Sign in with Facebook
Announcing the Nominees of the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards! It's Time to Vote!
Vote now in the Opening Round! »All year you've been devouring books and rating them on Goodreads. Some of your favorite authors have released new blockbusters. Some quiet debuts have become smash hits. And now it's all reflected in the nominations for the 2014 Goodreads Choice Awards—the only major book awards decided by readers!
How did we arrive at the 15 different nominees in 20 categories ranging from Fiction to Fantasy to Food & Cookbooks to Young Adult Fiction? Lots and lots of numbers! Instead of relying on experts or judges, we analyzed statistics from the 275 million books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads in 2014.
We're so excited to congratulate all of the nominees! There are some epic match-ups in this year's list. In Best Memoir, the riveting true stories range from Esther Earl, the inspiration for teen bestseller The Fault in Our Stars, to North Korean defector Jang Jin-Sung. Mystery & Thriller has heavy hitters, with Stephen King going against "Robert Galbraith" (a.k.a J.K. Rowling). In History & Biography, it's basketball god Michael Jordan versus an unlikely opponent, President Calvin Coolidge. Best Fiction, one of our most-watched categories, is anyone's game, with debut authors like Nadia Hashimi and Mira Jacob ready to take on established masters like Marilynne Robinson, Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, and Margaret Atwood. And double props to our double nominees, who include Roxane Gay, Gene Luen Yang, and B.J. Novak!
Of course, with hundreds of thousands of books published in 2014, no nominee list could cover everything. We also accept write-in votes during the Opening Round to ensure that you can vote for exactly the book you want!
You have three chances to vote. The Opening Round lasts until November 8. Vote now to make sure your favorite books make it into the Semifinals (November 10 - 15) and Finals (November 17 - 24).
Vote for the best books of 2014! »Comments Showing 1-50 of 87 (87 new)
message 1:
by
Shoa
(new)
Nov 03, 2014 12:49AM
FINALLY the wait is over! :D
flag
I haven't read anything published in 2014. I'm still making my way through prior decades.
Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many many books that will never appear in there? I bet people who read a specific genre will jump into the preview window for genres they don't read and vote on a book just because they can. Maybe not a majority but definitely enough to skew the voting.
Lobstergirl wrote: "I haven't read anything published in 2014. I'm still making my way through prior decades."You always amuse me.
I guess the great thing about the awards is you don't have to have read the book to vote for it.
Too cynical?
Voted! Though I have to say "best book of the year" is a not really a fitting words. It's more like "most popular book of the year". Even though the nominees were selected from their average ratings, I can see there are books that got high rating just because they’re popular, not really because they’re high quality.
warhawke wrote: "Even though the nominees were selected from their average ratings, I can see there are books that got high rating just because they’re popular, not really because they’re high quality. "I don't think that's the case. I mean Top Secret Twenty One by Janet Evanovich (Mystery & Thriller) has an average rating of 3.67. I presume it is on the page because of the number of people who rated...though 40% of people who rated it thought it was only average or worse.
Ian wrote: I presume it is on the page because of the number of people who rated...though 40% of people who rated it thought it was only average or worse. I quote the nominee eligibility rule:
"We analyze statistics from the millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on the site in 2014 to nominate 15 books in each category. Opening round official nominees must have an average rating of 3.50 or higher. "
I assume it's the combination of average ratings, number of ratings and number of review.
warhawke wrote: "It's a combination of the three, so I believe popularity is a contributing factor. "As mentioned previously, it seems like a bit of an unfair advantage to 15 books over the many thousands written this year.
For example (staying in Mystery & Thriller for the purpose of the exercise) Fear Nothing by Lisa Gardner has an average rating of 4.6 Stars after 6300 ratings. Less than 1/2 the books nominated rate higher. 6/15 have less ratings. Not only is she popular...she's a damn good writer and dare I say it much more deserving than a few of the books listed.
no award paranormal fantasy
The best book ever for romance is The Black dagger brotherhood by J.R. Ward. The last one that came out was "The King" I've been reading those books for the last 7 years over and over I can't let them go it's a must read all of them I think there is 12 or 13 books out there plus a companion book also. Best story and writing ever. I hope The King was not the last. I love yous Black Dagger Brotherhood, xoxoxoxoxoxo. Sylvie
Why is there no LGBT category? There are so many wonderful books in it that deserve a chance to be nominated.
Irina wrote: "Why is there no LGBT category? There are so many wonderful books in it that deserve a chance to be nominated."+1
Irina wrote: "Why is there no LGBT category? There are so many wonderful books in it that deserve a chance to be nominated."You have to vote for your book in every category. You have to chose your own choice in every category. It is not supposed to be a FM.
Lena♥Ribka wrote: "Irina wrote: "Why is there no LGBT category? There are so many wonderful books in it that deserve a chance to be nominated."You have to vote for your book in every category. You have to chose you..."
