The Goodreads Choice Awards is a yearly award program, first launched on Goodreads in 2009.
Winners are determined by users voting on books that Goodreads has nominated or books of their choosing, released in the given year. Most books that Goodreads nominates are from verified Goodreads authors. The final voting round collects the top 10 books from 20 different categories. [1]
Year | Category | Author | Title |
---|---|---|---|
2009 [2] | Children's | Jeff Kinney | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days |
Fantasy | Charlaine Harris | Dead and Gone | |
Fiction | Kathryn Stockett | The Help | |
Graphic Novel | Neil Gaiman | Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? | |
Mystery & Thriller | Stieg Larsson | The Girl Who Played with Fire | |
Nonfiction | Dave Cullen | Columbine | |
Romance | Diana Gabaldon | An Echo in the Bone | |
Science Fiction | Scott Westerfeld | Leviathan | |
Young Adult Fiction | Sarah Dessen | Along for the Ride |
Year | Category | Author | Title |
---|---|---|---|
2009 [2] | Chick Lit | Nicholas Sparks | The Last Song |
Picture Book | Neil Gaiman | Blueberry Girl | |
Young Adult Series | Suzanne Collins | Catching Fire | |
2010 [3] | Cover Art | Lauren Kate | Torment |
Paranormal Fantasy | Charlaine Harris | Dead in the Family | |
Picture Book | Lane Smith | It's a Book | |
2011 [4] | Food & Cooking | Gwyneth Paltrow | My Father's Daughter |
Goodreads Author | Cassandra Clare | City of Fallen Angels | |
Paranormal Fantasy | Karen Marie Moning | Shadowfever | |
Picture Book | Weird Al Yankovic | When I Grow Up | |
Travel & Outdoors | Conor Grennan | Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal | |
2012 [5] | Food & Cooking | Ree Drummond | The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl |
Goodreads Author | Veronica Roth | Insurgent | |
Paranormal Fantasy | Deborah Harkness | Shadow of Night | |
Picture Book | Ian Falconer | Olivia and the Fairy Princesses | |
2013 [6] | Food & Cooking | Tim Federle | Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist |
Paranormal Fantasy | Jim Butcher | Cold Days | |
Picture Book | Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers | The Day the Crayons Quit | |
2014 [7] | Business | Sophia Amoruso | #GIRLBOSS |
Food & Cooking | Ina Garten | Make It Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook | |
Picture Book | Mo Willems | The Pigeon Needs a Bath! (I Do Not!) | |
2015 [8] | Food & Cooking | Ree Drummond | The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime |
Picture Book | Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers | The Day the Crayons Came Home | |
Science & Technology | John Hargrove | Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish | |
2016 [9] | Food & Cooking | Chrissy Teigen | Cravings |
Picture Book | Mo Willems | The Thank You Book | |
Science & Technology | Frans De Waal | Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? | |
2017 [10] [11] | Food & Cooking | Ree Drummond | The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Come and Get It! |
Picture Book | R. J. Palacio | We're All Wonders | |
Science & Technology | Neil deGrasse Tyson | Astrophysics for People in a Hurry | |
2018 [12] | Best of the Best | Angie Thomas | The Hate U Give |
Food & Cooking | Chrissy Teigen and Adeena Sussman | Cravings: Hungry for More | |
Picture Book | Grace Byers | I Am Enough | |
Science & Technology | Steve Brusatte | The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs | |
2019 [13] [14] | Food & Cooking | Antoni Porowski | Antoni in the Kitchen |
Picture Book | Fred Rogers and Luke Flowers | A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood | |
Science & Technology | Caitlin Doughty | Will My Cats Eat My Eyeballs? | |
2020 [16] [17] | Food & Cooking | Ina Garten | Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa CookbookI [19] |
Picture Book | Ibram X. Kendi and Ashley Lukashevsky | Antiracist Baby | |
