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Time to Vote! Announcing the Nominees of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards!
Vote now in the Opening Round! »
Bust out your black-tie finery, because we're unfurling the red carpet for the nominees of the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards! All year long, you've added your reviews to Goodreads, sharing the work of favorite authors and raving about newly discovered gems, and now we've funneled all that reading excitement into our list of Opening Round nominees!
We analyzed statistics from the hundreds of millions of books added, rated, and reviewed on Goodreads this year to select 15 worthy nominees in 20 categories, including Best Fiction, Best Fantasy, Best Memoir, and Best Young Adult Fiction. And we also accept write-in votes during the Opening Round so you can vote for exactly the book you want!
A huge congratulations to all of our nominees! Who will you be rooting for? We've got some interesting match-ups to keep an eye on this year. Newcomer bestseller The Girl on the Train is up against books from perennial favorites like Stephen King and David Baldacci in Best Mystery & Thriller. E.L. James's Fifty Shades follow-up Grey is facing some heated competition in Best Romance from Sylvia Day and Colleen Hoover. Best Historical Fiction is packed with strong contenders, including Kristin Hannah, Kate Atkinson, Paula McLain, and Alice Hoffman. Can Internet darling Felicia Day take down TV darling Mindy Kaling in Best Humor? How will Aziz Ansari fare against Ta-Nehisi Coates in Best Nonfiction? And how on earth will readers pick a winner in Best Young Adult Fantasy, where the ranks are stacked with Sarah J. Maas, Victoria Aveyard, Leigh Bardugo, and more?
Our 300 Opening Round nominees have a combined average rating of 4.17 and have been added on Goodreads more than 6.2 million times. Fun fact: We have five different author nominees named Robert, but one of them is a nom de plume (guess who!). And the record-holding author name this year is Sara(h), with 10 nominations!
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 - 23).
Finally, as a special bonus, this year you can tell the world you voted with our shiny new "I Voted" banner. Just click the Facebook or Twitter icons after you vote to share your pick and this image.
Vote for the best books of 2015! »Comments Showing 101-150 of 150 (150 new)
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Megann
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Nov 06, 2015 07:32PM
How come there are no Christian Authors like Beth Wiseman?
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Lauren wrote: "I can't believe that The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett didn't make the list! Come on guys, it's his last book ever, in a legendary series!
"you can nominate it within the voting, in fact I would encourage you to do so. I always add my favs. :)
The Food section bothers me more and more each year. It is hard to find a book that is actually about cooking, rather than some kind of niche diet, or a memoir that incidentally involves food.
Sajeta wrote: "It bothers me that nominations are not released earlier so that I can vote based on having read all the books of a specific category. It's unfair to vote without having read and compared all nomine..."I totally agree. URGHHH... How can I vote?! I still haven't read most on the list.
and THAT SUCKS! >_<
Andrea wrote: "The Food section bothers me more and more each year. It is hard to find a book that is actually about cooking, rather than some kind of niche diet, or a memoir that incidentally involves food."Have you read The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt? This was my write in vote for that category.
There is an old saying in the U.S. Army; "perception is truth". When I first heard it I thought it was non-sense. I interpreted it to mean that beliefs are true based on how many people agree with them. I was wrong.What it actually means is that a soldier is responsible for how their peers perceive them; they are responsible for their own reputation. If I think that I am an honest and upstanding guy, but everyone else who knows me thinks that I am a thief and a liar, there is a problem.
To be more blunt, in this sort of situation the problem would be of my making, and not the fault of everyone else. The questions I would need to ask myself in this situation are "Why does everyone else think that I am a thief and a liar? What have I done to allow them to perceive me in this way? What have I not done to build a positive perception of me in the minds of my peers?"
If I say – or write – something that offends my entire audience, there are two possible reactions that I can have.
1) I can assume that since my intentions were pure in my mind the problem must belong to every else.
2) I can look over my words and ask myself what about them has upset everyone who has read them.
If no one is coming to my defense I need to ask myself why. It is my experience that when a large number of people are telling me something, especially when it is something that I do not want to hear, there is usually something to their words that I should consider.
