Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge 2021
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 3 дек 2021
- Hey Booktube! Time for my Goodreads Choice Awards Show of 2021, letting you know which books should have won the award last year! Lots of book reviews and recommendations to read! Find out the best fiction, fantasy and mystery/thriller books!
Part 2: • Goodreads Choice Award...
____ Books Mentioned ____
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
amzn.to/3Eo3MLy
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
amzn.to/31wG2Gp
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
amzn.to/3DrMCeG
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
amzn.to/32P4kMy
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
amzn.to/3Eq9Sew
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
amzn.to/3IhSuLb
One by One by Ruth Ware
amzn.to/3ImCjfR
The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
amzn.to/3y1R1nK
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
amzn.to/3ErYxdP
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
amzn.to/3dhMLH0
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James
amzn.to/3Ijqerw
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
amzn.to/3onq22L
The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence
amzn.to/3plyD5c
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
amzn.to/3DkVFOx
The Burning God by R F Kuang
amzn.to/3ppSf8q
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
amzn.to/3IiKNV6
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow
amzn.to/3dhKhsb
The City We Became by N K Jemisin
amzn.to/3Esrq9Y
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
amzn.to/3xW5EJi
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V E Schwab
amzn.to/3DmrmqU
To Support My Channel:
Patreon: bit.ly/2maDB7R
Amazon Wish List: amzn.to/2G1Ap5E
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/bookswithemilyfox
Intro Music by Fiji Blue - Butterflies - thmatc.co/?l=6E1E12AB
- FOLLOW ME!! -
Goodreads: bit.ly/2a9Qoki
Beauty Channel: bit.ly/1GDi7AJ
Twitter: bit.ly/1KQqL43
Instagram: bit.ly/3rgnXW0
Where I buy books online!
BookDepository: bit.ly/2KHdyQO
Amazon: amzn.to/2BXwoOp
Chapters Indigo: bit.ly/2aJw4lB
Support local, independent bookstores with your audiobook purchases bit.ly/3bCfrJo
(or use referral code lfm267810)
I enjoy your content and overall personality so much. Oddly, we have almost completely different opinions on books. For example, The Guest List, I read in a day. The Sundown Motel, I couldn't finish. That being said, we read very similar books so it is worth hearing your opinion, always.
the way she said "addie larue" was awesome. i listened that few times. the accent was cool.🖤🤎 stay safe everybody.
I personally hateddd The Midnight Library. It felt like a self help book marketed as fiction but a self help book that basically tells you that if you make better life choices you won't be depressed or suicidal and that sat wrong with me.
I've heard other people say that about it, which makes me a little apprehensive, since although the premise sounds super interesting, I hate preachy books. Although I've read one of his other books a few years ago (How To Stop Time) and really enjoyed it
I love thrillers but seldom do they actually thrill me lol. I’m right there with you.
That makes me feel less alone 😌
Same
I just love your videos 😊 thanks for all the great content you put together. It was really interesting to hear you talk through the likes and dislikes of the books you read for the goodreads awards!
Which book would you vote for?
Reminder My reading challenge for 2021 is based on the winners and nominees of 2020!
The Burning God. I love that series so much, especially as someone who loves Asian History.
I can't wait to read her new book when it comes out!
I was on the fence about these books when I first heard of them and for a while after that, but Your review of The Burning God made me decide to buy all of The Poppy War books!!!!, thank you!!. Love your channel by the way!!
One by one 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Anxious People!
The Midnight Library was one of my least favorite books of the year. Ugh! Such a cool concept but I thought it was poorly executed and things were overly explained.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t enjoy this book.
I definitely thought it was overhyped but I also read it right after Dark Matter and I was very bored by alternate realities lol
the answer that I need
Absolutely agree. The concept sold me but the execution was lacking. It started well but then it got too repetitive and by the end I just didn’t care.
I liked the Midnight Library but it’s way overrated.
