Books Worth Reading in 2020

What books did you love in 2020?

We’ve had a LOT to deal with in 2020, right? But I know one thing, books did not let me down this year.

I’ve read 40 books so far. I wanted to share the most memorable with you here. I put them in four categories and kept most descriptions to two sentences or less!

I keep track of my books on Goodreads and the entire list is here, if you’re interested. 

4 Books that Got (and Kept) Me Thinking about Race / Anti-Racism

The events of summer 2020 - in particular, the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor -  really woke me up. And yes, I’m late to this work of racial justice. These books helped me. I’m purposely including two works of fiction because they helped me stay with the topic and look at it in a new way when the non-fiction works felt too heavy.

  1. The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming our Communities Through Mindfulness - Rhonda Magee

    • Learning to have compassion for yourself and include mindfulness in racial justice work. This book kept me from despairing and giving up on anti-racism learning.

  2. The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power - Desmond Cole

    • For anyone who thinks that racism isn’t happening in Canada. 

  3. The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

    • Twin light-skinned black sisters follow very different paths after one twin discovers she can pass as white and disappears from everyone who used to know her.

  4. Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid

    • A young black woman is wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a white child, and everyone in her life has opinions about how that should be handled.

My Top Fiction

  1. The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern

    • One story and a thousand stories in this utterly captivating tale! A college student finds a very old book that tells a very specific story of something that happened to him. But he’s never told anyone this story, so what on earth is going on?

  2. The Farm - Joanne Ramos

    • If women could earn a life-changing amount of money and be completely taken care of by being surrogate mothers for those who can’t (or don’t want to) conceive, wouldn’t that be a win-win for everyone? Well...

  3. The Book of Longings - Sue Monk Kidd

    • Anna, the wife of Jesus tells her story.

  4. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

    • A beautiful story. Now I know why everyone was raving about this book in 2019.

  5. How to Pronounce Knife - Souvankham Thammavongsa

    • A book of short stories telling a range of experiences of Lao newcomers to Canada. Also winner of the 2020 Giller prize!
       

Honourable Mentions (because I love speculative fiction)

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

  • A girl discovers she can taste the emotions of those who cook her food, and now she knows too much.

Nothing to See Here - Kevin Willson

  • Kids who burst into flames when stressed out need babysitters too, you know.

My Top 3 Non-Fiction

  1. Untamed - Glennon Doyle

    • If you haven’t heard of this book, get out from whatever rock you’ve been hiding under and pick this up. Because you’re a goddamn cheetah, and you need to know it.
       

  2. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed - Lori Gottlieb

    • What happens when a therapist’s life falls apart and she needs help to get through it...from a therapist?
       

  3. Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life - Emily Nagoski 

    • Every woman should read this… and probably every hetero/bi man too. Sex-positive, affirming and I learned so much!

2 Incredible Audiobook Experiences

  1. The Greatest Love Story Ever Told - Megan Mullally & Nick Offerman

    • This audiobook is a ridiculous hilarious romp in the park. My partner and I listened while doing a renovation to our 1979 trailer this summer. We don’t often enjoy the same types of books so this was a treat! Longtime couple Nick & Megan are funny, sweet and VERY inappropriate. NSFW or if young kids are listening.

  2. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know - Malcolm Gladwell 

    • I love Gladwell and this did NOT disappoint. This is more of an audio experience than a book, because it includes original audio clips from interviews and videos, rather than just the author narrating the whole thing.

Fun fact: almost all of my non-fiction reads are audiobooks.

I’d love to hear, what are YOUR most memorable books of the year? Click here and let me know!

Karen Styles#books2020, #whattoreadComment