Coming to you (a little late) with a round up of our twenty favorite books from 2020. This was a challenging year and reading really helped us escape during the worst parts. Hopefully you can find something on this list to check out in 2021! You can shop our full list here.
A’s picks
I read 50 books in 2020, falling a little short of my goal of 52 books a year—I REALLY dropped the ball in March, April, and May when all I could bear to do was watch reruns of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Top Chef to disassociate from our dystopian reality. But between unhealthy reality TV consumption, COVID-19, and a coup, I did manage to read some great books this year. Enjoy!
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Trick Mirror, written by New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, is a collection of essays about the contradictions and delusions of being a young person in the 21st century. To me, these essays are all written through the lens of what it means to be a millennial woman, and the experience of trying to navigate having it all. My favorite essays in the book are The Cult of the Difficult Woman and Always be Optimizing, but I highly recommend reading the whole collection. Jia’s writing is funny, deeply relatable, and one of those books I talked about endlessly with my friends, even outside of book club.
We Came Here to Forget by Andrea Dunlop
We Came Here to Forget is my perfect beach read—it’s the ultimate combination of good writing, great plot, and travel. This was one of the only things I read in April, and I only managed to finish it because of the travel escapism. Most of the book is set in Argentina and follows a young Olympic skier who leaves behind a complicated past, moves to Buenos Aires, and becomes part of the expat scene until she can’t hide from her past any longer. This book was actually a recommendation from E and it really is the perfect weekend or vacation read.
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Home Fire is a modern retelling of Antigone, and focuses on two Pakistani families living in two different worlds in London. I honestly didn’t realize it was a modern version of Antigone until after finishing (oops), but now I want to reread it with that lens. This book is widely acclaimed, was long listed for the Man Booker Prize, and was the winner of the Women’s 2018 Prize for Fiction. I had clearly slept on this book, and loved it. It is beautifully written, and has a thought provoking and impactful final scene. It is the book I have thought the most about after reading, and this definitely deserves more attention in 2021!
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
This has been on all the top 2020 book lists, and it’s for good reason. We both loved this book, as you will see in E’s picks. The Vanishing Half follows two identical twin sisters growing up in a small insulated Southern town. When they are sixteen, the two sisters leave home and are set onto two very different paths. I loved this book and am looking forward to reading more of Brit Bennett’s work. Also look out for the upcoming show on HBO Max, following a crazy bidding war!
Hunger by Roxanne Gay
I have always followed Roxane Gay—she shares my passion for Bravo, has a great Twitter, and is an excellent writer. I have read many of her essays, but I had never read Hunger! Hunger is a memoir covering Gay’s relationship with her body, overeating, sexual assault, and her identity. I really enjoyed this as someone who has struggled with body issues and found this to be an incredibly insightful book that should be required reading for women—someone should have made me read this when I was 18. I am looking forward to reading more of her work in 2021.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me But Me by Beth Kalb
This was my favorite book I read this year. I don’t read a ton of nonfiction (although this list does have a lot of nonfiction…maybe this is a sign), but I saw this at one of my favorite bookstores and decided to pick it up. This book, written by Bess Kalb (whose name I randomly recognized from my Twitter lurking) is a memoir about her relationship with her grandmother, her grandmother’s life, and dealing with her grandmother’s death. I think I loved this book so much because most of us have been unable to see our family with COVID-19, and really reminded me how much I value my relationship with my grandmother. It was also beautifully written—I read this on the subway and actually cried like a baby. It is also going to be a MOVIE! I am truly so excited about this and have forced several friends to read this.
Red at the Bone by Jaqueline Woodson
Set in Brooklyn, this story follows three generations through the emotions of changing neighborhoods, family dynamics, relationships, and ambition. This book is beautifully written. It is also deceptively short, and reading it on a Kindle, I felt like I’d been cheated when it ended so quickly. I wasn’t familiar with the author, but was excited to see she has so many other titles.
Anything by Tana French
I am cheating with this one since this is an author, not a single book, but I discovered Tana French in the last few months of 2020 and loved all of her books! I love a mystery, and for some reason, especially a mystery set in Ireland. I read In the Woods, The Likeness, Faithful Place, Broken Harbour, The Secret Place, The Trespasser, The Witch Elm and The Searcher and tore through them all in November and December. All of her books are really well written and are full of complex twists that keep you guessing all the way. I hate when I can figure out the mystery right away, and Tana French’s books always keep me on my toes. In the Woods, The Likeness, The Faithful Place, Broken Harbour, The Secret Place and The Searcher are all part of a series and are all loosely connected, which I always enjoy! She reminds me of one of my favorite authors, Kate Atkinson.
