Coming up with my best books of 2020 was a bit challenging. 2021 will be way more robust in terms of what I devour, but let’s go ahead and work with what we have.
Even though I am an avid reader, the first few months of the year were a veritable dead zone of literature. With the accident, surgery, meds, and emotional recovery, I was literally unable to focus on anything. Words on a page blurred, ran together, and gave me a headache. There was a time I could barely concentrate on movies and TV, let alone the written word.
It was a sad, sad time.
But I’m back and reading and happy to share My Best Books of 2020! Here they are, in no particular order!
Where The Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Truthfully, I didn’t want to read this book. There was too much hype, and I couldn’t imagine liking it at all, let alone having it end up in my best books of 2020.
Where The Crawdads Sing is masterfully pieced together, and beautifully detailed. I love narration and the characters, even the ones who aren’t particularly likeable.
At the heart, this is a murder mystery, but to solve the crime, readers are treated to rich storytelling and a twisting, turning, looping plot with a stunning twist.
I would 100% read it again.
The Alice Network – Kate Quinn
A librarian friend suggested The Alice Network to me, and at first, I didn’t think I would really be into it. I was wrong.
Quinn writes of the women who trained to be part of a real-life spy network that infiltrated the enemy in 1915. We follow Charlie St. Clair on her quest to find her missing cousin in Nazi-occupied France, and meet Eve Gardiner, the terrifying and bitter woman she convinces to help her.
Of course, nothing is as it appears, Eve bears her own secrets of a hidden life long ago, and Quinn weaves the fabric of several timelines to follow the narratives of both women on their quest. I couldn’t put it down.
I loved it so much that I asked for The Huntress, another Quinn novel, for Christmas.
Such A Fun Age – Kiley Reid
This made my list of best books of 2020 after several recommendations from friends. According to Amazon, this “is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.”
In a time when I am trying to expand the authors I read, Such A Fun Age was a great way to start. Reid is a phenomenal storyteller, and presented the perspectives of both protagonists with eloquent clarity. There were many times when I felt pushed out of my comfort zone, and even unsettled by things happening in the plot, but ultimately, things ended in a way that made perfect sense, even if it wasn’t a happy ending for everyone.
The Testaments: A Novel (The Handmaid’s Tale) – Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood has long been one of my favorite authors, and The Handmaid’s Tale one of my favorite books.
With The Testaments, Atwood returns to give us a bit of the next piece of the story of Gilead since we last saw Offred, and what a story it is. Told from the perspective of three narrators (including Aunt Lydia!!!!), readers get first-hand accounts of all the corruption, betrayal, and lies that make up this horrifying, dystopian world.
It didn’t take me long to get through this novel. I was so excited to see how everything would come together in the very satisfying conclusion. Will there be more? Not even Atwood can say for sure, but I would be incredibly pleased to have another chapter in this incredible saga.
So What’s Next?
I have a fairly robust to-read list for the upcoming weeks.
- The Stand, by Stephen King
- Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
- Bring Up The Bodies, by Hilary Mantel
- The Mirror & the Light, by Hilary Mantel
- The Huntress, by Kate Quinn
- Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams (not pictured)
I finished The Stand a few days ago and am moving right along. And yes, I realize there aren’t any running or fitness books, but I’m just not in love with non-fiction. I have such limited reading time that I would rather fill it with beautiful (or grotesque) stories than realism.
Want to keep up with my progress? Follow me on GoodReads!
I am linking up with Kookyrunner and Zenaida this Tuesday for Tuesday Topics!
What are your favorite books of 2020? Have you read any of these?
I think if it hadn’t been for the hype around “Where The Crawdads Sing” I would have liked the book. But with the hype, I had such great expectations that the book didn’t fulfil.
I’ll look into “Such a fun age”. It sounds intriguing! Thanks, Jenn!
Catrina recently posted…My Running Goals for 2021
I would definitely check it out.
I normally shy away from the popular books, but I couldn’t get in to the book store to really browse, and I was stumped for ideas. I’m glad I took the leap.
