Goodreads Choice Awards 2011: WINNERS!

Today Goodreads announced the winners of their Goodreads Choice Awards. The books were voted for by Goodreads members over the past few weeks. The winners are as follows!

Young Adult Fiction winner is Where She Went by Gayle Forman:

Favourite book of 2011 is Divergent by Veronica Roth : 

The winner of the Fiction category is  1Q84 by Haruki Murakami :

Mystery and Thriller winner is Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich:

Historical Fiction winner is The Paris Wife by Paula McLain:

Fantasy Winner is A Dance With Dragons by George R.R Martin:

Paranormal Fantasy winner is Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning

Science Fiction winner is 11/22/63 by Stephen King 

Horror winner is Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Other categories:

Romance Winner is Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Humour Winner is Bossypants by Tina Fey

Nonfiction Winner is The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins

History and Biography winner is Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Memoir and Autobiography winner is Two Kisses for Maddy by Matthew Logelin 

Food and Cooking Winner is My Father's Daughter by Gwenyth Paltrow 

Travel and Outdoors winner is Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction winner is Divergent by Veronica Roth

Middlegrade and Children's winner is The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

Picture Books winner is When I Grow Up by Al Yankovic

Graphic Novels and Comics winner is Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 

Poetry Winner is Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins

And the Goodreads Author of the year is...

Cassandra Clare 

Unfortunately the only book I've read from the list is Divergent and Cassandra Clare's books! I was really hoping A Monster Calls would win in the Middle Grace category and I'm quite disappointed that it didn't! How about you?  

In the mail yesterday

Broken Slate by Kelly Jennings. I received this through Goodreads First Reads program.

Description: 

Taken from his family's merchant ship at the age of fourteen, Martin Eduardo endured years in the brutal contract labor system on the planet Julian. Now a contract rebellion brews. 

The precarious and emotionally costly safety Martin had found with his seventh contract holder is put at risk by another holder, Jeno Lord Harper, who seeks to use Martin for his own aims. Years in the system have demonstrated what happens to contracts who fight back; Martin knows resistance will prove dangerous.  

As the contract labor uprising gains momentum, and as he grows more acquainted with those involved in the rebellion, Martin begins to suspect that, although the consequences of disobedience are grim even fatal the consequences of obedience might be worse.  

This deft dissection of a mind under siege from an oppressive social system is tense and compelling.

Remember Me?  by Sophie Kinsella. I've been wanting to read this for so long!

Description: 

When twenty-eight-year-old Lexi Smart wakes up in a London hospital, she’s in for a big surprise. Her teeth are perfect. Her body is toned. Her handbag is Vuitton. Having survived a car accident—in a Mercedes no less—Lexi has lost a big chunk of her memory, three years to be exact, and she’s about to find out just how much things have changed.
Somehow Lexi went from a twenty-five-year-old working girl to a corporate big shot with a sleek new loft, a personal assistant, a carb-free diet, and a set of glamorous new friends. And who is this gorgeous husband—who also happens to be a multimillionaire? With her mind still stuck three years in reverse, Lexi greets this brave new world determined to be the person she…well, seems to be. That is, until an adorably disheveled architect drops the biggest bombshell of all.
Suddenly Lexi is scrambling to catch her balance. Her new life, it turns out, comes complete with secrets, schemes, and intrigue. How on earth did all this happen? Will she ever remember? And what will happen when she does?

The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Published January 1st 2008
479 pages
Genre: Young Adult Dystopia, Fantasy 
Stars: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee - whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not - stumble upon an area of complete silence.

 They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden - a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. 

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

My thoughts:

The Knife of Never Letting Go is a really fantastic and gripping story. It's not often that the first line manages to pull me in completely but this is what happened with this book. I did love how the interesting information was held just out of our reach for most of the book- it was frustrating because I wanted to know but it also added a wonderful layer of suspense to the whole story.

Todd is a wonderful character. His narration fits perfectly with the world he is living in. A lot of the time his thoughts are really jumbled up and run into each other, like he's trying to catch them, which makes sense as he has grown up having to listen to the thoughts of 100+ men every hour of every day, which is bound to confuse your brain. His actions and thoughts felt real and believable; he was torn between doing the right thing and doing what he had to do to survive. His sheltered upbringing definitely seeps through when he's trying to make these decisions.

I liked Viola a lot. I liked that she was so withdrawn and quiet at the start because it made sense, given what she's been through. I did think she warmed up to Todd at little too fast in the end (going from not speaking to full paragraphs of speech) but I can also see why she would. I liked Viola's story and I loved that she was such an independent person and that Todd saw this and recognized this.

Animals in books usually annoy me but Manchee was just lovely!

The book certainly wasn't perfect... there were patches where it dragged; page after page of Viola and Todd just walking... but it always picked up pace and by the end I was totally captivated. It ended on a huge cliffhanger and I'm so glad I have the second book to dive into right away.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Published in 1818
273 pages
Genre: Horror
Stars: 5/5

Description via Puffin:

One of the best known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his first creature stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by its maker and shunned by everyone who sees it, dogs Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth....

My thoughts:

Frankenstein turned out to be way better than I expected. I went into it figuring I might like it and at the very worst at least could say I've read it. I loved it though, from start to finish!

I think Mary Shelley's writing is magnificent and she really succeeded in drawing me into the world of Victor and the monster. I loved that it was stories within stories within stories yet it was still incredibly easy to follow who was talking when. I really enjoyed every single tale we were told and found it very hard to set the book down at night.

I really liked the story and all the characters. I thought Frankenstein had some very interesting thoughts and I adored hearing about how the Monster adapted to the world around him. I thought it was really sad how he wasn't really a monster to begin with and really frustrating watching him trying to stay nice when nobody was being nice to him.

Overall, I adored it and could totally see myself reading it again!