Every sentence I start to write to describe 2020 either sounds trite, or is a massive understatement. So I’ll just let you fill in your own sentence about how 2020 sucked. I’ll let you know that, in additional to all the national and global dumpster fires, I also hard some hard things in my personal life. All that to say, books were often my one source of comfort this year. There were long stretches where the only thing I could read were funny fantasies or fluffy romances. There were times when I forced myself to read hard, difficult books about the racist foundations of the U.S., to confront what my ancestors had helped build. And there were moments where even reading took too much energy, and I just scrolled on my phone for hours. Whatever 2020 looked like for you, I’m glad you’re still here. I hope you’re still reading and still creating. Here are some books that got me through 2020, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too. (As always, these are books that I read this year, not necessarily ones that only came out this year!)
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The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
I’ll be honest, this book caught me by surprise. I picked it up on a whim, and then completely fell in love with it. I’m sort of over dystopian books, but this one is absolutely worth reading. The plot is unique: Society collapses due to climate crises, as well as most people losing the ability to dream while they sleep. When it’s discovered that Native people can still dream, white people re-create the “Indian boarding schools” from early American history to try and harvest their bones to create a solution. The story follows Native characters on the run. It’s heartbreaking and inspiring and, as a white person, convicting. What really made me love it was the writing style. It’s chock-full of gorgeous descriptions. As in, every single page there was a sentence that I had to stop just to admire.
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Full disclosure: I was confused for maybe half of this book. The premise is understandable enough. Two entities are at war, and have been at war throughout time. They each use agents to travel throughout time and alternate realities, manipulating events small and large to benefit their side. When rival agents start sending letters back and forth, they fall in love, and will have to sacrifice everything. The “letters,” though, aren’t quite so simple – they’re things like mathematical patterns formed from putting a glass of water in an MRI, etched in the pattern of seal fur, hidden in seeds. That’s the part that is kind of confusing, when they describe the letters and I’m like “I don’t understand! how this is a letter! but it is gorgeous so I don’t even care!” Not only is the plot intricate and unique, the writing style is also sublime, making it an entirely enjoyable experience.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. This book utterly destroyed me. I know Schwab is a beloved figure in the bookstagram community, but if I’m being honest, her books are a little hit or miss for me. So while I wanted to like this book, I wasn’t sure I would. It ended up being so much better than I dreamed. Addie LaRue is born in the 1600s, and all she wants is to be free. Before she can be forced into marriage, she makes a desperate deal with a dark god – she can live forever, but no one will ever remember her. She’s lived for 300 years that way, until one day she walks into a bookstore and Henry says three words that will change everything: I remember you. This book is full of sentence after sentence that just astounded me, not only at how beautifully it was written, but also how well it described things I felt but didn’t know how to name. The sense of urgency, of needing to make the most of life, the desperation to find your passion and pursue it…. Schwab just captures it all perfectly.
The Black Veins by Ashia Monet
This is SUCH a fun book. Found family + road trip + magical powers….what more can you ask for?? Although the story centers on Blythe, each of the ensemble characters felt individual and fully realized, and I would die for any of them. The magic system is fun and quirky, and totally fit the book. When Blythe’s family is kidnapped by an opposing magical government, Blythe travels around the U.S. to gather the other Guardians so they can rescue her family. There’s a lovely blend of snark and heartfelt-ness and having each other’s back that makes every scene endearing.
Circe by Madeline Miller
This is another book that is a bookstagram darling…but I just never got around to reading? But I found a hardback copy at a secondhand bookstore back in January, and decided it was fated for me to read. Guess what? It also lives up to the hype. The language of this story is just so beautiful. I know I keep saying that, but honestly it’s such a big factor in what makes me fall in love with a book! I also attended a virtual talk with the author, Madeline Miller, in May, and it was so fascinating to hear her talk about figuring out her characters’ metaphor language. That is so evident in Circe. It’s a retelling of the Greek myth of Circe (the witch whose island the “hero” Odysseus crash lands on, they sleep together for a while, before he’s like ‘whoops I should probably go back home to my wife and kids lol’). Because Circe uses so many herbs and plants to create her spells, Miller realized her “metaphor language,” the kinds of things she references to describe other things, would be all nature-related. It’s such a creative version of the story, and beautifully told.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Look at me, discovering all these unknown authors! I know, I know, but this was my first Neil Gaiman book. My coworker was horrified to learn I hadn’t read anything by him despite being an avid fantasy fan, so she gifted this to me for my birthday, and I read it at the start of lock down. It was exactly the escapist fantasy romp with an edge of darkness that I needed. It tells the story of Richard, a man living a perfectly fine life in London, who gets sucked into the fantasy world below London when stops to help a young woman from that world. I see now why Neil Gaiman is kind of a big deal.
