Announcing the Winners of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards

My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fantasy award ... so many more books on that list should have gotten it, especially irritating since Fantastic Beasts is literally just the screenplay of the film.
I correctly predicted that Stephen King and Owen King would win the horror award.
I am happy that Angie Thomas won both the categories she was nominated for and I am also happy about Celeste Ng winning the fiction award.

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."

Agree with everything you said! Especially about Fantastic Beasts. I never expected my favourites to win, but it's kinda annoying that the best fantasy book award went to a movie.

Congratulations to all of the winners.

Neil deGrasse Tyson FTW!

Wow, amazing! 6 of the books I nominated came in! I have to admit I am quite disappointed that The Break Down by BA Paris didn't get the Best Mystery and Thriller award, but then again I also love Paula Hawkins, maybe it was for the best then. I'm absolutely ecstatic that Lilly Singh's book won as well, would have been lovely to have received a message from her as well. And to be honest, I actually had a feeling Sleeping Beauties is going to win.

Fantastic Beasts as the best fantasy? Really? A screenplay???

Congrats Sarah!!!! So happy that acowar won (: Neil deGrasse Tyson wins with that photo!

Neil deGrasse Tyson wins with that photo!"

+1

Lauren Graham really deserved the award. Fun that she just thanked in three words, others had whole paragrahs she simply said thank you.
Fun to see Rick thanking in ASL as well.

For fantasy I think it is legit to say that Schwab is the real winner, because the first place is a screenplay and the second is the retailing of century old mythology ;P I love both though! But they aren't really classical fiction to me...

I don't blame the winners for thinking that the GR Awards are directly what readers think of books, that's what it *should* be.

Unfortunately it's really just what readers decide about books the GoodReads staff have chosen to "nominate". Which is quite a different thing.

Alexandra wrote: "I don't blame the winners for thinking that the GR Awards are directly what readers think of books, that's what it *should* be.

Unfortunately it's really just what readers decide about books the G..."

It does say in the Rules and Eligibility section that the books are nominated based on Goodreads statistics, not chosen by the staff. The first round does also permit write-in votes, the top five of which are added to round two.

I was sad that my favourite book released this year in one of the categories was not included, but it just clearly wasn't that popular. But I do think these awards would be a reasonably good reflection of what Goodreads members have enjoyed this year.

Love that 'Radium Girls', 'Before We Were Yours', 'The Hate U Give' and 'We're All Wonders' won. I am however disappointed that 'Beartown' came so close to winning for fiction and didn't win.

Aww congratulations to all these lovely authors 😊. I’m glad Stephen King got an award.

Andy Weir - simply an amazing author .

Emily May wrote: "Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beast..."

I agree with both of you. Plus, it irritated me even more that JKR didn't even say "thank you" like the rest of the winners. To me this speaks more of a cult than of an actual good book. #Shame

Hooray, Colleen Hoover!! Your fans are simply the best! <3

Рассказать вам об образцовом хайпе и маркетинговой кампании в художественной литературе? Селеста Инг объявлена сегодня победительницей в категории КНИГА ГОДА влиятельным порталом Goodreads.com, за роман Little Fires Everywhere, выпущенный МЕНЕЕ 3 мес. назад в США - 12 сентября (голосование читателей началось вообще лишь спустя 3 недели после релиза).

По нонфикшн номинациям, в которых я больший копенгаген.

«Лучшая книга по науке и технологии» – Нил деГрасс Тайсон «Астрофизика для тех, кто торопится». Набрала в 4 раза больше голосов, чем 2 место (и больше, чем роман Селесты Инг – ай молодцы читатели нонфика!). Я за него не голосовал – космос уже достал – но в шорт листе из 20 финалистов ровно половину я или прочитал, или намереваюсь. Про кого-то, может, и в Forbes напишу. Хорошая в этом году подборка кандидатов.

«Лучшие мемуары или автобиография». Победила книга Хиллари Клинтон «Что произошло». Читать мемуары проигравшей не стал и не буду (да и проигранные в ставке на ней деньги все еще саднят). Лет через N про это напишут по возможности беспристрастные историки, тогда и почитаем. А вообще дурацкая подборка. Остальные 19 финалистов еще местечковее и мельче. На первый взгляд. В этой категории я не голосовал.