Emily: "Personally, I rate books based on my enjoyment"
Also Emily: **rated A Little Life 5 stars**
👀
I was so looking forward to this video 😍 Love this "series"! But if you don't feel like doing it next year, don't, just wanted to let you know I still enjoy them very much!
Talking about Matt Haig, i walked in to a drugstore that sells some books. Almost only Dutch (doh Netherlands) anyways A mouse called Miika was there, SIGNED. In English they had 6 englisht titles. Still my best buy of the year.
I need to read midnight library… I had no idea what it was about and now I am INTRIGUED
I love your Goodreads awards! Even if you have to read through a lot of crap for them lol. I read many of the same books as you do, love that you read in such a variety of genres, don't always agree with you, but I will always take your recommendations!🌟
The burning god ending was one of the best ending for a trilogy for me. I think about it at times and cry.
You definitely made me so curious about The Poppy War. Added to my long long tbr list lol
For 2021 horror I would highly recommend Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. It's a queer Southern Gothic ghost story but it's so much more than that. There's a mystery and a touch of dark academia, but at its heart it's a story about grief and queer sexuality and how society's ideas of masculinity affect the main character's relationship with both those things. The audiobook was fantastic
I also really liked this one!! Definitely would recommend
If you enjoy Simone St. James, you may like Grady Hendrix. I just read My Best Friend's Exorcism and thought it was great, fun and spooky read all wrapped into one!
Thank God someone felt this was about The Guest List- I was starting to feel nuts. I remember waiting around for my friends to read it, snickering to myself as I imagined them hating it, and then everyone loved it?!?!?! I don’t mind that people love it- I just needed at least ONE PERSON in my corner 😅
It took me months to finish the guest list... and on top of that is was the audio book. I'm with ya on that. I was always so surprised with everyone else's hyped opinions.
While the ending wasn't that satisfying to me, I did enjoy it. Probably because I like murder mysteries and it was an easy read to me.
Read all but one of the mystery/thrillers you mentioned. I also thought The Night Swim was really good but I would hesitate to recommend it to a lot of people because I found part of it so sad and difficult to read. It maybe needs a content warning. Again, super well done and very well written by the author. I also loved The Sundown Motel and would also vote for it.
The only book I read that was on the goodreads choice awards was The Guest List! I Honestly didn’t really like it either, the twists were juicy but if you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have cared about the twists. I have started reading regularly summer 2020 (this was my pandemic hobby), so I have been trying to catch up on the last decade of popular books I didn’t pick up any books released this year! Next year I am going to try my best to read some new releases, it will be easier now since I now have a library card.
I loved the midnight library!
I loved The Guest List. midnight Library was decent until the ending. The ending made me mad and dropped my rating. Home Before Dark was fun. One by One was great but the app the characters were working on was stupid. I’m currently reading The Devil and the Dark Water. I read the Sundown Motel too. It was fun
The night swim was great I loved it.
Midnight library, Addie LaRue and cerulean sea were my faves of the year
It wasn’t you, it was the book. I had to make myself finish “the guess list” and it was a painful journey
Yes! To Devil and the Dark Water description. I feel the exact same way about his endings. The ride is worth it but his endings are the weakest parts, sadly, in both of his books. You were smart to DNF The City We Became. I forced myself to finish it and UGH. Plot holes, "magic" used once and then never again even though it could have helped the characters, and illogical reactions by characters. Now I'm nervous to try the authors other books :( Should I try the Fifth Season??
Actually I LOVED the audiobook of the Once and Future Witches, it was one of my favourites of the year!
The Guest List was a little hard for me to get into at first, but I ended up really enjoying it as it went on. I also did not enjoy The City We Became at all, which was too bad because the premise sounded interesting, but there were too many plot holes and it felt really preachy at times. Which while I agreed with the overall message, I don't like books that read like a PSA. Also, on the topic of plot holes, there was one major plot point that was supposed to be a huge deal, and would raise the stakes very high for the characters, but then it was completely overlooked and never mentioned again. I have a lot of thoughts on that book haha.
