Your BEST BOOKS of 2020
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1PaperbackPirate
It's been quite a year, but hopefully it only helped the quantity of books read and didn't hurt the quality!
What were your 10 favorite books read this year? Are you going to struggle to get your list down to 10? Are you going to struggle to come up with 10?
Tell us your best reads of the year, and if you're inclined, one line about why they made the list. Our TBR piles will continue to grow!
Best of 2006
Best of 2007
Best of 2008
Best of 2009
Best of 2010
Best of 2011
Best of 2012
Best of 2013
Best of 2014
Best of 2015
Best of 2016
Best of 2017
Best of 2018
Best of 2019
Happy list making!
What were your 10 favorite books read this year? Are you going to struggle to get your list down to 10? Are you going to struggle to come up with 10?
Tell us your best reads of the year, and if you're inclined, one line about why they made the list. Our TBR piles will continue to grow!
Best of 2006
Best of 2007
Best of 2008
Best of 2009
Best of 2010
Best of 2011
Best of 2012
Best of 2013
Best of 2014
Best of 2015
Best of 2016
Best of 2017
Best of 2018
Best of 2019
Happy list making!
2JulieLill
My Favorite Ten of 2020
Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West
More Than This by Patrick Ness
The Splendid and The Vile by Malcolm Gladwell
Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic
Me By Elton John
Educated by Tara Westover
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West
More Than This by Patrick Ness
The Splendid and The Vile by Malcolm Gladwell
Indianapolis by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic
Me By Elton John
Educated by Tara Westover
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
3Molly3028
No special order
(4 audios/2 eBooks)
Guest List by Foley
American Dirt by Cummins
Other Windsor Girl by Blalock
Woman Before Wallis by Turnbull
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
Disloyal by Michael Cohen
(4 audios/2 eBooks)
Guest List by Foley
American Dirt by Cummins
Other Windsor Girl by Blalock
Woman Before Wallis by Turnbull
Too Much and Never Enough by Mary Trump
Disloyal by Michael Cohen
4JulieLill
>3 Molly3028: The Mary Trump book was good!
5ahef1963
My favourite book of 2020 is, without question, Katherine by Anya Seton. It is a work of historical fiction, intricately researched, detailed and smooth-flowing in its writing. I loved it.
The rest are not in any order:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - science fiction, character-driven, imaginative, a page-turner.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - memoir, rich and darkly amusing, feeds my long-held interest in South African politics and race.
The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup - crime fiction, amongst the best Scandinavian crime fiction I've read. Lots of twists and turns.
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn - historical fiction meets time travel meets Jane Austen. Loved this book.
Longbourn by Jo Baker - fascinating historical fiction about the lives and conditions of the below-stairs staff in the Bennet household. What an awful time servants had of it.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - wonderful story-telling about the various members of a band in the 1970s. Written as a long interview with the fictional band.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins - gave me a much greater understanding about why people leave their homes in Mexico/Central America to make their way to the US.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - WWII historical fiction, based on true events. Really interesting to see this new-to-me role that women played in the war.
The rest are not in any order:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - science fiction, character-driven, imaginative, a page-turner.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - memoir, rich and darkly amusing, feeds my long-held interest in South African politics and race.
The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup - crime fiction, amongst the best Scandinavian crime fiction I've read. Lots of twists and turns.
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn - historical fiction meets time travel meets Jane Austen. Loved this book.
Longbourn by Jo Baker - fascinating historical fiction about the lives and conditions of the below-stairs staff in the Bennet household. What an awful time servants had of it.
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - wonderful story-telling about the various members of a band in the 1970s. Written as a long interview with the fictional band.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins - gave me a much greater understanding about why people leave their homes in Mexico/Central America to make their way to the US.
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - WWII historical fiction, based on true events. Really interesting to see this new-to-me role that women played in the war.
6JulieLill
>5 ahef1963: I loved Daisy Jones and the Six which I read last year and was one of my favorites that year!
7Shrike58
Fiction; basically in order:
Circe
A Memory Called Empire
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Fifth Season
The Burning God
Non-fiction; no particular order:
Bloody Sixteen
A Cold Welcome
Curse on this Country
Unlikely General
The Fortress
The fiction wasn't that hard as I've been working up a personal year in review for my SF club's newsletter, so I've been thinking about it for awhile. Admittedly, you could throw a blanket over my top ten but these novels were basically the whole package in terms of overall quality (prose, characterization, plot, emotional impact, etc.)
As for the non-fiction, Fey made the list because this is probably the best history I've seen yet of the USN's contribution to the air war in Vietnam. White made the list because it represents the continuing effort to incorporate the impact of climate on history. I've been studying modern Japanese history for awhile but Orbach provided the best explanation of a number of tendencies in pre-1945 Japan that I've ever seen. Mary Stockwell made a marble man live. Watson is one of our best current historians of the Great War, and he puts the Przemysl battle into the wider context of the post-1918 "shatter zone" that was (is?) Central and Eastern Europe. These books also all read well as narratives, and are more than just info dumps.
