I obsess about the Goodreads Choice Awards, mainly because they are the only book awards that I, as an obsessive reader but lazy blogger, can participate in. I love them even though I have a lot of complaints about them (Why won’t they separate fantasy from urban fantasy/paranormal romance, since those are very separate denominations of the genre? Why are there a zillion different categories for nonfiction, but no short story collection category?). It’s a fun way for readers to get involved and passionate about what they’ve read in the past year, and with voting happening for three successive weeks to determine a winner, it’s like March Madness for readers.

I like to read a respectable number of books newly published each year, and this year I’m doing better than usual. Of course, a lot of what I’ve read wasn’t nominated, but some of the books were, so I enjoyed voting this week in the opening round. The YA Fantasy category was particularly tough for me this year; I’m a picky and fickle YA reader, but when I find something I like, I obsess over it. It was hard to choose between Six of Crows, Carry On, and A Court of Thorns and Roses, but I had to go with the book that blew me away. Here were my votes for Round 1:

Nominees I’ve read this year: (*=my pick for the category)

YA Fantasy

*Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

The Heir by Kiera Cass

Fantasy

Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

*The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Nonfiction

*Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

Mystery & Thriller

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (I did not like this book, so even though it’s the only one I read in the category, I didn’t vote for it)

Graphic Novels & Comics

Saga, Vol 4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples (see The Girl on the Train)

I also wrote in nominees for two categories: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins for Debut Goodreads Author, and The Heart Goes Last (which I’m currently reading, so it’s sort of cheating) for Science Fiction.

And these nominees are a few of the many going on the TBR list:

Alice by Christina Henry

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman (I can’t resist Neil Gaiman! I just ordered it on Amazon despite my embarrassingly large TBR shelf)