Books by Margaret Atwood, Antoni Porowski & Faith Erin Hicks win 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards
CBC Books | | Posted: December 11, 2019 6:28 PM | Last Updated: December 11, 2019
Goodreads has announced its picks for the best books of the year. The Goodreads Choice Awards winners are given out in 20 categories across several genres and are voted on by readers.
Three Canadian books won prizes. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood won the fiction category, Antoni in the Kitchen by Queer Eye star Antoni Porowski won the food & cookbooks category and Pumpkinheads, written by American Rainbow Rowell and illustrated by Canadian Faith Erin Hicks, won the graphic novel category.
There were 20 categories in total. 4,659,701 votes were cast by Goodreads users.
The Testaments is a sequel to Atwood's seminal The Handmaid's Tale. It set Canadian sales records after it was published in Sept. 2019 and co-won the 2019 Booker Prize alongside the novel Girl, Woman, Other by British author Bernardine Evaristo.
The novel is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, which left the fate of the oppressed narrator Offred unknown.
Antoni in the Kitchen, which is co-authored by Mindy Fox, offers simple recipes with minimal ingredients for busy home cooks.
Over the Top by fellow Queer Eye host Jonathan Van Ness won the memoir & autobiography category.
Pumpkinheads tells the story of two high school students — Josiah and Deja — who work in a pumpkin patch every autumn. After realizing that it's their last shift, they share an unforgettable adventure together.
Notable international winners include Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & the Six and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue, a novel that imagines a romance between the son of the president of the United States and the Prince of Wales, took home two categories: best romance and best debut novel.
Here are all the winners:
- Fiction: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
- Mystery & thriller: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- Historical fiction: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Fantasy: Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
- Romance: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
- Science fiction: Recursion by Blake Crouch
- Horror: The Institute by Stephen King
- Humour: Dear Girls by Ali Wong
- Nonfiction: Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis
- Memoir & autobiography: Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
- History & biography: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
- Science & technology: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
- Food & cookbooks: Anthoni in the Kitchen by Anthony Porowski and Mindy Fox
- Graphic novels & comics: Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks
- Poetry: Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Debut novel: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
- YA fiction: Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis
- YA fantasy: The Wicked King by Holly Black
- Middle grade & children: The Trials of Apollo by Rick Riordan
- Picture books: A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood by Fred Rogers, Luke Flowers and Josie Carey
Keep reading to learn more about the Canadian winners.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Testaments is set 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale and includes the "explosive testaments" of three women. The book answers questions on the inner-workings of Gilead, the oppressive dystopia where Offred, the novel's original narrator, was stripped of her freedoms and forced to be a handmaid for powerful men. The novel co-won the 2019 Booker Prize and broke Canadian sales records when it was published in Sept. 2019.
Atwood, 80, has been publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction since the 1960s. Her acclaimed books include The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake and The Edible Woman. She has won several awards for her work including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Man Booker Prize.
Antoni in the Kitchen by Antoni Porowski
Antoni in the Kitchen is the debut cookbook of Antoni Porowski, food and wine guru on Netflix's hit show Queer Eye. He collects "healthy-ish" recipes — many of which contain less than five ingredients — that can be thrown together at the last minute, but still pack a punch. Some dishes include Malaysian chili shrimp and salty lemon squares.
Porowski was born in Montreal to Polish parents who immigrated to Canada. He was a model and actor before he became of the Fab Five on Queer Eye.
Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks
Josiah and Deja renew their friendship every September by working side by side at the world's greatest pumpkin patch. But after Halloween, the two always go their separate ways. Now in their senior year of high school, Deja and Josiah are working their very last shift together and are determined to make it special.
Rainbow Rowell, a bestselling writer from Nebraska, teams up with B.C.-based artist Faith Erin Hicks for Pumpkinheads. Hicks recently won an Eisner Award for The Divided Earth, the final book in her YA fantasy series.