Goodreads Choice Awards Reading Challenge

Every year, I try to come up with a reading challenge that I hope I will enjoy and that will expose me to new books that I wouldn't ordinarily read. Last year, my goal was to read a book a month from the top of the NY Times Bestseller list. While that didn't go as well as I had planned, I learned my lessons, and as a result, this year, I'm going with the Goodreads Choice Awards reading challenge.

Every year, Goodreads asks its members to vote on their favorite books in various categories, culminating in the Goodreads Choice awards winners. My goal this year is to read at least twenty books that made the finalists cut for the 2020 awards. Looking at some of the finalists, I already feel better about this challenge than last year's because there are several books that sound interesting. 

Unlike last year, I won't constrain myself to reading books only by authors I haven't read before, but I'll try to read as many books from new authors as I can. I'm also not limiting myself to the winners in each category. One reason is that there are only twenty categories, so I would only be reading the winners to fulfill my goal of twenty books. The other reason is that I already read three of the winners last year, and honestly, they were not my favorite books in their respective categories. I'm sure that I will be reading some of the winners this year, but for the sake of a better reading experience, I want to expand my pool of books to all finalists.

As with previous reading challenges, I will provide an update on this one at the end of the year. Happy reading in 2021!

 

Favorite reads of 2020

Happy New Year, and good riddance to 2020! :-) Before we say goodbye to 2020 for good, here were my favorite reads from last year.

1. Scythe - Neal Shusterman

Before 2020, I heard a lot of good things about Scythe, and now that I've read it, I can say that the book deserves all the accolades it received. Now I'm wondering, why did it take me so long to read it? What can I say about a book that covers life, death, and humanity in a way that's both very entertaining as well as makes the reader ponder the value of life and what it means to be human? Everyone should read this book, if not the entire trilogy.

2. The Toll - Neal Shusterman

I read the entire Arc of a Scythe trilogy in 2020, which is rare for me since I usually take long breaks between books in a series, but I liked it so much that I couldn't wait. The trilogy ended on a strong note with The Toll. The main story lines were tied up nicely, and even though the book was over 600 pages long, it felt like it flew by. Overall, I was impressed by the world-building in this series. The actions of the individual characters and society as a whole felt consistent with the premise set forth by the books. I enjoyed learning new things about the world in each book, and The Toll provided a satisfying conclusion.

3. When You See Me - Lisa Gardner

Lisa Gardner is one of my favorite thriller authors, and When You See Me is one of my favorite books from her. Although it's part of a long-running series, the novel also makes for a great standalone read by itself, full of action, mystery, and powerful characters. Juggling between the perspective of four characters, the author does an admirable job of weaving a compelling story. You don't have to read all of Lisa Gardner's books to appreciate When You See Me (although any thriller fan should), but to get the most out of it, I recommend starting with one of her earlier books, Find Her.

4. My Calamity Jane - Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows

The Lady Janies are masters at taking a genre I don't normally read (in this case, westerns) and turning it into a story I can't put down. For a book that was over 500 pages long, this flew by for me like an amusement park ride. Like My Lady Jane and My Plain Jane, My Calamity Jane was full of fun and humor. Who would've thought that the Wild West and werewolves would make such an entertaining combination? Well, now I'm going to have a hard time not thinking of werewolves when I hear about Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, or Wild Bill Hickok.

5. Tweet Cute - Emma Lord

If there's one book I've read this year that best captures the YA awesomeness of Rainbow Rowell (even more so than Rainbow Rowell herself!), it's Tweet Cute. While the book follows a conventional contemporary YA story line, I loved the characters and the banter, both online and in person. An added bonus is that food plays a big role in the book, and reading about the desserts mentioned made my mouth water. This is Emma Lord's debut novel, and I'm looking forward to her next book.

6. Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell

Speaking of Rainbow Rowell, she hasn't published a new book in a while, so you'd think that I'd read Wayward Son the first day it was released. The reason I didn't is because it's the sequel to Carry On, the only Rainbow Rowell book I didn't love. Thankfully, Wayward Son was more like a typical Rainbow Rowell book, and now I'm excited for a third book in the series if there will be one.

7. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens 

Despite the great reviews and its bestseller status, going into this book, I was skeptical about how much I would like it. It's classified as both literary fiction and historical fiction, two genres I don't ordinarily enjoy. However, I found the characterization of Kya so compelling that I couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life as she grew from childhood to adulthood. This book is well deserving of all the praise it's received.

8. The Breakdown - B.A. Paris

I've read a couple of B.A. Paris novels before (Behind Closed Doors and Bring Me Back), and while I liked them both, The Breakdown is my favorite. The way that the protagonist's mind slowly unraveled from day to day was done in just the right way and at the right pace. While I suspected what was happening, when it was revealed, I didn't feel a letdown at all. The way the ending of the book wrapped things up was more than satisfactory. As far as psychological thrillers go, this one was my favorite of the year.

9. You Are Not Alone - Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The authors of my favorite read of 2019 (The Wife Between Us) were at it again. I was excited when I heard that they were releasing a new book in 2020, and they didn't disappoint. You Are Not Alone is filled with twists and delicious scheming that made their first two books so enjoyable. It's hard to explain  the plot without giving anything away, but as with their other books,  I recommend this one too.

10. The Afterlife of Holly Chase - Cynthia Hand

After reading her Lady Janies collaborations with Jodi Meadows and Brodi Ashton, I wanted to read a book written by Cynthia Hand herself. I wasn't disappointed. The Afterlife of Holly Chase had many of the elements of the Lady Janies books that made me so fond of them (e.g., characters I rooted for, an entertaining plot, a liberal dosage of humor). While the romance between Holly and Ethan was predictable, I still enjoyed the way it played out. Overall, a fun, well-paced YA novel.