The Buzz...About Books

As we get closer to the end of the year, lists start popping up everywhere rounding up the best books of the year. I always like to take a look at reader-based selections, and the Goodreads Choice Awards is a good place to start. Here are a few of the selections from this year's list.

Best of Nonfiction
The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

Marina was a top notch student at Yale (summa cum laude, in fact) who died in a tragic car accident shortly after she graduated. This post-humous collection of short stories and essays she wrote are sure to get you thinking (and sobbing). For a similar title, try This Star Won't Go Out.

Best of Fiction
Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Georgie knows her marriage is getting close to its breaking point. When she can't make it home for Christmas, and her husband takes the kids without her, she realizes something must be done. She discovers that there's a way to communicate with her husband – in the past. Can she save her marriage from the beginning again? For another book about complicated relationships in trouble, try Picture Bride by C. Fong Hsiung.

Best of Science Fiction
The Martian by Andy Weir

It's funny that I'd never heard of this book until a friend (at a crowded birthday party, nonetheless) pulled me aside and tapped his phone towards me: "Have you read this? It's AMAZING." And then he went into a corner and continued reading on that tiny screen. (I don't condone anti-social reading behaviour, but, hey, I understand it.) Described as a futuristic Cast Away meets Apollo 13, The Martian follows Mark Watney, one of the first astronauts to step onto Mars. After an accident leaves him stranded on the planet, with limited resources and no communication back to Earth, he must use everything he can'to survive an impossible situation. For another literary, inter-galactic read, try Michel Faber's amazing The Book of Strange New Things.

Best of Humour
Yes Please by Amy Poehler

One of Saturday Night Live's most beloved alums offers advice and stories (all hilarious, of course) in her first book. Poehler dishes up anecdotes from childhood, her start in the entertainment industry, and her ongoing gig as the mom of two kids. For a similar read, try fellow SNL funny lady Tina Fey's Bossypants.

Best of Young Adult Fiction
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

This is one of those books that might technically be considered a young adult read, but will appeal to a much wider group of readers. It's also one of those books that's very hard to really talk about unless it's with people that have already read it (after all, we don't want to ruin it for anyone!) It's a story about secrets, friendships that change over time, and the memories we hold onto. This is also a book that seems to have you either loving it or hating it. Fellow blogger Margaret considers it exceptional, while I found it somewhat less so. Clearly, I'm in the minority, however, as this did make the Goodreads list. The only way to know how you'd feel is to read it yourself!

(Almost) Best of Poetry
Poems That Make Grown Men Cry by Anthony and Ben Holden

This isn't the actual winner of this category (that honour goes to Lang Leav's Lullabies). I couldn't resist putting this in anyway mostly because of its organization based on how it makes readers feel instead of what the poems are actually about. The Holden father-and-son team have compiled one hundred of the most moving poems, as selected by the poets, writers, actors, and others that love them. If you're a grown man reading this, please do let me know if you needed that box of tissues…

For the full list of Goodreads winners, check out their page. Also, don't forget that Book Buzz is on Goodreads too!