Friday 1 January 2021

2020 books

Back in March 2020 when I heard a rumour that the local Library was closing due to the Covid pandemic, I rushed with my library card in my hand and took out as many books as I could carry. I didn't even have time to choose titles, I just grabbed from the shelves before the doors closed.  Some of those books are on this list, and helped keep me sane and busy. The Library re-opened in August thankfully, but with reduced capacity and lots of hand sanitizing and mask rules. But now we're back into lockdown again until at least January 23. 

January 2020
Leaving Van Gogh - Carol Wallace
The Post Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
The Art Forger - B. A. Shapiro
North Korea Journal - Michael Palin

February 2020
We need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Flight Attendant - Chris Bohjalian
The Mandibles, a Family 2029-2047 - Lionel Shriver (I think everyone should read this after experiencing Covid-19 lockdown)
The Juggler's Children - Carolyn Abraham

March 2020
Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper - Phaedra Patrick
The Mighty Franks - Michael Frank.  (DNF)
Arthur and Sherlock - Michael Sims
The Hotel Neversink - Adam O'Fallon Price
Finders Keepers, A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession - Craig Childs

April 2020
Waiting for Tom Hanks - Kerry Winfrey (DNF, a bit too silly and juvenile)
A Madness of Sunshine - Nalini Singh
Cover of Snow - Jenny Milchman

May 2020
The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway (great book)
The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R King
The Truth According to Us - Annie Barrows
Skizzer - A J Kiesling (predictably silly but I finished it)
The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd (loved this book)

June 2020
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo (absolutely loved this book, I read it twice)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (another book that I loved so much that I read twice!)
Being a Beast, Adventures Across the Species Divide - Charles Foster (very weird)
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris
A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult

July 2020
Oil and Marble - Stephanie Storey
Bridge of Clay - Markus Zusak
Girl - Edna O'Brien
The Wall - John Lanchester
Liberation - Imogen Kealey (very ho-hum)

August 2020
The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel (third in the trilogy)
Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry (DNF)
If I Had Your Face - Frances Cha
Capital - John Lanchester

September 2020
Reservoir 13 - Jon McGregor
The Other Americans - Laila Lalami
Futureface - Alex Wagner
The Genius Plague - David Walton

October 2020
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
Orhan's Inheritance - Aline Ohanesian
The Walk - Richard Paul Evans
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me - Jennifer Teege
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel (apocalypse after a pandemic.... very timely! Good story too.)
Accordion Crimes - E Annie Proulx (I read this years ago, just as good the 2nd time)
A Day Like Any Other, The Great Hamptons Hurricane of 1938 - Genie Chipps Henderson

November 2020
Seven - Farzana Doctor (terrific book)
The Sisters Brothers - Patrick deWitt
Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid
The Shining Girls - Lauren Beukes
The Sleepwalker - June Callwood (true story)
The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen - Syrie James

December 2020
Between - Angie Abdou
The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert (Liked this book)
The Eavesdroppers - Rosie Chard (rather odd)
The Vacationers - Emma Straub
The Mothers - Brit Bennett
Stutter's Casebook, A Junior Hospital Doctor 1839-1841 - E.E.Cockayne and N.J.Stow (transcription of Dr. Stutters notes regarding his patients, their illnesses and treatments while he was a junior doctor in Suffolk, UK..... fascinating reading, and edited by a dear cousin who sadly passed away earlier this year.)

Currently steadily plodding through The Murder of Cleopatra, History's Greatest Cold Case - Pat Brown. Interesting but it's taking me a long time. I'll finish it in 2021.

For a list of books I read in previous years, click on Books at the end of this post.

22 comments:

  1. What a great collection. Some I know, and some I don't. I do love books. Education, comfort and escape - sometimes in the same volume.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I agree, getting my nose into a good book is a great pleasure.

      Delete
  2. Wow you've read loads of books!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of my reading is a few chapters at bedtime. Sometimes an hour or so in the afternoon, especially through the pandemic shutdowns.

      Delete
  3. Great selections here. We did a few n our book club. The Sisters Brothers and The Book Thief were great reads.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked those two books. I've never joined a book club.... perhaps I should in 2021.

      Delete
  4. I'm saving your list! I am always looking for good books to read. I've read several on your list. I posted my 2020 list on Facebook the other day, here it is, ratings out of 5.

