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The Most Popular Books on Goodreads So Far

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It’s time to pause, take a step back, and review the books we’ve read and enjoyed this year so far. Booksellers — like 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

Maame by Jessica George book cover

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

Book cover of Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  

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

warrior girl unearthed book cover

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.