An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir
This was the book that I kicked off my year with, and it was a good start! It’s the first book in a four-book series, which actually just wrapped up this month. This is such a great fantasy story, inspired by the ancient Roman world, about Laia, who is a slave, and Elias, who is a soldier in the oppressing army, but also feels trapped. Laia goes undercover to spy at the school where Elias is training as one of its top students, but also its most reluctant. When they figure out the truth about each other, they team up, and it leads to deadly consequences. This is a series that gets better and better with each book. The world is so creative, and even though it’s inspired by Rome, it also has plenty of non-Western influences, which you don’t see as much, and I really appreciated it. I can’t wait to read the conclusion to the series!
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
Listen. If you didn’t know this by now, let’s get one thing clear: I am trash for Sarah J. Maas. So obviously I was excited for her adult debut. And it was exactly what I wanted: Sarcastic, snarky human girl gets thrown together with a brooding immortal guy, they both work through their trauma together and kick ass, all while falling in love. Of course. More specifically, this one is about Bryce, who is recovering after the brutal murder of her best friend. When more evidence around the murder comes to light, she teams up with angel detective Hunt to solve the mystery. This thing is EIGHT HUNDRED PAGES, and honestly the first two hundred are so are kinda slow. But it picks up, and then the last two hundred pages…hoo boy, just clear your schedule because you won’t want to put the book down once you start. One thing that made this book different from her other work is that it’s not totally a fantasy world. So Bryce is human, and there are cell phones and art galleries and night clubs, but also immortal angels and vampires and magic. It was interesting to see where technology we actually have got replaced, or just improved, with magic.
Binti trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
Sci-fi is not usually my genre, which is why you know I’m not messing around when I include one on my Best Of list. Binti truly was unlike anything I’ve ever read. The style of Nnedi Okorafor is not my favorite, if I’m being honest—it’s a little sparse, without much description. But the characters and worlds she creates are incredible, and well worth overcoming my personal tastes around writing style. The first book in the trilogy, just called Binti, is about a girl named Binti who comes from a remote tribe on Earth, but has been chosen to attend an elite university on a different planet because of her harmonizer skills (it’s a sort of magic system that would take too long for me to explain, but is very cool). But when she’s on the ship to the university, hostile aliens attack and kill everyone—except her, for reasons she doesn’t understand at first. The whole trilogy is a beautiful story of friendship and forgiveness and discovering what makes you, you. Okorafor is Black, and Binti is written as Black (though that’s not what they’re called in the book) in a predominantly white world, so it’s also a view of race and colonialism through a sci-fi context.
Take A Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
Y’ALL. I am obsessed. Rom coms are some of my favorite books, but they’re sooo hard to do well. Talia Hibbert is a MASTER though. Dani Brown is a PhD student, and when she and a security guard at her university go viral, they decide to fake date to bring publicity to his non-profit. Everything about this book is perfect, to be honest. The mental health rep was so good, it nearly made me cry (like, in a good way). I laughed out loud multiple times. It was all just so cute and sweet and steamy at times… I loved it. Her first book, Get A Life, Chloe Brown about Dani’s older sister is also exquisite.
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
This book is SO sweet. It’s about a trans boy named Felix Love…who has never been in love. When pictures of him pre-transition are posted along with his deadname at his school, Felix starts cat-fishing the guy he thinks did it, to prove he’s right and get revenge. But things get all complicated, and ultimately this is such a raw and authentic exploration of being a teenager, especially a marginalized one. It also asks big questions about love, and takes a really nuanced look at love in a way I’ve never read about before. Basically I just want to wrap Felix up in a hug forever.
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
AHH I loved this so much! I decided I wanted to read more graphic novels this year, and I’d seen Heartstopper floating around for a while, so I decided to give it a try. And now I get why it gets all the hype! This story is so sweet and just melt-your-heart cute. Volume One follows the blossoming friendship between Charlie, who is gay, and Nick, a jock who is…straight? He thought? It’s a nuanced look at figuring out who you are and who you love as a teenager. The banter and flirting between Charlie and Nick is so freaking cute, I can’t deal with it.