    1. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - 4
    2. Sheltering Rain by JoJo Moyes - 4
    3. The Luminous Sea by Melissa Barbeau - 5
    4. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli - 3.5
    5. Lucky Us by Amy Bloom - 3.5
    6. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - 5
    7. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness - 4
    8. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness - 3.5
    9. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng - 5
    10. You Think It, I'll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld - 3.5
    11. The Rosie Result by Graeme Simsion - 3
    12. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick - 5
    13. The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes - 4
    14. The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson - 3
    15. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer - 4.5
    16. The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer - 4
    17. This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer - 4
    18. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - 5
    19. Ajax Penumbra 1969 by Robin Sloan - 4
    20. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin - 4
    21. One Day in December by Josie Silver - 4
    22. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman - 4
    23. The Humans by Matt Haig - 4
    24. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan - 4
    25. The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - 3.5
    26. Blood Wounds by Susan Beth Pfeffer - 2.5
    27. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng - 5
    28. Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg - 4.5
    29. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple - 3.5
    30. The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick - 3
    31. Finding Chika by Mitch Albom - 3
    32. The Warden’s Daughter by Jerry Spinelli - 3.5
    33. After the End by Clare Mackintosh – 3
    34. The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows - 3
    35. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver - 4.5
    36. I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones - 4
    37. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott - 4
    38. The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon - 4.5
    39. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman - 3.5
    40. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling - 3.5
    41. Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit - 4.5
    42. The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin - 4.5
    43. The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde - 4
    44. Big Brother by Lionel Shriver - 3.5
    45. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid - 3.5
    46. The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - 4.5
    47. The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg - 3.5
    48. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley - 4
    49. Rise & Shine, Benedict Stone by Phaedra Patrick - 3.5
    50. Normal People by Sally Rooney - 2
    51. The Shade of the Moon by Susan Beth Pfeffer - 2.5
    52. Elefant by Martin Suter - 5
    53. Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon - 4.5
    54. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson - 5

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Karen.... thanks for your list, I'll see if our local library has any of your "5"s!

      Delete
  5. Very impressive list, there's nothing like a good read especially in a lockdown. We are just beginning our 3rd lockdown which will run till the end of the month and probably longer. Back to the books. :) Here's to a happy and healthy 2021.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, getting stuck into a good book gives us an escape from all the trials of being trapped in a Covid lockdown. I hope we all see the end of this soon. Meanwhile have a happy healthy and Covid-free 2021.

      Delete
  6. Always good to have an emergency supply of reading material. Snow Falling on Cedars was a wonderful prose poem, loved it. The Mirror and the Light, not so much, though I was riveted by the earlier two volumes in the series. This one was less energetic in some way. Maybe I was just saturated with Mantel, wonderful though she is. Such a fun age was like reading Twitter at length, gave it fifty pages then returned it. I think this may be an age thing, since the people who loved and promoted it to their friends were at least one or more generations younger than I. I lost patience with it! And now you've reminded me about Evaristo. I must find that one. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo is a great book, a "read twice" sort of book, make sure you find a copy somewhere!
      And I'm recommending Canadian author Emily St John Mandel, I am enjoying her books.

      Delete
  7. Wow, you've consumed a whole lot of books.
    I used to be a voracious reader.
    Now I just don't seem to get into them. Maybe it's my age or I'm just too lazy to sit down and read!
    some of your choices sound interesting..who knows? It's a new year and we are still hunkered down....
    Sue

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are just choosing the wrong books! What else is there to do in a lockdown?

      Delete
  8. You were such an avid reader last year, or you couldn’t help under the circumstances, but anyway reading is always one of the most beneficial pastimes. From your list, I read Snow Falling on Cedars and The Book Thief, both of which I immensely enjoyed, and the latter will be one of my lifetime favorites. Wish you a healthy and joyful year 2021.

    Yoko

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Book Thief is one of my lifetime favourites too. The tale is written from and intriguing angle.

      Delete
  9. Thanks for the recommendations. I've read a few of the ones on your list. Looking forward to pick up some that you highly recommended.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually I recommend all the books that I actually finished, some more than others, and not the DNF ones. I'm ready to start a new list for 2021, once the library reopens!

      Delete
  10. My wife keeps track of the books she reads in this fashion, but I have never done so. I do have the impression that I have read more during COVID confinement, however, at one point going on a bit of a Margaret Atwood binge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I keep track mainly so I don't get the same book twice! Yes, Covid has given us quite a bit more free reading time than usual.

      Delete

All comments welcome.... unless your name is Anonymous..