It's a silly idea, I know, but right now it's the idea I have.
I've had a chance to look over last year's list of books that I read, and I thought it might be fun to have a fake little awards ceremony for my favorites. Every award needs a cute name, right? There's the Oscars, the Tonies, the Emmies... Now there's the Queenies. (A very brief Google search has led me to believe that no other awards of this name exist, so I'm stealing it for this silliness.) My currrent plan is to present the Queenie awards every year from now on.
The rules for the Queenies are simple. Out of all the books I read last year (for the first time, not re-reads), these are the books in each category that I, personally, enjoyed most. For whatever reason. As such, all of these awards are nothing more than my personal opinion and if you happen to disagree, that's perfectly okay with me. Also, these are just chosen from the books I read in 2020. There is no official list of greatness that I was working from or anything. A lot of deserving and award winning books were not read by me, and thus are not eligible for a Queenie. My apologies to all the books I didn't get to read.
2020 was a banner year for reading. In the years since I actually started keeping a reading list (in 2014), the previous winner for most books read was 2018 with 150 books. For a number of reasons, 2020 has passed that record number and we now have a new record: 174 books read. These are the books I will be choosing from today. (No. I have absolutely no plans to type out the titles of all of the books. The last several months worth are already listed here on the blog. The months before that, well... Sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it this time. My wrists thank you for your understanding.)
Without further ado, I present to you the 2020 Queenie Awards:
Favorite non-fiction book: The Ravenmaster- Christopher Skaife This book combines two of my favorite things- stories about the Tower of London and stories about ravens. (Yeah, I'm weird. We all know that.)
Favorite fiction book: Confessions of a Shopaholic- Sophie Kinsella I've heard about this one for years. Finally got around to actually reading it.
Favorite romance book: The Happy Ever After Playlist- Abby Jimenez Continuing the story from Friend Zone, sort of, so this was an easy pick.
Favorite middle-grade/ young adult book: A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking- T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) My daughter and I both really enjoyed this. And if Ursula Vernon happens to stumble onto this post, we need more! Lots more. (And also more Castle Hangnail. Also Harriet Hamsterbone! Please??)
Favorite science fiction book: Network Effect- Martha Wells I may have mentioned before that I love me some Murderbot. This is the most recent entry, and the first full length novel, of the series. Man, it's taking too long for the next one to come out...
Favorite fantasy book: The Bear and the Nightingale- Katerine Arden This one has a slightly different feel to it. Most fantasies are set in a standard medieval England type setting. This one has an eastern European feel, set in Russia. It reminded me of Naomi Novik's recent works (Spinning Silver and Uprooted) and I really enjoyed that.
Favorite graphic novel: Roller Girl- Victoria Jamieson This one was a hard choice. I read a lot of great graphic novels in 2020. But I've settled on this one as the winner. I think.
Favorite cookbook: The Adventurous Eater's Club- Misha and Vicki Collins I read a lot of cookbooks last year and I don't really remember much about any of them. But this one sticks in my memory. So, I guess it wins. (Although Anne McCaffrey's two cookbooks were highly entertaining also.)
Favorite book I read with my kids: Stink and the Attack of the Slime Mold- Megan McDonald This was a hard category. We read a lot of fabulous books, but most of them were re-reads for me. My younger kiddo has recently discovered Judy Moody and her brother Stink (toward the end of the year) and they have just edged out Miranda and Maude for the win here.
Favorite series of books: The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire This one has to win, hands down. Plus, I read all of them for the first time in 2020 so it definitely qualifies for a win. (Don't you just love it when you discover a fabulous new author and have so many new books to read? That hasn't happened in ages and I'm loving every second of it.)
Favorite poetry book: Dear Mother- Bunmi Laditan I didn't get to read too many poetry books in 2020 (mostly because my nerves couldn't take it) but this one was really good. There is a lot of truth to these poems.
Favorite audio book: The Martian- Andy Weir, narrated by Wil Wheaton I don't listen to a lot of books, mostly because my mind tends to wander away from the story. But this is a favorite book of mine, so when I heard that Wil Wheaton was the one doing the reading, I went for it. And it was so good.
Most anticipated book that I finally got my hands on: Solutions and Other Problems- Allie Brosh I've been waiting for this book ever since I finished reading her first one, named after her awesome blog, Hyperbole and a Half. I've had to wait years, but it was worth it. Now I need more!
Favorite book of comic strips: Strange Planet- Nathan W. Pyle I like these little alien dudes and it always cheers me up when I stumble across one of these comics online. I was so happy to find actual books. (2 of them!) This is the first collection.
Favorite crafty type book: Craft Fail- Heather Mann I didn't read many craft books this year. With my wrist acting up, I find it too sad to dream of all the pretties that I could be making. But this book I did read and it was great. It's much more fun to watch other people fail spectacularly. (Not so much fun when it's your project, though...)
Favorite biography/ memoir: Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come- Jessica Pan
Favorite science-y book: Packing For Mars- Mary Roach
Oh, what the heck? Let's do one more:
Favorite re-read: Good Omens- Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett I adore this book. I've always liked it a lot (because Terry Pratchett was brilliant and is terribly missed) but since the mini-series came out, I'm just a tad obsessed. In 2020, I read the book (again), the TV Companion book, and the script book! And I can't even count how many times I watched all or part of the series. (Seriously. I did not even attempt to count it. I don't want to know.)
Okay, that's all the categories I can come up with right now, so our 2020 Queenies come to an end. Congratulations to all the winners.
I'm off to work on next year's nominees.
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