«История или биография». Из 20 номинантов у меня в библиотеке десять. Победила книга не из моего листа - The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. Феминистки переписывают историю. Что ж, этот процесс начался не сегодня и окончится он не завтра.

И, наконец, главная категория для меня – «Лучший нонфикшн». Победил какой-то трэшняк, осознать который мне, вероятно, мешают мои годы - видеоблогерша Лилли Сингх aka ||Superwoman|| с миллионами подписчиков в Youtube и Instagram, коих она, видать, и рекрутировала проголосовать за свой (своё?) «How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life», и благодаря чему едва-едва обогнала куда более содержательную нигерийку Чимаманду Нгози Адичи. Вообще я обескуражен: в финальные топ-20 этой категории попало лишь две мои книги (про одну из них, Тима Ферриса, я уже писал в Форбсе, а другую о закулисье составителей словарей ещё процитирую в Телеграме и Фейсбуке).

Такие вот итоги вкратце. Я не впечатлен голосованием в известных мне категориях, из чего могу предположить, что и главная художественная книжка, тоже, вероятно, не венец творения. И опередила она вторую, Ф. Бакмана, автора «Второй жизни Уве», еле-еле.

Tomas wrote: "Fantastic Beasts as the best fantasy? Really? A screenplay???"

I agree. If screenplays rather than actual books are getting awards then they need to have their own category. As much as I love the JK Rowling world, this is an inappropriate winner.

I'm so happy for all the winners. Several I voted for won including Angie Thomas and Kate Moore for Radium Girls. Her thank you literally brought me to tears! I have to say I do wish Katherine Arden had won at least one of her categories for The Bear and the Nightingale. That's what I was looking for when I viewed the results. It was an amazing book and deserves so much more recognition. I just finished an ARC of the second book, The Girl in the Tower and it was even more amazing. One of the best books I've ever read!

IM SO PROUD OF SARAH J MAAS!! SHE IS MY QUEEN AND I LOVE HER! <3

I adore the pictures of all the authors, especially the newer authors just starting to bloom. This article always makes me smile, even if my fave didn't win :)

Of course Harry Potter won the Fantasy category. I don't understand why GR doesn't keep Harry Potter in with the other YA fantasy. How much you wanna bet most of those who voted for Harry Potter in Fantasy had never read or even heard of most of the non-YA fantasy authors that were nominated. Keep HP and other YA fantasy in the YA Fantasy category to at least make the Fantasy category even somewhat interesting for actual fantasy fans.

Rick Riordan signs his thank you in Hearthstone attire in front of the worlds portals (duck statue). I may have screamed at my computer for a full minute :D

Yesssss Angie! Well deserved! : )

Zohal wrote: "My thoughts:
Personally unhappy that Without Merit won.
I like Sarah J Maas but was hoping one of the other books in the ya fantasy category would win.
Annoyed that Fantastic Beasts got the fant..."

Definitely agree with you! I'm also really happy to see Kate Moore win for Radium Girls and Rupi Kaur with The Sun and her Flowers!

I'm a HUGE Harry Potter fan...and I'm super ticked it won. There were so many other GREAT choices that should have been the winner. So bummed. But I am glad Radium Girls won as well as many others.

Rick Riordan's thank you video makes me so happy right now.

Most of these books look pretty good and probably deserve the win, but Into the Water was a flaming pile of poo and should never have won. Also Fantastic Beats, which is literally just a screenplay.

Jumping on the bandwagon and agreeing that Fantastic Beasts should not have won for best fantasy. It was an excellent film but as a screenplay it is no where near the incredible level of writing shown by some of the other authors in this category. Same goes for the story line - its wonderful and enjoyable but certainly not as rich and excellent as some of the others. I'm certain there are many voters who don't actually read fantasy beyond the mainstream titles like Harry Potter or a Song of Ice and Fire that voted for it. I also wonder how many people voted for it because they liked the movie and never actually read it.

I'm not voting in this far fetched contest ever again. Apparently their are a lot of people who don't know how to read..
You got to be kidding me with a screenplay winning fantasy book of the year. This is worst then that play last year winning book of the year. Oh I forgot it had to do with Harry Potter that's why it won.
Andy Weir cannot write that's is why there are drawings in his latest book so that he doesn't have to describe anything.
A way to long and way to many characters wins for the horror category, plus the fact the antagonist is a rehash of a villain from an earlier Stephan King book.
But the people that vote in this blindly follow a popular author no matter if they write crap (What Happened).