Circe
A Memory Called Empire
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Fifth Season
The Burning God
Non-fiction; no particular order:
Bloody Sixteen
A Cold Welcome
Curse on this Country
Unlikely General
The Fortress
The fiction wasn't that hard as I've been working up a personal year in review for my SF club's newsletter, so I've been thinking about it for awhile. Admittedly, you could throw a blanket over my top ten but these novels were basically the whole package in terms of overall quality (prose, characterization, plot, emotional impact, etc.)
As for the non-fiction, Fey made the list because this is probably the best history I've seen yet of the USN's contribution to the air war in Vietnam. White made the list because it represents the continuing effort to incorporate the impact of climate on history. I've been studying modern Japanese history for awhile but Orbach provided the best explanation of a number of tendencies in pre-1945 Japan that I've ever seen. Mary Stockwell made a marble man live. Watson is one of our best current historians of the Great War, and he puts the Przemysl battle into the wider context of the post-1918 "shatter zone" that was (is?) Central and Eastern Europe. These books also all read well as narratives, and are more than just info dumps.
8PaperbackPirate
>2 JulieLill: Looks like you had a lot of great nonfiction this year!
9JulieLill
>8 PaperbackPirate: I read a lot of genres every year but non-fiction/biography is one of my favorite genres and I lucked out on some great ones this year.
10LyndaInOregon
It just so happens that my "Best of" list for 2020 comes out at exactly ten titles! In alphabetical order:
The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver
Dune, Frank Herbert (a re-read)
Housebroken, Laurie Notaro
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker
Prince of Frogtown, Rick Bragg
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Soul Music, Terry Pratchett (another re-read)
Stone Heart, Diane Glancy
Things I Learned from Knitting, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Word by Word, Kory Stamper
Overall, I was up just a tad (122 in 2020; 120 in 2019), with a notable increase in nonfiction (one-third of the total) and also a notable increase in DNF books -- 15 altogether. We’ll blame it on COVID (why not? Everything else is!), which may have made me more than usually reluctant to invest my time in something that doesn’t appear likely to provide an emotional payoff.
The Bone Collector, Jeffery Deaver
Dune, Frank Herbert (a re-read)
Housebroken, Laurie Notaro
One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow, Olivia Hawker
Prince of Frogtown, Rick Bragg
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
Soul Music, Terry Pratchett (another re-read)
Stone Heart, Diane Glancy
Things I Learned from Knitting, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Word by Word, Kory Stamper
Overall, I was up just a tad (122 in 2020; 120 in 2019), with a notable increase in nonfiction (one-third of the total) and also a notable increase in DNF books -- 15 altogether. We’ll blame it on COVID (why not? Everything else is!), which may have made me more than usually reluctant to invest my time in something that doesn’t appear likely to provide an emotional payoff.
11PaperbackPirate
Thank you for sharing your lists everyone!
I cheated and picked 11. Here they are in the order I read them:
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis
I cheated and picked 11. Here they are in the order I read them:
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Overground Railroad: The Green Book & Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis
12Copperskye
Thanks for starting the thread, Pirate!
Here are my favorites, in the order read:
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Writers & Lovers by Lily King
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Hiding in Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Happy New Year, all!
Here are my favorites, in the order read:
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Writers & Lovers by Lily King
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Hiding in Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Happy New Year, all!
13lamplight
More than 10, but here is what I listed as my favourites on another thread. I smile when I look at each title, and can't bring myself to delete any of them from this list.
The Midwife. A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. — nonfiction
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See -- fiction
My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman -- fiction
Sensible Shoes. A Story About the Spiritual Journey by Sharon Garlough Brown -- Christian fiction
Daughter of Cana by Angela Hunt -- Christian fiction
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens -- fiction
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle -- Canadian non-fiction
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes -- fiction
The Stranger in the Woods. The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel -- Nonfiction
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman — fiction
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout -- fiction
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict -- nonfiction
and all of the Louise Penny books
The Midwife. A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. — nonfiction
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See -- fiction
My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman -- fiction
Sensible Shoes. A Story About the Spiritual Journey by Sharon Garlough Brown -- Christian fiction
Daughter of Cana by Angela Hunt -- Christian fiction
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens -- fiction
From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle -- Canadian non-fiction
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes -- fiction
The Stranger in the Woods. The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel -- Nonfiction
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman — fiction
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout -- fiction
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict -- nonfiction
and all of the Louise Penny books
15Jenson_AKA_DL
My top favorite for 2020 was the Widdershins (Whyborne and Griffin) series by Jordan L. Hawk. The series is a fantasy/adventure/romance (m/m) taking place in Massachusetts beginning in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Since the series is 11 books and 4 short stories I guess that pretty much covers my entire 10 favorite books LOL. Although I simply enjoyed the first book, I fell in love with the story over the ongoing course of the series.