These comments are addressed to you Jared. I am not going to type add my interpretation of you responses here; not only do I not have access to all of your words, I also do not think it would be appropriate for me to contribute further to the upset that has already been shown. Should you wish me to explain myself in greater detail I will be happy to do so in a more private venue. Send me a message if you are interested.
My suggestion is to push back voting by a few weeks. It would give people a chance over the holidays (Veteran's Day & Thanksgiving), to squeeze in a few more reads as well as allow them to read books released late in the year. Just a thought!
Will wrote: "Sorry I won't be participating, even though I read 26 action adventure thrillers in 2015, three of which were nominated as Best of 2015. I'm not sure how you determine the finalists (this is almost..."Do a write in vote...
I wasn't aware of the nomination until last week and I posted on social media like twitter and facebook but most of my friends said they could not find my book in my genre. So I need to give them step by step instructions which should not be the case. I wonder if other people have the same experience.
Even though I don't read GLBT*, I do believe the category is significant on many level and should really be granted.Also, I'm with those asking for more sub-categories in general. To me, it looks like the current categories may be too vast for a number of readers who, like me*, only read 1 or 2 sub-categories that are drowned in the current categories.
It means it doesn't feel right to vote for my favorite paranormal romance book of the year (the best PR I've read in a couple of years in fact) while I haven't read, nor will I read, most of the nominated book it's competing against in the extremely vast and varied Romance category... (I'd be interested in reading the nominated books in a sub-category grouping more similar books that might appeal to me, so I can make an informed vote, but not the whole romance category)
Also, faced with the broad categories, I found myself lost and confused has to where to find the books I believe deserve recognition as the best of their kind... (Is this Historical Romance book more Historical fiction or Romance? but then this other HR might lean toward the other "super-category" and then both HR would not even compete against one another!!!)
Jaclyn wrote [#56]: "[...]For now, we decided not to let the number of categories grow too big – there will be a total of 400 books nominated this year, which is already quite large."
Rather than looking at the number of books**, it might be an idea to look at the way readers think of the books they read, what are the major "fault lines"? Does a significant number of "Romance" readers only read GLBT romance? romance that are not GLBT? won't (or only) read paranormal romance? historical romance? etc.) Maybe not easy, but there are statistical analysis that can often help with those things (using part of the shelf data for example, or a carefully built survey on readers behavior). But I do know there is no selection of categories that will fit everyone ;)
The thing is I think it would be easier (and more, meaningful) to have to vote in many subcategories for those with broader tastes than voting on categories so vast you don't recognize your reading taste in them.
*(I'm a very "specialized" reader, at this time, I read high fantasy but no urban fantasy. I read a sub-sub category of paranormal romance, but almost no historical romance, etc.)
**(Is 400 really a large number against the number of books published in 2015?)
Su wrote: "I think these awards are great but I don't undestand the choice for the eligible book dates.Why would books published between November 3 and 15 2015 be included on this year's awards if when the ..."
I thought the same thing. They should wait 2 or 3 months at least and give people a chance to catch up.
Jaclyn wrote: "Tamsen wrote: "I would like to advocate for a Short Stories category for next year! There are so many great short story collections, and they would benefit from their own category!"Trisa wrote: "..."
Thanks, Jaclyn, I hope you find the readership worthy enough to consider it!
I'd like the bubble that pops up when we mouse over each nominee to include data about the author: gender, "race," age, country of origin.
Bokeshi wrote: "Voting for a book without reading all/most of the books from the same category doesn't seem fair to me. What's the basis for comparison?"Agreed! As much as I want the "I voted" banner/whatever, I can't morally do it without haven't read the majority of the books..
Roxy wrote: "This time of year reminds me of that there are so many books I didn't get to..."Amen!
