Best Romance (Book or Series) [Last Chance to Recommend]

What is the best romance (book or series)? This is the last chance to recommend your favorite (or just an underappreciated great one) and join our conversation.

This is the last call for nominations (or seconds of existing nominations) that will go on our compilation page. I'm still hammering out an early access post for my patrons (and we were kind of "out of the office last week), so I'll be posting the results on THURSDAY of this week instead. 

Remember there are no more polls. We just have a conversation about some good books. On Thursday, I will publish two lists: one of "undersung heroes," the books that aren't the best but that you love and want to see more people know about. And the BEST, which will have no ranking other than being listed in order of which got the most seconds.

We also finally have our Master List! So if you want to see the what the results of participation will look like or to see the results of earlier Book Rec posts, come check that out. 

Please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for your input. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Y.A. Science Fiction (Book or Series) [NOTpoll results]

What is the best young adult book (or series) in the science-fiction genre? 

The results are in! I don't normally post on Wednesdays, but this is just a quick results thing, so I should still be on track for the rest of the week. 

From your nominations and recommendations have come these two lists. One of the best titles in the genre. The other titles that are not "best" but are great, but tragically less well known. Come get some great suggestions for your To Be Read™ list or journey over to the nomination page to see people singing the specific praises of each title and having a great conversation.

Thank you all so much for participating. I hope we get a little more engagement once folks sort of see how it works.

We also now have TWO of these results pages, so I need to get cracking creating a top level menu page where all the various results are posted and linked.

The Best (one nomination each)*

Machine - E. Bear

Thunder and Lightning (series) - J. Varley

Dingilliad (series) - D. Gerrold

Succession (split into two volumes by the publisher) - S. Westerfield

Karen Memory - E. Bear

Matthew Looney and the Space Pirates (series) - Jr. J. Beatty

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel - R. A. Heinlein

Raybearer - J. Ifueko

Animorphs - K. A. Applegate 

Undersung Heroes

Foundations - I. Asimov

Epic - C. Kostick

*There's an author/book missing. There's a reason it's missing. Its nomination comment has been erased. I will gladly explain if someone is curious, but the short version is that I have to draw the line somewhere on something that could promote the work of a living artist who is being actively and directly harmful to marginalized communities.

Best Y.A. Book (or Series) [Last Chance to Nominate or Give Seconds]

What is the best young adult science fiction book (or series)? Come join our conversation.

This is the last call for nominations (or seconds of existing nominations) that will go on our compilation page. Even though I don't normally post anything on Wednesdays, tomorrow I will compile the results. 

Remember there are no more polls. We just have a conversation about some good books. On Friday I will publish two lists: one of "undersung heroes," the books that aren't the best but that you love and want to see more people know about. And the BEST, which will have no ranking other than being listed in order of which got the most seconds.

Keep in mind that even though I am not making it a hard and fast line, or rejecting nominations, there will be another NOTpoll along shortly for dystopian Y.A. since it is such a pronounced genre of its own. It absolutely needs its own category. I know there's a lot of overlap, but Hunger Games or Divergent will have its day.

ALSO please remember to go to the original page to drop your nomination (and familiarize yourself with the rules if you haven't yet). If you put it anywhere else (including a Facebook comment on this post) it will not be counted.

Thank you all for your input. I've really loved reading all your comments about the books you treasure and why.

Best Y.A. Science Fiction (NOTpoll)

What is the best Young Adult Book (or series) in the Science Fiction genre?

Even though I have recently shifted from polls to NOTpolls, it seems like we JUST did the whole slew of adult SciFi and Fantasy by classic, modern, or contemporary, so I'd like to get a few buffer conversations in there before we begin to retread all that ground.

That said, let's talk about Science Fiction in Y.A. literature. 

I am going to make a distinction here that is not a hard and fast line. There will be another NOTpoll along shortly for dystopian Y.A. since it is such a pronounced genre of its own with SO many rich and wonderful choices. It absolutely needs its own category. I'm not going to nitpick or police everyone's choices, and I know there's a lot of overlap between the two, but consider if you think your nominee might be a better fit for dystopia rather than sci-fi. (Hunger Games, for example, did not make enough out of the futuristic tech and/or emphasize sci-fi tropes. It felt much more dystopian to me.) 

