Top Ten Books of 2020

I LOVE TO READ (even in non-pandemic times!). With more time at home and not many other weekend outlets, I read a lot of books in 2020 (seventy-two to be exact by my Goodreads tally!), which is probably the most in any year in recent memory. There were so many good ones and sometime in March, I started to compile them in a Facebook "Quarantine Reads" album, but which is harder to do in blog form. However, as I did last year, I will here detail my top ten reads of 2020!  I tend to enjoy historical fiction, social justice-themed books, and heartwarming memoirs and novels (and I needed a hefty dose of hope this year in my books; on the other hand, reading about past pandemics or troubled times gave me some much-needed perspective). I hope you enjoy these titles as much as I did, and please send along suggestions of your best reads in recent memory that you think I'd enjoy! 

I loved Lori Gottlieb's memoir, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Gottlieb, herself a writer and a therapist, chronicles her own journey attending her own counseling sessions after a sudden and traumatizing break-up. In meeting with her own "neutral" professional therapist, as well as touching on the stories of the patients she has met over the years, she discovers much more about her own shortcomings and strengths, personal transformation and growth, and what's truly important in life.  You will laugh and cry reading this heartwarming book (and wonder why you didn't start your own therapy!).

Vanishing Half is a beautiful novel about family and race. It tells the story about a pair of twin black (but light-skinned) sisters, Stella and Desiree, whose paths diverge after they escape from their tiny Louisiana hometown. Stella lives a life based on lies "passing" as white and Desiree, a single mother, raises her (darker-skinned) daughter to remember her roots-- despite their choices, these two "halves" will always remain connected based on their shared history.  Brit Bennett is a skilled writer and storyteller and it was hard to put this book down until its final page! 

I remember reading Chanel Miller's memoir, Know my Name while in a Ecodome in Patagonia in February. A gripping tale, it details her family background and upbringing, and then focuses on the life-changing assault at the hands of Brock Turner, a then-Stanford student, and the traumatic aftermath involving the legal system and her own belittlement at the hands of those who so often discredit women's stories and experiences at the expense of believing and protecting the privileged. Chanel struggles to be strong and truthful, but shows her vulnerability as well as the complexity that comes with not wanting to be pigeon-holed as a victim alone. This incredible story and this remarkable woman will make you outraged, but also teach you a lot about suffering, redemption, and forgiveness.

Ghosted was a gripping and fast-paced fictional read about Sarah and Eddie, two thirty-something English people who fall in love after an intense week near their hometowns. After the blissful week, Eddie seems to fall of the face of the earth, ignoring calls and texts from Sarah with no explanation. You will turn pages late into the night finding out the true story of why. My stomach dropped, I laughed, and I cried as I sped through this un-put-downable story.  This is certainly one of the most compelling and sweet love stories I've read this decade!

Rage Against the Minivan was a refreshingly honest and sweet book by biological and adoptive parent Kristen Howerton, on the topics of race (as she has both black and white kids), parenting, her Christian faith, and the power of love. Reading this book felt like a huge warm hug amidst the isolation and pandemic parenting challenges of 2020.  I would love to be friends with this author and mom!

Fever was an extremely informative and interesting (and timely given our current pandemic!) book by the author of Ask Again, Yes (another book I read this year) detailing the life of Mary Mallon, an Irish-born cook who, as an asymptomatic typhoid carrier, repeatedly sickened members of prominent New York families and other residents and lived the rest of her life in exile due to her repeated offenses causing outbreaks across the city while struggling to make a living in the only way she knew how. 

American Dirt is a thrilling read, the humanizing story of a mother (Lydia) and her son Luca as they escape the threat of cartel violence in her hometown of Acapulco, to cross the border into the the U.S.  It is fiction, but anyone who reads this will truly empathize with the real and lived experiences of those who flee unsustainable circumstances for them and their children and take incredible risks for the chance at a better future. This book, obviously incredibly relevant in these times under the soon-to-be-over administration, was somewhat controversial when it came out, as the author is not a Mexican immigrant; however, she writes with an authenticity that makes you forget that fact, and the story is one that all Americans should read. 

If you don't already adore Barack Obama, it may be hard to get through 700 pages of (volume 1 of) his presidential memoir, but if you commit, you will come away even more impressed by his domestic and foreign policy accomplishments, despite outrageous GOP-led obstructionism. He is inspirational as always, describing his challenges as both a devoted family man (with a wife I can identify with who was sometimes less than supportive of his ambition!) and free world leader, constantly straddling the line of progress and pragmatism, chronicling his remarkable rise in Illinois and national politics through the raid on Osama bin Laden. It's so disheartening to think that the same country that could elect a man of his humility, intelligence, and grace could also choose a man like his successor. Nevertheless, may we all maintain his true belief in the goodness and possibility of America--that hard things are worth the effort, and hope is what sustains us. (I also loved his wife Michelle Obama's book Becoming, which was one of my favorites I read in 2019).

I definitely needed some hopeful books in 2020 and The Girl with the Louding Voice was one of the best at eliciting this feeling in me. It is the the uplifting (while heartbreaking at times as its the struggle of so many girls around the world) story of Adunni, a fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl who fights poverty, child marriage, and servitude to continue to dream of education and a better future.

There is a reason that Isabel Wilkerson's 2010 book, The Warmth of Other Suns, was on the e-book hold list for over six months until it came time to be my turn to check it out from the electronic library. I think this might have been the best book I have read this year (and was one of the most recent). Wilkerson chronicles the history of the exodus of millions of African Americans from the Jim Crow south in their journeys to the "free" north and west in the time period of 1915-1975 or "The Great Migration," through the true stories of three extraordinary-while-still-ordinary people, Ida Mae Brandon Gladney (from Mississippi to Chicago), George Swanson Starling (Florida to NYC), and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster (Louisiana to Los Angeles).  For these people to leave everything they've ever known to migrate to unfamiliar (and cold) cities and states, facing the profound depths of the unknown, just shows how dehumanizing and dangerous it was to be a black person in the deep South (and arguably still is, even while things are better).  Some struggles continued even as they lived in the "free" states, and their stories bring up the complicated question of "when do you stay to make the best of your circumstances and location (and hope for/fight for change), and when do you just leave it all behind?" This historic migration changed our country's history forever, and in light of a still-changing but still problematic South, demonstrates the resilience that embodies the American spirit in the toughest of circumstances. This was a long (600+ page) book, but it was well worth the time and emotional investment and, in my opinion, should be required reading for anyone living in the United States (especially in the South). I look forward to reading Wilkerson's newest book, Caste, when I have a chance.

There were so many other great books I read this year (hop over to my FB feed if you need more ideas), but I narrowed this list to ten. My best-ten-read-in-2019 list can be found here. What words and books brought you hope, joy, and escape in 2020?  Even though there are always "too many books, not enough time," I'm looking forward to a full (virtual or physical) nightstand full of books in 2021 (even though I hope to have the option of some other, safe out-of-the-house outlets!)!