My favourite books of 2020

Wow, 2020 has been quite the year. I read quite a bit in the beginning of the year because my dad had an accident and I was flying back and forth and spending lots of time in the hospital with him. Then, of course, the pandemic struck and we’ve been under varying levels of restrictions ever since. At first, I couldn’t seem to concentrate, but I eventually got my reading mojo back and then started reading voraciously again.

I noticed that in general I read a lot more light books than usual: a lot more romance, more comedic books, just more low-stakes books in general. I also realize, looking at my Goodreads, that I only rated a few books as five stars. I read quite a few four star books, too, but this year more than most, I kept going if something was only three or even two stars. It was like, “What else do I have to do with my time? And also, I don’t have the energy to find a different book. Meh.”

So that’s it: my 2020 reading in a nutshell. Here we go!

The Searcher by Tana French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Like its protagonist, Cal, this book starts off deceptively slow and deliberate. Cal is a quiet, salt of the earth American, a former big city cop who has retired young to lead the quiet life in a rural Irish village. Things do happen in the beginning of the book, but slowly. Once the plot snaps into action, however, it’s crackling with urgency and the emotional stakes are high. I really enjoyed this, even more than The Witch Elm, which I enjoyed plenty. I thought it was just as good as In the Woods or Broken Harbour, two of Tana French’s best in my opinion.

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first 90% of this book was just what I wanted in a pandemic book: funny, easy to read, good chemistry between the two main characters in an enemies to lovers situation. The last 10%, ehh. It’s the epilogue I didn’t care for. There’s a POV switch and I was just like…why?

That said, it definitely didn’t spoil the book for me. I really liked Olive and Ethan and Olive’s huge loving family, especially her twin sister. I liked that Olive had good relationships with her sister and cousins and wasn’t one of those weird romance novel creations with no female friends at all. The premise of how they end up on the pretend honeymoon was completely far fetched, yet you could sort of see it really happening. And you know what, unrealistic or not, who doesn’t want to imagine a nice trip to Maui to an all expenses paid resort, with a smart, sexy Mr. Darcy type that you totally fall for. This book was MADE for pandemic reading. Perfect escapist fantasy. The conflict/problem is thankfully not drawn out too long in the end, but is meaningful enough that one gets invested in it, and well resolved enough to be satisfying.

Plus, and this is random, I loved that a big point was made of the main character being smart and specializing in knowledge about vaccines and why they are important. It just made me like the book even more.

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I finished this one with a sigh of satisfaction. Oh how I enjoyed this novel! The audiobook narrator, Linda Lavin (the actress who played Alice in the show of the same name) was perfect, and the book’s narrator, Addie Baum, is someone I would genuinely like to be friends with. Or have as a grandmother.

I know some people felt this was a simplistic story, but I thought for what it was, it was perfect. The framing device is that it is 1985, and Addie’s granddaughter Ava is interviewing 85 year old Addie about her life as a Jewish woman born in the US to Russian immigrant parents, growing up in Boston at the turn of the century. The bulk of the book covers 1900 to the late 1920s, just before the stock market crash, and we hear Addie’s reminiscences about her sisters, her friends, her jobs, and her romantic relationships.

Addie’s life is not easy–she must contend with familial and societal trauma. Her mother, no stranger to trauma herself, takes it out on Addie and her siblings. World War One happens, and then afterwards, the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (relevant today, of course). Racism, child labour, misogyny and anti-semitism are threaded throughout the American experience. Yet Addie has a joie de vivre that is hard to suppress. She is intelligent, inquisitive, kind, and self-reflective; she knows the deck is stacked against her in many ways, but she is determined and open hearted, and she keeps reaching out–to books, to friends, to employers, to her family, and eventually to romantic love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I listened to a few chapters each night and the time flew by while I was listening. The author doesn’t whitewash the ugly history of the early 20th century, but she pays tribute to people like Addie who care deeply about social justice, and work to fight the system and support the underdog, even while they themselves are underdogs.

I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to say that Addie’s story has a happy ending. But it is not an unrealistically happy ending. There are tragedies and Addie and her family and friends have to learn to cope. But Addie never stops seeking to balance that tragedy with happiness, and she recognizes her good fortune that she is able to.

