| Title | : | 2020 on |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle , Hardcover , Paperback , Audiobook & More |
| Number of Pages | : | - |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2020 |
For those of you who don't like to add titles you haven't actually 'read', you can place 2020 on Goodreads on an 'exclusive' shelf. Exclusive shelves don't have to be listed under 'to read', 'currently reading' or 'read'. To create one, go to 'edit bookshelves' on your 'My Books' page, create a shelf name such as 'review-of-the year' and tick the 'exclusive' box. Your previous and future 'reviews of the year' can be collected together on this dedicated shelf.
Concept created by Fionnuala Lirsdottir.
Description: Fionnuala Lirsdottir
Cover art: Paul Cézanne, Turning Road at Montgeroult, 1898
Cover choice and graphics by Jayson
2020 on Reviews
-
The Year Of Change
That’s me done. GR says I can’t add any more books as it’s too long. Happy Reading Lovelies. 🖤🐶🐺🐾💕
BADASS BOOKS
1.
All the Stars and Teeth
2.
Seven Blades in Black
3.
The Poppy War
4.
Wrath of Empire
5.
A Subtle Agency Omnibus
6.
A Time of Courage
FANTASY
1.
The Black Hawks
2.
Novice Dragoneer
3.
The Goblin Emperor
4.
Ship of Magic
5.
The Mad Ship
6.
Blood of an Exile
7.
Ship of Destiny
8.
Fool's Fate
9.
The Wolf of Oren-Yaro
10.
Assassin's Fate
11.
Sins of Empire
12.
The Unspoken Name
13.
Mistborn: Secret History
14.
A Blight of Blackwings
15.
The Way of Kings
16.
Words of Radiance
17.
Oathbringer
GREAT HORROR
1.
Midnight in the Graveyard
2.
Girls Save the World in This One
3.
The Dover Demon
4.
Larry
Awesome Sci-Fi
1.
Tiamat's Wrath
2.
Zero Repeat Forever
3.
Cold Falling White
4.
Fortuna
5.
Interview with the Robot
6.
Honor Lost
7.
All Systems Red
8.
Artificial Condition
9.
Rogue Protocol
10.
Exit Strategy
11.
Between Burning Worlds
12.
Network Effect
Fantastic Graphic Novels/Manga
1.
Wonder Woman/Conan
2.
Harleen
3.
The Doll's House
4.
Life Is Strange: Waves
5.
Beastars, Vol. 1
6.
Monster: Perfect Edition, Vol. 1
7.
BEASTARS, Vol. 2
8.
Monster: Perfect Edition, Vol. 2
9.
BEASTARS, Vol. 3
10.
Space Boy Volume 3
11.
Space Boy Volume 4
12.
Space Boy Volume 5
13.
Space Boy Volume 6
14.
Monster: Perfect Edition, Vol. 3
15.
Goliath Girls #1 (of 5)
16.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind: The Complete Series
Shit That Digs Deep
1.
All the Impossible Things
2.
Handle with Care
3.
A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares
4.
The Library of Lost Things
5.
Open Book
6.
The Rural Diaries: What Moving to Mischief Farm Taught Me About What Really Matters in Life, Love, and Making Dandelion Wine
7.
Little Universes
Other Stuff
1.
The Vanishing Stair
2.
The Grace Year
3.
Every Other Weekend
4.
Stalking Jack the Ripper
5.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
6.
Chosen
7.
Ember Queen
8.
Heart of Flames
9.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
10.
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
11.
Cloak of Night
12.
Freaky Witches
13.
A Heart So Fierce and Broken
14.
House of Earth and Blood
15.
Dragonwatch
16.
The Shadows Between Us
17.
The Hunger Games
18.
Catching Fire
19.
Norse Gods
20.
The Kingdom of Back
21.
I'm a Unicorn
22.
Fantasia Anti-Stress Adult Coloring Book - 3rd US Edition - Single Sided
23.
Sky Without Stars
24.
Smoke Bitten
25.
Hunting for a Highlander
26.
The Cruel Prince
27.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
28.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
29.
The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly
30.
Serpent & Dove
31.
The Maiden Ship -
What a fucking year.
It will probably come as no surprise when I say I usually spend my life seeking out time to read. Little pockets of time here and there where I can grab my book and polish off a chapter. This year, though. This year, time has stretched out, seemingly unending, with little to break it up. Hours and hours of having nowhere to go and little to do. And, for the life of me, most of the time I couldn't bring myself to read. When I did, I often turned to graphic novels (frankly, the only way I was able to meet my reading challenge goals). I know I am far from the only one who has felt like this.
When I did summon the energy to read anything more than a graphic novel, I, of course, decided to make myself feel worse by reading about
sexism,
slavery,
the end of life as we know it, and
how Richard III didn't actually do any of the shit he was accused of (he's innocent, I tell you!)
I am actually my own worst enemy.
I guess I should do those Emily Choice Award things I used to do back before the world shat on us.
Best Fantasy:
Race the Sands
Best YA Contemporary:
You Know I'm No Good,
It Only Happens in the Movies
Best Novel in Verse:
Punching the Air,
Clap When You Land
Best Science Fiction:
Goldilocks
Best Mystery/Thriller:
The Searcher
Best Historical Fiction:
The Sunne in Splendour
Best Graphic Novel:
Penny Nichols
Best Non-Fiction:
Just Mercy,
Catch & Kill,
Best Memoir:
Know My Name
Best General Adult Fiction:
Migrations,
The Comeback,
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Weird But Good:
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Cracktastic Shit:
The Inheritance Games
****
Rich Girl Feels Sorry For Herself:
Admission
Some Boring Ass Shit:
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Takes 1000 Pages For Nothing to Happen:
A Dance With Dragons
Nekkid Vamps Are Not a Plot:
The Damned
Creepy Guy Shows Up; Let's Believe Everything He Says:
The New Husband
Am I Supposed To Be Happy About This?:
Darling Rose Gold
Adult Debut - Like YA, Only More Boring:
Chosen Ones
Hardy Is Surprised Women Have Brains:
Far From the Madding Crowd
****
Unlike books, I have found myself watching a lot of TV and listening to a lot of music. I've especially enjoyed light, feel-good shows like Emily in Paris and Bridgerton, but my absolute favourite TV show of 2020 is
Start-Up. It's this Korean show on Netflix and everyone I've told to watch it has loved it. Give it a try if you're curious.
My musical tastes have been all over the place. Phoebe Bridgers' album Punisher is depressing mellow greatness (listen to
I Know the End) but I would go from that to a bit of jaunty Irish pub music. There's something about singing along to
Dirty Old Town with The Dubliners that makes me feel better 🤷♀️
Lana Del Rey came up a lot, not gonna lie. Some of her songs used to sound overly maudlin, but now lyrics like
"I've been tearing around in my fucking nightgown, 24/7 Sylvia Plath" sound kinda relatable, honestly.
I have also enjoyed*:
Cowboy Like Me,
If She Ever Leaves Me,
I'll Be the Sad Song,
Fair,
South Gotta Change,
More Hearts Than Mine.
*almost all of these are depressing.
Until next year...
💫
2018 on Goodreads
💫
2017 on Goodreads
💫
2016 on Goodreads
💫
2015 on Goodreads -
Ah, 2020, the year I didn’t have to apologise for my antisocial tendencies. The year I could feel pride in being a socially responsible skulking solitary hermit, because that’s what Boris was telling me to do – stay home, wash your hands, read books. But something else happened this year too, not just a global pandemic. My very dear friend Selma showed me that my fear of reading works in translation was quite misplaced. And it was true, I was wrong about that. She then convinced me to give the Russians a go, along with a bundle of other great European works. It's really been a complete fiction reading rethink and discovery. I haven't done that for decades. Thank you so much, Selma.
So this year I read 24 translated novels, up from 5 last year. In consequence of this translation breakthrough I found that I read no less than 24 4 or 5 star books – last year only produced a lowly 9.
THE GREAT
Crime and Punishment : Dostoyevsky
The Brothers Karamazov : Dostoyevsky
This was the year of Dosto, three whacking big ones and a giant biography I’m still reading. I believe he is the only author ever to have been mock executed. They gave him a death sentence for plotting against the Tsar, they tied him to a post and put the blindfold on and soldiers raised their guns and aimed at him and then…. the order came to stop! And the Russian authorities did that deliberately, they weren’t ever going to shoot him! Then they sent him to a prison in Siberia for 4 years. I think that inspired him to write these two great novels. It would have inspired me to leave Russia, but Dosto was made of sterner stuff.
Dosto became the first author since I was a tiny little teenager to have written TWO five star books I read in the same year. Go, Dosto.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich : Tolstoy
I thought Russians wrote 900 page monsters but this is a tiny novel about a huge subject, death and its inevitability. Yes, quite grim, Well okay, totally grim. But brilliant.
Living : Henry Green
I recommend this for anyone who likes something kinda weird, unexpected, and unique. HG was the son of a rich manufacturer who insisted on working in his daddy’s factory for a year, he was a bit of a radical and forged his own wonderful crabbed lyrical style which I love love loved. He won’t be everybody’s cup of oolong loose leaf tea but he was mine. Alas, he further undermined Bryant’s Fourth Law of Thermodynamics which states that No Great Novel can be written by Anyone under the age of Thirty.
Lonesome Dove : Larry McMurtry
A thousand page epic about cows and the boys who love them. I have been reading modern westerns like True Grit, The Sisters Brothers and News of the World, and this loomed above them all taunting me to give it a go. I had it on my self for the longest time. And it was a great read. Note : Not recommended for vegans.
The Ways of White Folks : Langston Hughes
Like everyone who hasn’t read this, I should have read it years ago. These are stories, obviously, of American racism, ranging from the domestic pleasures of constant belittling all the way to the outdoor pursuit of lynching, the whole rainbow experience of black people. Really stunning and recommended for everybody.
THE ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS GREAT
Oblomov : Goncharov
The Russian classic for people who are nervous of Tolstoy and terrified by Dosto. Tis is a sweet sad novel about a guy who spends 160 page getting out of bed and heaving himself onto his chair. I kid you not.
Black No More: George S Schuyler
Essential BLM reading, guaranteed to make everybody cringe. This 1931 novel by a black author imagines a science fictional idea of a process which turns black people white and then spins it out into much very outrageous comedy. No one escapes unscathed.
The Seven Who Were Hanged : Leonid Andreyev
A tiny novel which I think is only available in print-on-demand format. After a failed assassination, five “terrorists” are condemned to death and thrown in jail to await their execution with two ordinary criminals. Only 1521 ratings on GR but it should be read a whole lot more.
The Tartar Steppe: Dino Buzzati
The Red And The Black : Stendhal
The Bridge Of San Luis Rey : Thornton Wilder
The Return Of The Soldier : Rebecca West
Doctor Glas : Hjalmar Soderberg
Old Goriot : Balzac
The Grass Is Singing : Doris Lessing
The Awakening : Kate Chopin
A Long Day’s Evening : Bilge Karasu
The Idiot: Dostoyevsky
The Slaves Of Solitude : Patrick Hamilton
A Heart So White : Javier Marias
AN UNCLASSIFIABLE EXPERIENCE
The Man Without Qualities : Robert Musil
At first I thought I will read this monster, it can’t be harder than Ulysses, and it’s true, it’s not a hard read, but it’s strange, it’s being trapped for literally hours with an intelligent guy who loves to muse about the last nuance of absolutely everything, he is a world class muser. Doesn’t do a lot, but jeez, he can muse. So I figured I would just read Book One. Books Two and Three can wait. A loooooong time.
A REALLY GOOD SOLID THRILLER THAT DOESN’T TREAT YOU LIKE AN IDIOT
A Simple Plan :Scott B Smith
THE WEIRD
Spring : Karl Ove Knausgaard
This author’s intended audience is aliens who do not know the first thing about Planet Earth so EVERYTHING has to be explained in painstaking detail, these aliens they have never heard of sleeping or waking up or cooking or farting or driving a car, so our author kindly tells them every detail involved. However, I as I am not an alien, and have heard of sleeping and jet lag and driving a car, the effect was more unbearably aggravating than enlightening.
Two Serious Ladies : Jane Bowles
The author seems to have been quite drunk whilst composing this novel, and the effect was most peculiar but quite agreeable.
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner : James Hogg
Oh boy.
A CAMP CLASSIC
Peyton Place : Grace Metallious
Hoping for another Valley of the Dolls I could poke fun at, I found this to be dreadfully written but tough minded and almost credible. I came to jeer but left almost-but-not-quite admiring. It’s trashy but very high class trash.
THE BAD
There are only big names here, but I am no respecter of reputations…ha ha…
Surfacing : Margaret Atwood
Heat And Dust : Ruth Prawa Jhabvala
A Lesson Before Dying : Ernest J Gaines
O Pioneers! : Willa Cather
The Quiet American : Graham Greene
Chronicle Of A Death Foretold : Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Passion According To GH : Clarice Lispector
THE UNREADABLE
Antkind : Charlie Kaufman
Most disappointing book this year – Charlie’s movies are so smart and this is so lame with unfunny jokes being repeated over and over. If there were kind ants they would have chewed up Charlie’s manuscript before it got to the publishers. That’s the kind of ants we needed.
Blood Meridian : Cormac McCarthy
I love at least two CM novels and this one is always talked of as The Big One. I hated it so much when I tried it years ago so I gave it a second go and got much further and ended up hating it even more. One day I hope to finish it and then I can hate it perfectly.
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha : Roddy Doyle
Something Happened : Joseph Heller
This Sporting Life : David Storey
Einstein’s Dreams : Alan Lightman
NON FICTION
Pictures at a Revolution : Mark Harris
A total must for any movie fans. What a treat. Very long and detailed and every page is fascinating stuff. All about five movies made in one year (1967).
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass : Frederick Douglass
Another one I should have read already. It’s short but so brutal.
Inhuman Bondage : David Brion Davis
Great history of slavery in the USA. Highly recommended.
Men who Hate Women : Laura Bates
I don’t get many negative comments on my reviews, which bespeaks to the kindliness of GR people considering how rude I sometimes am about their treasured favourites; but my review of this one provoked some merry insulting from some guy who seems to have dedicated his life to informing the American public that it’s actually women who rape men, not the other way round. Yes, a most bizarre proposition, completely batshit, you might be thinking. Well, mocking this guy gave some of us a few hours of harmless diversion.
STATS
Most popular book I read this year : Crime and Punishment. Number of times it has been listed on GR : 1,338,159
Most unpopular book I read this year : a book about Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ. Only one other person on GR read that one.
Longest book I read : The Brothers Karamazov, 1013 pages. It just beat Lonesome Dove (960 pages).
IN CONCLUSION
One person's lockdown is another person's Brother's Karamazov. -
2020 reading resolutions:
* Read less frantically
* Read more meaningfully
* Savor the journey of the book
*2020 mantra: There will always, always be more books than time. Focus on the book in front of you and let go of worrying about reading all the rest. -
Every Rating & Review for 2020
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 4: Hybrid by
Andy Diggle,
Scott Lobdell,
Tony S. Daniel,
Mike Johnson and
Frank Hannah
(B-) 71% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 01/06/2020
Notes: An alright to abysmal assorted anthology, it's an awkward array of anecdotes: aimless, awry, and ascendingly abject.
A Dance with Dragons by
George R.R. Martin and
Roy Dotrice
(B+) 78% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/09/2020
Notes: A mire of minutiae, pointless quarrels in its quiver, with birdshot aim, it's kitten-tame, building fights it can't deliver.
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 5: What Lies Beneath by
Greg Pak
(B+) 78% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/11/2020
Notes: A keen exposition on predisposition, the human condition and bold intuition: it's told with duality and juxtaposition.