So I LOVED 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle but I couldn’t get into Devil and the Dark Water! It was too historical for me, I had to Google every other word because it was some 19th century ship reference.
Oh no! “One by One” is on my list for this month. I might change it up now
I couldn’t finish it, it was boring
My Dark Vanessa is beautiful but super dark. Anxious People is a fave for me this year, but I totally understand why you wouldn't be invested. The Midnight Library was my favorite book last year 😍
Yeah I didn't love The Guest List either tbh, but I loooved Home Before Dark! Also loved Long Bright River but agree that it's not actually a mystery/thriller.
Tbh I really disliked The Night Swim 😬
The Emperor's Blades by Brian Stavely also has giant warbirds crows/ravens that warriors ride, like Black Sun. I highly recommend that trilogy
Great video!
Please give Beartown another chance!! I feel like you’ll love Benji 🥺💕
I WANTED to love Addie Larue so badly, but I had to dnf it, even with the amazing narration for the audiobook. I kept feeling like it draaaaggged in the middle. I think the writing was so well done, but I didn’t particularly care about the characters even with the character driven story? I don’t know, it didn’t resonate with me. I think if it was edited down a tad, it would have worked better for me.
Emily, have you ever read any of David Bell's books?
I’m tempted to try to read this year’s nominees for fun so I have a comparison when/if you do this next year (for just scifi/fantasy), but I swear, the nominees rarely include the releases I actually wanted to read for the year. I guess it can be fun to try some new stuff but I get enough of that with audiofile magazine commitments. Maybe I’ll do a “should’ve been nominated” then rank those lol. The only ones that strike me this year in fantasy are She Who Became the Sun and the John Gwynne book (there were a lot more interesting ones in scifi). Blacktongue Thief, Wisdom of Crowds, Empire’s Ruin - so many that don’t even make the lineup! I just can’t with Maas. I tried 4 books and her characters’ decision making never make any sense.
I think I’m going to do it again next year but with fewer categories. It looks like I haven’t read any of the fantasy nominees and few of the sci fi ones so it’s going to be interesting to choose some 😅
I'm debating whether to pick up city we became and can't say that this helped me, bcs (auch!) I loved Once and future witches, but will 100% agree with everything said about Deadly education, Burning God was the weakest and rushed in my opinion, but Midnight Library and Addie larue have been amazing!
I'd probably vote for Once and future witches or Empire of Gold (which recommend if you haven't read Daevabad yet)
I had the same problem with the guest list. Tried it as an audiobook and could not finish it 🙄
I loved Anxious People sm. Can't wait to watch the Netflix show! Loved Addie LaRue too. The Midnight Library was good but I didn't love it. And omg The City We Became was so boring. I didn't care about the plot or characters at all.
Razorblade Tears (listen on audio book) deserved to win!! (Thriller category)
I tried to do something similar this year and horribly failed 😂 so idk what my plan is for next year
Same with the Guest List. I DNFed it and read 6 books before I picked it up again and then put it down again. 😅
I wish you would try Beartown again. It is some of the best commentary on toxic masculinity I have read. Amazing social commentary which I think is right up your alley. I get that it is slow until the actual crime is committed but I think after that it is ::chef’s kiss::
It was too triggering for me :/
@@BookswithEmilyFox oh yeah I get that 😢
Just do what I do; find a spoiler review on goodreads to figure out what happens, or just read the last chapter and then ditch the sucky book. That’s what I did with the guest list. Because it suuuuuuuuuuucked.
I always forget to do that… maybe in January I’ll go read all the spoilers of the books I DNFed throughout the year for a video 🧐
The Guest List was a waste of time. I do not understand the hype. I too listened it on audio and would prefer silence over the narration of the most ludicrous story out there. Blows my mind how it won last year!
Great video btw!