Rather hard to vote when I (embarrassingly admit) haven't read any of the books. I come across this problem almost every year, and that is from a person who reads a LOT. I read at least 150+ books a year and rarely do I see any that I have read up on the voting list, or if I do see a book up there I didn't like it enough to vote for it. Not the same as voting for your favorite movie, since it only takes 2 hours to watch a movie while, at the minimum, a full day to read your average book. I also find it humorous that Stephen King wins every year (not bashing him, he IS my all-time favorite author). People will vote for the most popular author, not because they book was the best.
I hope next year there will be a New Adult category or at least multiple vote per category. (at least 2-3) I always look forward to this.
Nigeyb wrote: "I've read 73 books so far in 2015 but not one of these. Should I pleased or concerned?"I've read 46 books this year - many are new releases I have gotten through my Kindle Prime account and I had only read 2 of these choices as well. Thought it was odd myself.
Bokeshi wrote: "Voting for a book without reading all/most of the books from the same category doesn't seem fair to me. What's the basis for comparison?"Because a combination of the cover, the Authors reputation and word of mouth probably drew you to the book. And that's ok. It's difficult for us indie authors to compete because we don't have the marketing apparatus. But that's ok. It just means we have to be that much better.
I have heard that nominations are based on payments from publishers and not by reviews and ratings. That is very disappointing, if it is true.
I'm so confused? How exactly does one vote? I seem to be stuck on the event page. I'm not seeing any list of books or whatever.
ARC books should not be allowed. Only a select few are eligible to purchase and or read these limited edition and pre release books. The fantasy genre in particular is laden with 2 or 3 books that are ARC. All that this is going to encourage is for people to vote on books because they like the author, the book cover, or the series instead of actually voting on a book that they have read.
Heather wrote: "I'm so confused? How exactly does one vote? I seem to be stuck on the event page. I'm not seeing any list of books or whatever."It seems you could vote in the opening round until yesterday (8 Nov), and tomorrow (10 Nov) the semifinals will start.
I missed the voting dates so I no longer can see the 1st round nominees. Can you tell me what the list for young adult was? Thanks to anyone who can help.
Jared wrote: "Noah wrote: "most people dont understand i get that but just try to understand and mabye just mabye you might understand"I appreciate you saying this Noah. I suppose by making any public statemen..."
thank you both for hat eply well im in 8h grde and it sucks
Janet wrote: "Please add a category for audio books as you are offering a brief listen of audio of a number of books on your site."We'll be sure to look into the possibility of adding an audiobooks category in future.
Su wrote: "Joan wrote: "Su, the books published after the November 16 deadline will appear in the 2016 Goodreads contest. They will still be eligible for recognition but next year. I'll agree that using a yea..."Hey Su I totally get what you are saying. Ideally it should be, books are eligible that were published bedtween those two dates but this voting should be moved to January to give a fair shake to those books just coming out in the last end of the publishing time. Sometimes word of mouth is what gets a great book spread around and a book published in January will have 11 extra months for that to happen.
Gortrixie wrote: "Hey Su I totally get what you are saying. Ideally it should be, books are eligible that were published bedtween those two dates but this voting should be moved to January..."Yes, moving the start of the voting to a while later would be a great suggestion to solve that problem! I completely agree with you.
Meghan wrote: "Julie090 wrote: "I have heard that nominations are based on payments from publishers and not by reviews and ratings. That is very disappointing, if it is true."That is untrue, Julie. The nominati..."
Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process.
Why can we not see a list of all the original nominees??? I get that voting in the opening round is over, but would still like to see who was nominated.
Animlgrl wrote: "Why can we not see a list of all the original nominees??? I get that voting in the opening round is over, but would still like to see who was nominated."It's absolutely ridiculous we can see the list of nominees anymore. I feel like last year even when it was over we were able to see the nominees.
Hc wrote: "Why isn't there a category for GLBT? Romance is so broad.. I think they should have a separate category. Some people read only one or the other.. I read both but the majority is in GLBT and I doubt..."I have contemplated this question for a few days. As a person who has had several gay people in my life who I have adored, a common thread runs through them. Their story is not written based on what they lick stick or suck. Their accomplishments are no different than anyone else's. To separate stories based on sexual orientation is to minimize those stories. So no. I don't think there should be a gay alphabet category.