Science & Technology | David Attenborough and Jonnie Hughes | A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future |
Several authors have won multiple Goodreads Readers Choice Awards or the same award in multiple years. Stephen King and both his sons, Owen and Joe, have won The Goodreads Choice Awards. The table below sets out those authors to have won more than one award:
(Listed by number of wins, then alphabetically by surname)
Number of wins | Author | Winning categories |
---|---|---|
11 | Rick Riordan | Best Children's & Middle Grade (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) |
10 | Stephen King | Best Science Fiction (2011), Best Fantasy (2012), Best Horror (2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2023), Best Mystery & Thriller (2014, 2016, 2018) |
7 | Sarah J. Maas | Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018), Best Fantasy (2020, 2021, 2022) |
5 | Veronica Roth | Best Book (2011), Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2011, 2012, 2013), Best Goodreads Author (2012) |
4 | Suzanne Collins | Best Book (2009, 2010), Best Young Adult Series (2009), Best Young Adult Fantasy (2011) |
Neil Gaiman | Best Fantasy (2013, 2015), Best Graphic Novel (2009), Best Picture Book (2009) | |
3 | Sarah Andersen | Best Graphic Novel and Comics (2016, 2017, 2018) |
Margaret Atwood | Best Science Fiction (2013), Best Fiction (2019), Best Poetry (2020) | |
Pierce Brown | Best Goodreads Debut Author (2014), Best Science Fiction (2015, 2016) | |
Ree Drummond | Best Food & Cooking (2012, 2015, 2017) | |
Colleen Hoover | Best Romance (2015, 2016, 2017) | |
Rainbow Rowell | Best Fiction (2014), Best Young Adult Fiction (2013), Best Graphic Novels & Comics (2019) | |
J. K. Rowling | Best Fiction (2012), Best Fantasy (2016, 2017) | |
Angie Thomas | Best Goodreads Debut Author (2017), Best Young Adult Fiction (2017), Best of the Best (2018) | |
J. R. Ward | Best Romance (2010, 2011, 2013) | |
Andy Weir | Best Science Fiction (2014, 2017, 2021) | |
Taylor Jenkins Reid | Best Historical Fiction (2019, 2021, 2022) | |
Emily Henry | Best Romance (2021, 2022, 2023) | |
Leigh Bardugo | Best Fantasy (2019, 2023), Best Young Adult Fantasy (2021) | |
2 | Holly Black | Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2019, 2020) |
Cassandra Clare | Best Goodreads Author (2011), Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2014) | |
Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers | Best Picture Book (2013, 2015) | |
Diana Gabaldon | Best Romance (2009, 2014) | |
Ina Garten | Best Food & Cooking (2014, 2020) | |
John Green | Best Young Adult Fiction (2012), Best Nonfiction (2021) | |
Kristin Hannah | Best Historical Fiction (2015, 2018) | |
Deborah Harkness | Best Paranormal Fantasy (2012), Best Fantasy (2014) | |
Charlaine Harris | Best Fantasy (2009), Best Paranormal Fantasy (2010) | |
Paula Hawkins | Best Mystery & Thriller (2015, 2017) | |
Jeff Kinney | Best Children's & Middle Grade (2009, 2010) | |
Stieg Larsson | Best Mystery & Thriller (2009, 2010) | |
Jenny Lawson | Best Humor (2012, 2021) | |
Amanda Lovelace | Best Poetry (2016, 2018) | |
Casey McQuiston | Best Romance (2019), Best Debut Novel (2019) | |
Rebecca Skloot | Best Nonfiction (2010), Best Debut Author (2010) | |
Chrissy Teigen & Adeena Sussman | Best Food & Cooking (2016, 2018) | |
Mo Willems | Best Picture Book (2014, 2016) | |
Amanda Gorman | Best Poetry (2021, 2022) | |
V. E. Schwab | Best Science Fiction (2018), Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2022) | |
Alice Oseman | Best Graphic Novels & Comics (2020, 2022) | |
Emilia Hart | Best Historical Fiction (2023), Best Debut Novel (2023) |
Brandon Winn Sanderson is an American author of high fantasy and science fiction. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Sanderson has created several graphic novel fantasy series, including White Sand and Dark One.