This book is very different from the other book I’ve read by this author (The Red Tent). However, one thing both have in common is how they highlight the strengths of women in adverse situations, and they both celebrate women’s friendships. As someone who has been fortunate, like Addie, to have wonderful women friends, I loved reading this uplifting but realistic account of women supporting each other, even when they don’t always agree.

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[parental abuse, suicide, child death, sexual assault, mention of pregnancy loss (hide spoiler)].

The Holdout by Graham Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a good page-turner! As my friend Doug said, although this book has a good mystery, a big part of what makes it so interesting is the inside look at a long jury trial. Although I would not necessarily describe very many of the characters as likeable, they were at least pretty well drawn and interesting. (I did have a soft spot for Maya, the main character.) For anyone interested in the inner workings of juries, The Twelve is a great Belgian TV show on Netflix about a jury trial; I’d recommend it for anyone who liked this book.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and although the narrator kind of annoyed me a bit at first, I was glad I stuck with listening to it (rather than switching to the print version), because she grew on me, and I started to appreciate the way she differentiated between characters. I think maybe the first hour or so, the narrator was just too…breathy or something. She does this weird thing with words ending on a “M” sound, like “living roommmhhhhmmmm.” But either she stopped doing it after a while, or I stopped noticing it. I also sped it up to 1.10x normal speed, which was perfect.

Conviction by Denise Mina
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the first Denise Mina for me, and I enjoyed it a lot! It was quite the ride, exciting and twisty and fast-paced. There is a murder mystery, a main character with a mysterious past, and a road trip/chase across the continent. The narrator, Anna, and her sidekick, Fin, are engaging, smart, and likeable, despite being flawed (who isn’t?); I really liked their unconventional and reluctant friendship. There are some bad guys who are actually quite scary, but the story is still more on the fun and thrilling side than the dead serious and traumatic side (although, caveat: there are some potentially triggering events in the book, involving a non-graphic recounting of violent sexual assault).

Interestingly, this is the third book I’ve picked up recently that features a true crime podcast as a main plot point.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in one afternoon; I couldn’t put it down. The novel is centred around Emira, a 25 year old young Black woman who is post-university but hasn’t been able to find a steady job yet. She is a regular babysitter for Alix, a wealthy white blogger/influencer who needs child care so she can write a book.

I really, really like the way the author explores race issues with a clear, wry voice that never feels didactic. Emira is perfectly drawn–young, figuring herself out, loyal to her friends (who in turn are loyal to her), thoughtful about race and politics but also not willing to conform to white people’s expectations of how she should be thinking about race and politics.

And oh, the white people in this book. So much cringe. They’re so certain they’re right; they’re so certain they’re woke. Oh my god. I was often left shaking my head as I was reading this marvellous trainwreck that I couldn’t look away from.

I will definitely seek out Kiley Reid’s next novel.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this, the second book I’ve read by Liane Moriarty. I thought it was much better than Nine Perfect Strangers, mostly because of the ending. The structure is clever–we find out from the beginning that there has been a death, the death happened at the trivia night fundraiser hosted by the local elementary school, and the police suspect it was a murder. But we don’t know who was murdered and we don’t know who the suspects are, and we spend the rest of the book slowly piecing together what kind of community it is, what the main characters’ lives are like, and how they’re connected to each other. The conceit of alternating three main limited omniscient third person narratives, interspersed with snippets from post-trivia night interviews by other kindergarten parents, works really well.

Someone on Goodreads said this is “the funniest book about murder and domestic violence” they’d read. It’s a good description; I’d add in bullying and sexual assault. That probably doesn’t sound too appealing, but I think it’s fair to let readers know that the themes of the book aren’t all hilarious and light, though there’s certainly plenty of humour and lighter moments. It’s a tricky tightrope, combining humour with such heavy topics, but I think the author walks it well. The funny parts are really quite funny, and the not-funny parts are heart-stopping and heart-rending. Moriarty has clearly done her research on domestic violence, the cycle of abuse, and its effect on the survivors.