How can you not like Fredrick Backman. Well we are all different. I've read them in Swedish. No idea if something got lost in the translation. Try the one about Britt-Marie. It's the one closest to the
Ove-book
Oh that one is on my rainbow shelf behind me! I need to give it a shot!
@@BookswithEmilyFox Britt-Marie is a spin-off of My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry and does spoil the ending a tiny bit, so you might want to try My Grandmother first, even if I think Britt-Marie was waaaay better!
Everyone seems to love the Guest List and I don't understand! It was so boring. But our agreement on the thriller category ends there because The Night Swim is one of the worst books I've read, but I really enjoyed One By One; I think its my favourite of Ruth Ware's books lmao.
I’ve read all the book you read for the fiction books. Read 7 in total up until now. My favorite The girl with the louding voice.
Mystery thrillers
I also didn’t like The guestlist. My winner was The devil and the dark water.
Fantasy
I’ve read six and I still have to read one. I dnf-ed The girl and the stars. And hated A deadly education. My favorite up until now: The Empire of gold. Second place for The invisible life of Addie LaRue.
I loved My Dark Vanessa
I have very simiar opinion about Home Before Dark 😂
I'm curently reading Black Sun. The first chapter is soooo weird haha. And yeah i was certain it was Sci-fi.
I wish I had dnfed The Guest List.
I started The hunting party by Lucy Foley and that was so bad and boring that I put down after a couple of pages, so I"m not sure that I will read anything from her.
I loved the Midnight Library and the Night Swim. I thought the Guest List was meh.
Emily I just finished Mistborn and honestly this was a wild ride!! I loved it but I'm afraid to start the second one right away, there's this feeling of dread that I don't know how to explain. Also I'd like you to know that Sazed is my favorite so farXD
You should read Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman! It's similar to A Man Called Ove so I think you'd enjoy it😊
I think everyone who wants to read Britt-Marie Was Here should at least try My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry first, because Britt-Marie is a spin-off for that and gives away parts of the ending. However, I liked Britt-Marie a lot more than My Grandmother!
@@michele1283 From what I remember, the grandmother was Britt-Marie's neighbour, but she is only mentioned in passing like once in the story. I haven't read My Grandmother yet but I don't remember there being any spoilers for it in Britt-Marie.
@@emilek3168 SPOILER for My Grandmother:
.
.
.
.
.
If you have read Britt-Marie, you will already know that she has left her husband and that is basically the reason why the Britt-Marie book takes place at all. In the beginning of My Grandmother they are still together and Britt-Marie only decides throughout the book that she deserves better than her (iirc cheating) husband and goes on an adventure.
"Midnight Library" was my least choice, it was so hyped that maybe it was the reason that I was disappointed by this book. I definitely preferred "Such a Fun Age" and "Anxiety People" over the "Library...". "The Guest List" was "eaten" by me in one sitting, I was so invested and focused on this book, I couldn't put it down. I need to agree with "Home Before Dark", I also didn't like it - I apparently can't read about things that I don't believe in...
I really wanna read my dark vanessa but I thought it was about a college aged student not a 15yo. Which now makes me think I'll never read it, already hear stories like this too often at work and its gonna trigger me sooo much at home
Poppy War FTW
I feel like Black Sun and The Bone Shard Daughter have a similar vibe to me, just that I prefer the Bone Shard Daughter - so I am kinda sad that you dont have a real opinion on that book, I would love to know if you'd agree hahaha
I was really intrigued but the magic system and the creatures (?) but I think audiobook was really the wrong way to go about it. It left me really confused.
@@BookswithEmilyFox I believe you, i would have been too
I loved The Devil and the Dark Water lol and I do think that the ending was simply done, but in the way I usually gravitate towards so it totally worked for me.
Towards the end it became almost a different story before wrapping up OK and it’s kind of where it lost me :/
@@BookswithEmilyFox uh yeah, the whole "reveal" was weird and confusing but then the ending was good for me
i loved sundown motel, the night swim, the invisible life of addie larue and black sun.
the guest list felt like pointless and deadly education was like mehh...
i haven't pic up poppy war yet. that series will be the first thing that i'll pic up in january
I also DNF'd The City We Became very early into it. I found it very confusing and couldn't get into it at all.
