guessing. Also, John Grisham has so many good ones; The Whistler & The Judge’s List have strong female characters.
I loved Starter Villain by John Scalzi. I voted for Assistant to the Villain for romantasy, The Wishing Game for debut, and Hello Beautiful for fiction, all of which I also loved. The rest of the categories I will have to try to read some of the nominees before voting.
Loved Starter Villain!
I've really hated Weyward, even though that's an unpopular opinion 😅 so I'm kind of mad I haven't dnf'ed it myself
For romance, I highly recommend Abby Jimenez, she is similar to Emily Henry I find. I think you would love The Will of the Many by James Islington. It's a magical school and such an amazing story.
When I saw System Collapse on the list and it wasn’t even released yet, I was left scratching my head. Do only ARC readers count and not everyone else? I really don’t understand.
They’ve done that in the past and I don’t remember if any ever won but I know some made it to the top three 🙄
@@BookswithEmilyFox Obama's won two years ago, I'm pretty sure. Goodreads have a dumb rule that a book can be nominated if it's released before the final round ends. I think there should be a September cut off, but let's be honest, the goodreads awards are just another of amazon's tactics to drive sales for christmas so they will never cut new releases.
I will maybe give Blood over Bright Haven a read, I liked the Sword of Kaigen. In terms of it not being in the Awards, I think Goodreads only nominates books that have been traditionally published, so that is maybe a reason its not there.