Nominees for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2021
November 16, 2021 6:20 PM Subscribe

The opening round nominees for the Goodreads Choice Awards have been announced. More than a dozen have previously appeared on Fanfare.

posted by Wobbuffet (49 comments total) 84 users marked this as a favorite

Holy heck. Thank you for this post! It will take me many moons to work through it!
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:45 PM on November 16, 2021 [4 favorites]

Yay, Iron Widow -- that book is amaaaazing.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:58 PM on November 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

How many of these folks are MeFis own, I wonder?
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 7:15 PM on November 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Good golly….\slow clap
posted by ashbury at 8:30 PM on November 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’m just happy they didn’t lump Science Fiction and Fantasy together.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 9:39 PM on November 16, 2021 [11 favorites]

Epic post. Definitely interested to read some of these. It's far, far more than I can handle but I'd love to hear people's thoughts on what's extra excellent on the list, and whether there are any one might warn against. I will say I thought Korelitz's The Plot was truly, truly bad. But I'm dying to read The Last Graduate even though I know as a book 2 it must necessarily end in a cliffhanger.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:55 PM on November 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

I feel bad for authors who have books coming out the last two months of the year! (Last year my spouse was in this situation and I figure it kept his book from coming to the potential attention of some best-of-year curators and so on. Well, also, that moment of late 2020 was a tough time for a lot of novels...)

Of the books listed, I have read:

The Chosen And the Beautiful: a little disappointing perhaps because my hopes were wrongly configured (thinking that the author would find a way to insert this story into pre-existing dialogue without changing ANY of Fitzgerald's dialogue). But vivid and sharp.

The Secret to Superhuman Strength: Engaging, funny, thought-provoking.

Fugitive Telemetry: a good ride continuing the series.

Thanks for the post!
posted by brainwane at 12:30 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I quite liked The Chosen and the Beautiful, but Gatsby and Daisy still dominated everything. I wanted more Jordan!

Have tried to get into The Sweetness of Water twice now without success. But I devoured The Lincoln Highway in two days.
posted by basalganglia at 1:41 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have read and would strongly recommend: A Dowry of Blood, Fugitive Telemetry*, A Desolation Called Peace*

I have read and would recommend: Winter's Orbit, She Who Became the Sun, The Last Graduate*, The Jasmine Throne, A Master of Djinn, The Witch's Heart, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Bridge of Souls*, Rule of Wolves*, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories*, Any Way the Wind Blows*

I have read and was less impressed than I'd hoped by, but still didn't dislike: A Psalm for the Wild-Built, The Echo Wife

*Indicates a book which is a sequel, a prequel, or otherwise neither standalone nor the first book in a series

In general, I am not usually impressed by the results of the Goodreads Choice Awards (they tend to go to the most widely-read books and not necessarily the best books), but there's usually some good stuff on the longlist. It usually brings at least some stuff to my attention which hadn't been on my radar.
posted by kyrademon at 2:01 AM on November 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I really don't feel good about this list, which seems to be openly manipulable and easy to take advantage of by brigading, and is owned by Goodreads. Goodreads was discussed in another front page post recently, which lead to this interesting comment by cstross. How are these books in the goodread end of year list chosen? If it's a mechanically scraped list of 'best/most reviewed' - which it seems to be - I'm not sure I see the point of this.
posted by The River Ivel at 4:22 AM on November 17, 2021 [12 favorites]

Whoa quite a damning comment there. It's that bad and it's owned by Amazon?
posted by viborg at 4:31 AM on November 17, 2021

I have always enjoyed the awards, but this year they stuck middle grade with picture books, put cookbooks in with all nonfiction (which used to have multiple categories), and they dropped write in voting. They don't give winners anything, I have no idea why they did all this but I dislike it.

This is not a comment on the books, which are as always a mix.
posted by jeather at 4:40 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

It's that bad and it's owned by Amazon?

Brought to you by your Department of Redundancy Department.
posted by Naberius at 5:28 AM on November 17, 2021 [8 favorites]

How can a book that was just released yesterday be in the running? (Termination Shock)
posted by rozcakj at 5:44 AM on November 17, 2021

> "... this year they stuck middle grade with picture books, put cookbooks in with all nonfiction ... and they dropped write in voting. They don't give winners anything, I have no idea why they did all this but I dislike it."