Ursula Vernon is an American freelance writer, artist and illustrator. She has won numerous awards for her work in various mediums, including Hugo Awards for her graphic novel Digger and fantasy novel Nettle & Bone, the Nebula Award for her short story "Jackalope Wives", and Mythopoeic Awards for adult and children's literature. Vernon's books for children include Hamster Princess and Dragonbreath. Under the name T. Kingfisher, she is also the author of books for older audiences. She writes short fiction under both names.
Richard Russell Riordan Jr. is an American author, best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million copies in the United States. 20th Century Fox adapted the first two books of his Percy Jackson series as part of a series of films in which Riordan was not involved. Riordan currently serves as a co-creator and executive producer on the television series adaption of the book series that was released on Disney+ in 2023. Riordan's books have also spawned other related media, such as graphic novels and short story collections.
Jennifer Lawson is an American journalist, author and blogger.
Veronica Anne Roth is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her bestselling Divergent trilogy which has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.
Mark Lawrence is an American-British novelist who wrote The Broken Empire trilogy. In 2014, Lawrence won the David Gemmell Award for Fantasy for best novel for Emperor of Thorns. He operates the annual Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off.
Victoria Elizabeth Schwab is an American writer. She is known for the 2013 novel Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which was nominated for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. She publishes children's and young adult fiction books under the name Victoria Schwab. She is the creator of the supernatural teen drama series First Kill, based on her short story of the same name originally published in the 2020 anthology Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite.
Kwame Alexander is American poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including poetry, memoir, and children's fiction. His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.
Sarah Janet Maas is an American fantasy author known for her fantasy series Throne of Glass,A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City. As of 2022, she has sold over twelve million copies of her books and her work has been translated into 37 languages.
Leigh Bardugo is an American fantasy author. She is best known for her young adult Grishaverse novels, which include the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies. She also received acclaim for her paranormal fantasy adult debut, Ninth House. The Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series have been adapted into Shadow and Bone by Netflix, and Ninth House will be adapted by Amazon Studios; Bardugo is an executive producer on both works.
Amie Kaufman is an Australian author. She has authored New York Times bestselling and internationally bestselling science fiction and fantasy for young adults. She is known for the Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed, which she co-authored with Meagan Spooner; for her series The Illuminae Files, co-authored with Jay Kristoff; and for her solo series, Elementals. Her books have been published in over 35 countries.
Charlie Nicholes Holmberg is an American fantasy writer best known for The Paper Magician series. She is from Salt Lake City, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English in 2010. Her first novel, The Paper Magician, was released in 2014. Holmberg expanded the book into a series, the film rights for which were purchased by Disney in 2016. In addition to her other book series, Holmberg has published six standalone novels with her seventh to be released July 1, 2024. She is a multi-Whitney Award recipient for The Fifth Doll (2017), The Will and the Wilds (2020) and Star Mother (2021). The Hanging City was a 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist. Many of her other works have been nominated for literary awards as well. In addition to writing, Holmberg cohosts the podcast Your Mom Writes Books.
Alice May Oseman is an English author of young adult fiction. She secured her first publishing deal at 17 and published her first novel Solitaire in 2014. Her novels include Radio Silence, I Was Born for This, and Loveless. She wrote and illustrated the webcomic Heartstopper, which has been published as multiple graphic novels and which she adapted into a TV series, earning her a BAFTA TV Award nomination and two Children's and Family Emmy Awards as both a writer and producer. Her novels focus on contemporary teenage life in the UK and have received the Inky Awards.
The Hate U Give is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-year-old African-American girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite private school in a predominantly white, affluent part of the city. Starr becomes entangled in a national news story after she witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend, Khalil. She speaks up about the shooting in increasingly public ways, and social tensions culminate in a riot after a grand jury decides not to indict the police officer for the shooting.
Angie Thomas is an American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give (2017). Her second young adult novel, On the Come Up, was released on February 25, 2019.
Taylor Jenkins Reid is an American author most known for her novels The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & the Six, One True Loves, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto is Back.
Tamsyn Muir is a New Zealand fantasy, science fiction, and horror author. Muir won the 2020 Locus Award for her first novel, Gideon the Ninth, and has been nominated for several other awards as well.
Catriona Ward is an American and British horror novelist.
Jennifer Lynn Barnes is an American writer of young adult novels.