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 6: Superdoom by
Greg Pak
(B-) 68% | Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 01/15/2020
Notes: Beset by blackouts, it's sufficient for the gist of it but useless to persist with it, all tent-poles no skin: a storytelling sin.
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 7: Under the Skin by
Greg Pak and
Sholly Fisch
(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/18/2020
Notes: Surrealistic, it's a somewhat secondary Superman: ill-suited stylistically, and shoehorned into several strange stories.
Nightwing (1996-2009) Annual #1 by
Devin Grayson
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/19/2020
Notes: A pretty preposterous premise, it's perfectly passionless: pictorially pallid, passé, and prohibitively prudish plotwise.
Nightwing (1996-2009) #40 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/20/2020
Notes: Doling depth in daydreams, it's a drama of delusion: deftly devised, droll and demonstrative despite its dissembling.
Nightwing (1996-2009) #51 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 79% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/21/2020
Notes: Baby-steps to villainy, a power fantasy at heart, it's wretched reality to cold criminality, and decidedly indie with art.
Young Romance: The New 52 Valentine's Day Special #1 by
Ann Nocenti,
Cecil Castellucci,
Ray Fawkes,
Peter Milligan,
Kyle Higgins and
Andy Diggle
(B) 72% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/23/2020
Notes: Roses are red, violets are blue: a gimmick misread, no romance ensues, just hurting and flirting... some kissy-face too.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by
J.K. Rowling and
Stephen Fry
(A-) 83% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 01/24/2020
Notes: An effortless enchantment, it's lush with warmth and lore: seeded well, it casts a spell, and leaves you wanting more.
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 8: Truth by
Greg Pak and
Aaron Kuder
(B) 73% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 01/30/2020
Notes: Supposedly Superman, its superhero's a social streetfighter: shadowboxing spooks, and sermonizing self-sufficiency.
Superman – Action Comics, Volume 9: Last Rites by
Greg Pak,
Aaron Kuder and
Peter J. Tomasi
(C+) 66% | Almost Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 02/01/2020
Notes: Invariably in medias res, no bones to give it form, it's a beached jellyfish of a story: always jiggling but going nowhere.
Green Arrow (1988-1998) #134 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/04/2020
Notes: Wherein monkey business means murder, apes kill snakes with ease, cultists kamikaze, and Batman's hard to please.
Detective Comics (1937-2011) #723 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 78% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/05/2020
Notes: Wherein it's all orangu-tangles, guerilla snow and air attacks, and heroes buddy up to get the monkey off their backs.
Robin (1993-2009) #55 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 76% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/06/2020
Notes: Wherein guerilla guns and glory hounds monkey with the plans, paper rips obsidian, while Batman makes demands.
Nightwing (1996-2009) #23 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/07/2020
Notes: Wherein it's ape-on-ape annihilation, glory gluttony at heart, and at last reveals the master of the monkey martial art.
Green Arrow (1988-1998) #135 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/08/2020
Notes: Wherein it's a mall brawl wall-to-wall, innately agonistic; Robin throws a monkey wrench, and Batman's pessimistic.
Nightwing: Our Worlds at War #1 by
Chuck Dixon
(B+) 79% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 02/09/2020
Notes: A nice and easy, fun and breezy, done before, but never cheesy, time-travel getaway: an action-romance double-play.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by
J.K. Rowling and
Stephen Fry
(A-) 83% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 02/11/2020
Notes: A clever conjuration, it's a cozy castle mystery, a creature-fest, and Ripper-esque: lit by monsters, ghosts, and history.
Nightwing: The Target #1 by
Chuck Dixon
(A-) 80% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 02/12/2020
Notes: A step-by-step detection, heavy, harsh, but optimistic, it's more mature, and raw for sure: boldly drawn and realistic.
Batgirl, Volume 1: Batgirl of Burnside by
Cameron Stewart and
Brenden Fletcher
(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/17/2020
Notes: Initially irritating, it's fanatically faddish, full of frivolous fluff: dumbed-down, though different, and decent enough.
Batgirl, Volume 2: Family Business by
Cameron Stewart and
Brenden Fletcher
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/23/2020
Notes: Completely cotton candy, it's stakes and substance shy, bereft of bite and featherlight: all whipped cream top, no pie.
Batgirl, Volume 3: Mindfields by
Cameron Stewart and
Brenden Fletcher
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 02/27/2020
Notes: A lazy, listless final leg, it's storytelling hibernation; smart to start, but falls apart: a cheat code cakewalk culmination.
Red One, Book One: Welcome to America by
Xavier Dorison
(B+) 78% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 03/01/2020
Notes: Ambrosial artistically, it's cheerful cheesecake: a breezy burlesque, salacious by suggestion, but eminently endearing.
Red One, Book Two: Undercover by
Xavier Dorison
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 03/03/2020
Notes: A silly story, slightly strained, and short on subtlety, it's still a solid satire: sly and seductive in spite of shortcomings.
Suicide Squad, Volume 4: Discipline and Punish by
Aleš Kot and
Matt Kindt
(B+) 76% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 03/07/2020
Notes: Punctuated with philosophy, it's chaos and catastrophes, all action with alacrity, but bruised by botched biographies.
Suicide Squad, Volume 5: Walled In by
Matt Kindt,
Jim Zub and
Sean Ryan
(B) 72% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐ – 03/12/2020
Notes: Made of miscellanea, it's mostly malarkey: a maze of misappropriation, mindless motives, and muddy machinations.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by
J.K. Rowling and
Stephen Fry
(A) 85% | Extraordinary | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 03/13/2020
Notes: A flavorful foreboding, it plies expanded bandwidth, like ripened fruit, and more acute: a sweet and spicy sandwich.
New Suicide Squad, Volume 1: Pure Insanity by
Sean Ryan
(B+) 76% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 03/19/2020
Notes: Clever but conventional, it's a clash of comparable cutthroats, clarifying character by conflict and crises of conviction.
New Suicide Squad, Volume 2: Monsters by
Sean Ryan
(B+) 79% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 03/24/2020
Notes: It's a less pungent onion: sautéed pity and peeled back layers, rich with gravy from the juices of its reprobate players.
New Suicide Squad, Volume 3: Freedom by
Sean Ryan,
Brian Buccellato and
Mike W. Barr
(B) 74% | More than Satisfactory | ⭐⭐⭐ – 03/28/2020
Notes: Decent but disappointing, it's drowned dynamite: drab, dispirited drudgery, futilely finished with fragmentary filler.
New Suicide Squad, Volume 4: Kill Anything by
Tim Seeley and
Sean Ryan
(B+) 77% | Good | ⭐⭐⭐ – 04/03/2020
Notes: Artistically atypical, it's appreciably abnormal: an amusing, albeit awkward alteration of accustomed antihero antics.
Supergirl, Volume 1: Last Daughter of Krypton by
Michael Green and
Mike Johnson
(A-) 80% | Very Good | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – 04/07/2020
Notes: Formulaic and fistfight forward, it's intelligently implemented, impact-imbued, and informed by impeccable instinct.
*character limit
Click here for the rest:
-
Addendum #1
-
Addendum #2
-
Addendum #3 -
This is the end of my seventh year as a Goodreads user. Thank you to everyone who continues to interact with me on here.
My PhD (in English Literature) application got accepted, which for me was the biggest event in my reading life this year.
I don't read as much as I used to, but I'm excited to share updates about my progress and review books relevant to my studies, interests and activism.
Here's to another year of reading! :D
__________________________________
You can connect with me on social media via
My Linktree.
__________________________________ -
Reading and writing is losing oneself, and what remains when the self is lost is the collective (Karl Ove knausgård)
Lacking the energy and apposite words for saying something insightful on this strange year, I’d rather not. Reflecting purely on the past twelve months in terms of books however, by the end of the year I wonder if this year actually differed that much from previous ones with regard to reading. Maybe it didn’t, all in all.
Admittedly, some weeks and books seem to have disappeared in the mist of oblivion. Going through the list of books I did read this year it struck me that quite a few already have faded from my mind, but such happened before. Sure, I did read less, but also in previous years I now and then drifted off into a reading slump, because of reasons that were sometimes pleasant, sometimes unpleasant. Often the extra work load, the ongoing bad news on the pandemic and the suffering of many, its impact on social and family life seemed to put a continuous dampener on my mood which made reading less alluring and enjoyable. And yet, as ever, on difficult moments, reading, if only a few pages, was the panacea, books bringing light and joy to life, offering indeed the delight to submerge into the collective created by so many authorial voices, to be freed from the cage of one’s self.
Plans and how not to stick to them
I started the year with the rather frivolous plan to read as many books dwelling in the bookcase that I could connect to the letter B – simply looking for an angle to finally get to read a biography on Beethoven, Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Buddenbrooks. All three books ended up in my list of favourites, so it seemed a rewarding plan. Nevertheless, I still don’t know how and why, the pandemic made me forget about that initial wild plan, only now I realized I turned to familiar reading ground, authors I liked reading before and random selections from the bookcase or of shiny new books in the local library when it reopened its doors.
A little on art and music
Paul Cézanne - The Works of His 1907 Paris Exhibition in Paris as frequented, contemplated and described by Rainer Maria Rilke,
Van Eyck in Detail,
Opera - een geschiedenis in 27 sleutelwerken,
The Lobkowicz Collections
Some poetry
Guiseppe Ungaretti, a few Dutch poets (Ida Gerhardt, Vasalis (three collections), Rutger Kopland), Marina Tsvetaeva (
De jongen), Helen Dunmore (
Inside the Wave), a haiku collection (
Haiku Illustrated: Classic Japanese Short Poems, Anna Swir,
The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Mind, Heart and Soul, Joseph von Eichendorff, William Blake, René Char
Some Russians
A few stories by Anton Chekhov, a small Turgenev spree (A month in the country, Smoke, On the eve, Rudin), Alexandr Ostrovksy (
The Storm), Konstantin Paustovsky, Alexandr Griboyedov , Nikolai Leskov, Gogol
Some essays
Rebecca Solnit (
The Faraway Nearby), Zadie Smith (
Intimations, Susan Sontag (
Illness as Metaphor), John Berger (
Confabulations), Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk (
Coventry: Essays) – which apart from Berger’s at best brought mild enthusiasm, unlike the collection I recently started by Karl Ove Knausgård (
In the Land of the Cyclops: Essays).
Some familiar authors giving the solace of favourite, comfortable clothes (Antonio Tabucchi (
Requiem: A Hallucination), Patrick Modiano (Villa Triste, Encre Sympathique), Jane Austen (Persuasion)
Some short stories and collections of short stories
Guy de Maupassant (
La Femme De Paul), Akutagawa Ryunosuke, Kate Chopin, William Trevor, Kafka, Katherine Mansfield, Lucia Berlin (
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories, Jane Gardam,
Other Moons: Vietnamese Short Stories of the American War and Its Aftermath (20 stories by Vietnamese authors), Dorthe Nors
My favourites this year
1. Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
2. Gabriel Josopovici,
The Cemetery in Barnes (thank you again, Fionnuala, Katia and Jibran for putting this gem and the author on my radar)
3. Thomas Mann,
Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family
4. Penelope lively,
Moon Tiger (Ondaatje’s The English patient, only ways more enjoyable)
5. Anton Chekhov,
The House with the Mezzanine &
Gooseberries(thank you for bringing me back to him, Katia)
6. William Trevor,
Bodily Secrets
7. Virginia Woolf,
The Lady in the Looking Glass(thank you Tara, for pointing me at this sublime story) &
The String Quartet
8. Joseph Ponthus,
On the Line: Notes from a Fish Factory(most original and unclassifiable book I have read this year)
9. W.G. Sebald,
The Rings of Saturn (thank you, Paul, for inspiring me to finally read it)
10. Herman Melville,
Bartleby the Scrivener
11. Jan Caeyers,
Beethoven, A Life(surpassed my expectations)
12. Herman van Goethem,
1942: Het jaar van de stilte (from my son’s book list for history)
13. Anthony Beevor,
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (superbly written, hard to put down)
14. Rosa Luxemburg,
Ik voel me in de hele wereld thuis (letters) ach, Rosa…
15. Daša Drndić,
Belladonna (dark and compelling, reminding me of Sebald, thank you for inspiring me to read her Vesna)
16. Anna Świrszczyńska,
Talking to My Body(thank you again for making me read her powerful collection, Caterina)
17. Guiseppe Ungaretti,
Allegria
18. William Blake,
Songs of Innocence and of Experience (re-read)
Also memorable:
Albert Cossery,
Laziness in the Fertile Valley
Tove Ditlevsen,
Childhood
João Reis,
The Translator's Bride (thank you João, your novel made me laugh out loud and is on the list for a re-read in 2021)
Kim Thuy,
Ru
Jane Austen,
Persuasion
Kate Chopin,
A Pair of Silk Stockings (thank you, Lisa and Jan-Maat, for bringing me back to Chopin’s work)
Alberto Moravia,
Contempt (thank you Steven for reminding me of him)
Jens Peter Jacobsen,
Niels Lyhne
Neil MacGregor,
Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples
Juan Rulfo,
Pedro Páramo
Ali Smith,
Summer
Saša Stanišić,
Before the Feast
(picture by André Kertész)
What will next year bring? First, finishing the unfinished, the two bulky volumes of Alex Ross: (
Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music and
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century) I am currently reading. For the coming months, sensing there will be more life and more work, realistically speaking reading will be put on the back burner. Nevertheless, I consider reading a few more from the Dutch-Flemish literary
canon, a few from the
list of 100 German books that Elena tipped me, some more women authors from the EU (from Spain and Portugal for instance). I intend to return to my initial silly B plan starting with books related to Bach, Bartok, Beethoven and some books by John Berger. And more Gabriel Josipovici, definitely more Gabriel Josipovici. And Virginia Woolf. And some more of the books that have been collecting dust on the shelves here for all too long (I am looking at you again, mister Mann, and at your brother too). Or, unpredictable as our ways are, I might go for something completely different, wherever my reader’s curiosity or life will take me.
Once more I would like to thank all of you who continue to make this place a delightfully inspiring bookish haven to return to in stormy weather by engaging into writing on and discussing books. May 2021 be as good as it can be for everyone! -
welp, that's the end of 2020, a year that went by in a big garbagey blur. book releases were delayed or cancelled, there was no BEA and i only got to go to two book release parties before the world shut down. despite being in lockdown for four months, i didn't get as much reading done as i could have, because my anxiety eroded my concentration, and reviewing was even more difficult, so even though i'm still optimistically INTENDING to review all the books i haven't gotten to yet—i have so many half-written reviews just waiting for me to have the time/presence of mind—there are a lot of gaps, and my 'review-pending' shelf is swollen grotesquely. in my round-up below, i have marked those still-to-come (maybe!) with this crying kitten, to show how badly i feel about the situation:
time was scarce this year. i went back to work in july—no working from home for this wage slave! and then i took on another part-time job, so for a while i was working seven days a week and everything was physically exhausting and emotionally overwhelming. if only i could get all that time back that i spent staring at walls or scrolling through one horrible news story after another during lockdown. alas.
i'm going to try to be less...fastidious in my reviewing in 2021. i spend too much time trying to corral my thoughts into something useful for others, and whether it's the screwy goodreads-feed or just me overstaying my welcome, my likes n comments numbers have dwindled, so i'm not sure anyone's even benefitting from my efforts anymore. which is not me being thirsty and moping about my obsolescence at all; those are just the only metrics i have for assessing my usefulness, and if i've outlived that usefulness, i need to be more practical about my time and spend it writing stuff for $$—my whole fantasy about 'maybe someday someone will read a review i wrote and offer me my dream job' just ain't gonna happen. i'm not 'off' reviewing, but my process is bananas—most of the time i'll write something that's practically dissertation-length and i'll whittle down into a more reasonable size until it's probably not even coherent or interesting anymore, but frustration and the lengthening shadows make the "GOOD ENOUGH" decision for me. and this thing that i am writing this very moment is turning into one of those situations, so ANYWAY, 2020. it's over. i set my reading challenge at 250 books, and these were my additional stated goals:
THIS YEAR'S MINI-CHALLENGES:
-i am going to go back to reading a free tor short a week.