I'm especially annoyed that they dropped write-in voting. I guess it doesn't matter which books I actually liked best anymore.
posted by kyrademon at 6:03 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

How are these books in the goodread end of year list chosen? If it's a mechanically scraped list of 'best/most reviewed'

It seems to be at least something along those lines, or possibly "activity" such as people adding the books to GR (including as TBR), etc. There's an interesting twitter thread looking at the difference in this type of activity between a traditionally published book (with advertising behind it) and an indie published book.
posted by scorbet at 6:15 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

I guess it doesn't matter which books I actually liked best anymore

Personally I appreciated folks saying how they felt about these titles, but I'd also love to hear alternative suggestions. I feel like Goodreads has a useful perspective on some trends / audiences / genres, but I assume they're making editorial decisions--algorithmically or otherwise--to reinforce whatever they think their focus is. There's no reason not to push against that here.
posted by Wobbuffet at 6:18 AM on November 17, 2021

> "Personally I appreciated folks saying how they felt about these titles, but I'd also love to hear alternative suggestions."

Well, personally (bearing in mind that this is "so far" -- I wish they wouldn't do this in November), I'd have gone with Strange Creatures, by Phoebe North, for Best Fantasy. Winterkeep, by Kristin Cashore, would probably have been my pick for Best YA SFF.
posted by kyrademon at 6:28 AM on November 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I might have added in Little Thieves for YA, A Marvellous Light for fantasy or, possibly, romance, 1979 for mystery, No One is Talking About This for fiction, Wendy, Darling for fantasy.

I definitely would have ended up voting for Iron Widow for YA though.

There are a few books I rated 1 star on those lists and I really wonder what people saw in them.
posted by jeather at 6:43 AM on November 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm bummed to see that I have only read 2 of the nominated books. I think what that means is that, while I read a lot of new books, I don't read a lot of this-year-new books.

Of the two books I have read, I enjoyed Sarah Gailey's The Echo Wife quite a lot and disliked Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun considerably.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:25 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

So far this year I've read 103 books by non cis-men, and zero books by cis-men. (I post a #BookLog on twitter, if you use their search box with "@photopuck #booklog" and then sort by latest you can see the whole thing.) Starting mid-year I began marking books I recommend (and books I didn't finish). Here's the ones I liked:

Inheritance of Orquidea Divina, Zeraida Cordova
Tangleroot Palace, Marjorie Liu
The Godstone, Violette Malan
A Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
Sorrowland, Rivers Soloman
The Helm of Midnight, Marina Lostetter
A Radical Act of Free Magic, H G Parry
Satisfaction Guaranteed, Karelia Stetz-Waters
The Galaxy and the Ground Within, Becky Chambers
The Ladies of the Secret Circus, Constance Sayers
Meet Me in Another Life, Cantriona Silvey
One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston
The Hidden Palace, Helene Wecker
The Once and Future Witches, Alix Harrow
Fangs, Sarah Andersen
City of Broken Magic, Mirah Bolender
All the Murmuring Bones, Angela Slatter
The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry, C M Waggoner
Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells

Looking to the first half of the year (the books I didn't mark at the time), I think I remember liking:

The Desolation of Peace, Arkady Martine
Dead Space, Kali Wallace
Remote Control, Nnedi Okorafor
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V E Schwab
How the Multiverse got its Revenge, K Eason

Also I am currently reading a Zen Cho stort story collection called Spirits Abroad and that will get a star when I'm done it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:29 AM on November 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

> "The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry, C M Waggoner"

Is this a standalone? I've been meaning to read it but sometimes it's listed as the second book in a series.
posted by kyrademon at 8:45 AM on November 17, 2021

I've read Lore Olympus, The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Run: Book One, How the Word is Passed, Four Hundred Souls, Local Woman Missing, Harlem Shuffle, The Sum of Us, The Anthropocene Reviewed, Mediocre, A Little Devil in America, The Premonition, Under a White Sky, This is Your Mind on Plants, Fuzz, and The Hill We Climb.

