Oh man, here we are. The final round of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards. I am both excited and scared to find out if my favorites did or did not make it into the top ten of their categories. Every year seems to contain at least one surprise for me. So might as well end the torture and dive right in.
Thankfully all seems well in the Best Fiction, Best Mystery & Thriller, and Best Historical Fiction categories. All of the DSNs that were nominated in each are hanging strong. It is in the Best Science Fiction category that we first run into trouble. Looks like Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes, which was a write-in vote added in at the second round, did not quite make it into the top ten, which means I am back to voting for American War by Omar El Akkad.
Things return to normal for Best Horror, but another write-in, this time for Best Nonfiction, failed to make it into the final round. The exit of Brené Brown's Braving the Wilderness from the competition means I do not have anything to vote for in this category. Granted, I cannot say I am surprised, but I still like for the books I cover to at least make it through to the end.
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore continues to hold its own in Best History & Biography, and the same can be said for both picks in Best Graphic Novels & Comics, and the three picks in Best Debut Goodreads Author.
And then we come to my favorite category, the one I seem to take the most personally for some reason. Of the seven DSN YA fiction books that were nominated for Best Young Adult Fiction, only five made it into the final round. Given, that is pretty amazing, that half of the finalist for one category were featured on this blog. Even so, I am sad to see Jeff Zentner's Goodbye Days did not make the cut, along with Robin Roe's A List of Cages. Whew! This is a tough category, every year.
The Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction category remains the same for both DSN books that were nominated, which ultimately means that of the 22 books originally nominated (including the write-ins) for an award that were also featured on this blog (or at least, there is a solid plan to feature them), 18 of them have made it into the final round, and I think that is awesome. Really, this all only serves to make me super curious about the nominees I did not read that people seem to love. It would be nearly impossible for me to read every book that is nominated, or even just the ones that make it to the final round. But I always have a blast trying to read and write about as many as I can. And if I end up discovering new ones after the fact, I just consider it a bonus.
This final round of voting does not end until Monday, November 27th, so you have a full two weeks to make your voices heard. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 5th, and will receive their crown as readers' favorite books of 2017.
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