Happy New Year 2025! Welcome to our second annual Armed with A Book Choice Awards 2024, hosted jointly by Kriti and Ariel. Woho! Taking inspiration from our reading experience categories, we bring you our top 6 books for each element of our reading. We intentionally moved away from awarding by genres, because as mood readers we find ourselves reaching for stories that call to us, irrespective of the genre.Our categories are:
- Best Cover
- Best Cast
- Best Emotional Engagement
- Best Immersion
- Best Storytelling & Plot
- Best Thought-Provoking
- Best World Building
Looking at the 200+ books we read in 2024 between the two of us, we each picked our top 3 books in each category and awarded the book we loved the most. Book covers link to Goodreads pages. Any reviews we posted for the shortlisted books can be found after the winners.
Let’s dive in!
Armed with A Book Awards
Best Cover 2024
Even though we know better not to judge a book by its cover, we always have a few favorite covers that stick with us before, during, and even after picking up these books. The cover art not only gives us a glimpse of the story within, but elevates it to a new level.
Winners:
Reviews:
Best Cast 2024
In these books, we loved the characters the most. Without such a strong cast, we know our enjoyment of these books wouldn’t have been so high.
Winners:
Reviews:
Best Emotional Engagement 2024
These are the books that made us laugh, cry, sob, lay on the floor, have an existential crisis, or feel so deeply for the characters that we had a little bit of a hangover but we will never admit it.
Winners:
Reviews:
- The Teller of Small Fortunes
- A Woman Is No Man
- The Wings Upon Her Back
Best Immersion 2024
These are the books that we got lost in, so much so that we found it incredibly difficult to put these books down.
Winners:
Reviews:
Best Storytelling & Plot 2024
In our storytelling category, we felt that the author’s prose and writing style made the book stand out throughout our reads this year. We found connection with the pages in abstract and wonderful ways that are truly credited to the authors’ skill and craft.
Winners:
Reviews:
- The Scarlet Alchemist
- The Weavers of Alamaxa
- The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
- The Other Valley
- A Woman Is No Man
- Crossings
Best Thought-Provoking 2024
These are the books that stuck with us for days, weeks, and months after we finished the last page. They educated us about the world and expanded our horizons.
Winners:
Reviews:
Best World Building 2024
In worldbuilding, we liked to focus on the setting beyond the characters; think geography, history, culture, politics, technology, magic systems (if applicable), and societal norms. In these books, we found well-developed settings that holistically made the whole story shine.
Winners:
Reviews:
- The Surviving Sky
- The Annual Migration of Clouds
- The Scarlet Alchemist
- All’s Fair in Love and Treachery
A big round of applause to all our winners. Another round of applause to all the shortlisted books that made 2024 a great year of reading.
Thank you, dear reader, for joining us for the inaugural Armed with A Book Choice Awards.
What were your favorite books from 2024?
We are excited to read with you again in 2025.
Be First to Comment