Annemieke over at A Dance with Books mentioned Goodreads’ mid-year book lists, and I thought it might be fun to do a quick post about them.
The Best Books of the Year (So Far)
Goodreads put together this list using a combination of popularity (on the most shelves) and rating. They listed a few books in each category: Fiction, Mystery & Thriller, Young Adult, Nonfiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, and Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Not surprisingly, I haven’t read any books on any of the lists except Young Adult. BUT I was surprised to see that there are some other books on the list I’m actually interested in.
Fiction: I’ll probably read Still Me at some point. I read and enjoyed Me Before You, but I never did get around to After You. I’d like to finish the series.
Mystery & Thriller: I don’t read mysteries OR thrillers, so imagine my surprise when one of the books in this list was on my TBR. I don’t remember what blogger talked about The Broken Girls, but whoever it was, they convinced me to add a book I normally wouldn’t pick up!
Young Adult: And here’s the category I was waiting for. Not surprisingly, all four of the books are ones I have read or want to read. The Cruel Prince has gotten such fantastic feedback! Children of Blood and Bone was one of my favorite books of the year! Then there’s Leah on the Offbeat—why have I not read this book yet? Finally, The Astonishing Color of After is a book I should have reviewed and haven’t gotten to yet. Ugh! Guess I’m not doing so well on this list after all!
Nonfiction: Nope. (Though AJ @ Read All the Things has recommended Educated, and it’s one of the few nonfiction books I’ve seriously considered.)
Historical Fiction: I haven’t even heard of any of these. Guess I need to expand my repertoire.
Romance: I’ve seen The Kiss Quotient around, but it didn’t quite make it onto my TBR. I’ve still got my eye on it, though.
Fantasy & Science Fiction: I never read the Red Rising books, but I think I should have? Iron Gold would be an obvious choice if I had.
The 28 Most-Read New Books of 2018
This list was created using the most read books from Goodreads Reading Challenge Participants. It’s not split up by genre, but there were a good number of YA books on the list!
This list had a lot of repeats from the last one, but I thought I’d also mention Thunderhead. I NEED to read this sequel. Soon!!!
Everyone seems to love Red Rising but I didn’t care for it at all. And I’ve heard from quite a few Red Rising lovers that they didn’t like Iron Gold at all. 🙁 I was pleased to see so many ya on the most read new books of 2018. Since goodreads is so big I wasn’t expecting so many on there.:)
I was excited to see that too!
I read both the contemporary YA books, Still Me, and The Kiss Quotient. Since I mostly read contemporaries, I am not shocked that I have not read the mystery, SFF, historical, or non-fiction books. I really don’t read non-fiction at all. I think all my years of having to read for my job turned me off to reading about real things.
It might have been your blog I saw The Kiss Quotient on first. I don’t read much adult/NA romance anymore, but that one caught my eye!
I enjoyed both Me Before You and After You. I keep meaning to pick up Still Me but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m still excited for Leah on the Offbeat but several lukewarm reviews have tempered my excitement just a bit. I’m still hopeful that I’ll love it! I read roughly one nonfiction book a year. LOL I listed to Hillary Clinton’s What Happened on audio earlier this year so chances are that was my foray into nonfiction for the entire year. 🙂
The only nonfiction I read are writing books and Christian books (usually that I read for a Bible study with my small group). I’m just not a nonfiction type of gal.
Thanks for sharing! I didn’t know that this list existed. I’m kind of sad because I’ve spent the last month+ researching the blogosphere’s favorite books of 2018 so far. I have a draft of the post with everybody’s favorites, and I’d planned to publish it next month. I guess we’ll see how my research compares to Goodreads’.
I think that would be a great post! I would love to see how the blogosphere compares to Goodreads.
I hadn’t heard of that list! It was cool to look at, even if I hadn’t heard of almost any of them– except Cruel Prince, which I’m really excited to read one day (if my hold every comes in at my library).
Cruel Prince is one that I definitely want to read, but it’s one of the only YA books on the lists that I don’t own. Need to get it!
Ha we are always such twins! I have felt the exact same about The Kiss Quotient! I am curious, but haven’t added it *yet*. One of us should read it and tell the other one- maybe we should read ALL books like that from now on ?
Read Thunderhead. Also, FWIW, I did NOT like Red Rising. I tried twice, too, eep! And I NEED to read Children of Blood and Bone- one day when I can buy it hah. Ditto The Astonishing Color of After. So you haven’t read Cruel Prince yet? I am one of three people who hated it, but you might like it! I also just realized that I never reviewed it on Goodreads and I probably should at least throw my rating up there!
This was so fun, I am off to check out the list! Thanks for sharing!
Uh oh. Guess I should hold off on Cruel Prince after all. Especially since I have SO many books to read. If you weren’t a fan, there’s a very high likelihood it won’t be for me. Okay, if I read The Astonishing Color or The Kiss Quotient, I’ll let you know what I think!
