Hi Goodreads Member,
Here's our monthly newsletter from Goodreads—giving you the latest and greatest in our quest to connect people through reading!
VOTES ARE IN
|
The Best Books of 2011: Chosen By Readers, For ReadersCongratulations to our winners in 22 categories, with more than 638,000 votes cast! View the full results to see all the runners-up—and discover tons of new books to add to your to-read list! |
Favorite Book
|
Fiction
|
Nonfiction
|
Young Adult Fiction
|
Humor
|
Historical Fiction
|
Fantasy
|
Science Fiction
|
Biography
|
Memoir
|
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS
To celebrate the end of 2011, Goodreads chats with some the year's biggest authors! Also, browse our past interviews to pad your holiday wish list.
|
Veronica RothA gutsy heroine in a bleak, near-future Chicago threatens to upset the delicate balance of five ruling factions in Divergent, a dystopian novel by a 23-year-old prodigy. More |
|
Paula McLainGet a glimpse of the Roaring Twenties in The Paris Wife, a historical novel about the love life of literary giant Ernest Hemingway narrated by his first wife, Hadley. More |
|
Jon RonsonDo you know any psychopaths? Find out about their manipulative and narcissistic ways in The Psychopath Test, a nonfiction exposé of madness by a daring journalist. More |
|
Erin MorgensternTwo magicians compete in a decades-long duel with unknown stakes in The Night Circus, a fantasy-laced tale full of twins, kittens, and phantasmagoric attractions. More |
GOODREADS LIVE
|
Cassandra ClareThe fantasy writer will answer fan questions on December 16 in a live chat about Clockwork Prince, the second book in her Victorian London steampunk series. More |
|
Gabrielle ZevinOn December 13, join the young adult novelist for a live chat about All These Things I've Done, the story of a mafia boss's daughter living in 2083 New York City. More |
GOOD MINDS SUGGEST
|
Katherine Govier's Favorite Gifts for History BuffsKnow an armchair historian? Try these recs from the author of The Printmaker's Daughter, about an unsung Japanese artist. More |
|
Eric Weiner's Favorite
|
|
Marilyn Brant's Favorite Gifts for RomanticsEscape the winter gloom with her new book, A Summer In Europe, and share her top five love stories with your tenderhearted friends. More |
|
John Feinstein's Favorite Gifts for Sports FansThe sportswriter offers his all-star reads and relates the highlights of his career alongside athletic greats in a new memoir, One on One. More |
DEBUT AUTHOR SNAPSHOT
|
Benjamin BuchholzAfter a year in Iraq, U.S. soldier Buchholz wrote One Hundred and One Nights, a novel about daily life in the war-torn country and its undercurrent of violence. More |
MOVERS & SHAKERS
|
MWF Seeking BFFNewlywed Bertsche is thrilled to set up house with her husband in Chicago but saddened to leave friends behind in other cities. In this memoir, she challenges herself to go on 52 friend dates and chronicles the mixed results. More |
|
420 Characters
by Lou Beach
Artist and illustrator Beach pushes minimalism to an extreme in this short fiction collection. Each evocative vignette or quirky character study is told in 420 characters or fewer—the maximum length of a Facebook status. More |
|
Thirteen HallowsWhen Sarah Miller agrees to help a dying mugging victim, the favor quickly turns dangerous. Dark agents are murdering the guardians of an ancient magic one by one, and now they are chasing Sarah in this gory thriller. More |
|
The Sexual History of LondonThe Roman Londinium brothels of A.D. 43, Henry VIII's Buggery Act, Oscar Wilde's indecency trial—social historian Arnold leaves no debauched stone unturned in this lusty account of nearly 2,000 years of sex in London. More |
|
ScarsLuis Fiore goes duck hunting with a bottle of gin and ends up shooting his wife twice. Newly available in English, this modern Argentine classic dissects a crime from the perspectives of four characters connected to the murder. More |
|
Legend
by Marie Lu
In a future Los Angeles beset by war, plagues, and natural disasters, 15-year-old June belongs to an elite military family. When her brother is murdered, June chases a criminal from the slums in this young adult novel. More |
DO GOOD WITH GOODREADS
|
buildOnUsing volunteer teams made up of disadvantaged American teens, this nonprofit builds schools in developing nations such as Haiti, Nicaragua, and Mali. More |
GOODREADS POETRY CONTEST
Want your words to reach 5 million people? Goodreads and the ¡POETRY! group have partnered to host an ongoing poetry contest. Join the ¡POETRY! group to vote each month to pick a winner from among the finalists. You can also submit a poem for consideration. Here is our December winner!
Thirst.
The sun was hotter.You can tell.
Look at us squinting against it in photos then.
Everything washed out by the glare,
cheekbones, jawlines,
all detail surrendered.
Dazzled,
we could be anybody.
The gardens, look, they're parched.
It hurt to walk on the grass.
We lay in scorched backyards
slathering butter on our chests,
chain-smoking, eating fluorescent cheesies,
swilling scarlet soda,
everyone burned red raw.
Oblivious,unformed,
we felt nothing could go wrong.
Our lives lay ahead of us.
Men were above us,
landing on the moon.
With love,
Jessica, Elizabeth, and the Goodreads Team
P.S. Goodreads is hiring! We have open positions on our engineering and advertising teams, and we're looking for wordsmiths who like to interview authors.