I say this not to recommend one or another, though Mediocre was my favorite, but to remind myself that even in a year when it felt like I wasn't reading a lot of books, I was kinda reading a lot of books.
posted by box at 8:50 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Here's the ones I liked

I loved some of those and have others on my list -- so now I have to check out the rest. Thanks for this!

I could add:

Gearbreakers, Zoe Hana Mikuta
Victories Greater than Death, Charlie Jane Anders
Requiem Moon, C.T. Rwizi (sequel to Scarlet Odyssey)
posted by Foosnark at 8:55 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

oh my...

checks book list...good thing I got a new job!
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on November 17, 2021

Anyways, of the books that I have read and can remember or want to read soon and the awards reminded me of them:

Best Debut Novel:
Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper's Daughter -- very fun
Ashley Audrain, The Push -- on hold for this one
Everina Maxwell, Winter's Orbit -- this book has suddenly become a comfort reread and I just bought it again in paperback
Shelley Parker-Chan, She Who Became the Sun -- on my list
Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary -- very meh
Wanda M. Morris, All Her Little Secrets -- on my list

Best Fantasy:
Naomi Novik, The Last Graduate -- I had fun but this is very middle book in a trilogy
T.J. Klune, Under the Whispering Door -- this was so against how I feel about afterlife that it made me mad the entire time
Helene Wecker, The Hidden Palace -- keep debating if I need to reread book 1, which I liked a lot, first
Heather Walter, Malice -- some interesting ideas, but it's half of a full book
Zoraida Córdova, The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina -- on my list
Jennifer Saint, Ariadne -- hated this deeply
Alix E. Harrow, A Spindle Splintered -- fine
Nghi Vo, The Chosen and the Beautiful -- fine

Best Fiction:
Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land -- read some, put it down, will probably pick up again later
Jennifer Weiner, That Summer -- perfectly readable book that I enjoyed while reading but forgettable
Jesse Q. Sutanto, Dial A for Aunties -- fun
Louise Erdrich, The Sentence -- just got it from the library Monday

Best Middle Grade & Children's:
B.B. Alston, Amari and the Night Brothers -- this was excellent

Best Mystery & Thriller:
Sally Hepworth, The Good Sister - fun domestic thriller
Alice Feeney, Rock Paper Scissors -- interesting concept, not fun execution
Liane Moriarty, Apples Never Fall - fine
Shari Lapena, Not a Happy Family -- fine
Rachel Hawkins, The Wife Upstairs -- fine
Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle -- on my list

Best Science Fiction:
Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary -- fun but not the best book of the year
Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry (Fanfare link) -- fun but not my favourite in the series
Arkady Martine, A Desolation Called Peace (Fanfare link) -- excellent
Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Fanfare link) -- very good
Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars -- on my list
Sarah Gailey, The Echo Wife -- I really liked this one a lot
Nicole Kornher-Stace, Firebreak -- on my list

Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow -- great
Rainbow Rowell, Any Way the Wind Blows -- way too much Simon/Baz drama for the sake of drama, too little of the interetsting stuff
Chloe Gong, Our Violent Ends -- on my list
Aiden Thomas, Lost in the Never Woods -- hated this
Joan He, The Ones We're Meant to Find -- on my list

Best Young Adult Fiction:
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Ace of Spades -- a little derivative but a good debut and I'll read more
Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Hawthorne Legacy -- first book was fun, wasn't a fan of this one
Holly Jackson, As Good As Dead -- a nice ending to the series
posted by jeather at 9:07 AM on November 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

Ruthless Lady's... is a semi-sequel to C M Waggoner's Unnatural Magic in that they're set in the same world, though about 30 years apart and with none of the same characters in action. Unnatural Magic is also one I enjoyed, so if you haven't read it, may as well do it first.
posted by seanmpuckett at 9:09 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

"The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry, C M Waggoner"

Is this a standalone? I've been meaning to read it but sometimes it's listed as the second book in a series.