E’s picks
I read 63 books in 2020—a new record for me! This likely had something to do with the combination of returning to my childhood home (which is filled with books) to quarantine and a lack of literally anything else to do. My favorites this year have a strong theme of escapism and strong female heroines with a dash of romance thrown in! Hopefully you can add some of these to your 2021 reading list!
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A had been telling me to read this book since mid-2019, but I didn’t pick it up until the end of my family Christmas vacation. I actually read this in one sitting on a plane on January 2, 2020 (simpler times). The interview style of the book almost reminds me of a play, but I love the different perspectives and how unreliable everyone is. I love a book about famous people and their problems and Taylor Jenkins Reid never disappoints in this genre. This book is also the slowest of slow burn romances, and I’m here for it.
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
This is cheating because it’s really three books: The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower, and The Winter of the Witch. This series is amazing. I have seen this book recommended on various lists for the past couple of years, but I’ve never been very interested in Russian folklore and for some reason I thought this would be boring. I picked this up the weekend before the 2020 election when I was super stressed and glued to the news 24/7. I read all three books over that weekend and could not put them down. These books follow Vasya, a girl born before her time in medieval Russia. They lean heavily on Russian folklore and the transition from paganism to Christianity. Arden writes about nature so beautifully, and the plot makes these books fly by. I highly recommend when you want to be transported out of reality for a few days.
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
I was obsessed by this book about an Argentinian girl who dreams of being a professional soccer player despite the expectations of her parents and community. wishes. While she’s getting ready for the biggest soccer opportunity of her life, her childhood crush comes back to visit their hometown from his pro team in Europe where he is the newest young star. This is fast and inspiring read about family, class, feminism, and sports.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
I read A’s copy of this directly after she finished it, and we both agreed it was one of our top books of the year. Pretty much every critic agrees with us, but this book covers so much ground from class to race to family to sexuality to transgender rights. If you somehow haven’t read it, grab it when it comes out in paperback in 2021!
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
This is such a pure book. Evvie has her bags packed and is in the car, ready to leave her husband; then she gets a call that he has died in a car accident. Now she’s guiltily stuck somewhere between mourning and being glad he’s gone. Enter Cal, a former pro baseball pitcher who’s been pushed out of the league. He becomes her subletter, and you can imagine what happens next. This was light (despite the premise), but also funny, and the characters are so well done. Also it’s set in a small Maine town which makes me nostalgic for New England.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Another cheat with a two-for-one duology! Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom have been wildly popular in YA circles (and beyond) for years, but this was the first time I actually picked them up. It was May and I was DEEP in quarantine, just looking for something fast to get me in the reading mood. These books worked like a charm. Urban fantasy set in an alternate reality Amsterdam, Six of Crows is a book about trauma, a heist, and chosen family. Even though these are technically YA, I have no shame in admitting they were some of my favorites of the year.
The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller
A lot of people liked Circe more, but something about The Song of Achilles really stuck with me. I love the perspective of Patrocles as the sidekick of Achilles and how he narrates. Greek mythology has always fascinated me. I also love hearing the backstory of the hero. This book has some lovely lines and also made me cry.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This is a hard book to read. It takes place in flashbacks to a boys reform school in the 1960s where Elwood, a promising young Black boy, is unjustly sent for a crime he didn’t commit. The school is not what is appears, not so much a reform school as juvenile detention—and whites and Blacks are treated very differently. This is a heartbreaking book, based on a true story, that examines a situation many of us are unfamiliar with. It’s an important book that sheds light on the roots of racism still alive in the U.S. today.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
A didn’t like this one, but this book had a lot of my favorite components: beautifully written, morally gray characters, and a thought-provoking concept. Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil that allows her to escape her tiny French town where she is being forced into marriage. However, as part of the bargain, no one who meets here can remember her for more than one day, and she can never speak her name allowed. This is epic tale spanning centuries and continents, exploring what is means to lead a meaningful life.
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
A sad and heartbreaking book about a boy who is the sole survivor of a plane crash that kills his whole family. This books is told through varying perspectives of the other passengers on the plane, and Edward, the boy who survived. This is not necessarily a happy book, but it does provide a lot of hope, and the sole survivor of a plane crash concept hooks you from the beginning.