I really liked each of the three main characters, for different reasons. It would have been easy for the author to turn them into stereotypes, but she didn’t do that, and each is pretty well rounded and endearing in her own way. The dialogue is quick and sharp, and the situations are heightened but not absurd. I don’t have kids of my own, but based on friends’ stories about their children’s peers and other parents, I don’t think the parts of the story that deal with interparental squabbling are completely farfetched.

Overall, this was an enjoyable listen for me. The only reason it took me so long to finish is because I originally borrowed it from the library as an e-book, and at the beginning of the pandemic I just couldn’t concentrate enough to finish anything, so it expired and I had to go back on the wait list. This time I checked out the audiobook, and once I started listening again, I finished it in under a week. The audiobook narrator was very good, but if, like me, you find her a touch too slow, turn the speed up to 1.25x and the narration will sound perfect.

You’re the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion by Meera Shah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You can read my previous blog review here.

Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was very compelling! What an irresistible mystery: Beth, the wryly witty, self-aware, likeable protagonist, sees her former best friend Flora for the first time in 12 years. Impossibly, though Flora’s definitely older, her two children seem not to have aged at all, and are still three and five years old rather than the 15 and 17 they ought to be. How can that be??

I liked Beth and her family, especially her teenaged daughter who teams up with her, Nancy Drew style. I also liked the plot twists that made me want to keep listening and find out what was really going on with Flora and her family. It’s kind of a farfetched story (if you’re looking for realism, look elsewhere) but nevertheless I found it quite refreshing that multiple characters actually believe Beth when she reports the things she observes/discovers; I’m a bit over the kind of story where the protagonist learns something and when she tries to tell other people none of them are willing to believe her and they all think she’s just crazy. Then—surprise! She was right all along. Tiresome trope.

The audiobook narrator really made this book for me; I think I liked it more as an audiobook than I would have reading the text. I’d listen to Laura Kirman narrate another book for sure. The book’s weakest point is its ending, but it’s still okay, and I so thoroughly enjoyed the first 80% of the book that I’d still recommend it for people who like entertaining twisty mysteries.

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[brief mentions of miscarriage, description of child death, description of and depiction of emotional abuse and allusion to sexual assault (hide spoiler)]

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved Station Eleven, so I was a little worried Emily St. John Mandel’s new book would not be as good. However, as it turned out, I loved every minute of reading The Glass Hotel. As befits a novel that features the sea and water so prominently, it has a strong theme of smooth placid surfaces just above roiling undercurrents ready to pull you down.

Mandel’s writing is gorgeous, and I was immediately drawn in to the rotating carousel of characters: Paul, Vincent, Jonathan, Olivia, Leon. My favourite was Vincent: she has such a complex interior life juxtaposed with the smooth, placid exterior she shows to the world. But surprisingly, I also liked Jonathan’s musings as he reflects back on his life. He is not a likeable character, yet he, too, is more complex than he allows others to see.

Mandel does something interesting here with the concept of the counterlife. I won’t say more about it because to do so would spoil it. It could be ridiculous in the hands of a lesser writer, but Mandel makes it poignant and beautiful.

Highly, highly recommended.

Afterland by Lauren Beukes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an exhilarating thriller set in a near-future dystopia after a global pandemic has killed off 90% of the world’s male population. The pacing is perfectly taut, the description flows effortlessly, the dialogue is authentic and funny and heartbreaking. The world building is terrifyingly detailed and seems all too possible, given that we are in the middle of a different type of pandemic that has also sent the world into a tailspin. Occasionally it was quite stressful to be reading about a pandemic, a little too on the nose, but overall I just really, really enjoyed this book. It’s the first novel I’ve been able to concentrate on, and finish, since the (real) global pandemic was declared.

Thank you to the publisher, Mulholland Books, for providing the advance review copy via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. A copy of this review is also on the Edelweiss+ site.

Educated by Tara Westover
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So very difficult to read, but I’m glad I read it. This is a story of incredible abuse, dysfunction and, ultimately, survival. It’s beautifully written, as gripping as a novel, and even more moving because it is someone’s actual life.

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the best thing I’ve read by Sittenfeld so far. Clearly short stories are her ideal form. Her prose is tight, her plots intriguing, her characters are often quite unlikeable but always sympathetic. Each of these stories is a perfect little self contained universe.

You can see all my Goodreads reviews here.