-i am going to read a book each month that was given to me as a present that i haven't yet gotten around to reading because i am an ungrateful dick.
-i will once again read a book each month that i bought in hardcover but haven't yet read even though it's been so long that the paperback has already come out.
-i will get back in the monsterporn saddle. as it were.
-i will continue my monthly projects, naturally.
and because why not make my life even more difficult, i'm going to do
the bookriot challenge again this year:
#1 Read a YA nonfiction book
#2 Read a retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, or myth by an author of color
#3 Read a mystery where the victim(s) is not a woman
#4 Read a graphic memoir
#5 Read a book about a natural disaster
#6 Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author
#7 Read a historical fiction novel not set in WWII
#8 Read an audiobook of poetry
#9 Read the LAST book in a series
#10 Read a book that takes place in a rural setting
#11 Read a debut novel by a queer author
#12 Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own
#13 Read a food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before
#14 Read a romance starring a single parent
#15 Read a book about climate change
#16 Read a doorstopper (over 500 pages) published after 1950, written by a woman
#17 Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages)
#18 Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized community
#19 Read a book by or about a refugee
#20 Read a middle grade book that doesn’t take place in the U.S. or the UK
#21 Read a book with a main character or protagonist with a disability (fiction or non)
#22 Read a horror book published by an indie press
#23 Read an edition of a literary magazine (digital or physical)
#24 Read a book in any genre by a Native, First Nations, or Indigenous author
HOW DID I DO?
well, i read 266 books, so that part was a success. i didn't read a single monsterporn, which is probably for the best, since those take so long to review, and reviewing them requires a cleverness and sense of humor that i just wasn't feeling for most of 2020. however, the tor shorts, the prezzie and hardcover challenges, and the monthly projects were all fulfilled (except in july, which is when i went back to work so i guess i biffed that month's reading), and i NEARLY finished the bookriot challenge (with some scrambling and dubious interpretation of the prompts in december). the only two i didn't get around to were:
#12 Read a memoir by someone from a religious tradition (or lack of religious tradition) that is not your own
#14 Read a romance starring a single parent
i ran out of time and i'm okay with it—i know the whole point of the 'read harder' challenge is to read outside one's comfort zone, but i wasn't jazzed about either of these prompts. i don't really read much nonfiction, and romance is dull. i valiantly attempted to find a single-parent chuck tingle or an mpreg book to make it more interesting, but it never came together. unlike people (or objects) in chuck tingle's stories.
MISCELLANEOUS PLUGS:
i only wrote one review for la review of books in 2020, for ivy pochoda's excellent novel
These Women.
but i made several booklists for f(r)iction online:
for the identity issue
THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE YOU!
for the monsters issue
NAUGHTY BY NURTURE
for the memory issue
TO FUGGEDABOUT IT OR NOT TO FUGGEDABOUT IT
and i wrote two pieces in
the print edition of that memory issue.i have a booklist due soon for the next issue: LEGACY, and i’m taking suggestions because i don’t even know where to start with that one.
and here is
my thanksgiving write-up, because why not?
ONTO THE BOOKS!
or not. since my earlier review got cut off, causing this meltdown:
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I'M ALREADY AT THE LIMIT OF REVIEW SPACE IN MARCH??
i just added my march stats, it said i still had 7,000 characters left afterwards, and then when i clicked to post, it said SORRY TOO LONG, ASSHOLE!
DOES EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD HAVE TO FALL APART AT ONCE???
the rest of the review will continue over on my blog.
here is the link! -
I borrowed the titles from Reading the 20th Century group because they bring focus to my thoughts.
What was the best book you read in 2020?
This year was terrible because of the pandemic but from the point of view of my reading it was excellent. After a long deliberation, I chose the following novels as my top 5. Links are to my reviews.
1.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
A short, violent, brutal, intense novel about the murder of a witch and women’s condition in Mexico.
2.
Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
A classic epistolary novel about the seduction games played by the French high society
3.
Milkman by Anna Burns
A sort stream-of-consciousness novel about the Troubles and the paranoia of being watched all the time. Winner of Booker Prize 2018
4.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Winner of the Booker Prize 2019. An excellent trip into the lives of 12 extraordinary black women
5.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Deserving winner of this Year Booker prize, a heartbreaking and touching story about the love between a child and an addicted mother.
What was the worst book you read in 2020?
I decided not to lose my time with books that I do not like so I started to abandon more. I did not finish any book that I did not like this year.
Which author(s) did you fall in love with, or rediscover, in 2020?
It's not an author but I discovered the pleasure of reading French classics such as Flaubert or Laclos
What are your reading plans for 2021?
My biggest plan for next year (and 2022 ) is to organize a bookish virtual road trip through Europe starting from my country, Romania and going through almost all the countries in Europe. I will try to read at least one book written be an author from that territory.
My 2nd plan is to read more books published by small presses and I will start with the Republic Of Consciousness longlist.
Finally, I will continue with trying to read more classics, non-fiction and books that I’ve had for a long time.
Below I crossed what I managed to achieve from my 2020 plans.
a) Read at least 5 non-fiction books
1.
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today ****
2.
A House in the Sky ****
3.
Me Talk Pretty One Day ***
4.
The Literature Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained**** RTC
5.
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life reading Still reading
b) Read the books I added to my TBR the earliest, February and March 2014. 2019 was the year I read all the books added in Jan 2014.
1.
Things Fall Apart
2.
The Universe Versus Alex Woods
3.
The Light Between Oceans
4.
A House in the Sky
5.
The Golem and the Jinni
6.
The Luminaries
7.
The God of Small Things
8.
The Secret River
c) Read or discard the oldest 10 books I have on my Kindle
1.
Red Rising
2.
The Other Hand
3.
The Invention of Wings
4.
Housekeeping
5.
Hyperion
6.
Fourth of July Creek
7.
Free Country: A Penniless Adventure the Length of Britain reading
8.
We Were Liars
9.
A Prayer for Owen Meany
10.
Assassin's Apprentice -
I think we can all agree that 2020 was pretty much shit.
However, I can't and won't complain. Have I had rough times this year? Absolutely. But in the face of a year like this - where so many people have lost so much - I still have my health, my family, my friends, my dogs, and my job. So I can only feel grateful.
And thank God for books.
I definitely didn't read as much as I have in years past if you go simply by the numbers; however, one of my goals this year was to try to be more intentional about my reading choices and I think I was successful with that objective.
A goal I was not successful with this year was my quest to read at least one classic a month. I only managed to read two this whole year. But all I can say is PANDEMIC, yo. And hey, at least I really enjoyed one of those classics, so there's that.
But anyway, onward.
For those who like stats...
According to goodreads' fancy
"My Year in Books" tool, I read 109 books and 33, 579 pages...with a yearly rating average of 3.6 stars.
So not bad, I guess.
For those who like lists...
My favorite books of the year:
Honorable Mentions:
Series I Binged:
For those who like watching grown ass adults act like children...
Review for which I got the most hate and vitriol:
Review link
HERE
If anyone wants me to come back and link reviews for all the above listed books, please let me know and I will come back and do that.
Otherwise...I hope everyone made it safely through the shit that was this year and I wish everyone a happy 2021. -
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...
When I look back through books that I read this year -- the first thing I see -- was the many different emotions I felt:
......joy, grief, anger, cynical, sadness, loss, regret, agony, compassionate, empathy, remorseful, inspired, hopeful, grateful, relief, relatedness, connection, removed, bored, overwhelmed, shocked, awareness, judgmental, naughty, bitter, excitement, admiration, curiosity, soothed, baffled, nourished, comforted, Humbled, scared, rage, sorrow, warmth, etc. ---
Plus....
Love ....."always Love".
It was a good year in books! A really good year--Both fiction & non-fiction books.
... it was also a wonderful- chit-chat- year with Goodreads friends -- comments - reading reviews -private messages - a few phone calls - warmth -friendships - community -book sharing - book chatter --love & intimacy!!!
I found the balance I needed this year --between my participation with Goodreads (can't possibly do all the right things) -- and with my personal -at home life (can't possibly do all the right things)...
but ...my heart is real....(nobody can squash our love)....
I try to give where I can - rest when I need - focus on what I most need -- and hope friends, God, and I will forgive myself for all that I'm not -- and accept all that I am.
2020 is a living historical year like nothing most of us have ever experienced --
A few things I'll remember:
...The covid pandemic that changed life forever --
...The news -the news -the news!!!
...Daily briefings with Andrew Cuomo -- Love how he stepped forward and supported the entire country when our President wasn't!
...Evenings with Rachel Maddow (love her)! I cried --really cried--when she share about Susan, her partner having covid. My life changed a little more after her sharing. (I no longer had empathy or much tolerance for people not wearing masks and traveling when told not to)!!!
...The New York Times, CNN >> They were gifts to me -- news I trusted!
...Jimmy Kimmel YouTube's became an often morning pleasure. I soo love the guy. Can he be on my bucket list? I'd love to meet him -his kids -wife -- He just inspires me -moves me -and makes me laugh at the same time!
...Pete Buttigieg is another guy I want on my bucket list -- even more --I hope he will be President of the United States one day.
...California was the first state to mandate a 'stay-at-home' order -(in March)
- and today (December) -- our state is the epicenter in the nation -- we are still 'staying-at-home'.
Our hospitals are at full capacity.
...The idiot Trump man --(committed manslaughter with covid-19 IMO) --
...An introduction to Zoom --
...Protests, riots, injustice, Black Life Matters, Police reform needs, the fires in California, hard to find toilet paper for the first two months of the pandemic.
...Started taking a 'pot-gummy' 1- once a day indulgent -delight --(usually early evening --great relaxation)
... I actually joined Twitter (with a purpose) the day Kamala Harris was picked as Vice President elect... I just had to say CONRATS to her. She lives in Berkeley --and went to Cal --as I did. I was soooo proud of her!!!!
... Words that stay with me from Joe Biden: "We are fighting a virus, not each other". ...I try to remember this when people piss me off -- for not following the advice from science.
...Silver linings:
...My husband, (definitely Paul!) >> I really can't express enough the extra joy we had this year -- laughing -dancing - being silly -cooking together (does making a sandwich for dinner count as food prep? --while dancing in-between to 70's & 80's music?)
Oh MY God -- and the conversations we had this year - (maybe the pot gummy helped??) -- were extraordinary -- on every topic under the sun --
Swimming naked with this guy is not punishment either --
...Great chats with our daughter Ali -and her husband Adam --in Calgary, Canada -- I joined their "Black Lives Matter" -- group --from afar -- we all took it upon ourselves to educate ourselves more about injustice -black history -policies -things we can do to fight for justice peacefully -- and not stop!!! Its now a life commitment for me.
...great phone chats with a few wonderful friends from goodreads -a joy and lifesaver to the boredom of 'day-after-day'-feelings of the same, same, same, and more same!
...lots of great walking and hiking
... chocolate -- I just didn't say no too often!
...Our yard -the pool, the garden, the sauna -- I'm sooo grateful! I'm only sorry we couldn't share our space as much as we usually love to do.
... reading 'was' a satisfying year -- especially proud that I included more books about social injustice, black lives, black authors, indigenous people, and political books >> these books changed me....awaken me... transformed me.
... I also read more autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs this year. This wasn't planned -- but I couldn't help but ask myself..."why?" Why more memoirs 'now'? This year? The answer came to me immediately.
It was my way of feeling connections with 'people'. I didn't visit with family or friends in person this year, but 'at least' (audiobook listening) -- it gave me the feelings I needed. It felt like a friend was 'sharing-with-me'. It felt personal. I love personal. I love intimacy and closeness >> these books provided that 'feeling'.
... Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Showtime, Amazon Prime, Acorn -->> thank you for providing screen entertainment: Shows we loved:
....A Place to Call Home, Podark, Anne with an E, The Crown, Pen15, Schitt's Creek, The Paradise, Bunheads, The Queen's Gamit, Virgin River, Bridgerton (still watching) ...and a few others.
...Emotions were up and down --just as they were with the books I read this year.
...I'm still grieving the death of my first cousin.
...I'm still grieving the semi-estrangement with our older daughter
...I lost three friends to covid this year -- others have been infected. One friend is still recovering now.
... Not a day goes by -when I don't ask myself - how do we mourn so many deaths this year?
Other important things I don't want to forget to say here:
THANK YOU 'readers!!!
Thank you 'authors'!!!
Thank You Publishers!!!
Thank you Netgalley!!!
Thank you for the gifts -the books -the arcs --
Thank you for letting me be -- (flaws and all)
.....Thank you to our community -friends >> to my personal friends -(new and long time friends) -
Thank you to the Goodreads staff -- for creating a place where I continue to grow - learn - through books and by our community exchanges.
Wishing everyone a happy healthy New Year!!! -
Many thanks to each of my Goodreads friends. Wish I could give each one of you a big hug!
