Video: My Number One Pick for the Booktube Prize

We’re down to the Booktube Prize finals!

Being one of the judges has been an honor and a several-month commitment. And a pleasure at every step. Check out the Booktube Prize journey!

Round 1: narrowing down the booksplosion:

Titles include An American Marriage, Rainbirds, and The Friend.

Next was the Booktube Prize quarterfinals.

Titles included The Immortalists, Circe, and Fruit of the Drunken Tree.

Step 3: the Booktube Prize semifinals.

I voted on such books as A Ladder to the Sky and The Great Alone. Side note: those are both ridiculously good books.

So, here we are, now at the finals.

Here’s a video (at the top) on the one I voted to win the top prize, Happiness by Aminatta Forna, but by the time you read this, Robert Sheard over at Barter Hordes will have announced the ultimate winner. I was close, but missed by a hair. I’m not mad at all at the winner, though – it, too, serves up some excellent reading.

Here’s a rundown of how I voted in this, the final round:

6. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
5. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
4. Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
3. There There by Tommy Orange
2. A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
1. Happiness by Aminatta Forna

I’m already making plans to judge again next year. This has been such a fun process and helped me take some high-quality books off of my TBR (To Be Read) list and shift them to the ADBR (Already Done Been Readed) list.