Bookish Academy Awards! 2016

I really like book tags. I like watching them, because I think it’s an easier way to get some recommendations for new books. I saw peruseproject‘s video on her book awards from her last reading year, and I thought this would be a good tag to do. Like her, I am only using books that I read in 2015. I’ll try not to overlap too many books, because that wouldn’t be very much fun.

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Best Male Protagonist (Best Actor)

Noah from I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson was by far my favorite male protagonist in a book in 2015. I’ll Give You the Sun was one of my favorite books of the year, and part of the reason I love this book is how Noah’s chapters were put together. He had beautiful thoughts, and I thought Nelson did a great job translating them into prose.

Best Female Protagonist (Best Actress)

Madeline from Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon was my favorite female protagonist in 2015. She’s a teenager who suffers from a very rare auto-immune deficiency disease. When a cute boy moves across the street (obviously), she has to come to terms with the seriousness of her disease and how much she’ll let it take control of her life. She’s also a non-white protagonist, which we don’t see enough in mainstream popular literature!

Best Plot Twist (Best Cinematography)

Plot twist is sort of a weird concept, especially after you’ve already read the book. However, I have to give this honor to Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This book wasn’t a plot twist in the traditional sense of the term, but I thought there was an interesting shift part way through the book. The narrator, Clay, receives a set of tapes from one of his classmates who recently committed suicide. Upon listening to the first tape, he realizes that she sent these tapes to the 13 people who she says uniquely contributed to her death. It’s heavy, but a pretty interesting book.

Best Book Cover (Best Costume)

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer gets my win for best book cover. The only reason I read this book last year was because a student left it after attending an orientation session, and I thought the cover was cool. It’s simple, but has enough colors to make me wonder what it’s really about.

Best Side Character (Best Supporting Actor/Actress)

Silas in Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg. I reviewed this book at the beginning of the year, and I think it was one of the best releases of 2015. Clegg writes a beautiful book following several characters in the aftermath of a tragic event in a small beach town. Silas, who is the narrator of the first chapter of the book, stole my heart. In a book of 7 narrators, I really enjoyed reading what Silas had to say about his involvement in the tragedy that occurred.

Best Book to Movie (Best Adapted Screenplay) 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green? I don’t watch movies really.

Book You’d Like to See Animated (Best Animated Feature)

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (Siobhan Dowd) is easily the book I’d most like to see animated. In fact, I believe that the movie will be coming out soon. It’s a harrowing children’s book about a monster that visits a little boy every night.

A Writer You’ve Read for the First Time (Best Director)

RAINBOW ROWELL. Holy Moly. How did I never read her before last year. And it was a big year for Rainbow in my life. I read all of her books, with the exception of Carry On. She’s a fantastic author who transcends the confines of YA or “adult” literature. She writes the story she feels people want to read, and that’s awesome.

Best Collection of Short Stories (Best Short Film)

I actually didn’t read any true short story collections last year. However I did read Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff. This is a series of short chapters about various topics surrounding Christianity (particularly that of the evangelical sort). He’s hilarious and if you have an appreciation for Christianity, you’ll find this funny.

Best Action in a Book (Best Visual Effects) 

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson is my pick for best action in a book. It would also be my pick for longest title read in a single year. I don’t read a lot of action packed/fantasy based books, but this is a harder category for me. This book follows a man named Alan who disappears from his retirement home on his 100th birthday. Hilarity ensues as he makes his way across Sweden while reliving key moments in history he supposedly lived through. Set in many countries from China to the US to Russia, this book is nothing short of an adventure.

Best Historical Fiction/Non-Fiction (Best Documentary)

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling brought out the fangirl in me last year. I love her. AND she’s hilarious. This book has some great insights, and I previously wrote a review if you’d like to see exactly what I thought.

Best Book (Best Picture)

The big award! Last year was a pretty good reading year, where I added a couple of books to my all time favorites list. For the best book award, I choose Trail of Broken Wings by Sejal Badani. This book was so beautiful and so unexpected. It follows 4 Indian (and American) women as they grapple through their sorted family history with the paternal figure. It has beautifully written prose, great character development, and a moving plot. If you haven’t read this book yet, I’d definitely recommend it.

These are the books on my Bookish Academy Awards for 2016. If you want to do this tag, feel free! Special thanks to YAbookworm for the use of the image.