My personal response to our worldwide 2020 COVID crisis: a sharper focus on reading books, listening to audio books and writing about books. Highlights of the year include the following reviews (I link a book or two for each bullet):
All 12 existential crime noir novels translated into English by French author Pascal Garnier - Among the 12: The Islanders, The Box, The Front Seat Passenger, Low Heights, The Panda Theory -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The genre shattering Cornelius Quartet by British New Age SF author Michael Moorcock. The 4 novels are: The Final Programme, The Cure for Cancer, The English Assassin, The Condition of Muzac -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The monumental Helliconia Trilogy by British SF author Brian Aldiss. The 3 novels are: Helliconia Spring, Helliconia Summer, Helliconia Winter -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
21 down and 3 to go of 24 crime noir/American-style existential Parker novels by Donald E. Westlake writing as Richard Stark - Among the 24: The Hunter, The Outfit, The Handle, Slayground, Butcher's Moon -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
New Wave SF classics including Report on Probability A by Brian Aldiss -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... along with The Adjacent by Christopher Priest -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Focus on Language as in The Sentence is a Lonely Place by Gary Lutz -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and also The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
On Writing by Stephen King -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
3 outstanding novels by Colombia's Juan Gabriel Vásquez -The 3 novels are: Reputations, The Shape of the Ruins, The Sound of Things Falling:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Book on thinking - Lost in Thought by Zena Hitz -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Elegant strange tales by British author Mark Valentine -
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Here's the list of all 159 reviews I posted in 2020:
Whores of Lost Atlantis - Charles Busch
The Sentence is a Lonely Place - Gary Lutz
Strungballs - Mike Russell
The Other City - Michal Ajvaz
Brazzaville Beach - William Boyd
The Plantings - Glenn Russell
The Flower to the Painter - Gary Inbinder
The Golden Age - Michal Ajvaz
Empty Streets - Michal Ajvaz
Ordinary Thunderstorms - William Boyd
The Poriferous Darkness - Lars Boye Jerlach
Wet Work - Christopher Buckley
Felix in the Underworld - John Mortimer
Psmith, Journalist - P. G. Wodehouse
Against interpretation and Other Essays - Susan Sontag
La noche boca arriba - Julio Cortázar
Gulping's Recital - Russell Edson
The Exploding Book - Mike Russell
Tyll - Daniel Kehlmann
Hunter of Stories -- Eduardo Galeano
Apartment - Teddy Wayne
Flash Fiction International - James Thomas (editor), Robert Shapard (editor), Christopher Merrill (editor)
Nobber - Oisín Fagan
The Play and Other Stories - Stephen Dixon
18 Stories - Heinrich Böll
What Is All This? - Stephen Dixon
Sudden Fiction - Robert Shapard (editor) and James Thomas (editor)
Outtakes from Lift Your Right Arm - Peter Cherches
The Death of Olivier Becaille - Émile Zola
The Mahé Circle - Georges Simenon
The Islanders - Pascal Garnier
Whistler's Mother's Son and Other Curiosities - Peter Cherches
The Panda Theory - Pascal Garnier
Weird Fiction in France - Brian Stableford (editor)
Tropic Moon - Georges Simenon
Misanthropic Tales - S. Henry Berthoud
Talatala - Georges Simenon
T. C. Boyle Stories - T. Coraghessan Boyle
How's the Pain? - Pascal Garnier
A Long Way Off - Pascal Garnier
Aboard the Aquitaine - Georges Simenon
Duke & Jill - Ron Kolm
Between a Dream and a Cup of Coffee - Peter Cherches
Moon in a Dead Eye - Pascal Garnier
C’est La Vie - Pascal Garnier
The Front Seat Passenger - Pascal Garnier
Night Shift - Ron Kolm
The Eskimo Solution - Pascal Garnier
The A26 - Pascal Garnier
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories - Luis Sepúlveda
Quel petit vélo à guidon chromé au fond de la cour? - Georges Perec
Boxes - Pascal Garnier
Slayground - Richard Stark
An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris - Georges Perec
The Winter Journey - Georges Perec
Low Heights - Pascal Garnier
Comeback - Richard Stark
Pigeon Reader - Simon Morris & Georges Perec
The English Assassin - Michael Moorcock
The Final Programme - Michael Moorcock
A Dream Within a Dream - Edgar Allan Poe
A Man Asleep - Georges Perec
A Cure for Cancer - Michael Moorcock
Too Close to the Edge - Pascal Garnier
The Music of Erich Zann - H. P. Lovecraft
Mindswap - Robert Sheckley
Beside Schopenhauer's Corpse - Guy de Maupassant
Chocky - John Wyndham
The Adjacent - Christopher Priest
A Very Short Story - Ernest Hemingway
Magic - Mike Russell
A Void - Georges Perec
Reputations - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
The Sound of Things Falling - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk - Nikolai Leskov
The Spirit of Madame de Genlis - Nikolai Leskov
In Watermelon Sugar - Richard Brautigan
Erased - Jim Krusoe
The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality -Nikolái Chernyshevsky
Carnival Aptitude - Greg Boyd
Parsifal - Jim Krusoe
Parodies Lost - Alan Powers
The Condition of Muzak - Michael Moorcock
Lost in Thought - Zena Hitz
The Midwich Cuckoos - John Wyndham
The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
Cuentos - Augusto Monterroso
Helliconia Spring - Brian Aldiss
The Clothing of Books - Jhumpa Lahiri
Three Types of Solitude - Brian Aldiss
Will Williams - Namwali Serpell
No Room at the Morgue - Jean-Patrick Manchette
Report on Probability A - Brian Aldiss
CoDex 1962: A Trilogy - Sjón
Reasons to be Cheerful - Greg Egan
Chaff - Greg Egan
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx
Helliconia Summer - Brian Aldiss
Ceremonies in Bachelor Space - Russell Edson
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King
Episodes - Christopher Priest
The Shape of the Ruins - Juan Gabriel Vásquez
Monsieur - Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Helliconia Winter - Brian Aldiss
Case Closed - Patrik Ouředník
Artform - César Aira
Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things - Gilbert Sorrentino
Mr. Templeton's Toyshop - Thomas Wiloch
Best SF Stories - Brian Aldiss
Who Can Replace a Man? - Brian Aldiss
The Mean Alphabet - Richard Benbrook
At Play in the Fields of the Lord - Peter Matthiessen
The Opium General - Michael Moorcock
Dark Echoes of the Past - Ramón Díaz Eterovic
The Nightfarers - Mark Valentine
The Rite of Trebizond - Mark Valentine and John Howard
In Violet Veils - Mark Valentine
The Hashish Man - Lord Dunsany
The Idle City - Lord Dunsany
The Merry Chase - Gordon Lish
Goings: In Thirteen Sittings - Gordon Lish
Peru - Gordon Lish
The Age of Wire and String - Ben Marcus
The Wild Iris - Louise Glück
Amsterdam Tales - Helen Constantine (editor)
The Flame Alphabet - Ben Marcus
Pulls - Gary Lutz
Partial List of People to Bleach - Gary Lutz
Butcher's Moon - Richard Stark
The Hunter - Richard Stark
The Man with the Getaway Face - Richard Stark
Exhumed - David Yurkovich (editor)
The Outfit - Richard Stark
The Mourner - Richard Stark
The Score - Richard Stark
The Jugger - Richard Stark
The Box - Peter Rabe
The Seventh - Richard Stark
The Visit to the Museum - Vladimir Nabokov
The Handle - Richard Stark
The Rare Coin Score - Richard Stark
The Aurelian - Vladimir Nabokov
The Green Eagle Score - Richard Stark
The Black Ice Score - Richard Stark
The Sour Lemon Score - Richard Stark
The Widow - Georges Simenon
Deadly Edge - Richard Stark
Signs and Symbols - Vladimir Nabokov
If On a Winter's Night a Traveler - Italo Calvino
Plunder Squad - Richard Stark
Backflash - Richard Stark
Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread - Michiko Kakutani
Flashfire - Richard Stark
Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino - Julián Herbert
Descending by Thomas M. Disch
Firebreak - Richard Stark
Breakout - Richard Stark -
➽ Thanks to the amazing
Brock at
Let's Read, here are some 2020 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet:
My Top Five Favorite 2020 Publications:
➽ 5.)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
➽ 4.)
Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) by Brandon Sanderson
➽ 3.)
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
➽ 2.)
Night Shine (Night Shine #1) by Tessa Gratton
➽ 1.)
The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) by R.F. Kuang
My Top Five Favorite Books NOT Published in 2020:
➽ 5.)
The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore (2021)
➽ 4.)
The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss (2007 - reread)
➽ 3.)
Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices #1) by Cassandra Clare (2016 - reread)
➽ 2.)
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (2021)
➽ 1.)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (2019)
Extra End of the Year Things:
➽
My 2020 Reading Year in Review
➽
Favorite Asian Books of 2020
➽
Favorite Sapphic Stories of 2020
➽
Favorite 2020 Debuts
➽
Favorite Non-Book Things of 2020
━━━★ 2020 was a very hard year on all of us & i wanted to make a shelf with
All the Books I Read while Quarantined
Blog |
Instagram |
Youtube |
Ko-fi |
Spotify |
Twitch
➽
My 2019 Reading Challenge
➽
My 2018 Reading Challenge
➽
My 2017 Reading Challenge
➽
My 2016 Reading Challenge
➽
My 2015 Reading Challenge -
The year is almost over, the Hugo/Nebula challenge is met (see below), and it’s time to reminisce about the strangeness that was 2020.
Everything else aside, it was probably one of my best reading years. That’s why you get when you combine an indoorsy introvert and quarantine/lockdown. That’s the proverbial silver lining.
This year is special for me because it’s the year I returned to Goodreads. I took a sabbatical from review writing starting sometime in 2016, just as pressures of “real” life started cracking down on me. A few months of this break became a year, then two, then three. I still read (although less) and sometimes would read reviews, and rarely popped out a review or two — but my love of expressing myself through writing was dulled, and eventually it was basically a writing block as my reviewing got rusty. Then I changed my job to a slightly less stressful one, and got myself into a better place mood-wise.
And then 2020 happened, and in the middle of the supposedly non-Covid pneumonia, feeling physically miserable, I found my way back. It was Goodreads or pick up knitting again, and knitting is not easy when coughing and sneezing in bed. Long story short, I decided to reexplore GR — and I was able to get over my block and express my opinions regardless of whether anyone wanted to hear them. And my Goodreads friends — wonderful people who make this place a wonderful oasis of book loving and discussion — made this a special place again. And before I knew, I easily read about three times my average. And I love it.
————
And now for the best and the worst of the year.
The Best:
— The award for the most treasured find of the year goes to Martha Wells’ snarky and pessimistic Murderbot, my soul sibling. Can I remember my world without Murderbot? I think not.
— The award for the best debut novel (SFF) goes to wonderful
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. Enjoy your well-deserved Hugo!
— The award for the book that went from dislike to pure love goes to
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson.
— The award for the most bonkers series goes to
Gideon the Ninth and
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Those were, well, something else. The runner-up in the singles category goes to
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and all those weird capitalizations in it. And, of course, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s
Walking to Aldebaran because wtf?
— The award for best spiders and octopuses in a SF novel goes, of course, to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s
Children of Time and
Children of Ruin.
— My award for the most heartbreaking literary novel belongs to
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels.
— Two wonderful short story collections -
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang and
Jackalope Wives and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher - are excellent finds that brought me real joy. Kij Johnson’s
At the Mouth of the River of Bees gets an honorable mention.
—
The End of Everything by Katie Mack was my favorite science book, and
Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish brought happy hours of delighted listening to all that Scottish accent. And let’s not forget
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe.
— Tana French, of course, gets her own category: her newest offering
The Searcher was quite lovely, and my rereads of
The Trespasser and
Faithful Place were amazing.
— Frances Hardinge’s
Deeplight just proves that there’s nothing she can’t do. Hats off to the genius.
— My favorite story about Humpty Dumpty’s murder case solving goes uncontested to Jasper Fforde’s
The Big Over Easy.
— My favorite rereads were Kazuo Ishiguro’s
The Remains of the Day and Andy Weir’s
The Martian.
— And my favorite guilty pleasure reads were, of course, the many offerings by K.J. Charles (
The Magpie Lord,
Slippery Creatures and
The Sugared Game), and Rainbow Rowell’s
Carry On because why not?
—————
The Worst:
— Do I even need to mention the needless soulless cash grab sequel
Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline? No, I guess not. It won over
Midnight Sun and its sparkly vampires (Stephenie Meyer) and
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Ew.
— Most hyped up but ultimately disappointed book? The dubious honor goes to
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and her seven freckles (V.E. Schwab) and
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
—————
—————
My personal challenge this year: read (and review) all the Hugo and Nebula nominees, as my undying love declaration for SF and fantasy.
✅ = “Category winner”
❤️ = “My favorite(s) in the category”
Hugo nominees:
Best Novel
☑️ The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan) — 2 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK) — 4 stars,
review here
✅ ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK) — 5 stars,
review here
☑️ Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) — 4 stars,
review here
Best Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) - 5 stars,
review here
☑️ The Deep, by Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga Press/Gallery) — 3.5 stars,
review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) — 4.5 stars,
review here
✅ This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (Saga Press; Jo Fletcher Books) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager; Hodder & Stoughton) — 4.5 stars,
review here
Best Novelette
☑️ “The Archronology of Love”, by Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed, April 2019) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ “Away With the Wolves”, by Sarah Gailey (Uncanny Magazine: Disabled People Destroy Fantasy Special Issue, September/October 2019) — 2 stars,
review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, July-August 2019) — 3 stars,
review here
✅ ❤️ “Emergency Skin”, by N.K. Jemisin (Forward Collection (Amazon)) — 5 stars,
review here
☑️ “For He Can Creep”, by Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com, 10 July 2019) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ “Omphalos”, by Ted Chiang (Exhalation (Borzoi/Alfred A. Knopf; Picador)) — 4.5 stars,
review here
Best Short Story
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, by Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons, 9 September 2019) — 3 stars,
review here
✅ ❤️ “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang (Tor.com, 23 October 2019) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ “Blood Is Another Word for Hunger”, by Rivers Solomon (Tor.com, 24 July 2019) — 1 star,
review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2019) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, January 2019) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen (Nightmare Magazine, May 2019) — 2.5 stars,
review here
Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo) (heh, I think it still counts, Hugos!) - BONUS CATEGORY
✅ Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) — 4 stars,
review here.
☑️ ❤️ Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan) — 4.5 stars,
review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee (Disney/Hyperion) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ Minor Mage, by T. Kingfisher (Argyll) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ Riverland, by Fran Wilde (Amulet) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ The Wicked King, by Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key) — 3.5 stars,
review here
———————
———————
Nebula Nominees:
Novel
☑️ Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen) — 2 stars,
review here
☑️ The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor) — 5 stars,
review here
☑️ Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) — 4 stars,
review here
✅ A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley) — 4 stars,
review here
Novella
☑️ ❤️ “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation) — 5 stars,
review here
☑️ The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)— 4 stars,
review here
✅ This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga; Jo Fletcher) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga) — 3.5 stars,
review here
☑️ Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye) — 3.5 stars,
review here
Novelette
☑️ “A Strange Uncertain Light”, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19) — 3.5 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ “For He Can Creep”, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ “His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light”, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ “The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19) — 3 stars,
review here
✅ “Carpe Glitter”, Cat Rambo (Meerkat) — 3 stars,
review here
☑️ “The Archronology of Love”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19) — 4 stars,
review here
Short Story
✅ “Give the Family My Love”, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19) — 3 stars,
review here
☑️ ❤️ “The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power”, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19) — 4 stars,
review here
☑️ “And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19) — 3 stars,
review here
☑️ “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ “A Catalog of Storms”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19) — 2.5 stars,
review here
☑️ “How the Trick Is Done”, A.C. Wise (Uncanny 7-8/19) — 1.5 stars,
review here
The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction - BONUS CATEGORY
☑️ Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion) — 2 stars,
review here.
☑️ ❤️ Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen) — 4 stars,
review here.
☑️ Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion) — 2.5 stars,
review here
⭕️ Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Henry Lien (Holt) - I’m much too old for this
⭕️ Cog, Greg van Eekhout (Harper) — see above
✅ Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet) — 2.5 stars,
review here -
Best Lesfic/WLW/Sapphic Books of 2020
First, I just want to say sorry that this list is a little late this year. I know I worried some people that I might not finish it. This has been a rough and glitch filled week but I’m finally finished. I can’t believe that this is actually my 5th annual best of lesfic awards list. The time has gone by so fast. I started this because Goodreads doesn’t have an LGBTQ+ award category (and after 5 years it still doesn’t) and for the fact that there are always deserving sapphic books that get overlooked by others awards. Plus, it is just fun celebrating the books that gave me such joy during the year and I want all of you to be able to enjoy them too.
This was a year that more than ever I realized how important books are to me. I’ve loved them all my life, but they really meant so much more during this year from Hell. This year took its toll on me from work, personal life, mental health, and the amount of my friends and family who contracted Covid. So many times reading got my mind off of this mess, stopped me from crying, or even put a smile on my face which was really invaluable. We all have had our own ways of coping this year but reading really was mine.
When it comes to Goodreads itself, for the most part I really enjoyed this year. This little corner of LGBTQ+ reader fans on Goodreads is filled with wonderful people and not the type of divisiveness you normally find all over the place. I have friends from this site that mean a lot to me year after year, and I have a lot of new friends that I have really enjoyed getting to know in 2020. There is also a friend I want to thank who I’ve known for a while, but we became really strong friends this year… you have meant the world to me and I can’t thank you enough! I also want to thank all my friends, followers, and everyone who took the time to message me, comment, like, or read one of my reviews. You all are the best and the reason I keep coming back and reviewing year after year. I am constantly shocked and moved by the kind comments and messages I receive and just amazed at how wonderful the people on this site are. I was also blown away by the quality and informative reviews that I got to read this year. You fellow reviewers have absolutely drowned my to read list, but in the best way possible. Thank you all!