For those still getting used to NOTpolls or who remember the years and years of polls we ran here, there are still rules (below). But instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
2. TALK ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK or series (but without spoilers)! Obviously if you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, but the whole point of this is to gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
3. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone yesterday, but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
4. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate Divergent as science fiction (even though it's probably better placed as dystopia), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "Uh...." 
5. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will NOT take any nominations beyond the second that you suggest. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a megalodon list of every decent book they can remember in the entire genre. If you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider the SECOND the first mention of the book "officially." (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
6. Did I mention two?
7. You may (and absolutely should) second AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
8. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
9. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their movie portrayals. If you thought Stardust was a spectacular movie, but never really could get through Gaiman's written version, please nominate something else. (I love films, but they're a different medium.)
10. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you honor for seven generations.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
11. TWO!

Hopefully, we all get some great book recommendations (and maybe a few fewer "not winners") out of this new format. 

Best Standalone Fantasy (NOTPoll Results)

What is the best standalone book (or short story) in the fantasy genre? 

From your nominations and recommendations have come these two lists. One of the best titles in the genre. The other titles that are not "best" but are great, but tragically less well known. Pad your TBR list with few gems or journey over to the nomination page to see people singing the specific praises of each title and having a conversation.

Thank you all so much for making our first NOTpoll a success. I look forward to many more great conversations about really good books.

BEST (in order of number of seconds received):

The Night Circus, E. Morgenstern (5)

The Princess Bride, W. Goldman (4)

War for the Oaks, E. Bull (4)

 Good Omens, N. Gaiman and T. Pratchett (4)

American Gods, N. Gaiman (3)

Neverwhere, N. Gaiman (3)

The House in the Cerulean Sea, T. J. Klune (2)

The Once and Future Witches, A. E. Harrow (2)

Poison, C. Wooding 

Un Lun Dun, C. Mieville 1

Le morte d'Arthur, T. Mallory 1

Tailchaser's Song, T. Williams 1

Kindred, O. Butler 1

Dragon Pearl, Y. H. Lee 1

UNDERSUNG (in no particular order):

Shades of Grey, J. Fforde 2

Afterworlds, S. Westerfeld 2

Glasgow Fairytale, A. D. McIver

Fire and Hemlock, D. W. Jones

Reminder to Nominate for Our NOTpoll (Best Stand-Alone Fantasy)

What is the best Fantasy novel not a part of any larger series?

As I recover from events about which I'll be sending out a newsletter to my newsletter-tier Patrons shortly, and begin to fold blogging BACK into a schedule that has not seen fit to give me any days off in over two weeks (but has at least returned to its sort of regularly scheduled chaos), I want to remind everyone that we don't have polls anymore. 

Instead I invite you to add some nominations and join the conversation about some really good books on our NOTpoll. These "conversations" will go a lot faster than our polls did, so be sure and nominate a good book or two for others to put on their TBR lists. 

If you've spent the past few years frustrated at the fact that your own offerings of whatever genre was up never made it onto the polls, or always got knocked out in the semifinals, here is your chance to get it some glory that cannot be snatched by the mercurial whims of folks who probably just watched the latest CGI adaptation. 

There are a few RULES and you can find them HERE. I would repost them here, but that earlier page is ALSO where you need to go anyway in order to make the nominations if you want to see them show up on the compilation post at the end. (Leave them here and I will skip them. Leave them on FB, and I will never even see them.) 

Best Standalone Fantasy Novel (NOTpoll)

Update: This nomination is closed for now. (But it will come around again.)

What is the best Fantasy novel not a part of any larger series?

While I (really this time) work behind the scenes on the November Newsletter for my patrons, a first of the month seems like a good day to kick off our new NOTpolls. 