I will do that. But we all know it doesn't have the same chances.
this LGBT category question coems up every year - and the response has been that instead of singling those books out, they want them to stand on their merits against more traditional booksin fact, last year or the year before, a m/m romance was in the top 3 (Hot Head)
and there is a m/m romance in the romance for this year - The Backup Boyfriend: The Boyfriend Chronicles - Book 1
It's one of my favorite times of the year! It's like Christmas! :D
Ian wrote: "Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many many books that will never appear in there? I ..."
I only voted on one category and since it wouldn't let me write in a vote, I had to chose one of the ones listed. I'm disappointed in the way this thing is set up. I never herd of 90% of these books.
Jane wrote: "Ian wrote: "Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many many books that will never appear in ..."if you can't write in a book, post it in the librarian's group so they can explore why - it might be that the date pulished was incorrect
This is just a horrible reminder that I haven't read any new books this year...
Dee wrote: "Jane wrote: "Ian wrote: "Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many many books that will nev..."I can do that but I got this book on preorder a couple of months ago.
LGBT category please! I've read, rated and reviewed 244 LGBT books in 2014 already.I'd like to be counted!
Jane wrote: "Dee wrote: "Jane wrote: "Ian wrote: "Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many many books t..."it might not have the correct information - if you post it, someone can take a look
Dee wrote: "Jane wrote: "Dee wrote: "Jane wrote: "Ian wrote: "Why do you provide 15 books for one click voting? And how are those books selected? Doesn't it give those books an unfair advantage over the many..."Tabula Rasa / Ruth Downie
This is the one I wanted to vote for.
Gigi wrote: "LGBT category please! I've read, rated and reviewed 244 LGBT books in 2014 already.I'd like to be counted!"
I vote for that too, Gigi!
OK: quiet question - why can't we vote for more than ONE book in a section? I only vote in the genres I read (and miss out completely on the others), and more often than not, there is MORE than one book I like.Probably repeating an earlier question: WHO chooses these books? There are hundreds (?) published this year, but they don't get a look in.
And speaking of those that don't get a look-in: there are loads of LGBTQ books being produced, and YET they STILL aren't recognised.
Even asking us to "suggest" an LGBTQ book within a genre you've selected, there's very little chance it may proceed into Round 2. (OK, apart from "Hot Head" which was completely outstanding the year it came out.)
In all honesty, even the 15 books you've chosen to represent each category, don't ACTUALLY reflect the most popular reads of the year.
So, what criteria do these 15 books attain?
US only?! and must be also published in the US?!WoW..... I'm not going to talk about other languages... sure this is primarily an English-speaking community, but what about British authors? They do WRITE in English AND also do publish books.....
What about self-published books? If the community vote/review and deem a book worthy, why is it not considered?
This just shows the real propaganda behind GR, and I am losing even more respect for the site (to be clear: the site policy makers and not its members).
Carole-Ann wrote: "OK: quiet question - why can't we vote for more than ONE book in a section? I only vote in the genres I read (and miss out completely on the others), and more often than not, there is MORE than one book I like."I think it's a completely valid question. I wonder why they can't give each member 20 votes to use as they see fit. I mean it's kind of ridiculous that someone who only reads Historical Romance is going to vote for a random book in Business just because he / she can.
lol...there needs to be a vote swap website. I have 11 votes in categories I don't read. You can have them if you give me your romance / fantasy and fiction votes.
I'm surprised you don't have a category for short stories?
Linda wrote: "I'm surprised you don't have a category for short stories?"That would be awesome! With e-publishing novellas and short stories have really come into their own.
Just fyi. Diana Gabaldon's amazing novel Written in my Own Heart's Blood (eighth book in the Outlander series which is also a tv series on Starz) is NOT a romance novel. It is closer to historical fiction and/or fiction. Please fix this! I wrote in my vote for the correct section and have advised others to do the same.Thank you!
Carole-Ann wrote: "OK: quiet question - why can't we vote for more than ONE book in a section? I only vote in the genres I read (and miss out completely on the others), and more often than not, there is MORE than one..."Carole-Ann, you're my new favorite person on this site. The diversity is very obviously lacking (insert sad, but not surprised, sigh here).
I'm also disturbed by the lack of indie authors in these categories. Self-published authors deserve some recognition too. Big publishing is well represented, as usual.
Halah wrote: "This is just a horrible reminder that I haven't read any new books this year..."Me too. I better read more books before the next choice awards.
BEST YOUNG ADULT FANTASY NOMINEES ARE TORTURING MEEEE
It would be great if there was a category for short fiction.
Gigi wrote: "LGBT category please! I've read, rated and reviewed 244 LGBT books in 2014 already.I'd like to be counted!"
I agree, I would love to vote for LGBT books!