This has been a very strong year for sapphic books. While there were some wonderful books in 2018 and 2019, I feel like this year compares more to 2017 with the amount of ‘big hits’. This was a fantastic year for spec-fic type books and crime books. I did find myself struggling with “just” romance books like contemporary romance. I was finding a few, but not many of the big hits. Luckily, that really changed in the last few months and I’ve read some real gems. On top of that, mainstream sapphic books have really exploded. It is so nice to see and I think 2021 will continue in that same vein and may even be better.
Finally, it’s time for my best of list in the world of lesfic/WLW/sapphic books. Like previous years, the only books eligible are books published in 2020. I’m pretty strict about this but I do add one category for ‘best book I read not published in 20’. Anyway, all the books are wlw or at least have a queer main character. I try to cover just about every category that I feel had a worthy winner. My other rule is that each book can only win one category. An author can win multiple categories, but it is because they released more than one book. There are some books this year that could win or come close to winning multiple categories but I want to spread the love around so all deserving books have a chance. If you see (Book 2) that means the book is part of a series and the number corresponds to where the book is in the series. I would always suggest starting with the first book in the series but it is up to you. I hope you all find some great books to add to your to read lists.
Best Book of 2020
Hotel Queens by Lee Winter
Best Debut of 2020
Those Who Wait by Haley Cass
Best Romance:
Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
Best Slow Burn Romance:
Wrong Number, Right Woman by Jae
Best Contemporary Romance:
Finding Jessica Lambert by Clare Ashton
Best Medical Romance:
Dirt Nap by Carolyn Elizabeth (Book 2)
Best Age-Gap Romance:
The Love Factor by Quinn Ivins
Best Butch/Femme Romance:
And Then There Was Her by Tagan Shepard
Best Emotional Romance:
The Road Home by Erin Zak
Best Drama Romance:
A Breathless Place by Harper Bliss
Best Family Drama Romance:
Face the Wind by Caren J. Werlinger (Book 2)
Best Steamy or Erotic Romance:
Come to My Door by Lexa Luthor (Book 2)
Runner-ups in the Romance Category:
Spindrift by Anna Burke,
46 by Lynn Ames, and
The Last Place You Look by Aurora Rey
Best Drama: A tie between
Serenity by Jesse J. Thoma and
Jellicle Girl by Stevie Mikayne
Best Sports Book:
Lighting the Lamp by K.R. Collins (Book 3)
Best Sports Romance:
Game Changers by Jane Cuthbertson
Best YA:
The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth
Best YA Paranormal:
The Scapegracers by Hannah Abigail Clarke
Best Steampunk:
A Touch of Ice by Nita Round (Book 4)
Best Steampunk Romance:
The Lost Temple of Psiere by K. Aten (Book 2)
Best Fantasy: A tie between
Daughter of the Moon by Effie Calvin (Book 5) and
Sirens and Syphons by Nita Round (Book 2)
Best Fantasy Romance:
Bloodring by Mildred Gail Digby
Best Paranormal:
All Together Stranger by Lara Hayes (Book 2)
Best Paranormal Romance:
Coyote Blues by Karen F. Williams
Best Urban Fantasy:
The Wounded Ones by G.D. Penman (Book 2)
Best Sci-Fi:
A Pale Light in the Black by K.B. Wagers
Best Sci-Fi Fantasy:
That Distant Dream by Laurel Beckley
Best Action:
Elimination by Jackie D. (Book 3)
Best Action Romance:
Out of the Flames by Stacy Lynn Miller
Best Crime:
Gray Matters by Dolores Arden
Best Crime Romance:
Fair Game by Charlotte Mills (Book 2)
Best Thriller:
Gillette Park by Gerri Hill
Best Mystery:
Murder By The Sea by Deni Starr
Best Mystery Romance:
The Other Side of Forestlands Lake by Carolyn Elizabeth
Best Intrigue:
Storm Lines by Jessica L. Webb
Best Horror:
Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth
Best Historic Fiction:
To Sleep With Reindeer by Justine Saracen
Best Superhero Book:
Children of the Stars by K. Aten
Best Superhero Romance:
Never Too Late for Heroes by A.L. Brooks
Best Romance Novella:
Just My Type by Lucy Bexley & Bryce Oakley
Best Sci-fi Novella:
Glorious Day by Skye Kilaen
Best Fantasy Novella:
A Pinch of Salt by Nita Round (Book 0.1)
Biggest Surprise of 2020
Sylver and Gold by Michelle Larkin (One of the most fun and entertaining reads of the year)
Best Book More People Need to Read:
Remember Me, Synthetica by K. Aten (This was in the running for best book of the year)
Best Book Read in 20 But Not Published in 20:
Aurora's Angel by Emily Noon (I loved this book and it probably would have won for best book of the year but it was published in 2019)
That’s it for the book awards. It is mostly the same categories from last year but with a few changes. Hopefully there are books here that will appeal to everyone. These last two awards are for authors.
Best Author of 2020: A tie between Carolyn Elizabeth and K. Aten Runner-up: Nita Round. Elizabeth and Aten both had a fantastic year with multiple books that I loved. Round also had some huge hits and is taking Kindle Unlimited by storm
Best New Author of 2020: Haley Cass Runners-up: Skye Kilaen, Hannah Abigail Clarke, Dolores Arden, Quinn Ivins, and Ciara Smyth. 2020 was an excellent year for debut authors and it was hard to even pick a top 6. However, it was easy to pick Cass as a winner since her debut was an easy 5 stars.
That is it for my 2020 awards. I do have all these books on a shelf titled
2020 favorites just encase it is easier for people to navigate. I also have last year’s winners on a
2019 favorites shelf for anyone who might have missed them plus a shelf for the
2018,
2017, and
2016 favorites too. Thank you again everyone. I hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year and a wonderful 2021 (it has to be better right?) -
General reflection
With the pandemic a lot of entertainment sources fell away and 2020 was the best reading year for me in terms of both number of books (120) and number of pages (33.000). Also I increased the average length of books read to 275 pages compared to the 232 of 2019, when I felt I read a bit too many short works. My overall rating remained at 3.3.
A goal I set myself was reading more non-fiction, which worked with 20 books, and one 5 star read among them,
These Truths: A History of the United States. The reading of classics, which I also wanted to continue this year, was a mixed bag. I managed to tackle
Anna Karenina and quite enjoyed it, but from the Perpetua series of 100 great books I only read 8 while I aimed for 12.
In terms of engagement on Goodreads I added over 800 new friends, from 471 to 1.276 and took on the co-moderator role of a group.
My number of books increased from 1.289 to 1.812, read books from 409 to 529.
In terms of well liked reviews
Dune garnered 154 likes and in the last month of the year.
In the moment monthly highlights
January was quite a good month with 13 books read and two works of
Virginia Woolf that especially stood out. Both
Orlando and
A Room of One's Own impressed me and garnered 5 stars.
Asymmetry of
Lisa Halliday disappointed most during the month.
From the books I wanted to read this year I managed to tackle
Wolf Hall of
Hilary Mantel and I could add
Sappho to my list.
February was rather hectic but I still managed to read 10 books and it also brought a new favourite:
Bring Up the Bodies was a 5 star follow up to the story of Wolf Hall.
As a classic I read
Lof der zotheid by
Erasmus who was a contemporary of Cromwell. For non-fiction
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming was a sobering and urgent reading experience.
From the books I wanted to tackle this year
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was a four star read and made me curious to read more of
Elif Shafak. Both
An Artist of the Floating World and my buddy read of the month
The Bell Jar were also four star reads.
March brought the conclusion to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy; but what I read was
A Place of Greater Safety of
Hilary Mantel. This was also a big, bold book, but clearly from a younger Mantel. My favourite of this month was an old one:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Also
The Plague of
Albert Camus was an impressive book in these times of Corona.
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber was an interesting non-fiction read, but unfortunately quite sloppy written.
Finally
De slaap die geen uren kent disappointed most with two stars.
April in these strange times started with non-fiction
Walk Through Walls: A Memoir, which, together with
The Memory Police, was the best book I read during this month.
First Love of Turgenev was my classics read of the month but rather disappointed. The same can be said for
The Last Children of Tokyo and my Dutch buddy read
Lucifer.
May was a good reading month again with 10 books, quite satisfying as
Anna Karenina took up a lot of attention. I had fun discussing this classic with a group on Whatsapp during the month.
Elevation of Stephen King was the most disappointing read, while
De meeste mensen deugen as non-fiction read was gripping and fast.
The Metamorphosis of Kafka,
And Then There Were None of Christie and
Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura all were impressive 4 star reads.
For June an important book in these times of Black Life Matters was:
Wij slaven van Suriname. Also was happy to have read
The Mirror & the Light as the last part of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy of
Hilary Mantel. Also I finished the SF Remembrance of Earth Past trilogy with
The Dark Forest and
Death's End which were both excellent.
The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World disappointed as a two star read.
July had the first one star read of the year,
The Catcher in the Rye did not hit my buttons.
Revenge from international booker prize shortlist nominee
Yōko Ogawa was the best I read this month, tied with the terrifying non-fiction
The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy.
August had two classics
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame from
Victor Hugo and
The Trial of
Franz Kafka.
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History was a well done non-fiction work and I really enjoyed
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Finally I managed to read two Booker International Prize winners:
The Discomfort of Evening and my favourite of the month:
The Vegetarian.
For September I had
Tokyo Ueno Station as a group read for Japanese Literature and
Why Read the Classics? from
Italo Calvino as non-fiction.
The Glass Hotel from
Emily St. John Mandel was less impressive than I expected based on
Station Eleven.
I most liked
All Systems Red's cynical narrator Murderbot from
Martha Wells, while both
Albert Camus
The Stranger and the Booker Shortlisted
The New Wilderness from
Diane Cook disappointed.
This was also the month I discovered audiobooks and I became moderator from De Fanatieke Nederlandse Lezers group here on Goodreads.
October this was the month I read the most pages of the year, over 4.100, spread over 15 books. A whole 1/3 of these garnered 2 stars so quantity and quality were not in a perfect lockstep this month.
Favourite of the books I read this month was Booker 2020 longlisted
Love and Other Thought Experiments from
Sophie Ward; it is a strong contender for the favourite books of the year. In terms of non-fiction I really enjoyed
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow of
Yuval Noah Harari. In terms of Japanese literature I had two rereads:
Confessions of a Mask by
Yukio Mishima was impressive while
Out by
Natsuo Kirino was a slight disappointment. In terms of classics I quite liked
Brave New World
In November I read
Dracula,
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
Human Acts by
Han Kang. This last book was brutal but another 5 star read from this author for me.
Also with the presidential elections I read
These Truths: A History of the United States of
Jill Lepore and loved this comprehensive account of the political history of the USA. In a whole other genre but still related to the elections I enjoyed LGBTQ RomCom
Red, White & Royal Blue from
Casey McQuiston.
For December I tried to tackle some of the backlog of month reads including:
Dune, which was my favourite book of the month.
Earthlings by
Sayaka Murata was rather weird,
A Christmas Carol my first
Charles Dickens and quite delightful, and
Pew by
Catherine Lacey was also really good.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Japanese poet
Matsuo Bashō came as close as non-fiction this month as it got.
I am currently reading
Jane Eyre as either last book of the year or first book of 2021. -
Top Ten of 2020
This is a monthly list of all of the books that I rated between 4 and 5 stars in the year of 2020.
Best of January
Best of February
Best of March
Best of April
none
Best of May
none
Best of June
Best of July
Best of August
Best of September
Best of October
Best of November
Best of December
Re-Reads
-
Plots, Protags and one Pandemic, by Kevin Ansbro
(My year in books)
2020 has been a difficult year for almost everyone on the planet - even for some of the Covidiots, bless them - but the Goodreads family has still been able to safely congregate during lockdowns, our social distancing knowing no bounds.
I'm hopeful for a bright tomorrow. Our battered ship has been taking on water for quite some time, and the crew are restless, but a tiny sliver of land can be seen on the distant horizon...
: )
I want to give special thanks to my fabulous buddy readers:
Kimber,
Collin and
Nat, and also to Peter, Cheri, Leila, Fran, Beverly, Lori, Paul, Asma, Ceecee, Blair, Lars, Marialyce, Julie, Jason, Glenda, Daniel, Anthea, Marc, Susan, Nigel, Alexandra, Donnelle, Amy, Melanie, Laysee, Sara, Jennifer, Kim, etcetera, etcetera, for their kind support. x
Here is my year in books. The average rating was 4.4, so I'm not quite the curmudgeon I sometimes appear to be! ; )
5*
The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov (my favourite of the year)
5*
Esperanza's Box of Saints María Amparo Escandón
5*
The Boatman and Other Stories Billy O'Callaghan
5*
Two in Torquay Alan Bennett
5*
Pockets Amal El-Mohtar
5*
Great-Great-Grandpa’s Hat Box Amor Towles
5*
Whimsy of the World Amor Towles
5*
The Country of the Blind H.G. Wells
5*
The Nightingale and the Rose Oscar Wilde
4*
The Oval Portrait Edgar Allan Poe
4*
Whole New Worlds Caitlin Hamilton Summie
4*
Life is Elsewhere Milan Kundera
4*
Labels Louis de Bernières
4*
There Will Come Soft Rains Ray Bradbury
4*
The Fish Girl Mirandi Rowe
4*
Mutiny on the Bounty John Boyne
4*
The Chestnut Man Søren Sveistrup
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a hale and hearty 2021! Happy reading, one and all! x -
2020 bookish resolutions:
Read more of my own books and cut down on the number of library books I take out. At least until my physical TBR has gone down.
I’m lowering my reading challenge to 75 books even though I did over 100 this year. I’m going to be travelling for 1 month which will severely cut my reading time.
Here’s to another wonderful year filled with awesome books!
** Update 29/06/2020**
Ok, so Covid spoiled my travel plans, but on the plus side I'm currently 17 books ahead of schedule.
Might raise my challenge, possibly.
And the library being closed has forced me to read more of my own books which is good.
Last year I listed all the books I read each month with favourites and least favourites. But it took up the maximum amount of space allowed here so I'm not sure if I'll do that again.
Think I'll just list my top 10 and bottom 10 (might extend this as 10 doesn't seem enough but still.)
So far...
Favourites:
Golden Son
Exit, Pursued by a Bear
The Kingdom of Copper
Thunderhead
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.
Step Sister by Jennifer Donnelly.
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell.
Morning Star by Pierce Brown.
The Guest List by Lucy Foley.
Bitter disappointments:
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Uprooted
The Runner
Educated: A Memoir
Chocolat by Joanne Harris
The Trees by Ali Shaw. -
Corona is the biggest bully that most of us have ever encountered. He's our war, our natural disaster, our famine. He has robbed too many of us of our lives and our livelihoods, and he has knocked the wind out of too many of us, too. (Sorry, I've decided Corona's a he. No offense.)
I've observed his influence on too many readers this year; friends who were once stalwart readers were suddenly not able to concentrate on a book. I also watched highly literate friends go from reading WAR AND PEACE to books like BITE MY BODICE, BABY.
And here I was, the quintessential Hermione Granger, setting out to fulfill a bucket list item, to read a book set in all 50 of these United States in one year. I didn't want a pandemic. I had an ambitious Reading Road Trip to complete! I didn't know I would get so sick. I didn't know I would never be alone in the house again, from March 13 on, or find it necessary to hide in the bathroom to read.
I wasn't sure I'd have the focus to finish; I wasn't sure that anyone would even care. But, as usual, I was surprised by the tenacity of the human spirit. Even people who had given up on reading themselves didn't fail to come on here with their bookmark pom poms, cheering me on. I felt like I was reading these books for a group of people, not just me.
Certain friends jumped in during the times when I started to falter:
Peter,
Dan,
Kimber and
Antoinette reached out to take on buddy reads with me and kept me in motion.
