I’ve mentioned the Goodreads Choice Awards in previous years as it’s one of my favorite places to look for trending novels and authors, often finding my next book or audiobook.
I vote in each level from the opening round to the final round and some years score more winners than others. It’s fun to see how many of my reads, whether gleaned from Goodreads suggestions, publishers and authors, or NetGalley made it to the finals and, if so, where they came in. (Number 1?)
As of the prep for this post, there were already 2,736,392 votes cast in fifteen categories. Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Romance, Romantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Debut Nove, Audiobook, Young Adult Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction, Memoir, History & Biography.
Romantasy? New last year? My favorite categories are Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, and Crime Fiction, but also read Humor, Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction, and Debut novels. Of course, the CE adds his own brand of reading usually of more masculine novels with action-adventure.
Up for consideration this year are eight of the books read in 2024 that landed on the list in the following categories: (Links are to my reviews which list sales info as well as the Goodreads link.)
Is one of these nominees yours?
Fiction
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty* (audiobook)
Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe (audiobook)
Historical Fiction
The Women – Kristin Hannah*
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon (audiobook)
Mystery & Thriller
Darling Girls – Sally Hepworth* (audiobook)
The Heiress – Rachel Hawkins (audiobook)
First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston (audiobook-Reese’s Book Club selection)
Audiobook
The Women – Kristin Hannah*
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty (audiobook)
Funny Story – Emily Henry (audiobook)
First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston (audiobook-Reese’s Book Club selection)
*My vote
(I’m rather surprised so many are from my audiobook selections.)
Last year, my Memoir & Autobiography vote went to Spare by Prince Harry, but surprised Britney Spears won for The Woman in Me (did you read that one? I read it but preferred Spare.) I did, however, pick the winner for the History & Biography category, The Wager. Gees, that was good and so glad it won!
There are 300 nominees this year across the 15 categories, but I swear a couple of those are new and a few categories were eliminated from previous years (poetry, middle grade and children’s, comic novels and graphics). The opening round of voting is between November 12 until November 24, so you still have time to make your voice heard.
Did one of your favorite books land in the nominees? Vote for it! The final round starts November 26, ends December 1. Winners are announced December 5.
So I have to ask:
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How many of the above did you read?
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In how many different categories do you participate?
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Do you look for reading ideas from the Goodreads winners?
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What is your source for 2025 trending books?
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And, lastly—have you gone to any movies or viewed series based on one of your choices?
I’ve always appreciated Goodreads for the extensive resources they provide. I often check their New Releases section under “Browse” as well as Recommendations and crosscheck those against the offerings in NetGalley. If I cannot find the book in NetGalley, I check my local library and look for the audiobook first.
What is the book you are hoping to see listed in those nominees?
It left me speechless. The fast-paced narrative follows the thoughts of middle child Aaron Gimmelman. Their family has had catastrophic reversals of fortune with the loss of his father’s job. Aaron manages to become the voice of reason for the family despite his parents going off the deep end. I kept rooting for a miracle and waiting for the author to pull a rabbit out of the hat. It’s a strongly mixed emotional message, dark, suspenseful, and full of twists, surprises.
When Daphne and Miles get together for other than “fake”, they usually end with an argument, most times initiated by Miles. And then begins the introspection. Boy, do we get the introspection! (Well…they argue a lot.) Or maybe it just seemed half the book was introspection by one or the other but I’d stopped caring a long time ago when I realized Daphne, smart as she is, was bound and determined to make the same mistakes over and over and …
They weren’t relatable (at least for me) and Miles didn’t come close to being a romantic interest, declaring more than once he still loved Petra. Duh. She still didn’t get it?
as Best Books of 2023
Rosepoint Publishing 