The annual Goodreads Choice Awards are basically the People’s Choice Awards of books. Users of the literary social network voted on their favorite books of the year in 20 categories, and this year, there were some surprises — J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy as best novel? — and some slam dunks (Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl for Best Mystery, John Green for Best Young Adult, and Cheryl Strayed’s Wild for Best Memoir). Once again, Veronica Roth proved that she’s pretty much unbeatable when it comes to reader-voted prizes, winning the Best Goodreads Author award for the first time and the Best Young Adult Fantasy award for the second time with Insurgent, sequel to Divergent.
The closest race occurred in Best Historical Fiction, with M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans narrowly beating out Man Booker-winner Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel most likely benefited from a large and devoted fanbase, as Casual Vacancy only became a finalist due to write-in votes — its Goodreads user rating of 3.32 stars wasn’t originally high enough to qualify it — yet it won the biggest honor.
Susan Cain’s Nonfiction win for her best-seller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking made me smile — partly because I could picture a bunch of Goodreads bookworms really relating to it, and also because introverts, a sizable but often ignored and misunderstood demographic, have had a big year in 2012 with the publication of Quiet, Sophia Dembling’s The Introvert’s Way, and a buzzed-about feature in The Atlantic.
See the entire list of winners below:
Best Fiction
The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Best Nonfiction
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Best Goodreads Author
Veronica Roth
Best Mystery
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Best Historical Fiction
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Best Memoir
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
Best History & Biography
Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith
Best Fantasy
The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
Best Paranormal Fantasy
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
Best Romance
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James
Best Science Fiction
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
Best Horror
The Twelve by Justin Cronin
Best Young Adult Fiction
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Best Humor
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
Best Poetry
A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver
Best Food & Cookbook
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond
Best Graphic Novel & Comic
The Walking Dead, Vol 16: A Larger World by Robert Kirkman, Illustrated by Charlie Adlard
Best Children’s Book
The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
Best Picture Book
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer
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Read more:
Amazon picks its 10 best books of 2012
Publishers Weekly picks top 10 books of 2012