My friend,
Diane Barnes, climbed right into the figurative RV with me, right from the first mile. Diane never hesitated to respond to my midnight missives, when I needed new books for states and research that had failed me. I swear that you could write to Diane: “Quick! I need a story, set in Kentucky, that involves a former Marine who served time in Vietnam” and she'd answer back in minutes “A BLUEGRASS SNIPER IN SAIGON?” You are amazing, lady.
Candi, the world's nicest human, was the best backseat driver you could ever ask for, simultaneously reading maps and pouring us bourbon creams.
So many of you showed up, religiously, for all fifty reviews for all fifty states. How all of you fit into the RV, I'll never know. You know who you are, and you know how I feel about you. Seriously, guys: THANK YOU.
Friends, this situation isn't over yet, and we're all going to need: a new project, a new prayer, a new trail, a new lover, a miniature donkey. Please, find something in your life that makes some fresh sparks fly.
And now, without further ado, may I share an accomplishment that makes me click my ruby slippers with rare delight??
READING ROAD TRIP 2020
(The 5 star reviews are denoted by ***** )
THE NORTHEAST:
Maine:
Amy and Isabelle (novel)
New Hampshire:
New Hampshire (poetry)
Vermont:
Life Among the Savages (memoir)
Massachusetts:
The Maples Stories (short story collection)*****
Rhode Island:
Fungi from Yuggoth and Other Poems (poetry)
Connecticut:
The Ice Storm (novel)
New York:
The Last Will & Testament of Zelda McFigg (novel)
New Jersey:
Goodbye, Columbus (a novella and short story collection)
Pennsylvania:
The Dutch House (novel)
Delaware:
As I Lay Frying (essay collection)
THE SOUTH:
Maryland:
Kindred (novel)
Virginia:
The Confessions of Nat Turner (novel)*****
North Carolina:
Cold Mountain (novel)*****
South Carolina:
Her Own Place (novel)
Georgia:
In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women (short stories)
Florida:
The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood (memoir)*****
Alabama:
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (novel)*****
Tennessee:
Wise Blood (novel)
Kentucky:
Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter (memoir)
West Virginia:
Last Mountain Dancer (memoir)
THE MIDWEST:
Ohio:
Thomas and Beulah (poetry)
Michigan:
Finding Chika (memoir)
Indiana:
She Got Up Off The Couch (memoir)
Illinois:
Maud Martha (novel)*****
Wisconsin:
Blankets (graphic novel)
Minnesota:
The Tomcat's Wife (short stories)
North Dakota:
The Winter in Anna (novel)
South Dakota:
Black Elk Speaks (memoir)
Nebraska:
Dalva (novel)
Iowa:
Gilead (novel)*****
SOUTH by SOUTHWEST:
Missouri:
Enemy Women(novel)*****
Arkansas:
True Grit (novel)*****
Mississippi:
Salvage the Bones (novel)
Louisiana:
A Lesson Before Dying (novel)*****
Texas:
News of the World (novel)*****
Oklahoma:
Crazy Brave (memoir)
Kansas:
In Cold Blood (true crime)
New Mexico:
Death Comes for the Archbishop (novel)*****
Nevada:
The Desert Rose (novel)
Arizona:
A Small Story About the Sky (poetry)
THE WEST:
Utah:
Desert Solitaire (memoir)
Colorado:
Pale Horse, Pale Rider (novella collection)
Wyoming:
Close Range (short story collection)
Montana:
A River Runs Through It (novel)*****
Idaho:
The Girl Who Slept With God (novel)
Washington:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (YA)
Oregon:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)*****
California:
The Woman Warrior (memoir)*****
Alaska:
The Snow Child (novel)
Hawaii:
Stories of Hawaii by Jack London (short story collection)
(Additionally, in March, when the pandemic ended in-person school for my girls, we took on a second challenge: Kids Read Across America. All 50 titles of that middle grades American reading journey can be found on my profile page under that same name).
Happy New Year, y'all. -
For much of 2019, after my father’s suicide, I read for nostalgia & comfort: short stories, humour, light novels, books we'd shared, plus sci-fi/dystopia for contrast. I slowly reverted to more normal fare, then the Covid pandemic struck: I reunited with old "friends" & discovered brilliant new ones, when meeting actual friends is impossible.
Image: New year reading resolution by Tom Gauld (
Source)
Highlights
I’d not heard of
Gabriel Josipovici at the start of the year. Thanks to GR friends, I’ve read three of his startlingly original, beautifully written short novels & plan to read more.
Billy O’Callaghan (again). This time,
The Boatman spoke to my mind, heart, & soul. Pre-Covid, I wrote:
"The message I took is to notice & appreciate what I have… relish & nurture relationships while I can, even imperfect ones. But continue to dream & strive as well."
I want to jump to another time/line so reread
John Wyndham shorts, plus
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone.
The most entertaining book was Marc-Uwe Kling’s
Qualityland: a comical sci-fi utopia/dystopia. Tech writer friends & I had different fun with Randall Munroe’s
Thing Explainer.
Bernardine Evaristo’s polyphonic harmony of dissonant voices,
Girl, Woman, Other, prompted me to read more about race & justice. Reni Eddo-Lodge’s
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race taught me a lot about black British history & life.
Lowlights
If Bernardine Evaristo’s race-reversed satire on the slave trade,
Blonde Roots, had been by an unknown author, it would be DNF.
Nicholson Baker’s
The Fermata was an interesting time-stopping premise, but a vile book. My only DNF this year.
The list
Average rating of 3.7* for 67 items.
• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie, 2*,
HERE
The good seeds were smothered by the weeds of craziness
• Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, 4*,
HERE
Outrageous fun
• The Boatman, Billy O’Callaghan, 5*,
HERE
Heartbreakingly beautiful stories of love & loss
• The Fermata, Nicholson Baker, DNF,
HERE
Fantastic premise. Vile book
• This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 5*,
HERE
Genre mashup: "assassinations become assignations" in a poetic gay love story, up & down the twisty threads of time
• The Psychology of Time Travel, Kate Mascarenhas, 2*,
HERE
Interesting premise, female-focused, but disappointing
• Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo, 5*,
HERE
Stunning, varied, interlinked stories: homage to the diversity of (mainly) black British women
• I Wonder What It's Like To Be Dyslexic, Sam Barclay, 4*,
HERE
“A beautiful, design led experience of what it feels like to struggle with reading.”
• The Driver's Seat, Muriel Spark, 4*,
HERE
“Whydunnit” exploration of madness
• The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers, 5*,
HERE
Growing up - over a period of days. As powerful as when I first read it as a teen
• The Fox, DH Lawrence, 3*,
HERE
Happiness is unattainable
• Little White Duck: A Childhood in China, Na Liu, 4*,
HERE
Formative years of China’s “transition generation”. Children's graphic novel
• Wild Swans, Jung Chang, 4*,
HERE
Three-generation family biography, written like a novel
• The Ladybird, DH Lawrence, 4*,
HERE
The floral, fiery, animal, earthy, easy-to-mock Lawrence I love
• Funny Ha Ha, Paul Merton, 4*,
HERE
Anthology of humorous short stories, including a few I’d already reviewed, plus others with new, individual reviews:
Jasper Fforde, The Locked Room Mystery, 4*
Katherine Mansfield, The Daughters of the Late Colonel, 3*
Ali Smith, The Child, 4*
HG Wells, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, 4*
PG Wodehouse, Mulliner’s Buck-U-Uppo, 5*
• The Riceyman Steps, Arnold Bennett, 4*,
HERE
Unexpected middle-aged love in 1919 London. Delightful
• Coronavirus: A Book for Children, 4*,
HERE
Factual, practical, reassuring picture book
• My Hero Is You - How Kids Can Fight Covid-19, 1*,
HERE
Picture book of inaccurate facts as reassuring fantasy
• Greev, Leo X Robinson, 4*,
HERE
Futuristic industrial espionage after societal tragedy. Moving, action-packed, disorienting, philosophical, & topical
• The Cemetery in Barnes, Gabriel Josipovici, 5*,
HERE
The beauty of the sonnets & opera it quotes, with subtly sinister undercurrents. The threads dissolve disorientingly & crystallise in the rippling waters
• Last Stories, William Trevor, 4*,
HERE
Poignant, understated, atmospheric episodes. Several involve widows/widowers contemplating the future
• Duck! Rabbit!, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, 4*,
HERE
"There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God"
• The Club of Queer Trades, GK Chesterton, 4*,
HERE
Six mysteries to uncover a person’s peculiar way of making a living
• The Last Days of New Paris, China Mieville, 3*,
HERE
Epic idea; epic mess as a novel: 1950 Paris plagued by Nazis, demons, & Surrealist art come to life
• The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, Beatrix Potter, 3*,
HERE
Childhood trauma!
• Contre-Jour: A Triptych after Pierre Bonnard, Gabriel Josipovici, 4*,
HERE
Biographical fiction adapting Bonnard’s visual tropes to verbal ones
• The Great Jelly of London, Paul Jennings & Gerald Rose, 4*,
HERE
The Royal Albert Hall as a giant jelly mould
• A Whimsy of the World, Amor Towles, 3*,
HERE
Whimsical adult short; better as children’s picture book
• A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift, 4*,
HERE
Humorous sci-fi utopia/dystopia, with pop culture references
• Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family, Amanda Jette Knox, 4*,
HERE
Her 11-year old & then spouse came out as trans. Honest, insightful, uplifting
• The Vegetarian, Hang Kang, 4*,
HERE
Cold, voyeuristic, sexy, ugly, beautiful, disturbing
• Consider Her Ways and Others, John Wyndham, 4*,
HERE
Short stories of glitches, twists, & jumps in time/place, with feminist undercurrents
• Too Much and Never Enough, Mary L Trump, 4*,
HERE
No new facts, but a unique perspective: granddaughter & niece with psychology PhD analyses her dysfunctional family
• Missing Person, Patrick Modiano, 3*,
HERE
Exquisite contemporary fable: observational, introspective, philosophical, & unsentimental, told by a voluntary mute
• First Person and Other Stories, Ali Smith, 3*,
HERE
Varying quality; most involve mixing & reworking stories
• How To Run Your Home Without Help, Kay Smallshaw, 4*,
HERE
Solo middle-class housework during austerity & rationing. Fascinating, funny, horrific
• Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge, 4*,
HERE
Race & racism in the UK. Readable, powerful, persuasive, informative, important
• How to be an Alien, George Mikes, 3*,
HERE
Affectionate mockery of Brits, by a Hungarian immigrant in 1946, after 8 years living here
• The Giver, Lois Lowry, 4*,
HERE
YA coming-of-age transitions from utopia to dystopian adventure
• Census, Jesse Ball, 4*,
HERE
Fable defined by absence. A dying widower & adult son with Down Syndrome take a rather sinister roadtrip
• On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder, 4*,
HERE
Concise checklist
• Pockets, Amal El-Mohtar, 4*,
HERE
Fantastical short story about connections
• Talking Heads, Alan Bennett, 5*,
HERE
Thirteen slow-reveal monologues of loneliness, loss, & secrets
• History of the Rain, Niall Williams, 4*,
HERE
A bookish, sickly, Irish 19-year old tells of her father, grandfather, & great grandfather, via her father’s library
• Johnny the Clockmaker, Edward Ardizzone, 5*,
HERE
Childhood classic of chasing one’s dream, despite unsupportive parents
• The Truth About Owls, Amal El-Mohtar, 3*,
HERE
A girl’s mystical connection with an owl helps overcome trauma
• A Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership, Wendell Berry, 4*,
HERE
Vignettes of life in & around PW, over 150 years
• Sod Calm and Get Angry, Robert Lowell, 2*,
HERE
Not as clever or funny as it thinks
• The Works of John Clare, 4*,
HERE
Poems of nature & madness
• The Wall, Marlen Haushofer, 3*,
HERE
Woman trapped on Austrian mountain by an invisible, impenetrable wall
• Death by Scrabble, Charlie Fish, 3*,
HERE
Short story of humour, mild horror, & wordplay
• Thing Explainer, Randall Munroe, 4*,
HERE
Explains 47 hard things with the 1000 most used words + simple pictures
• The Seeds of Time, John Wyndham, 4*,
HERE
Sci-fi shorts, prescient when written & still good. Humour, light horror, & insight
• We do Lockdown, Miriam Elia, 2*,
HERE
Satire like a children’s book: needs to be funnier & darker
• Poems to Live Your Life By, Chris Riddell, 3*,
HERE
Enjoyable poems & pictures, but they don’t always go together very well
• Blonde Roots, Bernardine Evaristo, 2*,
HERE
Disappointing satire on the slave trade with races reversed
• The Gift of the Magi, O Henry, 4*,
HERE
Sentimental short on sacrificial love
• Only Joking, Gabriel Josipovici, 5*,
HERE
Delightful, elegant, & clever whimsy
• Watching the English, Kate Fox, 4*,
HERE
Entertaining, insightful social anthropology from 2006.
• Beloved, Toni Morrison, 3*,
HERE
Struggled with this. Brilliant but slippery. -
Oh, 2020. What a grim year. Around the world nearly 2 million souls have passed on too soon because of a deadly pandemic. Survivors are fortunate enough to only experience weeks of illness or the short stay on a ventilator. Those with mild or no symptoms live with the knowledge that they may have passed the virus on to others who did suffer. Some are wondering, in the back of their mind, if they are responsible for the death of a loved one. No matter how often they’re told it’s not their fault, the idea does not leave their head. Maybe it never will.
If there’s any silver lining, it might be that the world’s digital infrastructure greatly improved, we spent more time with immediate family, and we ousted a dangerous, incompetent wannabe dictator.
And maybe we also read more books.
Maybe.
With a week left, I’m on track to have read 67 books this year. This is actually a tick down from 73 last year. Put another way, that’s 2,000 less pages--thank you Goodreads for keeping track of all this.
I blame the shrink to working from home, which cut into my audiobook time during the lengthy commute, and a distracted mind. In those early months especially it was difficult to focus on anything but the constant gloom and doom. My “Did Not Finish” pile has never been stacked higher than this year. Many of these books I would have likely enjoyed during less tumultuous times, but in the midst of a pandemic they couldn’t capture my attention. If stakes were too high, the book became too stressful. If the stakes were too low, the story seemed pointless. Who cares about piddling trifles amongst so much real drama?
As a result, the books I did read all proved to have some special spark about them. The authors knew how to write a story that sucked you in and refused to let go. Anything weaker was instantly discarded. Likely before the end of Chapter 1. So with that said, even though I read less, I feel as though I read more.
And, as is my annual tradition, I decided to dish out various awards to the books which stood out for one reason or another. Click the hyperlinks to read my review.
Best Out-of-Print Discovery
Marvin Werlin -
Shadow Play (1976)
Best Short Story Collection
Lissa Tuttle -
A Nest of Nightmares (1986)
Best Alternate Historical Fiction
Curtis Sittenfeld -
Rodham (2020)
Best on Race Issues in America
Bryan Stevenson -
Just Mercy (2014)
Best from the Renaissance
Christopher Marlowe -
Edward II (1593)
Best Queer Pulp
Kym Allyson -
The Queer Letters (1970)
Best Academic Writing
Lori A. Paige -
The Gothic Romance Wave (2018)
Best Parody
R.U. Slime -
Stay Out of the Bathroom (1995)
Most Fun to Review
William J. Lambert -
Valley of the Damned (1971)
Best Sex Ed
Peggy Orenstein -
Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity (2020)
Best First Book in a Series
Aola Vandergriff -
Wyndspelle (1975)
Best Worst Book to Read During a Pandemic
Stephen King -
The Stand (1978)
Best Horror
Michael McDowell -
The Elementals (1981)
Best Politics
Joe Biden -
Promise Me, Dad (2017)
Favorite Overall
Ann Radcliffe -
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
&
Ann Radcliffe -
The Romance of the Forest (1791)
Couldn’t decide between these two! Both were wonderful in similar and slightly different ways. Many gothic classics will be on my reading list for 2021. If this is just a sample of what the genre has to offer, there’s going to be a lot of great reading to report next year :) -
Goodreads 2020
2020….
