Move over, Grammy’s and Emmys — the Goodreads Choice Awards are here, and the results are in.
If you’re an avid reader (as we are), you’ve probably been waiting for this announcement for months, though you’ve likely already crossed off some of these award-winning titles from your to-do list months ago.
But, the Goodreads Choice Awards highlighted the best books of 2022 across 17 categories — from fiction to poetry — with many nominees worth looking into as well.
This year, Goodreads had 5.7M+ votes cast and saw a bevy of returning winners, including Sarah J. Maas (who took home her seventh win with “House of Sky and Breath” in the Best Fantasy category) and Taylor Jenkins Reid (who won her third Best Historical Fiction award for “Carrie Soto Is Back.”)
The New York Post Shopping team outlined the 85 page-turning winners and top four hardcover and paperback nominees for you to sort through and shop.
While you’re at it, take a look at Amazon’s 2022 top books, along with our complete list of Reese’s Book Club picks.
Click to jump to a genre:
Fiction
“Author Gabrielle Zevin brought a new kind of love story into the world with her universally admired novel about life, love, fame, failure and video game design,” according to Goodreads. “Tomorrow” was also selected as Amazon Book Editors’ book of the year and Zevin is currently working on the screenplay for its soon-to-launch movie.
- 1st runner-up: “Wish You Were Here” by Jodi Picoult
- 2nd runner-up: “The Winners” by Fredrik Backman
- 3rd runner-up: “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt
- 4th runner-up: “The Hotel Nantucket” by Elin Hilderbrand
Mystery & Thriller
Toronto author Nita Prose unveiled “The Maid,” her debut novel that’s a modern spin on the classic mystery game, ‘Clue.’ “‘The Maid’ features whodunit writing with real heart [and] a classic locked-room mystery concerning wealthy dead people and hotel sanitation protocol,” per Goodreads.
- 1st runner-up: “The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley
- 2nd runner-up: “The Bullet That Missed” by Richard Osman
- 3rd runner-up: “A Flicker in the Dark” by Stacy Willingham
- 4th runner-up: “The Book of Cold Cases” by Simone St. James
Historical Fiction
Acclaimed author Taylor Jenkins Reid is back for another Goodreads Choice Awards, and so is Carrie Soto. Jenkins Reid won with “Malibu Rising” last year and “Daisy Jones and the Six” in 2019. This athletic-enwrapped novel is one of resilience, strength and historical fiction.
- 1st runner-up: “Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus
- 2nd runner-up: “Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone” by Diana Gabaldon
- 3rd runner-up: “The Diamond Eye” by Kate Quinn
- 4th runner-up: “Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson
Fantasy
In a novel packed with angels, demons, adventure and romance, “House of Sky and Breath” takes home the prize in the fantasy category, Maas’ seventh win and third in a row. “As a storyteller, Maas’ world-building chops are elite,” according to Goodreads.
- 1st runner-up: “Babel” by R.F. Kuang
- 2nd runner-up: “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King
- 3rd runner-up: “The Atlas Six” by Olivie Blake
- 4th runner-up: “The War of Two Queens” by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Romance
Whenever Emily Henry releases a new work of fiction, we’re all about it. Naturally, book lovers adore “Book Lovers” — an enemies-to-lovers troupe that’s a feel-good, easy read. This is Henry’s second win in the category, having won with “People We Meet on Vacation” last year.
- 1st runner-up: “Reminders of Him” by Colleen Hoover
- 2nd runner-up: “It Starts with Us” by Colleen Hoover
- 3rd runner-up: “Love on the Brain” by Ali Hazelwood
- 4th runner-up: “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune
Science Fiction
“In another encouraging triumph for literary sci-fi, Emily St. John Mandel takes home her first award for this year’s best book about time travel, lunar colonization and Vancouver Island circa 1912,” according to Goodreads. Plus, you’ll love the immense detail packed in this speculative fiction read.
- 1st runner-up: “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau” by Silvia Moreno Garcia
- 2nd runner-up: “Nona the Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir
- 3rd runner-up: “How High we Go in the Dark” by Sequoia Nagamatsu
- 4th runner-up: “Upgrade” by Blake Crouch
Horror
“Jason Rekulak’s innovative book features a nanny fresh from rehab, her young ward Teddy, his quickly improving drawing skills and a kinda-maybe supernatural entity in the woods,” per Goodreads. Uniquely, Rekulak formerly ran his own indie press in Philadelphia and now won an award for being on the writing side of the industry.
- 1st runner-up: “The Hacienda” by Isabel Cañas
- 2nd runner-up: “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher
- 3rd runner-up: “Gwendy’s Final Task” by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar
- 4th runner-up: “Juniper & Thorn” by Ava Reid
Humor
This isn’t just your typical workplace humor — it’s a behind-the-scenes dual memoir from co-stars of “The Office!” Its warmth, touching recommendations and easy-to-follow stories earned it a top spot in the Goodreads Choice Awards.
