Goodreads Choice Awards 2020

[BookishZen]

Today the first round has opened for the Goodreads Choice awards. What is everyone’s opinions on this year’s selection. I mainly read mystery/thrillers and I thought I had read/knew most of the books released this year but there’s about 5 on there I’ve never even heard.

Now off to see where I can get hold of a copy of them.

link to the books

I've voted for these:

Fiction: The Midnight Library
Mystery: none, the only one I've read was awful.
Historical: The Pull of the Stars
Fantasy: Piranesi
Science Fiction: The new wilderness but To sleep in a sea of stars came an extremely close 2nd.
Non-fiction: None, it was a very limited selection focussed on just two issues and there is a wide ranged of eclectic non-fiction out there which has been ignored. There is more to 2020 than anti-racism and friendship which is equally important.
Memoir/autobiography: A poor selection with many good ones let out so I skipped this section.
History/Biography: The Address book
Science/technology: Stuck for choice - The book of eels or Vesper flights but I expect the Attenborough offering will win because of the author. I went for Vesper Flights in the end.
Poetry: Brian Bilston should be on this list.

I really want to read the midnight library after I saw it on the bbc2 between the covers so I’m looking forward to reading that one. I voted for Anxious people by Fredrik Backman in that category, if you haven’t read that one I would definitely recommend.

@BookishZen

I really want to read the midnight library after I saw it on the bbc2 between the covers so I’m looking forward to reading that one. I voted for Anxious people by Fredrik Backman in that category, if you haven’t read that one I would definitely recommend.

I haven't but I enjoyed his other books so I'll add that to my list, I'd missed that he'd written another.

Seems heavily American-led and a quick google suggests it is!

Maybe this is why why some of the titles aren't familiar to UK readers and the book covers highlighted are different versions?

I say this and I work in a library so should know about new releases . We do have some of the titles available to borrow currently but even so I can't claim to be familiar with the majority!

I did enjoy Beth O'Leary's 'The Switch' which is nominated in the romance category. Also have American Dirt and Ruth Ware's 'One by One' on my TBR pile.

I agree it seems quite American lead. So many titles I didn’t recognise. Still I got to vote for The girl with the louding voice which is my favourite this year.

Yes it is very American. Goodreads is owned by Amazon so maybe that’s why.

@CromfordGreyhound I currently have The Switch from the library. I absolutely loved The Flatshare so I hope I enjoy this one as much.

@Pollynextdoor I saw that book on Sky Arts book club, I would ask if you recommended it but I would assume yes from your comment. 😂

I'm sure you will @BookishZen. Its often hard to produce a high quality second book after a well-received debut but Beth' s style of writing is glorious; funny, perceptive and captivating.

Hope you get to start it soon and here's hoping there are further titles to come!

The only one I've read is Dear Edward (fiction category) - it was ok. I don't really like to vote for books unless I loved them and am convinced that it's better than the others in its category!

I have a few nominees on my radar that I hope to read soon: Hamnet (historical), The Vanishing Half (historical), Such a Fun Age (fiction), Transcendent Kingdom (fiction) and Clap When You Land (YA). I've heard of a few of the mystery/thrillers but not that eager to read any of them.

I had a look at the selected books last night. There were a few from my tbr list but I haven't read yet, two I could vote for.

@Kote I’ve read Such a fun age and Clap when you land. I enjoyed Such a fun age but I didn’t like Clap when you land although when I’ve seen other people reviewing the book I’m definitely in the minority there. It is a really quick read though because it’s written in verse.