It's the second in the same world, but they are not really a series as such, you won't miss much or possibly anything if you read it first. The first is called Unnatural Magic and I enjoyed both of them. First book has some pacing issues, second book took me a while to get past the narrator's voice, but both worth reading.
posted by jeather at 9:09 AM on November 17, 2021

as flawed as the Goodreads lists may be, it's a great boon to have the list shared in MeFi here today and get all the fantastic commentary/opinions on titles. those of us buying gifts for readers have a lot of great recommendations to choose from, thanks to all
posted by elkevelvet at 9:15 AM on November 17, 2021 [6 favorites]

I've only read about 2 on this list (which does surprise me a little. I would have expected more). Those were Winter's Orbit and Fugitive Telemetry. A lot more are sitting on my kindle to read though. I really liked both of them.

Other books I enjoyed this year (or am still enjoying):

Ask a Historian, Greg Jenner: A historian answers 50 questions from the public, (a lot of which can sound a bit silly but then make you go hmmm, when *was* the first Monday?)
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O'Reilly (previously known for his encounter with the President of Ireland while on ketamine): This is an often hilarious memoir about growing up as one of 11 siblings in Derry, with a widowed father
The Killing Kind by Jane Casey: A thriller set in London with twists
A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske: Edwardian magic
Scales and Sensibility by Stephanie Burgis: Regency romance with miniature dragons!
The Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick: A con artist gets a bit more than she bargained for in a vaguely Venetian like city

There's probably loads more that I've currently blanked on...
posted by scorbet at 10:04 AM on November 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

The only of these that I've read was Last Call (and I thought it was kind of meh). The two books published this year that I enjoyed were Kaitlyn Greenidge's Libertie and Patricia Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This.
posted by naoko at 10:15 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Easily 90% of what I read was published in previous years. In 2021 I finally got around to reading The Golem and the Jinni, and Memory Called Empire, which are prequels to books on this year's list. There's no category where I've read more than one book.

I would love to get my hands on raw data for the winners and see how many voters have read two other books in the categories. I could be projecting--obviously lots of MeFites read lots of new books--but I've always assumed voting was dominated by how many people read a book. (I remember as a teen reading a Rolling Stone reader poll of best and worst concerts and realizing they were basically the same lists.)

I also want to lodge a complaint against the history nominees.

But other than that I like goodreads. I keep track of what I read and what I want to read, get recommendations from IRL friends' choices (or authors I follow) and wish it weren't owned by Amazon.
posted by mark k at 10:29 AM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best books I've read this year (in reading order):

Piranesi, Susanna Clarke - Short and brilliant
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers - I completely get what all the hype is about
All Systems Red (Murderbot #1), Martha Wells - Same
Crossings, Alex Landragin - A trippy David Mitchell-like book that can be read in two different orders
The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa - Absolutely haunting
Gnomon, Nick Harkaway - Dense, bizarre, and thoroughly engrossing
Eight Perfect Murders, Peter Swanson - A murder mystery for people who know murder mysteries
The Guest List, Lucy Foley - One of the best mysteries I've ever read (get the full-cast audiobook)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab - Just lovely
The Echo Wife, Sarah Gailey - Brutal and effective

Happy reading everyone!
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 10:57 AM on November 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

I've been participating in the voting for several years. One thing that stood out to me this year is the seemingly higher number of selections that are part of a series, versus standalone books. In some cases the selection was quite deep into the series, which means probably only the most loyal fans of that author and series would be familiar with the work.

In my opinion, this would tend to slant things toward authors who've basically continued the same story/characters and have larger numbers of readers following that story. I see authors who come up with fresh characters and stories for their new books as somewhat disadvantaged in this year's contest unless they're one of the big name writers.

I'm bummed to see that I have only read 2 of the nominated books. I think what that means is that, while I read a lot of new books, I don't read a lot of this-year-new books.

That's my situation too, though it's not for lack of trying. Since the pandemic the waiting lists for new books at my available digital libraries have increased significantly.
posted by fuse theorem at 11:04 AM on November 17, 2021 [3 favorites]

Winter's Orbit - It's very good if you can roll with romance tropes. It's almost too tropey for me but then I got into it.