Okay so I actually enjoyed the guest list, but thought it was a terrible book. 😂😂 does that make sense? Like, it was NOT good. But I enjoyed the whole atmosphere and just took it for what it was 😂
I dnf the guest list at like 10% it just didn’t hold my interest
It's funny because I'm also not the biggest SJM fan, ToG was ok but I could not get through ACOTAR, yet Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood was genuinely really good. I voted for it while I had read the majority of books in the category
I think my “know it all” complex prevents me from enjoying the Mystery/Thriller genre in general. There’s been only a handful from the genre that I have thoroughly enjoyed and unfortunately, they are pretty shocking and graphic in content. I.e. books by Karin Slaughter. That said, I normally hate the “popular” selection in the category because they are almost always super predictable to me.
I do tend to try and figure out the twists but then complain when there are too many so it’s probably partially my fault. I’ve liked more “older ones” that are still quite liked over the new popular ones.
Depressed what? I don't understand. I loved The Midnight Library. Also, if you loved A man called Ove, try the Grandmother book too (you might have read it already in the meantime)
i really didn’t enjoy addie larue. i love the villains duology (trilogy?? 🤞🏾) and thought the shades of magic trilogy was okay and enjoyed it well enough but my visceral reaction to addie is making me reconsider picking up more schwab she used to be autobuy author so it was a sad moment for me. i voted for burning god hands down what an ending!! ahh so good.
3:55 is that "someone" Cindy? 😂😂
Did she call it that? If so I’ll have to ask my friend if she got that from her 😂
@@BookswithEmilyFox she did and she made an entire rant video about the book haha
Im going to have to exchange some words with my ex friend now for not giving her credit 😤
I was so back and forth with A Deadly Education. Honestly, I disliked a lot. I agree that the main character was not likable. I did not like the excessive-ness...?... of the danger. It just felt extra and annoying. There were information dumps constantly which were repetitive and would come up in the middle of action. That said... I really want to read the next one, lol. I have no idea how I ended up wanting to continue but, that's where I'm at...
Same here. Didn't enjoy The Guest List. 🥺
The only one I've read from this video is The Guest List which I gave 4 stars. It was enjoyable and a good cosy mystery to try to figure out.
I think I preferred the author's first book, The Hunting Party slightly more though. It’s weird but I think it’s one of those books where the more I think back to it the less I like it, but it was an easy read and fun for what it was. I can understand people not liking it as the characters were all horrible, although I think they were supposed to be unlikable snobs, especially the victim.
I've got The Devil and the Dark Water on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading it fairly soon! I'm tempted to try a Fredrik Backman book too and The Sundown Motel
I DNFD the guest list after 50 pages couldn’t do it
I also dnf'd a deadly education. I hated the writing and the characters and I just didn't care what happened so I was like I might as well not waste my time
I don’t understand people’s complaints that it’s a “popularity contest.” I mean that’s literally the whole point. The most popular titles win. It’s literally a popularity contest because it’s based on votes. So of course unpopular books won’t win. Why would a book win if it was unpopular???
In theory it’s fine, my problem is when people haven’t read the book and still vote for it because the author is well known/they like them
@@BookswithEmilyFox that’s true. I think it’s so weird that some people do that. It would be more fair if you could only vote for titles you had marked as “read.”
I'm confused!?? I thought you were reviewing 2021 awards? these are the 2020 winners! Still gave a like cause it's still a great video and I've recvently read some of these too I'm just confused haha
One of her challenges for the year was to read multiple books from the 2020 Goodreads awards so she could do her own award show at the end of 2020. So she may do one this time next year for books that are on this year's list.
I explained it in the intro and I tried to make it clear with the thumbnail. For the year following their last award, I read as many of the nominees and winners and then do my own award show!