Beartown should have beaten Little Fires Everywhere, which was an awful commentary on adoption and suburbia. Also, Into the Water for best thriller?! Hardly anyone on the weekly Goodreads posts thought it was any good! Now we get to Shrillary...really, folks? You seriously voted for that sad sack harpy who cannot move forward in her life, but wants the country to wallow further in her ludicrous excuses for why she lost the presidency?! Even her husband tossed her book where it belongs, in the rubbish bin! Furthermore, if that isn't a cardboard cut-out of the Shrill supposedly saying her thanks for the consolation vote, I don't know what is. Well, at least Radium Girls won!

Sandra wrote: "For fantasy I think it is legit to say that Schwab is the real winner, because the first place is a screenplay and the second is the retailing of century old mythology ;P I love both though! But th..."

I totally agree with you!

Stephen King rules!

Most of these winners were a disappointment for me. Worst year so far!

Jimmy wrote: "Stephen King rules!"

I completely agree with you.

I want to say Congratulations to ALL of the winners, regardless if I agree or not.

I am also giddy over the personal message of thanks from the authors themselves. Pretty cool.

Too bad that I did not read a SINGLE new release. Egads!! LOL

edit: I did add a ton of books to my TBR though; 2400+ and counting... :( *cries*

Alan wrote: "I'm not voting in this far fetched contest ever again. Apparently their are a lot of people who don't know how to read..
You got to be kidding me with a screenplay winning fantasy book of the year...."
AGREE !!!! What a joke!

Another year and another non-romance winning the romance category.

Yes!!! The Hate U Give so well deserved! Such a driven and engaging YA voice about a very real issue. I can’t wait to see what else is in store for Angie Thomas! 😁

Kylie wrote: "Jimmy wrote: "Stephen King rules!"

I completely agree with you."

Except for the fact that Sleeping Beauties is far too long, has way to many characters and include a villain from an earlier Stephan King book.

Congratulations to All the Winners, Cheers !!

hillary clinton? seriously.. :_:
and that romance category is a joke lol
happy for sarah j. maas, deserved definitely.
didn't care for other categories, but... hillary ... seriously lol

Looking through some of the really incredible fantasy books that came out this year and seeing a screenplay and retelling of Norse mythology take the top two spots are kind of upsetting.

I could accept the Neil Gaiman book (although I wouldn't be thrilled about it) but a screenplay? Really?

I can't begin by telling you how glad I am that Paula Hawkins and Rupi Kaur won. Both author's first works (for which they are best known - "The Girl on the Train" and "Milk and Honey"), but their second were greatness. Thought out, longer, deeper, better, more developed... Pure quality. And I can't recommend them high enough. :) I won't complain about Stephen King, Sarah J. Maas, Andy Weir and J. K. Rowling. It was, in all honesty, expected - but "Into the Water" had such a low average rating that I thought it will pass out without attention - thankfully, it didn't. Looking forward to any future works by Ms Hawkins and Rupi Kaur. :)

Alan wrote: "I'm not voting in this far fetched contest ever again. Apparently their are a lot of people who don't know how to read..
You got to be kidding me with a screenplay winning fantasy book of the year...."

Tell us how you really feel....

Dеnnis wrote: "Рассказать вам об образцовом хайпе и маркетинговой кампании в художественной литературе? Селеста Инг объявлена сегодня победительницей в категории КНИГА ГОДА влиятельным порталом Goodreads.com, за ..."

Я полностью согласна!

Tim wrote: "Wish I were shocked that Rowling won best Fantasy, with a screenplay. But it happens every time she's nominated --- people vote for her because "JK FOR QUEEN" and "WE LOVE YOU JK" fans.

Goodreads ..."Amen to that sir

Book Bunny wrote: "Most of these winners were a disappointment for me. Worst year so far!"

that is how it is normally for me. this year i 4 that i picked won! it's a new record.

Well, congratulations to all the winners whether I agree or not. I love that most of them took these photos (actually pretty disappointed J.K. did not...regardless of how I feel about her winning :( ).