Looks like you read some fantastic books last year. ‘Such a Fun Age’ sounds really interesting – I think I’ll check that one out!
It was excellent. Not comfortable in a lot of ways, but that’s ok.
I love that you didn’t have high expectations of the first two and then ended up really enjoying them! I love when that happens to me! Thanks for sharing – you’ve given me a few titles to think about getting as this is the year I return to reading more regularly!
The thing is that I don’t love books other people normally do. I don’t like light, or short, or easy reads. And I don’t care about happy endings. I want good characters, interesting stories, and if it means that things aren’t “happily ever after”, I’m good with that.
Definitely check these out!
This is great! I loved Such a Fun Age. Oddly, I didn’t love Where the Crawdads Sing as much as EVERYONE else 🙂 But sometimes I think my enjoyment of a book is so much about when I’m reading it. i.e. I seem to love books I read on flights or camping or travel, but when I’m fitting in reading before sleeping, I don’t get as emotionally invested as maybe my head isn’t in it as much? So I have a feeling I would have loved that one too.
I have Testaments on my night stand as next up! Excited to read it.
Great suggestions!
I think you will LOVE The Testaments. It’s just brilliant.
Now that I’m back in the reading game, it’s pretty awful. I just wander the house with a book. Helping A with schoolwork? Read my book. Making dinner? Read my book. Working? Oh, let’s take a break and read my book LOL.
Great mix of reads! Sadly I don’t read as much as I’d like these days. My free time is limited, and after spending the bulk of my day on the computer (at work), my eyes are ready for downtime once I get back home. I much prefer fiction, though, over “real life.”
I only read hard copy books so it’s a little different than staring at a screen. At least that’s what I tell myself.
I read several of those books you posted above–I loved Where the Crawdads Sing. My favorite book from last year would be hard to pick–there were several: Betty, When These Mountains Burn, The Vanishing Half, Shuggie Bain, and Valentine were probably my favorites. But I don’t usually finish the bad ones, so there’s that…
Oh, really? I will rush through books I don’t like, but there are so few I’ve actually never finished. Or if I don’t finish at the moment, I will come back to them. I’m having a really hard time with The Goldfinch, but I will get it done. Eventually.
I’m totally with you on Crawdads – I got turned off by the hype but once I read it I was just like “hey there’s a reason for all of that hype”. I read Alice a while back and have good memories. I don’t “read” nonfiction and running books…I listen to them on audio books while walking the dog or doing housework. Although I really like them, for whatever reason I just can’t concentrate on nonfiction. I think it’s because like you I don’t have a lot of time to read so when I do I want the escapism of fiction.
I don’t really process audio books very well, so I tend to skip out on those, no matter the subject.
Hooray, I’ve read three of your top books! I was wary of Crawdads and the hype but did enjoy it in the end. I loved Such a Fun Age and you might enjoy An American Marriage and The Vanishing Half which people often read alongside it. Also The Girl with the Louding Voice made my top 10 this year and certainly expands the scope of our reading!
My top 16 of the year are here, you might find something interesting on there as we overlapped so much here! Good luck with your hefty reading pile! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2021/01/01/state-of-the-tbr-january-2021-and-reading-stats-best-books-of-2020/
Awesome! Thank you! I love having books in the pile!
My books weren’t running or fitness related either. I’ve heard of “Where The Crawdads Sing” but not the other ones. I will have to check them out at the library.
Thanks for linking up with us!
Always a great link-up!
Definitely check them out!
Hah. How were we not Goodreads friends? Fixing that right now. Have you read ‘Salem’s Lot? That is my favorite King with The Stand and Green Mile rounding out the top three.
I read a lot of non-fiction, but I find myself enjoying fictiom more than I expect. Similarly resistant to Crawdads, but I’ll get to it this year I think/hope.
Hello Jenn! It was sad to know about your accident, but it’s good that you recovered yourself from it. And sharing this amazing collection of books is awesome. I like it too much, especially “The Alice Network”. Thanks, keep writing!