I don't understand why there are so many books I have never even heard of so I've only voted for 2-3 books in the whole lot terrible,its a crazy mixed up way to do things
Joan wrote: "I don't understand why there are so many books I have never even heard of so I've only voted for 2-3 books in the whole lot terrible,its a crazy mixed up way to do things"Joan, just below the 15 books GR chose for us through some incomprehensible method is an option to write in votes. Just type in the title of the book you want to vote for and it should come up.
Ayman wrote: "US only?! and must be also published in the US?!WoW..... I'm not going to talk about other languages... sure this is primarily an English-speaking community, but what about British authors? They ..."
Came here to ask about this. Maybe it should be "published in English" - surely at least one of the mamy nominees could be by the great English language authors in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, Singapore...
Sian wrote: "Ayman wrote: "US only?! and must be also published in the US?!WoW..... I'm not going to talk about other languages... sure this is primarily an English-speaking community, but what about British ..."
Sadly these are the rules, which reflect the policy of the site. Very sad.
I refrained from voting. I realize it will not change anything, but I do what i can do that is within my grasp.
You are right, I only mentioned England as an example, but surely there are amazing authors that can actually write in English from all over the world!
I just hope GR doesn't get worse in the coming years...
I would like to make a suggestion: every award has its criteria, and this one is really US (or Anglo-American) centered. Ok, fine, it's a choice. But maybe next year you could add a category "Foreign Authors", like in the Academy Awards? It would still be books familiar to the US public as they are published in the prize timeframe, but maybe international users will feel represented too. As it is now, I see only Murakami from the outside world...
I guess the great thing about the awards is you don't have t..."Not at all - the problem with these awards is that too many self-published authors get in little nominating and voting gangs and all vote for each other.
@ Lauren and Ian - *bows* Thank You!!This is the 5th time I've done this, and still not understood why some books get chosen! [Yes, I've read the rules/regs, but THEY just don't take into account the 'gangs' who rate up a book - and NO, it just doesn't always happen with Indie writers either.]
I wish there were a better method, but GR have worked this in the past, so I suppose there's some 'method in the madness' :)
Moloch wrote: "I would like to make a suggestion: every award has its criteria, and this one is really US (or Anglo-American) centered. Ok, fine, it's a choice. But maybe next year you could add a category "Forei..."That is a fine idea! And have it be the year the English translation comes out, not the original language version.
Jane wrote: "Moloch wrote: "I would like to make a suggestion: every award has its criteria, and this one is really US (or Anglo-American) centered. Ok, fine, it's a choice. But maybe next year you could add a ..."Eh, rethinking about my suggestion, I also see some difficulties in packing up all the authors from the whole world in one category: what genre should it be? Fiction and non-fiction together? But then the category wouldn't make sense.
What could be done is parallel categories for the same genres but only foreign authors, but it would probably get too big and messy
Moloch wrote: "Eh, rethinking about my suggestion, I also see some difficulties in packing up all the authors from the whole world in one category"My first thought was it would be very difficult to compare books of different languages with each other and you'd probably end up with a situation where people vote for their own language group and the winner is the one with the biggest group...probably Mandarin or Hindi...although Spanish might be the dark horse considering there are so many Spanish speakers in the U.S..
Restricting it to English books published in the U.S. doesn't really bother me. Until recently the Man Booker Prize was only open to English books from the Commonwealth. I think they've now expanded that to all English books. The Pulitzer Prize is only open to U.S. citizens for works published in the U.S. and in the History category it must be about the United States.
Defining eligibility just makes it a little easier to manage.
Ian wrote: "Moloch wrote: "Eh, rethinking about my suggestion, I also see some difficulties in packing up all the authors from the whole world in one category"My first thought was it would be very difficult ..."
The problem is that Goodreads isn't a US-only website - it's widely used in many countries. I'm Australian, I love Goodreads, and I would love to be able to vote for just a couple of books by Aussie authors that haven't made it to US shores yet.
With all due respect to people who says that it is OK that the award is US-centric.. have a look at the "about us" page which conveys an "international" intent to the website, so it is not US-only.Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Our mission is to help people find and share books they love. Goodreads launched in January 2007.
Obviously, each site owner is free to set whatever criteria they like. However, there is no point at all in mentioning this argument; otherwise, what is the point of having a feedback forum if we are required to accept everything a site owner dictates? Right?
From the spirit of sharing and spreading books and love of books, I suggest that criteria to be English books regardless of country of publication.
I understand that such reward need to be managed, so at this stage "self-published" may not manageable. But I honestly don't see any valid reason for restricting books to those which are published in the US, thus my suggestion.
Of course, translations need to be excluded so books must be written natively in English.
Hope for the best,
The guidelines are translated into English books are allowed they just want to have them published in the us - which actually opens up the eligibility to authors who may have been published overseas for a while but never made it to the US - and if they were published prior we adjust the publish date so they can be nominated