UGH!
Not a good year for most of us and while there weren’t many bright spots, the book world did provide some of the best moments for me.
Please keep in mind that these are books I READ this year- not PUBLISHED this year.
Valentine- Elizabeth Wetmore
Big Lies in a Small Town- Diane Chamberlain
Bull Mountain-Brian Panowich
Darling Rose Gold- Stephanie Wrobel
Lonesome Dove- Larry McMurtry
Long Bright River- Liz Moore
Eight Perfect Murders- Peter Swanson
The Lost Man- Jane Harper
Member of the Family: My story of Charles Manson, Life inside His Cult, and the darkness that ended the sixties-Dianne Lake
Somehow, despite some huge distractions, I managed to read 186 books this year. This is way down from previous years, but part of this was by design, and part due to the pandemic, and some pretty bleak family challenges this year.
Although times were hard, I am still grateful that things were not as bad as they easily could have been. As the year ends, I think it’s healthier to look at whatever positives I can and count my blessings- which are many.
One thing that came out of this year, which I view as a good thing, was a stronger commitment to leaving the ARCs behind, to forget deadlines, and acquaint myself with the many treasures I’m missing out on by narrowing my reading to Netgalley and Edelweiss almost exclusively.
While I won’t go so far as to say I will never succumb to the temptation to add a review copy from time to time, my focus will be on my massive TBR pile and to making new discoveries in all book categories. I look forward to savoring my books more and relish their inspiration and cathartic healing. I’m also excited to see what new books my Goodreads friends will discover this year and look forward to reading your reviews and recommendations!
I sincerely hope 2021 brings us all better and brighter days! Happy New Year!!
-
Happy Holidays, whichever one you celebrate, to all of my goodreads friends. I think that sentence is the only thing about 2020 that is the same as other years. Not to mince words, this year has been well bad. It has affected me on so many levels, starting with my mental health. Thankfully (knock on wood), no one in my family has been sick, but I had an inkling that 2020 was going to be a doozy when Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash and I had to fly home from my vacation two days later. I would have been happy with my two feet on the ground. And then about six weeks later the world stopped and my kids were home for six months. Carving out space to myself to read and write reviews has been challenging. Everyone is back in school now including me, as I’ve substitute taught much more than in other years. Reading has come in spurts, writing when I have a rare full day off, usually Sunday in the middle of my mundane tasks of laundry and watching sports. Reviews have become part of my Sunday routine but that’s ok. It just gives me something else to look forward to at the end of the week.
Needless to say, I did not engage in classic bingo or a Pulitzer challenge. What I enjoyed the most were rereads of favorite books and authors. These helped sustain me through the year, especially Agatha Christie mysteries, of which I read ten. Along with a group reread of Harry Potter in both a group here and with my kids, these were the most special of 2020 reading memories. Other rereads included new favorites Homegoing, Whale Rider, and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe along with all time favorites the Practical Magic series, the All of a Kind Family series- my childhood favorite - and Wait Till Next Year by master historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. These comfort reads sustained me through the year and provided bright lights, which I would not have had otherwise. Generally, I don’t reread at all, but this is something I will engage in more going forward.
My most read genre was baseball books as I used this to replace the sporting events that were not played. Three of my top books of the year come from this genre. The other three are new to me books by all time favorite authors and a bonus new favorite. Other genres I enjoyed were drama as I read the work of Wendy Wasserstein and Anton Chekhov, and middle grade children’s books where Jacqueline Woodson is always a delight to read. I didn’t read as much nonfiction as in recent years but the nonfiction I did read besides sports books was excellent. I managed to read ten memoirs including new books by Mariah Carey, the always optimistic Michael J Fox, and dearly departed Alex Trebek. I also discovered the brilliance of Hope Jahren in Lab Girl; the world needs more people like her. In the general nonfiction category, I shut down when the world did but at the beginning of 2020 I read about the history of Coca Cola, the ill fated history of a railway to Key West, and my annual African American history month reading, which this year included the moving Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. I also eagerly anticipated a new adventure to Haines, Alaska by Heather Lende, and, as with her first three books, I was not disappointed with Of Bears and Ballots.
Even as I branch out and attempt to discover new favorites, the joy of picking up a book written by a familiar voice and presence is yet another comfort to me as I read. I would also say that the silver lining of this year is that two of my goodreads groups started zoom meetings so we now have a face to match the names we communicate with daily. More so than reading, these zooms where I actually enjoyed interpersonal communication will rank among my top memories of any kind from this year. I would be remiss to not give a virtual hug or high five to the moderating teams at the baseball book club, nonfiction book club, and retro chapter chicks. All the behind the scenes chats with you all via email, goodreads chats, and zoom helped sustain me through this unprecedented year. And now, my top 5, ok 6, new books (in no particular order) from this year, which come as little surprise to me in a year where I craved comfort, familiarity, and escape more than anything else-
1. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss
2. The Era 1947-1957: When the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers Ruled the World by Roger Kahn
3. 24: Life Lessons and Stories from the Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays
4. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
5. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
6. Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
And bonus
7. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Below is my full list of books read in hopes that they give you some new ideas for reading material. May 2021 be a happier, healthier, and all around better year for all of us with much happy reading ahead!
Classics (more than 50 years old)
1. ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
2. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
3. Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie
4. Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
5. Rum Diaries by Hunter S. Thompson (written 1959, published 1998)
6. Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
7. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
8. 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie
9. Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
10. Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
11. At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie
12. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
13. Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
14. Tale of a Niggun by Elie Wiesel (written 1965, published 2020)
15. House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
Contemporary
1. The Postman by Antonio Skarmeta
2. Dominicana by Angie Cruz
3. The Men of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
4. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
5. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
6. Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
7. Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (reread)
8. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (reread)
9. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (reread)
10. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Pulitzer winner)
11. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg
12. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Pulitzer winner)
13. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
14. A Painted House by John Grisham
15. In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
16. Of Love and Shadows by Isabel Allende
17. House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon
18. Hanging Curve by Troy Soos
19. Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
20. The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich
21. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (National Book Award winner)
22. Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid by Giuseppe Catozzella
23. Dead Land by Sara Paretsky
24. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (reread)
25. Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (Pulitzer winner)
26. Cincinnati Red Stalkings by Troy Soos
27. Hunting a Detroit Tiger by Troy Soos
28. Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman (reread)
29. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
30. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
31. Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
32. The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg
33. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
34. The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas
General Nonfiction
1. Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism by Bartow J. Elmore
2. A Girl Stands at the Door: A Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America’s Schools by Rachel Devlin
3. Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Les Standiford
4. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Awakening of a Nation by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff (Pulitzer winner)
5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
6. Saturday Night by Susan Orlean
7. 67 Shots: Kent State and the End of American Innocence by Howard Means
8. Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich
9. The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest by Timothy Egan
10. Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small Town Politics by Heather Lende
11. On Cats by Charles Bukowski
12. Apple of My Eye by Helene Hanff
Baseball/Sports
1. The Black Bruins by James W. Johnson
2. Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher by David Cone
3. Wrigley Field 100 Stories for 100 Years by Dan Campana
4. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss
5. Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
6. Crazy ‘08 by Cait Murphy
7. The Era 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World by Roger Kahn
8. Pudge: The Biography of Carlton Fisk by Doug Wilson
9. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife by Brad Balukjian
10. Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ‘76 by Dan Epstein
11. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America by Joe Posnanski
12. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum
13. When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Final Comeback by Michael Leahy
14. The Called Shot: Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs, and The Unforgettable Major League Baseball Season of 1932 by Thomas Wolf
15. Babe Ruth’s Called Shot: The Myth and Mystery of Baseball’s Most Famous Home Run by Ed Sherman
16. The Dad Report: Fathers, Sons, and Baseball Families by Kevin Cook
17. Different Strokes: Serena, Venus, and the Unfinished Tennis Revolution by Cecil Harris
18. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid by Willie Mays and John Shea
19. Summer Baseball Nation: Nine Days in the Wood Bat Leagues by Will Geoghegan
20. The Making of Major League: A Juuust a Bit Inside Look at the Classic Baseball Movie by Jonathan Knight
21. Black and Blue: The Golden Arm, the Robinson Boys, and the 1966 World Series that Stunned America by Tom Adelman
22. Cleveland Rocked: The Personalities, Sluggers, and Magic of the 1995 Indians by Zack Meisel
23. Yankees 1936-1939, Baseball’s Greatest Dynasty: Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and the Birth of a New Era by Stanley Cohen
Biography/Memoir
1. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
2. The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
3. American Disruptor: The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford by Roland DeWolk
4. Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin (reread)
5. Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance by Simone Biles with Michelle Buford
6. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
7. The Answer is...Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek
8. SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld
9. The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey with Michaela Angela Davis
10. No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers His Mortality by Michael J Fox
Poetry
1. Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
2. Bellocq’s Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey
3. She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo
4. Eternity: Selected Poems by Tracy K Smith
5. To Disembark by Gwendolyn Brooks
6. Monument: Poems New and Selected by Natasha Trethewey
7. The Inner City Mother Goose by Eve Merriam
8. The Sea and Bells by Pablo Neruda
Drama
1. Wedding Bands: A Love/Hate Story Told in Black and White by Alice Childress
2. Seven Guitars by August Wilson
3. An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein
4. Isn’t it Romantic by Wendy Wasserstein
5. Third by Wendy Wasserstein
6. Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
7. Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
Middle Grade/Young Adult
1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
➡️ Note: skipped book 5 this time around
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
8. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
9. Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard
10. Strider by Beverly Cleary
11. Before the Ever After by Jaqueline Woodson
12. All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown by Sydney Taylor (also classic)
13. Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Children’s
1. Remember: A Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison
2. My Brother, Martin: A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr by Christine King Ferris
3. We are Shining by Gwendolyn Brooks
4. Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood
5. How to Read a Book by Kwame Alexander (no review)
6. Bronzeville Boys and Girls by Gwendolyn Brooks
7. Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
8. Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini -
2020. A bastard of a year. I don't think I need to go on about what we all know and experienced, so I won't. Except to say that I'm SO grateful for the Goodreads community, more than ever. I've been here since late 2014 (wow, time flies), and I adore my long time friends as well as the fantastic new ones I met just this year. Thank you, you brilliantly discriminating, literate darlings! Thank you for reading and writing about books that inspire me and for visiting my reviews to chat and challenge and charm. Goodreads is my HAPPY PLACE.
Now, on to my yearly book stats.
Books read in 2020 - 56
Books by male authors - 33
Books by female authors - 23
Compilations - 0
Short story collections - 9
Translations - 13
Poetry - 0 - not again!
Non fiction - 4
Re-reads - 0 - epic fail, as I try to do at least one re-read per year
New to me authors - 33
Books published in 2020 - 13
Canadians - 0 - this is ridiculous, what is WRONG with me?
Classic lit - 1 - Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (published in 1929 but written between 1903-08, so I'm counting it as "classic")
World Atlas - (this is a new section of my "stats", and holy moly am I American-centric) USA - 33, England - 8, Japan - 6, Europe - 6, India - 1, Malaysia - 1, South America - 1
I read the exact same low-ish number of books as last year. All I can say is 2020. But a few notable things happened in my book life this year:
* I continued to co-moderate monthly group reads at Newest Literary Fiction, which is a true delight! I love the peeps over there.
* I made a cross-country move (said goodbye to beloved Montreal, hello again to hometown Vancouver).
* I read some bigguns: The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall, Child of Light by Madison Smartt Bell, Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey ... all three tipped over the 600 page mark.
* I discovered the brilliance of some new-to-me favourite writers: Olga Tokarczuk, Yukio Mishima
* Last but not least, I got an agent for my book! A wonderful, magical agent. Whether or not said agent will be able to sell my book is a whole other matter, but just getting an agent was a real highlight of my year and has to be mentioned. Fingers and toes are permanently crossed that 2021 will bring good news for me and my novel. This book business can sometimes be cruel and arbitrary, so now that it's out of my hands, all I can do is hope for the best.
Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... :D
Biggest Disappointments of 2020
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (she really takes the cake in this category! all others pale in comparison)
Seven Gothic Tales by Isaak Dinesen
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Top 5-star Reads of 2020
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Goat Mountain by David Vann
Death in her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Snake Game by Wayne Johnson
Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
Self-Help by Lorrie Moore
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Honourable Mention
the writers who made me smile this year:
David Sedaris' Calypso, Richard Russo's Straight Man
Favourite Read of 2020
The Maples Stories by John Updike
Yes, friends, the love affair continues! Even if "it's complicated".
And now I wish each of you a peaceful (if rather secluded) end to 2020, and wishes for health and happiness, for all the very best in your reading, professional and personal lives in 2021. Thank you for your friendship. xoxo -
As it is said, a dumpster fire of a year. But most of us got through it together, or rather, together apart, right? It gives the withered seeds in my chest hope that we can, after all, survive the zombie apocalypse. But not without reading material!
Despite suddenly having a ton of time to dive into the to-be-read pile, like most of us, I found myself unable to concentrate on anything that wasn’t about a virus. My salvation was a slew of Kindle Unlimited Books which catered to what I came to call QuarantineBrain© (No offense to those of you who actually loved those books at any other point in time. It’s just that they suddenly got a pass on all the things that would normally annoy me). I found Hailey Turner’s four-part Soulbound series turned out to be strangely satisfying along with Haley Edward’s Potentiate of Atlanta series.
There weren’t many five star reads.
Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the World under the Sea was one of my fives–digestible, loads of fun illustrations, easy to pick up at random intervals, quite perfect for (cough) diving into the wonders of the sea. Alas; I was unable to put my knowledge to use.
Sci-fi has been my interest these days, and it seems there were a number of ship-based bands of misfits who were willing to distract me by exploring the universe. Five stars included
Driving the Deep proved to be an excellent follow-up to the first book,
The Wrong Stars a fun entry to a new trilogy, followed by a couple of 4 stars:
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe and
Rosewater. A couple of my 5s were short stories that I highly recommend:
The Secret Life of Bots about a clever little repair bot and the moving 4 star-
Sauerkraut Station.
But oh, there were some fails. I gave up on the idea of forcing reads and more readily abandoned those that weren’t working. I took to ordering a stack from the library so I’d have options if something wasn’t working out. Many never even made it onto the ‘dnf’ list.
Betwixt and
The Smart Woman's Guide to Murder were two of my attempts during QB and one of the sure signs that even my impaired noodle had limits. Once I recovered, I did give
The School for Good and Evil a try and wow, what a hot mess. Solid sucky stars for all.
On the other-genre front,
Florida Straits was unexpected and enjoyable, as was Stephen King’s
Laurie, reminding me that genre-bending comes in different forms. I also enjoyed the comfort of some re-reads, including
The Markhat Files and a couple of Agatha Christies.
But despite it’s generally terribleness, my December wrapped up on some high notes, no small thanks to a succession of buddy reads with Nataliya, who inadvertently provided me with a kick in the hinder whenever I flagged. I made it through a couple of interesting sci-fi series, the very intriguing
Ring Shout, and the advance copy of a five-star, soon-to-be award-winning book,
A Desolation Called Peace.