If you recall (or even if you don't), I recently ran into enough trouble with free polling programs––and the prohibitive price of the paid ones given that I only ever ran one every month or two. Instead, I decided to change up our entire "poll-like" experience here on Writing About Writing. Rather than of nominations and polls with winners and losers, we're just going to do a comment thread of gushing recommendations. 

There are still rules (below). But instead of trying to figure out what more people think is the BEST (which usually turns into which book has the coolest movie adaptation anyway), we're just going to have a good chat about good books and all come away with some suggestions for our To Be Read Pile™. We'll still have the system of seconds (and "thirds" and "fourths"), but all that will determine is which goes to the top of the list when I post the results. And I'll link out the original nomination post for folks who want to go see what people are actually saying about the book. Eventually these posts listing the results will be compiled in a massive "book recommendation" post.

It's going to be pretty fucking dope.

The Rules

1. Make two recommendations. Obviously, I can't stop anyone from making fifteen, but nothing beyond the first two will make it onto the master list.
2. TALK ABOUT WHY YOU LIKE THE BOOK (but without spoilers)! Obviously if you just drop a title name and it gets all the seconds, I'm still going to list it, but the whole point of this is to gush a little about the books you think are great, exciting, well written, or unforgettable. 
3. For each recommendation, let us know if you're nominating it more as a BEST book in the genre or an UNDERSUNG HERO in the genre. Basically "undersung hero" is for books you think are great, tragically overlooked, NEED to be read by everyone yesterday, but are maybe not necessarily the besty bestest best. They'll all end up in the list I compile, but I'll put them in different places.
4. As always, I leave the niggling over the definition of genres to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you want to nominate Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (though it is pretty clearly science fiction), you should show your work if you desire those sweet, sweet seconds (or thirds....or fourths) and there might be a discussion thread after your comment with a lot of people writing out the "Uh...." 
5. Your book must not be part of a series or more than tangentially related to a fictional universe. If it makes a reference to another book like once or is clearly taking place in the world of another book without being a sequel, prequel, or grand unified series, that's fine, but if it takes place in Discworld, that's not "stand alone."
6. You get to mention two (2) books. That's it. Two. You can do one BEST and one UNDERSUNG HERO. Or you can do two BESTS. Or you can do two UNDERSUNG HEROES. But two is the total. If you nominate three or more, I will NOT take any nominations beyond the second that you suggest. I'm sorry that I'm a stickler on this, but it's just lil ol' me compiling this list by myself and it's a pain when people drop a megalodon list of every decent book they can remember in the entire genre. If you list more than two books and your third or later choice gets a second, I'll consider the SECOND the first mention of the book "officially." (Even though that matters a lot less than it did when I was counting seconds to see which titles made the poll––see below.)
7. Did I mention two?
8. You may (and absolutely should) second AS MANY nominations of others as you wish. There is no more poll, so this will not be a cutthroat competition to see who makes it to the semifinals. It will simply dictate which titles I list first, and it may influence which books someone considers a good recommendation. ("This one got six seconds, and that one only got two, so I think I'll start with this one.")
9. Put your nominations HERE. I will take nominations only as comments and only on this post. (No comments on FB posts or G+ will be considered nominations.) If you can't comment for some reason because of Blogger, send me an email (chris.brecheen@gmail.com) stating exactly that and what your nomination is, and I will personally put your comment up. I am not likely to see a comment on social media even if it says you were unable to leave a comment here. 
10. You are nominating WRITTEN fiction, not their movie portrayals. If you thought Stardust was a spectacular movie, but never really could get through Gaiman's written version, please nominate something else. (I love films, but they're a different medium.)
11. Have a conversation, but check the typical internet assholery at the door. If someone likes something you think is terrible, it's okay to let them enjoy it. And if someone has one tight and polite bit of criticism about your recommendation ("I was not a fan of the X plot arc or the way that author writes women."), it's okay that they didn't care for it and there's no need to defend it like they have impugned you personally.  I **WILL** delete shitty comments, and I absolutely know that's highly subjective, so better to err on the side of nice. 
12. TWO!

Hopefully, we all get some great book recommendations (and maybe a few fewer "not winners") out of this new format.