@@BookswithEmilyFox ohhh I see! I like that idea! Thank you for clarifying :)
Did you mean 2020?
I actually thought Home before dark would have been the winner for 2020 Goodreads Choice. It was such a disappointment to see The guest list was the winner.
Yeah when your response to an audiobook is "...or quiet. Quiet's good" that's a bad sign.
I like the Guest List just fine, but it shouldn't have won. i also read several from the category. I thought the Night Swim was about on the same level as the Guest List... it was fine, but I didn't think it was particularly memorable, and it just really bothered me how she is supposed to be such an amazing podcaster yet is always skipping the trial and doesn't really do her job. For some reason that just took me out of the whole story.
Let me just say, I don’t like SJM 😂 and on any day I would give VE Schwab the win over her just by skill alone. But I read both books by them and I have to say I did not like Addie LaRue. The book went about 100 pages too long for me in terms of the plot. I just thought the story SJM wrote was more engaging and fun than Addie LaRue. I can’t believe I just wrote that 😂😂😂
*blocked* haha but seriously I can’t say since I haven’t read the SJM one but I understand why not everyone would like Addie!
@@BookswithEmilyFox I feel similarly about SJM as you but I can honestly say that I was surprised with how much I liked it. You should tortu..I mean challenge yourself to read one more, you might like it.
Damn, I love you but...I hate both Magic Library and Addie La Tissuepaper with burning passion 🙈 how?!?!?
That’s totally fair haha I can see why people would hate them!
Same here 😂
I totally agree about The House in the Cerulean Sea. I was kind of annoyed when I read it - I felt like it should be clearly marked as a children's book.
It's probably for the best that you didn't finish the Guest List. You would have hated the ending.
The guest list was total trash (sorry not sorry) and I’m still bitter about the fact that it won 😅
i hated the midnight library and dnf’d it. it was so boring, i did not care about the main character at all, and the concept was so corny
but i actually really loved the guest list. i listened to the audiobook in a single day
Recycled thumbnail?
No but last year some people were confused if these were the books of that year or the previous one so I tried to make it clear 😂
I hate that "they automatically win". I mean, I like Sarah J Maas Throne of Glass and also Court of Thornes and Roses, but it's not OK to "automatically" give your vote because of the author. Every author can have a bad book, even Stephen King and Sarah J Maas. I heard her Crescent Series is bad, at least the 2nd book. Very long and has nothing to say 🤷🏼♀️
I heard tht the cerulean sea is controversial because once u know what its based on and the “inspiration” turns it into weird white savior complex and disrespectful to the indigenous peoples ? Something about the residential schools :( and how the author linked it to the story, everone’s reviews makes me want to read it but i think i have to let it go 🥲
Emily, you should give your best try to Senlin Ascends. You dnf'd this gem. Did you try really to know? Really? Like you say you did for Guest List? You are missing out.
I did read the whole thing, I just didn’t like it. I told you that 2 weeks ago when you commented about it.
The City We Became is on my list of worst books of all time. I always can see why people could like a book, except with this book.
The Bone Shard Daughter was so bland anyways. There are so many better Fantasy books out there.
The house on the cerulean sea is not a children’s book. It has adult problems and just because it has children as secondary characters and is fantastical doesn’t make it a children’s book. I teach 5 & 6 graders and wouldn’t recommend this book to them.
Yeah I could have explained that better. I think the writing gives a "children's book vibes" but it's for adults.
Trigger warning for Addie LaRue should be boredom. I am sorry, that was the worst book on this list.
LOL my mom and i wanted to listen to ‘the guest list’s audiobook on our roadtrip and we got so annoyed by the different people’s voices that we had to stop. absolutely terrible voice acting from the male characters so so irritating
I tried to read the top 10 fantasy and YA fantasy for this years awards and read 17 out of the top 20, my favourites ended up being ones I had no interest in reading before this. I’m so glad I did it, but I might be a bit burnt out on fantasy right now