Wednesday, November 16, 2011

2011 Goodreads Choice Awards: Semifinals November 13-November 20 (by Liviu Suciu)

Goodreads is running their third annual Goodreads Choice Awards in three rounds. I talked about eligibility and process in the post about the first round HERE.

Now that the write-ins have been tallied and the top five added to have the full 20 book semifinal list I will present the main four fiction categories I voted in and my votes and extra choices for the final round if my favorite does not make the top 10.

Remember that there are 22 categories so lots of things to vote for - in addition to the 4 main categories for me below, I also voted in Historical Fiction (Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran), History & Biography (In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson) and Middle Grade & Children's (based on my son's reading and what I glimpsed from the books myself, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick).

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1: Favorite Book of 2011 (click for titles)


Voted: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

Second Choice: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I've read two more books from the list, the overall disappointing The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss and the dismal Twilight for the middle ages, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

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2: Best Fiction of 2011 (click for titles)


Voted: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Three more choices here:

The 2011 Booker winner The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The utterly charming The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
Even the partly disappointing The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

I have not read any of the other books on the list, though I opened a few that generated waves or I've seen reviews that interested me in them. Most are away from my interests and I already have a huge reading pile, so it's quite unlikely I will read any...

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3: Best Fantasy of 2011 (click for list of titles)


Voted: A Dance with Dragons by George RR Martin

Three more choices here:

Naamah's Blessing by Jacqueline Carey
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

In addition to Rothfuss, I only read the very meh Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence and I plan to read Kingdom of Gods by NK Jemisin hopefully sometime this year, while I have no real interest in the other titles with most of them by authors I stay well away from.

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4: Best SF of 2011 (click for list of titles)


Voted: The Clockwork Rocket by Greg Egan (a write in vote from me that made the extra five)

Two more choices here:

Leviathan Wakes by James Corey
Embassytown by China Mieville

I started and plan to eventually finish Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris and Flashback by Dan Simmons, while most of the other choices are from authors I stay away from.

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