One Last Stop - I did enjoy it quite a bit. There's one Goodreads review that quite fiercely takes it to task with regards to local New York City knowledge and gentrification, and a lot of it is in "I'm not sure how much this actually bothers me" territory, but I do think it bites off more than it can chew when it comes to saying something significant about gentrification.

Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World is good but it doesn't quite live up to the previous book. It feels a little more didactic in what it has to say about being gay and coming out, and that's useful and necessary in a way (I think when you're an adult it's easy to underestimate how valuable books that are plainly affirming and validating are) but... Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is beautiful in a way that makes it feel essential even if you've read fifty YA coming-out novels.

I'm not a fan of memoirs in general. Crying in H-Mart was pretty good.

I think those are all the books on the GoodReads list that I've read this year. (I did read a lot of 2020 books this year for the Morning News Tournament of Books. I expect I'll read a lot of 2021 books next year for that as well). So let me nominate:

Best 2021 book not on a Goodreads Choice Award list: Appleseed by Matt Bell, a strange and gorgeous speculative dystopic environmental fiction book.

Best 2021 book that I have not yet finished because it's heavy (intellectually, not in terms of physical weight) and academic: Fear and Horror: Ecohorror Studies in the Anthropocene.
posted by Jeanne at 11:44 AM on November 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

Oh, and I forgot one! A Swim in a Pond in the Rain has become one of my favorite writing craft books.
posted by Jeanne at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2021

Oh yes, One Last Stop. I was really looking forward to it but is just all the themes and tropes I dislike put together. It was probably a fine book for other people. (I just deleted the list of romance books because mostly the ones I read there were just very meh.)
posted by jeather at 12:27 PM on November 17, 2021

Putting plugs in for both The Witch's Heart and The Disordered Cosmos; I have connections to both authors so I was eagerly awaiting both since before they came out and they were both wonderful.

The Witch's Heart is take on Norse Mythology; I actually took Old Norse with the author and can confirm that (1) she read several of the myths in the original language, and (2) did so under the instruction of a professor who *very* overtly talked about "Here's how to be interested in this stuff without being a Neo-Nazi or accidentally seemingly like one."

If you follow Dr. Prescod-Weinstein on twitter, you probably have a sense of what the book is about, which is about physics and dark matter and how science has been shaped by the patriarchy and white supremacy and colonialism and how science might look without those forces (including, for example, not calling dark matter dark matter).
posted by damayanti at 12:31 PM on November 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

oh yeah let us share all the books!

Here's my fave 2021 non-fiction book:
"Prisons Make Us Safer": And 21 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration by Victoria Law (review)

Fave picture books:
Saving American Beach: The Biography of African American Environmentalist MaVynee Betsch by Heidi Tyline King
The Capybaras by Alfredo Soderguit

For books that I categorize (broadly) as self-help/mutual aid:
What Fresh Hell Is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna. Non-binary writer does a non-essentializing book on menopause. My middle-aged body thanks you!
Can I Recycle This? A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Romer. Makes me want to start a local glass recycling plant....

Seconding other people's recommendations of
The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:09 PM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

How can a book that was just released yesterday be in the running? (Termination Shock)

I was just about to ask if this any good or just getting boosted in by hard core fans. I guess I am not going to be getting an answer here for a bit.
posted by biffa at 4:16 PM on November 17, 2021

Great post! I have read a bunch of books this year, mostly going through every Martha Wells book ever published, so it hurt me not to vote for the Murderbot entry (All Systems Red, which I also enjoyed). But A Psalm for the Wild-Built hit just right for me. I can't stop thinking about monk and robot and looking forward to their further adventures. Who wouldn't want to visit a tea monk?

The one book on the list I am really looking forward to is Firekeeper's Daughter - hearing good things. It's in my Kindle ready to read.
posted by gemmy at 8:33 PM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry
Yeah add me to the list of endorsement for this. I agree it is not necessary to read the first one to enjoy this one. Pretty sure it was my only vote this year because I don't get around to reading most books the same year they are published.
posted by soelo at 9:41 PM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

What, no The Liar's Dictionary (Eley Williams)!? I get this list is more oriented towards genre writing, but still...That omission, among others, tells me not to take this list too seriously.