I'm going to be honest: this year my view of humanity took a hard blow. My faith in the working of the American government, battered as it was, took critical damage as I watched the inept handling of COVID from a nurse's perspective. In fact, my role as caregiver took a perhaps fatal blow as I watched entire cities refuse to take minimal precautions for their fellow humans. Luckily, GR was one of the few places I was able to find an oasis. I’m thankful as always for the friendships I’ve discovered and nurtured here, along with all the casual interactions that reassure me that somewhere, my species exists out there.
Much love,
carol.
all the books have links to reviews at my blog page:
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2020/... -
In this most difficult year, for me, there has been one constant. Books, which, leads to book reviews and of course, all of you whom I’ve met here on Goodreads over the last few years. For your friendship, support, and general encouragement, I thank each of you.
Aside from my cat, these last months, you’ve all been my lifeline. Though I may not always have logged in as much as I wanted to, I am so very grateful to every one of you who has made an effort in some way, shape, or form.
What I know is this: Having each other is immeasurable, for when we need a friend, we have each other and of course, we always have books.
This year, I surpassed my reading goal by reading more books than ever before. (I would have read more but I have indulged in a little more tv than usual, lol, (who can blame me though right?!). That said, I am proud of where I ended up.
When it comes to my Best-of List, below are my favorites (in no particular order):
Fiction:
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (Mr. Backman - your ability to understand Human Connection astounds. Your characters get under my skin like no other.)
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (Terrifying, heart-wrenching, stunning. An incredible story of survival).
The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (Cussy Mary - Oh what an inspiration you are and oh how I miss you. This was my first best-of novel of 2020 and what a novel it was!)
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Complicated and messy. In my book, that is known as sheer perfection (at least when it comes to books that is!) Well done Sally Rooney!).
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle (How surprising. Way to make me sob like a baby!)
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab (Addie Larue, I assure you, I will remember you, always. Simply brilliant, devastating and perfect.)
Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Disturbing, dirty and dysfunctional. Probably the best literary fiction novel I have read in years.)
My Kind of People by Lisa Duffy (This is my kind of book. Brilliant characterizations and a story that envelops you and makes you feel safe.)
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (Dark, Ominous, Legendary, and Simply Ingenious. Don’t worry, I take heed Ms. Hoffman!)
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout (Oh Olive, you do beat all! Somehow you ingrained yourself into my soul and now well, you’ve won me over in pure Olive fashion!)
This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel (To know this family is to love them. Poppy, your bravery inspires me!)
Grit Lit:
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Absolutely devastating and oh so good.)
Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panovich (Hauntingly perfect. Brian Panovich, you slay me.)
Memoirs:
A Promised Land by Barack Obama (Thank you for bringing me peace and reminding me what it feels like to be safe!).
Rom-Coms:
The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez (If only real life was like this, I might be a believer.)
Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams (Noah, you rock!)
Mystery / Suspense:
The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter (KS, How COULD you? All I have to say is, I’m still not over it and I'm not sure I ever will be.)
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James (Spooky spooky!)
Science Fiction / Fantasy:
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Virtual Reality on Steroids narrated by the masterful Wil Wheaton - in case it’s not obvious, Wil: I’ll Stand By You.)
Women’s Fiction:
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center (Women’s Fiction doesn’t get better than this: Jake and Helen are sheer perfection.)
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren (My final favorite best of for 2020. The perfect book to steal your heart.)
November 9 by Colleen Hoover (COHO: Cue All the Feels!)
Honorable Mentions go to:
The Orphan X Series by Gregg Hurwitz (Heartstopping, thrilling and so darn good Mr. Hurwitz! Evan Smoak: You are Oh So Crushworthy!)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Oh Olive, somehow I grew to love you.. (even though you reminded me of someone extremely difficult!) What an incredible feat Ms. Strout pulled off!)
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (Bob Burgess: there is something about your character that has stayed with me - perhaps because I understand you or perhaps because I’ve been you. Well done, Ms. Strout!)
The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly (Stellar writing, brilliant legal arguments, and the inclusion of my favorite Connelly characters (including one of my favorite literary characters of all time: Harry Bosch). What’s not to love?)
Favorite New to Me Authors:
Colleen Hoover
Gregg Hurwitz
Sally Rooney
Elizabeth Strout
Published to Goodreads on 12.29.20.
Also published to blog:
https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend... -
I set up reading goals at the beginning of this year and only managed to accomplish probably 40% of them. Not saying it was bad since I’ve always been a read whatever whenever I want type of reader, but I’m also not exactly proud and hope to do better.
I’m actually kinda... sorta... a lil’ bit... embarrassed. Main reason being that the majority of books I read this year were romance. Not saying it was wrong to be a romance lover, but I also don’t want to be just that. I wanted to... diversify. Anyway, let’s get to the lists!
Total Books Read: 230Audiobooks: 139
Physical & E-Copies: 91
Unhauled: 70Audiobooks: 45
Physical & E-Copies: 25
Jan.
Deviant King by Rina Kent
Release by Aly Martinez
Watch Over Me by Mila Gray
Feb.
The Darkest Sunrise Duet by Aly Martinez
Bullseye by Monica James
Angry God by LJ Shen
Mar.
On the Way to You by Kandi Steiner
Pike by TM Frazier
The Vanity of Roses by Lily White
Kiss Me With Lies by SM Soto.
May.
Not So Far Away by L.L. Meyer
The Here and Now by L.L. Meyer
Blowback by Monica James
Surprise, Baby! by Lex Martin
Jun.
Beyond the Sea by L.H. Cosway
Ties That Bind Duet by Natasha Knight
Pawn by TM Frazier
Ghosted by JM Darhower
Jul.
Bastian’s Storm by Shay Savage
Debt by Nina G. Jones
Scarlet Scars Duet by JM Darhower
The Cloister Trilogy by Celia Aaron
Half Truths by Claire Contreras
Baby Maker by P. Dangelico
Broken Course by Aly Martinez
Lead by Kylie Scott
The Initiation by Nikki Sloane
Aug.
Fallen Duet by Abigail Davies
The Master by Kresley Cole
Huge Deal by Lauren Layne
Hot Single Dad by Claire Kingsley
Royally Endowed by Emma Chase
VBBOTG by Lana Del Rey
Right by Jana Aston
The Hardest Route by A.S. Teague
To Hate Adam Connor by Ella Maise
Until Jax by Aurora Rose Reynolds
Be My Hero by Linda Kage
Not My Romeo by Ilsa Madden-Mills
Code Name: Ghost by Sawyer Bennett
My Torin by K. Webster
Twist Me Trilogy by Anna Zaires
Sep.
The Air He Breathes by Brittainy C. Cherry
The Takeover by T.L. Swan
The Anti Boyfriend by Penelope Ward
Mr. Masters by T.L. Swan
Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Cage by Harper Sloan
The Gravity of Us by Brittainy C. Cherry
Worth the Fall by Claudia Connor
Ryker by Sawyer Bennett
Love in the Wild by Emma Castle
Oct.
Before I Ever Met You by Karina Halle
A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole
Happily Letter After by Vi Keeland
Nov.
Accidental Evils by Susan Fanetti
Sweet Cruelty by Zoe Blake
My Last Duchess by Eloisa James
Siren by Jaimie Roberts
Dec.
The Knocked Up Plan by Lauren Blakely
Wild With You by Layla Hagen
The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders
GR Challenge (90):
160Audiobooks: 94
Physical & E-Copies: 66
Re-reads:
The Simple Wild (2018, 2020)
The Hating Game (2017; Feb., Sept. 2020)
Six of Crows (2016, Mar. 2020)
To Kill a Kingdom (2018, Apr. 2020)
Pestilence (2018, Apr. 2020)
Law Man (Aug., Oct., Dec. 2020)
Serpent & Dove (2019, Sept. 2020)
Credence (Jan., Dec. 2020)
FAVORITE BOOKS2020 Releases:
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Older:
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FAVORITE AUDIOBOOKS
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FAVORITE SERIES1. Brishen & Ildiko’s Story
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2. Mindf*ck Series
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3. Aren & Lara’s Story
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FAVORITE NEW TO ME AUTHORS
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WORST BOOKS AND BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS2020 Releases:
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Older:
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My fantasy journey was meh; and, while I was able to branch out a little bit into thrillers and literary fiction, it wasn’t all easy & smooth. Can’t complain too much though cause I read so many wonderful romance books and found a number of new favorite romance authors.
Also, my account has grown pretty significantly this year. I don’t think my reviews are all that excellent. In fact, I’m lowkey jealous of some reviewers’ mad reviewing skills on here. I’m grateful that there are people who read, enjoy, and find whatever I post helpful.
Thank you all for following, for the friendship and everything. Let’s keep it going and do better! I apologize for any mistake or unpleasantness. Hope everyone has a safe, healthy, and amazing year filled with phenomenal and indelible reads in 2021. See you next year!
Note:
Unhauled - books I read this year that I neither rated & reviewed nor added to my Goodreads library. -
I almost lost my enthusiasm to write my year in review. But then a pair of socks found in my Christmas stocking provided some inspiration for my 2020 summary: “The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote ‘Stink, stank, stunk!’” I’ve been grumpy this past year and Covid isn’t entirely to blame, though it sure played a damn big role. Let’s just say, The Grinch and I became bosom buddies of sorts!
Fortunately, the quality of my reading life was little affected by outside circumstances, only insofar as it led me to increased reading time for the several months I was out of work or working less, and the influence of mood on some of my book choices. I struck it rich reading-wise! I had over thirty 5-star ratings and loads of 4-stars across a total of eighty-four books. So, 2020 was not a complete flop after all.
Without further ado, here are some of the top highlights:
Stoner by John Williams: I began 2020 with this book and predicted a glorious year ahead. I was wrong about the year, but not about the book! It revealed to me the little bit of Stoner in each of us - living out our quiet lives in search of love and friendship, making mistakes along the way despite our best intentions, yet persevering with dignity. Also wins the award for one of the most moving love scenes in a novel this year.
Review
The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré: Do I dare say my favorite novel by this brilliant author to date?! I loved the fact there was a leading lady this time around. Not a typical espionage thriller but edge-of-your seat tension nevertheless. John le Carré is at the top of his craft and the character development is exceptional. I followed up my reading with the BBC miniseries which surpassed my expectations! I was truly troubled when I heard of le Carré's recent passing.
Review
Ultramarine by Raymond Carver: A rip-your-heart out collection of poetry. Carver writes of everyday sorts of things like loneliness, regret, love, death and nature. I wanted to read more poetry and listen to sad songs all day after reading this one.
Review
The Hours by Michael Cunningham: Wow! This took my breath away. The exquisite prose, the emotional toll, and the reflections on my own life afterwards �� where I’ve been and where I’m going – all added up to a superb reading experience. I added all of Cunningham’s books to my list after finishing.
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Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami: Proof that there are such things as second chances! After writing off Murakami several years ago, I decided to take a plunge and give him another try. This was a dreamlike, haunting experience.
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Calypso by David Sedaris: This guy became my superhero this spring. Hilarious! He lifted my spirits when I needed it the most. I know it’s a cliché, but laughter really is the best medicine! Love his stories best on audio.
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My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh: The perfect book for a year like 2020! Need I say more?!
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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson: It was such a pleasure to return to one of my favorite writers with this one. This novel has a surreal feel to it and speaks to the transitory nature of objects and people. I’m even more inspired to get back to the Gilead series now!
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The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin: I so admire this man! It hurts my heart to think what he would be saying about his country right now if he were here with us today. He speaks for humanity and justice. He advocates love.
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Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar: This had to be the most sophisticated, profound novel I read this year. Philosophical and deeply enriching. An entire lifetime was masterfully compressed into a mere 350 pages!
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Other notable 4 1/2 and 5-star books:
A Christmas Carol,
Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South,
To the Bright Edge of the World,
Music of a Life,
A World Lost,
West with the Night,
My Coney Island Baby,
This is Happiness,
Anything is Possible,
The King's General,
Cat's Eye,
Eventide,
Rabbit, Run,
Heaven and Hell,
Moon Tiger,
Land's End: A Walk in Provincetown,
The Tall Woman,
History of the Rain,
David Copperfield,
On Chesil Beach,
Hannah Coulter,
Angle of Repose,
Written on the Body
I had a difficult time choosing the blue ribbon book for the year, so I’m going to proclaim a tie!
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: This wins lifesaver of the year award! I was supposed to visit New York City in April, a highly anticipated adventure I was really longing for. Naturally that plan was quashed like many others, but this book provided hours of pure enjoyment as recompense. So much about life’s choices, love and death spanning hundreds of pages. It could have gone far longer without any complaint from me.
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A Cry of Angels by Jeff Fields: This book is the reason I adore Goodreads to bits! A virtually unheard-of book in my everyday life, but one I am grateful to have come across through my generous, charitable friends here. Phrases like luminous, highly impactful, and beautiful don’t do it justice. The best way to summarize this novel is what I’ve said about it previously: “I don’t see how a human being with a heart and a conscience could walk away from this not having learned something very essential to freedom, equal rights, and accountability.”
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It’s a source of great comfort, particularly in a year like 2020, that I can rely on the diversion of books and the stimulation of witty and insightful conversation that Goodreads dispenses. I’ve had the privilege of sustaining some long term friendships with kindred spirits, as well as the pleasure of making some new friends that have brought further enrichments to my reading life. A wise soul has told me to dream big. With that advice, I start the new year with the genuine desire to someday make more than just a virtual toast with my glass of bourbon cream with you, dear friends. May your little corners of the world be made brighter in 2021! -
A Tonic
What I appreciate about Goodreads and the prospect of writing this annual recap is the opportunity to share favourite books and recommendations with my friends, plus the opportunity to highlight those moments that make this platform such a joy.
The friends I met and shared a bookish chat with are too numerous to list, but I thank you ALL for your interactions and I look forward to continuing our book adventures next year. For those that I have developed closer links with, you have inspired me, shared more than book interests with, and joined me on Buddy reads – a special thanks to Ceecee, Beata, Elyse, Julie, Karina, Barbara, Kevin, Kimber, Pam, Kathleen, Michael and Richard.
In the year of THE pandemic, I believed with the lockdowns there would be more time available to read and participate online, the opposite happened me, as many of my Buddy reads can attest to. In July, I readjusted my reading target from 100 to 80 to reflect this unavoidable trend and my TBR list became another casualty of COVID-19 (not to demean the real personal losses due to the virus).
Goodreads has helped me list and maintain an all-time Top 10, which inevitably means that to make it onto the list, requires unseating a special book. This year two books managed to do that; Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Two highly highly recommended novels that I would encourage everyone to read. Best to consider the backdrop before starting each. I find it informative and fascinating to reflect on everyone’s top books for 2020 and I hope you find my Top 10 list for 2020 as helpful:A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
Cold Mountain – Charles Frazier
Big Lies in a Small Town – Diane Chamberlain
The Minotaur’s Son – Kevin Ansbro
The Curator – Mike Craven
A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom – John Boyne
Strange Flowers – Donal Ryan
The Nothing Man – Catherine Ryan Howard
Anxious People – Fredrik Backman
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
NetGalley has been my overriding companion this year and consequently, I didn’t live up to another goal for 2020. That goal was to read more Indie authors and give feedback to those that need our support in their self-publishing efforts. I hope to put this right in 2021. I believe I met another main goal in covering variety in the genres which include literary fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, thrillers, crime mysteries, young adult, humour, horror, women’s fiction, short stories, poetry, business, and nonfiction.
2020 has caused such personal and economic damage throughout the world that it clearly won’t be forgotten for generations. Amidst all this hardship reading and sharing our thoughts and banter on Goodreads has perhaps had a greater impact on our sanity than we could ever quantify. My best wishes to you all for a healthy, safe, and peaceful 2021, and may your year be filled with 5-star books.
