There are 48 books on the list, split evenly between fiction and nonfiction. The Goodreads Choice Awards have become notorious for their lack of diversity, but this list is a nice surprise! Around half of the books featured are by authors of color, and there are a handful of queer books included as well, including Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. The list is not numbered, and it’s unclear whether the order they’re listed is their ranking or not. Some of the titles were sure fire hits, like Kazuo Ishiguro’s newest, Klara and the Sun. This is the first book he’s published since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, so it was sure to go straight to TBRs! We also have Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, a title that will appeal to fans of The Martian, and a Stephen King new release, Later. The first book listed is The Four Winds by by Kristin Hannah, whose 2015 book The Nightingale is a book club staple. Other book club favorite authors to make the list are Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Malibu Rising and Katie Quinn’s The Rose Code — you might remember her from writing The Alice Network! I was pleasantly surprised to see a few romance novels make an appearance here, including People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, which is another summertime story from the author of Beach Read! Sally Thorne, author of The Hating Game, has a new hit romance title in Second First Impressions. Then there’s a couple F/F romances which I am thrilled to see getting mainstream attention: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, a magical subway sapphics romance, and Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, which features a Vegas wedding between strangers! Nonfiction is a mix of topics, including business self-help from the well-respected Adam M. Grant, whose new book is Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know and humor, like Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 by Ibram X. Kendi is the latest from this author of How To Be Antiracist. There’s even a new Anthony Bourdain book: World Travel: An Irreverent Guide. One category I’m surprised to see so little of is Young Adult books. It feels like YA is being published in greater numbers every year, and it dominates online bookish spaces like BookTok, BookTube, and Bookstagram. There’s only one YA title on this list, though: Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas, prequel to the immensely successful The Hate U Give. Enough of the books we expected to see on this list, though: I want to highlight a few titles that might surprise you — at least, they’re ones I haven’t seen a lot of buzz about.