Ooh fun I like lists like this. I’ll have to go check it out, but I definitely know I want to read The cruel Prince after everything I’ve heard. 🙂
Now I have to do another post on the YA lists that just came out. 🙂
I still havent read The Cruel Prince. I have it on my kindle but just haven’t read it despite being desperate to do so when it first released, lol.
I do that all the time. I’ll be super excited about a book, but I won’t manage to get to it right away, and then somehow my excitement fades and I don’t end up reading it for a long time.
Unsurprisingly, I’m mostly just interested in the YA results as well. xD I’ve also read The Cruel Prince (which was just okay), and Children of Blood and Bone (which I LOOOOVED). Both Leah and The Astonishing Color of After are on my TBR. ♥
Now there are a few totally YA lists, so I’ll have to do a post on those too!
Thank you for posting this list! I didn’t realize it was up, skimming through I’ve read The Cruel Prince, (I didn’t love it as much as everyone else…eh). But I need to check out Red Rising. I’m a sucker for a good series, I wish they listed more of those. Hunger Games was a guilty pleasure for me, that said I’m going to shout this from the roof tops. If you loved the Hunger Games, you MUST check out Fortitude Rising. It’s a nail-biting page turner with a total bad a$$ for a female lead. I can’t wait for the next book. A.M. Bochnak out did herself. Watch for her, she’s on to something. http://www.ambochnak.com
Okay, you’ve convinced me to check out Fortitude Rising!
The only book I’ve read from that list is The Kiss Quotient, which I LOVED! I actually don’t have any plans to read any of the other books on the list as of now, but we’ll see what happens. My favorite list to look at is always the Goodreads Choice Awards. I love seeing which of those books I’ve read and which ones I still want to get to.
I loved the Goodreads Choice Awards too!! So many people have talked about The Kiss Quotient. I think I just might have to read that one.
Ooh this is a fun idea for a post. I might have to do it! First off, I have to say that I also need to read Thunderhead and hopefully soon since I LOVED Scythe. I also really want to read The Broken Girls and I’m curious about The Outsider.
Lauren
I don’t know why I wait with some books. I guess it’s just because there are so many books that I feel like I HAVE to read, some of the ones I just really want to read get pushed aside.
I didn’t even know about this so thank you for the heads up! I haven’t read any of Goodreads’ listed books, but have bought Circe and hope to get to it soon 🙂
There are new YA lists out too. I plan to put up a post about those this week!
I loved Children of Blood and Bone too. The Cruel Prince and The Astonishing Color of After are on my ‘want to read’ list. Strange the Dreamer was one of the best books I read this year, though it came out last year.
Strange the Dreamer is second on my list of books to read this week for the Make Me Read It Readathon, so I’m (hopefully) reading it very soon!
Well now I feel totally behind, cause I didn’t even know this Goodreads list existed at all 😀 I’ll have to take a look. It really baffles you, doesn’t it, that despite being a book blogger that’s been around for a few years (in my case, at least), you find yourself still not knowing half or more the books on such lists xD like… I know I don’t read a lot of genres, but it only goes to show you how huge the publishing world really is. I wonder if even the people who do this for work every day know absolutely everything that’s coming out 😀
I’m feeling perpetually behind lately, so … you’re in good company? I agree that it’s impossible to keep up with all the books of ever. I think industry people probably know more, but they still obviously haven’t read everything. We’re only human!
I just jumped into Historical Fiction this year and I’m so glad I did! I didn’t think it was my thing at all, but I have discovered two authors I absolutely adore and now I get to devour all of their backlist books. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it too, if you give it a try.
I haven’t read much historical fiction, but the few I’ve read, I’ve enjoyed.
This is a fun post Nicole! I need to check out these Goodreads lists too… I read the Astonishing Color of After… it was my MOST anticipated book of the year, but I didn’t love it. It was quite dry and very purple prose to me. <3 I hope you enjoyed it more!
I’ll confess that I actually love a bit of purple prose. In fact, just this morning, I was writing a post in my head (still need to get it onto the page) about my love for that sort of writing. 🙂
I’m not really into Goodreads lists but I do look at them to get some recommendations when I am going to try and break into a new genre. For example I’ve been trying to read more horror and non-fiction this year (I like all genres but find it hard to balance reading all of them and usually forget one or two by the wayside with time.) So Goodreads lists have been helping me find some to try across both genres. When I see books across many lists of that genre I know it’s one worth trying 😉
My recent post: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2018/07/in-the-midst-of-winter-book-review/
I agree that Goodreads lists are great for finding books in genres you’re not as familiar with.
I think nonfiction is the only one of those categories that I haven’t read so far this year. I have a few on my TBR but always seem to bypass them in favor of fiction.
I’m that way with nonfiction too. I definitely push it aside in favor of fiction.