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
I read this book back in January (you know, a million years ago) and I’m still thinking about it, which is how I know it’s so good. The book kicks off with Emira, a young Black woman, being accused of kidnapping the white girl who she’s a nanny for. The book is also told from the perspective of Alix, the mother of the little girl, who is a #GirlBoss. As you can tell from the summary, it explores race and how well-meaning white people can be harmful and what it’s like to be a young Black woman navigating spaces and society dominated by white people. But it’s also an insightful look at being in your twenties in modern society. Emira is twenty-five when the book starts, with her birthday and thus the loss of health care looming over her. She’s working another job in addition to being a nanny, and she’s trying to navigate dating. It captures all those experiences and how the stress of each one affects other areas of your life so well. In so many ways I could relate, and in the ways I couldn’t (i.e., about race), it was enlightening to see how those experiences intersected.
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert is one of my favorite non-fiction writers, but I had never actually read any of her novels. I picked this one up on a whim, though, and quickly fell in love. She just has such a distinct voice in her writing, whether it’s non-fiction or fiction. The story is about Alma Whittaker, the daughter of a pioneering business man in the 1800s, who becomes a botanist and goes on a journey of self-discovery and love. Gilbert somehow manages to write in a way that both fits the 19th century setting and also makes Alma come alive and feel like your friend that you’re rooting for. Maybe I’m partial because I would love to study plants, but every page was just fascinating and so well-written. I’m also going to be forever mad that this book wasn’t nominated for a Pulitzer Prize because Gilbert is known as the “Eat, Pray, Love” lady. ALSO I know this isn’t contemporary, but it felt silly to create a new header for one historical fiction book, so I just stuck it here.
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
To show how much I loved this book, let me tell you: I read it twice this year. And I’m currently resisting the temptation to read it a third time. (In my defense, I read it in February and then again in June, and basically that’s a hundred years between the two in 2020 time.) The book follows the story of Alex, son of the first female president, and Henry, prince of England. They start out the book as enemies, but when a disaster with a wedding cake happens, they’re forced to pretend to be friends for the media, which leads to them becoming…more than friends. It was just so lovely to see Alex wrestle with figuring himself out—his sexuality, yes, but also what he wants to do with his life, and dealing with anxiety. ALSO it is FREAKING HILARIOUS. Like I laughed out loud both times I read it. It’s honestly been the perfect comfort book this year.
White Rage by Carol Anderson
In large part due to the racial justice movement this summer, a lot of books I read this year revolved around anti-racism and the history of racism in the U.S. While they were all fantastic and I would recommend any one of them, I’m going to pick out this one to be on my favorites list. It falls more under the “history” category than actionable “anti-racism” books, but I think both types of books are necessary. Anderson walks through the aftermath of five significant gains for Black people in American history, such as the abolition of slavery, integration of schools, and electing a Black president. At every turn, as soon as progress is made, white people reacted horrifically, both violently and through racist systems, to suppress Black success. It changes the way you think of American history, and was very convicting.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. edited by Clayborne Carson
At the start of the year, one of my reading goals was to dive into Dr. King’s life and writings. Like many plans this year, it was well meaning and…didn’t go to as expected. I read this autobiography, and part of another biography. BUT this one was fantastic. It uses large chunks of writing that Dr. King had started to write to create an autobiography, and is supplemented with other published works of his to fill in some gaps. Dr. King is one of those figures who is nearly mythologized in school, so it was really interesting and convicting to read about him and remember…he was just a man. Who was pretty young, actually. And who made mistakes and wrestled with decisions and doubted himself. But he also fought for justice and led the way for such huge changes. This book is big, but it’s worth it, to get a deep dive into so many areas of Dr. King’s life, and also balance all the different aspects of his personality and beliefs.
How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe
Randall Munroe is one of my favorite comedy writers, and I adored his first book What If? So I was thrilled to read this book, and it didn’t disappoint. Munroe, using stick figure illustrations, gives wildly over-the-top advice for simple problems, like “how to throw a pool party” (start by digging a giant hole, obviously—don’t worry, that’s covered elsewhere in the book). It’s hilarious, but also teaches you real science. I always come away from his books laughing hard enough to make my stomach sore, and also having learned something.
Have you read any of these? What were your favorite books this year? Let me know in the comments!
