Goodreads Choice Awards 2017 Semifinal Round

Today the semifinal round of voting for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards opens to the public. Readers have until Sunday, November 12th to vote in this second round, with the final round of voting scheduled to open up next Tuesday the 14th.

This is the round where five more books have been added for consideration to each category. Goodreads has taken into account the write-in votes, and have added the most popular ones to be a part of the running. For one category, this will make my decision even harder, while in another, it simply means I will actually have a book to vote for. 

I am incredibly thrilled that Mur Lafferty's Six Wakes has made it into the Best Science Fiction category, and it will consequently take my vote away from Omar El Akkad's American War, which is still a fantastic book. Six Wakes was the perfect combination of science fiction and murder mystery, with six crew members waking up in outer space after their previous bodies were apparently brutally murdered. But they are the only six people on board the ship. Who committed the horrifying act?

A new addition to the Best Nonfiction category ends up being another case where I will be voting for a book only because it is the only one that I have read out of all of the nominations. Brené Brown's Braving the Wilderness is not a bad book. In fact, there is a lot of good stuff in there, as Brown once again discusses vulnerability, along with the importance of learning to stand up for yourself, even if it means you stand alone. The book just comes off as a bit rushed, almost unfinished. It clocks in at under 200 pages, and does not contain the same amount of Brown's insightful truth that her readers have become accustomed to. But as I said, there is good stuff in there, so it gets my vote. 

All nominees I wrote about previously are still an option of course, and will remain so until Sunday, where the list in each category will be cut in half so you can make your final decisions. It is important to vote now to make sure your favorites make it into the finals. And of course, it is important to vote in the finals so your favorites can win the ultimate prize.

It will be exciting to see who comes out on top.