Welcome to 2014, another great year for reading. Once my Christmas decorations are properly stored, I hope to have more time to snuggle up with books! You too? May I suggest some good places to find great reads?
Suggestions from my readers
Visit the list of Favorite Books from 2014 suggested by my word nerd readers. It’s a wonderful, eclectic assortment of titles including historical fiction, YA, and non-fiction. Note: not all books listed were published in 2013.
Goodreads Choice Awards
Check out the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2013. Every year, Goodreads asks readers to nominate their favorite books. These awards are the only major honors chosen by readers, not “experts” in literature. Over one million readers voted this year for books in 20 standard genres, including fiction, YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy, YA fiction, Picture Books, Middle Grade Books, and Debut Authors. (Yay for the support of emerging authors!)
Goodreads lists the winner for each category as well as several nominees. Many titles didn’t surprise me: And the Mountains Echoed, Dr. Sleep, The House of Hades. But I was shocked to see that J.R.R. Tolkien won the Poetry category with The Fall of Arthur, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien. I’ve never heard of this work, but I LOVE Arthurian legends and Tolkien! What an awesome combination. (I know; total nerd.)
The Picture Book winner was The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. The premise: Duncan just wants to color, but all of his crayons are too busy bickering. What’s a kid to do? Doesn’t that sound fun? The covers for all the Picture Books listed look tempting. I’m happy to report that my favorite picture book author Mo Willems got a nomination for That is NOT a Good Idea. (Talk about a clever ending- you’ve GOT to read it. Even if you don’t have kids.)
If you go to the site and check out the list, you can easily add books to your shelves using the “want to read” button under each title. Wait, you don’t use Goodreads yet? See my Goodreads guide for Word Nerds to enhance your reading experience!
NPR’s Best Books of 2013
NPR took a unique approach to its best books list this year. If you visit the “Book Concierge” at the NPR site, you’ll find over 200 titles chosen by NPR staff and critics. But the books are not organized in genres, but rather unusual descriptive categories, such as “Eye Opening Reads,” “Family Matters,” “Rather Long,” “It’s All Geek to Me,” and “The Dark Side.”
I think categories like that might actually do a better job of steering me to a good read than the typical, yet vague, genres of “historical fiction” and “science fiction.”
A few of the favorites from the Goodreads list appear here, including the YA novel Eleanor and Park and literary fiction piece The House Girl. But there are also some very interesting books I’ve never heard of, perhaps because the winners aren’t based on commercial success.
Have fun checking out all of those books!
What websites or resources do you use to find books to read? How helpful do you think lists like this can be?
Thanks for stopping by!
Julia
I saw that Tolkien book in the library the other day and did a double take – I’d never seen it before. Maybe this time I’ll have to check it out! The Eleanor book looks great and so does the crayon one. I have stacks of books on my bedside table as always…The Penderwicks (great children’s read), four John Green novels, David an Goliath, The Language of Flowers…so many good books! Looking forward to another great year of the nerd word advice!
I’ve never heard of that Tolkien work either. As a HUGE Tolkien fan, I’ll have to check it out. And definitely putting Eleanor & Park on my list. I read ‘An Abundance of Katherines’ over the holiday break. Not my favorite by John Green but still a good read.
An Abundance of Katherines is on my shelf- I’d like to get to that. What did you like/ not like about it? What IS your fav John Green? Glad you’ll add E & P to your list.