I just ordered The Great Circle (Maggie Shipstead) and really looking forward to reading it. I ordered No One Is Talking About This (Patricia Lockwood) and What Strange Paradise (Omar El Akkad; Giller Prize winner) as well, also neither of which is on the list. I'm intrigued by but also a bit dubious of When We Cease to Understand the World (Benjamín Labatut).
posted by blue shadows at 11:07 PM on November 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

And here I was patting myself on the back that I was able to get through all the Hugo nominees this year...
posted by Harald74 at 11:12 PM on November 17, 2021

But I'm dying to read The Last Graduate even though I know as a book 2 it must necessarily end in a cliffhanger.

True fact. It is indeed very middle-y, as mentioned by someone above, but enjoyable and apparently one of the only new books I read this year.
posted by charmedimsure at 11:42 PM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

Some more 2021 books that I enjoyed, mostly nonfic and mystery/thrillers:

Americanon: An Unexpected US History in Thirteen Bestselling Books, Jess McHugh
An Atlas of Extinct Countries, Gideon Defoe
Bath Haus, P.J. Vernon
Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, David Walker
Changes: An Oral History of Tupac Shakur, Sheldon Pierce
Concrete Rose, Angie Thomas
The Cruelty is the Point, Adam Serwer
The Family Plot, Megan Collins
The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix
56 Days, Catherine Ryan Howard
Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days that Changed Sports Forever, L. Jon Wertheim
The Guide, Peter Heller
Hairpin Bridge, Taylor Adams
I Alone Can Fix It: Donald Trump's Catastrophic Final Year, Carol Leonnig
Let's Talk About Hard Things, Anna Sale
Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency, Jonathan Allen
Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres, Kalefa Sanneh
On Animals, Susan Orlean
Save it for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest, Nate Powell
Survive the Night, Riley Sager
These Toxic Things, Rachel Howzell Hall
Trouble Girls, Julia Lynn Rubin
The Turnout, Megan Abbott
The 2000s Made Me Gay, Grace Perry
We Were Never Here, Andrea Bartz
What's Done in Darkness, Laura McHugh
posted by box at 5:56 AM on November 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

One more, how could I forget it, I just finished it last night. A really well-reported and well-written piece of investigative journalism that should be getting more attention than it has:

Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA, Tim Mak
posted by box at 6:12 AM on November 18, 2021

How can a book that was just released yesterday be in the running? (Termination Shock)

I was just about to ask if this any good or just getting boosted in by hard core fans. I guess I am not going to be getting an answer here for a bit.

There are a lot of ARCs (advance reader copies) out there, which would explain why it's in the running. I had the opportunity to get an ARC, but Neal Stephenson runs hot and cold for me (Anathem is one of my favorite books, Seveneves was mixed, couldn't finish the Baroque Cycle, and I haven't brought myself to read the doorstop that is The Fall yet).
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:25 AM on November 18, 2021

Here are the winners--their placement in the original sorted order given in this post is noted in square brackets:

Best Debut Novel: Elena Armas, The Spanish Love Deception [2]
Best Fantasy: Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Silver Flames [1]
Best Fiction: Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You (Fanfare link) [14]
Best Graphic Novels & Comics: Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus [1]
Best Historical Fiction: Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising [5]
Best History & Biography: Patrick Radden Keefe, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty [2]
Best Horror: Grady Hendrix, The Final Girl Support Group [11]
Best Humor: Jenny Lawson, Broken (In the Best Possible Way) (Fanfare link) [3]
Best Memoir & Autobiography: Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart (Fanfare link) [1]
Best Middle Grade & Children's: Rick Riordan, Daughter of the Deep [6]
Best Mystery & Thriller: Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me [8]
Best Nonfiction: John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed [2]
Best Poetry: Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country [1]
Best Romance: Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation [3]
Best Science Fiction: Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary (Fanfare link) [1]
Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction: Leigh Bardugo, Rule of Wolves [2]
Best Young Adult Fiction: Angeline Boulley, Firekeeper's Daughter [2]
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:00 AM on December 9, 2021

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Nominees for the Goodreads Choice Awards 2021
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