- 1st runner-up: “Girls Can Kiss Now: Essays” by Jill Gutowitz
- 2nd runner-up: “Hello Molly!: A Memoir” by Molly Shannon
- 3rd runner-up: “Ten Steps to Nanette” by Hannah Gadsby
- 4th runner-up: “Idiots: Marriage, Motherhood, Milk & Mistakes” by Laura Clery
Nonfiction
“Author and researcher Brené Brown attempts to map the human heart itself with this inventive nonfiction project, which explores 87 of the emotions and experiences that make up a truly meaningful life,” per Goodreads. Not to mention, Brown’s work draws from multiple disciplines, keeping her rooted in the cultural conversations as a renowned expert.
- 1st runner-up: “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” by Paul Holes
- 2nd runner-up: “Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?” by Dr. Julie Smith
- 3rd runner-up: “What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” by Randall Munroe
- 4th runner-up: “These Precious Days” by Ann Patchett
Memoir & Autobiography
This memoir had to be one of the biggest successes of the year. Nickelodeon star bluntly and wittingly highlights an extremely complicated relationship with her mother which had more than half a million shelvings on Goodreads, per the platform.
- 1st runner-up: “Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman” by Alan Rickman
- 2nd runner-up: “Finding Me” by Viola Davis
- 3rd runner-up: “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” by Matthew Perry
- 4th runner-up: “We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story” by Simu Liu
History & Biography
Based on the buzzy podcast series “Bad Gays,” this unique variation of popular history profiles various villains, rogues and baddies from our pages of history — rather than focus on LGBTQ icons and heroes. It’s “carefully researched and quietly subversive,” according to Goodreads.
- 1st runner-up: “His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” by Robert Samuels
- 2nd runner-up: “The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World” by Shelley Puhak
- 3rd runner-up: “The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World” by Jonathan Freedland
- 4th runner-up: “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle” by Jon Meacham
Graphic Novels & Comics
Alice Oseman’s boy-meets-boy love story is one of the most critically acclaimed series of the 21st century. Uniquely tackling themes of love, loyalty and mental illness, this deeply empathetic and vividly pieced-together illustrious tale is worth the buy.
- 1st runner-up: “Lore Olympus: Volume Two” by Rachel Smythe
- 2nd runner-up: “Demon in the Wood” by Leigh Bardugo
- 3rd runner-up: “Oddball” by Sarah Andersen
- 4th runner-up: “Saga, Volume 10” by Brian K. Vaughan
Poetry
After author, activist and the first Youth Poet Laureate of the United States Amanda Gorman earned an international following after performing her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, this new collection garnered equal acclaim. It’s Gorman’s second Goodreads win in the category, too.
- 1st runner-up: “Time is a Mother” by Ocean Vuong
- 2nd runner-up: “Unlock Your Storybook Heart” by Amanda Lovelace
- 3rd runner-up: “Serenity” by S.F. Yousaf
- 4th runner-up: “On Sun Swallowing” by Dakota Warren
Debut Novel
“Author Bonnie Garmus’s shrewd and funny debut follows the fate of brilliant Elizabeth Zott, who uses her success as a chemist — and later, an unlikely cooking show star — to change the status quo for women in repressive 1960s America,” per Goodreads. Much to readers’ delight, “Lessons in Chemistry” is slated for Apple TV+ next year, with Brie Larson starring as the lead.
- 1st runner-up: “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” by Sue Lynn Tan
- 2nd runner-up: “Every Summer After” by Carley Fortune
- 3rd runner-up: “The Maid” by Nita Prose
- 4th runner-up: “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt
Young Adult Fiction
“The Final Gambit” is Barnes’ third win as her beloved YA mystery series has a widespread fanbase. “‘The Inheritance Games’ books are state-of-the-art puzzlers, filled with twisted riddles, cryptic clues and the occasional love triangle,” according to Goodreads.
- 1st runner-up: “Loveless” by Alice Oseman
- 2nd runner-up: “I Kissed Shara Wheeler” by Casey McQuiston
- 3rd runner-up: “The First to Die at the End” by Adam Silvera
- 4th runner-up: “I Must Betray You” by Ruta Sepetys
Young Adult Fantasy & Sci-fi
Based off old Gothic tradition, “Gallant” hones in on courageous young women and spooky manor houses. Impressively, this is Schwab’s second Goodreads Choice Awards win, taking the 2018 science fiction prize for “Vengeful.”
- 1st runner-up: “Bloodmarked” by Tracy Deonn
- 2nd runner-up: “Kingdom of the Feared” by Kerri Maniscalco
- 3rd runner-up: “The Ballad of Never After” by Stephanie Garber
- 4th runner-up: “The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea” by Axie Oh
Middle Grade & Children’s
Inclusive of the quiet-minded, Powers and Petersen package together a fan-favorite with “I Am Quiet.” It’s the story of a young introvert Emile and his rather astounding imagination, making one of the most curiosity seeking books to date.
- 1st runner-up: “Rise of the School for Good and Evil” by Soman Chainani
- 2nd runner-up: “Amari and the Great Game” by B.B. Alston
- 3rd runner-up: “Small Town Pride” by Phil Stamper
- 4th runner-up: “Witchlings” by Claribel A. Ortega
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