Jack wrote: "Hc wrote: "Why isn't there a category for GLBT? Romance is so broad.. I think they should have a separate category. Some people read only one or the other.. I read both but the majority is in GLBT ..."I would add as well that if you are going to add an GLBT category then why not also add a minority category? Add a majority category too. I for one think that there are to many categories as it is. They could easily roll YA into the rest of the categories as well. Currently the only difference between YA and other genres is that #1 all YA books must be serialized and #2 all YA book must have either a zombie or a vampire present.
Dale wrote: "Currently the only difference between YA and other genres is that #1 all YA books must be serialized and #2 all YA book must have either a zombie or a vampire present. "Haven't read a YA book in a long time, have ya, Dale?
Dale wrote: "Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process. "I'm also wondering if any write-in books replaced any of the staff-chosen nominations for the semi-final round. I guess next year we'll have to remember to screen-cap those initial pages?
Beanbag wrote: "Dale wrote: "Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process. "I'm also wondering if any write-in books repla..."
That's a good point as well. They should really display the exact formula so the we can do the metrics ourselves to make sure that this contest is on the up and up. I am starting to thing that regardless of what we vote that Goodreads is going to elect their choices.
Dale wrote: "Beanbag wrote: "Dale wrote: "Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process. "I'm also wondering if any writ..."
I don't know the process, but was thrilled to see *for the first time* one of my write in votes made it to the semi-finals. Only problem now is that it's in the same category as one that I voted for which was already in the first round and I love them both equally for different reasons. Dilemmas.
Beanbag wrote: "Dale wrote: "Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process. "I'm also wondering if any write-in books repla..."
Looks to me like there were some write-ins. Both "In the Unlikely Event" and "The Heart Goes Last" were write-ins and they are there. Not positive about the other categories, but I remember those NOT being in the first round.
Sarah wrote: "Beanbag wrote: "Dale wrote: "Any chance you can display the exact formula? Better if we can do the math ourselves so that we can have greater faith in the process. "I'm also wondering if any writ..."
At this stage all they did was add in the 5 top write ins. At least we have to take their word that is what they did since we can't see the numbers. Prior to the write ins there were 15 in each category, and afterwards there is 20.
Animlgrl wrote: "Why can we not see a list of all the original nominees??? I get that voting in the opening round is over, but would still like to see who was nominated."Agree! I was looking for it yesterday and was planning on checking out all the nominees in one category to read!
Animlgrl wrote: "Why can we not see a list of all the original nominees??? I get that voting in the opening round is over, but would still like to see who was nominated."HINT since semifinal round voting opened today I took a screenshot of the nominees and saved in an email to myself so now I have a nice little list of potential reads!
"It only takes 2 hours to watch a movie while, at the minimum, a full day to read your average book."Mmm, depends on the book. Some books take less time to read than some movies take to watch...
I had to tell everyone to do a write in for a book that was not shown in the voting. How can we see how many votes for each book and also why did we had to write in for people books that came out before the dead line those people worked very hard to get their book out and it seems to me that you pick which ever book you want to pick to be voted on and that is not fair everyone who worked very hard.
Toby wrote: "I had to tell everyone to do a write in for a book that was not shown in the voting. How can we see how many votes for each book and also why did we had to write in for people books that came out b..."I second this!
Yes, it's interesting & good effort to make this competition. I shared! Also would request for "Dante's Risk" to add as a nominee. Thanks for the announcement. Regards-
Helen @crowdfunding.
Helen wrote: "Yes, it's interesting & good effort to make this competition. I shared! Also would request for "Dante's Risk" to add as a nominee. Thanks for the announcement. "Not sure what you're talking about. Voting ended in November last year.
lethe wrote: "Helen wrote: "Yes, it's interesting & good effort to make this competition. I shared! Also would request for "Dante's Risk" to add as a nominee. Thanks for the announcement. "Not sure what you're..."
Sorry, I was not sure but which won? Was "Dante's Risk" there?
I can't find a book with that title in the database, so it's highly unlikely.
