The Bookish Academy Awards / Book Oscars is a questionnaire I found a couple of years ago on the Blogger blog of Ashley / Read all the things and decided to steal it for my then-recent and all-time favorites. Most of my "all-time" answers are still true; however, here's an edition specifically for my 2019 reading (wherein "nonfiction" will not be limited to the specific "Best Documentary" equivalent category -- so expect, for example, my favorite / most respected "real life" people to show up amongst the "best protagonist" listings).
(Note: For the more seriously-minded, my "best new(-to-me) books of 2019" post -- with links to my reviews / reading status updates, where in existence -- is HERE.)
Three-way tie between Aminatta Forna, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood.
Favorite New Encounters:
The (unnamed) goddess / narrator of Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower
Gertrude Bell (Writings: A Woman in Arabia)
Michelle Obama (Becoming)
Mildred Lathbury (Barbary Pym: Excellent Women)
Loveday Brooke (Catherine Louisa Pirkis: The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective)
Favorite Repeat Encounters:
Granny Weatherwax (and Nanny Ogg & Magrat Garlick) (Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters)
Miss Marple (Agatha Christie)
Miss Silver (Patricia Wentworth)
Honorary Mention:
Harriet Vane (Dorothy L. Sayers: Strong Poison / Have His Caracase / Gaudy Night / Busman's Honeymoon)
Can't officially include her because I didn't reread any of the Wimsey books featuring her in 2019, but hey, there is just no way she cannot be part of this list.
New Encounters with Long-Time Favorites:
Kofi Annan (Interventions: A Life in War and Peace)
Matthew Shardlake (C.J. Sansom: Tombland)
Favorite Repeat Encounters:
Hogfather (aka DEATH) (Terry Pratchett: Hogfather)
Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy L. Sayers)
Hercule Poirot (Agatha Chistie)
Roderick Alleyn (Ngaio Marsh)
Brother Cadfael (Ellis Peters)
Three-way tie between Ariadne Oliver (Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot series), Josephine Leonides (the self-appointed kid sleuth in Agatha Christie's Crooked House) and the wife of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Alleyn, painter Agatha Troy. (All repeat encounters.)
Favorite New Encounter:
You Bastard, the mathematical genius in camel clothes (Terry Pratchett: Pyramids)
Favorite Repeat Encounters:
Dr. John Watson (Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes series)
Captain Arthur Hastings (Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot series)
(=> The two original / quintessential sidekicks)
Mervyn Bunter (Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey series)
Jack Barak and Guy Malton (C.J. Sansom: Matthew Shardlake series)
From the Unseen University of Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Hex and the Librarian
I know this isn't actually an Academy Awards category (only Golden Globes), but I've long felt it should be one -- and there are some books to which the same thought applies as well.
Three-way tie between Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, and Terry Pratchett / Neil Gaiman's Good Omens.
Two-way tie between Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower -- far and away the most innovative world-building I've come across in a long time -- and, of course ... Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
In the original version of this questionnaire, "Best Adapted Screenplay" translates into "Best Book-to-Movie Adaptation". However, I think in the book world (especially that of recent years) there is another translation which fits the purpose just as well; namely, "Best Pastiche / Series Continuation." So I decided to go with both of them:
(Note: To correspond with all the other categories, this only takes into account the cases where I read the book AND also revisited the movie in 2019. Which, as it turns out, boils down to not a whole lot more than my yearly Christmas favorites ...)
Non-Christmas story:
Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (2015 BBC adaptation)
Christmas stories:
Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1995, ITV David Suchet Poirot series)
Agatha Christie: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (aka The Theft of the Royal Ruby) (1994, ITV David Suchet Poirot series)
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Blue Carbuncle (1987, Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series)
Dorothy L. Sayers: The Nine Tailors (1974, BBC Ian Carmichael Lord Peter Wimsey series)
Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol (1999 TNT adaptation starring Patrick Stewart)
Frances Hodgson Burnett: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980 adaptation starring Ricky Schroder and Alec Guinness) (note: no specific Christmas connotations in the book)
Ben Schott: Jeeves and the King of Clubs
Perfect pitch -- no contest.
Dame Agatha still taks the cake when it comes to original plot twists (even upon the umpteenth reread), but I think Joy Ellis has recently given her a fair run for her money -- even if the final twists in none of her books that I read in 2019 caught me quite as "from left field" as did my first ever Ellis book, Their Lost Daughters, which I read in late 2018.
Book's Contents Lives up to the Cover's Promise:
Ann Leckie: The Raven Tower
Diarmaid MacCulloch: Thomas Cromwell: A Life
Cover Promises More Than the Contents Delivers:
Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Gods of Jade and Shadow
Elif Shafak: Three Daughters of Eve
Lorna Nicholl Morgan: Another Little Murder
Best Series Covers:
Discworld "black background" hardback and audiobook covers
Brltish Library Crime Classics series
Contemporary:
Ann Cleeves: Raven Black and White Nights (Shetland series)
Peter May: The Lewis Man
Ian Rankin: In a House of Lies
(What can I say ... I just love Scotland -- and books set there!)
Xinran: The Good Women of China
Historical:
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Delia Owens: Where the Crawdads Sing
Diarmaid MacCulloch: Thomas Cromwell
Tom Reiss: The Black Count
C.j. Sansom: Tombland
Ellis Peters. Brother Cadfael series
Two-way tie between Ladyhawke (Joan D. Vinge's novelization of the movie starring Rutger Hauer, Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer) and, you guessed it ... Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
Hyeongseo Lee: The Girl With the Seven Names
Seriously, with a real life story like this, who even needs thrillers anymore?
Originally, "Best Original Score" translated only into "Best Book-to-Movie Adaptation". But I think this is another case where an Oscar category is capable of two equally valid different interpretations in the book world, and again I decided to go with both of them:
Peter Grainger: An Accidental Death
Aminatta Forna: The Memory of Love
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's narration: Major goosebumps material.
Arthur Conan Doyle: Danger!
Four-way tie between Diarmaid MacCulloch's Thomas Cromwell, Xinran's The Good Women of China, Tom Reiss's The Black Count, and Michelle Obama's Becoming. Four outstanding books that are as engaging as they are informative.
New Encounters with Long-Time Favorites:
Elizabeth Gaskell: My Lady Ludlow
J.K. Rowling: The Casual Vacancy
Ian Rankin: In a House of Lies
C.J. Sansom: Tombland
Favorite Repeat Encounters:
Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility
Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time
Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes series, stand-alone story Danger!
Dorothy L. Sayers: Whose Body?, Five Red Herrings, The Nine Tailors
Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy & Tuppence, and Quin & Satterthwaite series, And Then There Were None, Crooked House, Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, and various short stories
Ngaio Marsh: Roderick Alleyn series
Patricia Wentworth: Miss Silver series
Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael series
Terry Pratchett: Discworld series and Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman)