It’s time to pause, take a step back, and review the books we’ve read and enjoyed this year so far. Other booksellers — Amazon and Barnes & Noble — have already shared what they think are the first half of the year’s best books, but the advantage of this list is that it’s the most popular books on Goodreads, meaning that it takes readers’ views into account way more.
This roundup shows the nine most popular books in different genres and age categories — mystery, science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, romance, nonfiction, and young adult. It seems that storm hags, death doulas, happy places, family sagas, bandit queens, and more have resonated with readers the most so far this year.
Here are some of the other most popular books on Goodreads so far.
Contemporary Fiction
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
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Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Maame by Jessica George
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Nikki Brammer
Historical Fiction
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
Mystery
All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Fantasy
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
Victory City by Salman Rushdie
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Science Fiction
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
Meru by S.B. Divya
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Horror
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones
Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina
The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro
Romance
Happy Place by Emily Henry
Exes and O’s by Amy Lea
Final Offer by Lauren Asher
Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Nonfiction
A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
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Young Adult
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
The Davenports by Krystal Marquis
For a full list of this year’s most popular books on Goodreads so far, click here.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.
