It’s time to talk books! Woohoo!
Welcome to one of my very favorite annual posts, where I share the best books I read all year. Reflecting on what worked well in my reading life is one of my can’t-miss rituals to ring in the new year. It never fails to renew my enthusiasm to jump into my TBR!
Before we get into the books, here’s a few things I realized about my reading life from 2020 as I pored over my 2020 reading Trello board (the best thing ever if you want to track your reading habit, btw).
My Takeaways from Reading in 2020
1. The numbers don’t always matter.
This year I read 62 books total. This number is down from 77 in 2019, which makes my competitive spirit flare up a little bit. But it also makes a lot of sense. In 2019, I was teaching 6th grade and read a lot of graphic novels and YA to share with my students. I could breeze through a Raina Telgemeier novel in a day, easy. This year, I might have actually spent more of my free time reading, but I tackled some longer, more intense books. A few of those books ended up on this list, so I think the tradeoff was 100% worth it. I probably won’t set a book number goal for 2021 for that exact reason.
2. Reading routines keep me going.
This year more than any other, I solidified the habit of reading nearly every single night before bed. It is now basically a necessity for me to fall asleep! It was the one thing that helped me continue to make progress through books, even when I had the attention span of a caffeinated puppy and was doomscrolling all the livelong day at the beginning of March.
3. Getting off social media makes me read a whole lot more.
I turned off Instagram and did a lot of Facebook unfollowing in mid-October, when I could. not. handle any more election conversation. I’ve had a number of realizations since then, but one of my biggest takeaways is how little I have felt bored since I joined social media. Any little inkling of boredom was a cue to open Instagram again. Now, without that option, boredom leads me to pick up a book way more often, and my reading life has been better for it.
4. My Kindle saved my reading life.
I’m not sure what I would have done at the beginning of the pandemic when our library closed if I hadn’t had a Kindle. While I consider books essential, I don’t have budget or space to purchase every single book I read! For that reason, I read more Kindle books than paper books for the first time ever this year. While nothing will replace a paper book – and I have many concerns about the survival of independent bookstores – the convenience of an e-reader was admittedly irreplaceable this year.
Ready to finally get to the books? Let’s do it! Books are listed in the order I completed them.
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Nonfiction Favorite Books of 2020
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle – Emily and Amelia Nagoski
Every woman should read this book. Burnout explains what causes stress, how it uniquely affects women, and how to deal with it effectively. It combines science, anecdotes from real women, and action steps in one powerful package. Plus, for those wary of “self help” books, this one is not obnoxious and doesn’t come off as smarmy or cheesy or full of empty promises at all. I think the phrase “game changer” is way overused and annoying, but it actually applies here.
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story – Bess Kalb
This memoir made me both laugh and sob. The author tells the story of the women in her family through her feisty grandmother’s perspective. While the point of view was a little confusing in the first few pages, ultimately I loved it. The transcripts of phone calls from her grandmother were my favorite.
Welcome Home: The Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round – Myquillin Smith
This book is changing the way I decorate our apartment. Myquillin Smith, aka the Nester, explains how to create a home that acknowledges the seasons, without buying out the entire inventory of HomeGoods. This book showed me how to create the mood I long for in our home without buying a ton of “cute clutter,” and I’ll be returning to it again and again.
Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness – Ingrid Fetell Lee
This book was both delightful and utterly practical. The author takes the fuzzy, abstract concept of joy and nails down how to actually achieve it in spaces and gatherings. She combines design principles with stories from people like flower farmers, sculptors, yarn bombers, and architects. I borrowed this one from the library, but I’m planning to buy a copy – this is the ultimate book compliment from me! If you want a delightful preview of Ingrid’s writing style, I’ve also loved her site, The Aesthetics of Joy.
Fiction Favorite Books of 2020
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
I was a year late to this party, but oh my. This book. I’m often suspicious of books with a lot of hype, but this one absolutely deserved it. The story of Kya, an isolated girl growing up alone in the North Carolina marsh, combined gorgeous descriptions of the marsh with a surprisingly gripping plot. The New York Time’s description of “painfully beautiful” is perfectly apt.
The River – Peter Heller
This book tells the story of two friends on a wilderness canoe trip that goes terribly wrong. There is so much to love in this book. The boys’ friendship is heartwarming but real, the descriptions of the Canadian wilderness are hauntingly beautiful, and the pacing makes the book difficult to put down. I may have audibly gasped multiple times and said “Wait. Oh, no. No, no, no,” aloud while reading.
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
I adore Barbara Kingsolver – The Bean Trees is one of my favorite books of all time – but I hadn’t tackled The Poisonwood Bible until now. The length was a little intimidating, to be honest. But I am so glad I did. This book tells the story of a misguided missionary moving to the Congo from the perspective of his wife and daughters. This is one book where multiple narrators really added to the story. The girls’ perspectives on their father’s ministry and their life in Africa were fascinating. This would have been a fantastic book club pick. Even with my husband, who hadn’t read the book, it sparked unexpected conversations about missionary work, culture, and national identity. It’s not a stretch to say that this is an epic modern classic.
Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
Homegoing tells the interconnected stories of two African half sisters and their descendants. One woman marries an English slave trader, and one is sold into slavery. This was not exactly an easy book to read, as it paints in brilliant color the devastation and heartbreak of slavery and its legacy through many generations. Books with that kind of weight scare me off sometimes, but I wish I wouldn’t have waited so long to read this one. It’s exquisitely written, compulsively readable, and incredibly important. If I taught high school, this would be required reading.
Kitchens of the Great Midwest – J. Ryan Stradal
This book is the perfect example of reading the right book at the right time. Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a collection of interconnected stories. Each chapter is told by a different narrator and centers around a Midwestern food, from lutefisk to walleye to peanut butter bars. I read this one when we were back in Minnesota for a few weeks, and it was a delight. The descriptions of food hit all the right sentimental notes, for one thing. But I was also fascinated by the characters – if you’re from a small town, you will swear that each character is a thinly veiled rendition of a person you actually know. Fair warning, if you’re not from a small town in Minnesota, this one might not land as strongly.
Harbor Me – Jacqueline Woodson
If I was still teaching middle school, I would shove this book into the hands of all of my students. It follows a group of students who meet every Friday for an hour to talk, without any teacher supervision. At first, they are uncomfortable with their weekly meetings, but they soon begin to talk about their lives. Their stories are heartbreaking and real and so closely resemble the lives of some of my former students. The tenderness that grows between the students made me cry – a lot. The tears were very much worth it, though, as this book is so good and powerful and ultimately hopeful.
Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid
Again, this is one of those rare books that got a bunch of hype, but (I felt) actually deserved it. This story, told in multiple perspectives, centers Emira, a Black woman who is accused of kidnapping the white child she nannies, and her influencer-y boss Alix. This book somehow felt trendy and gossipy and fun to read, while still tackling complex issues with nuance and insight. I still think about it.
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
This is the year I finally read Agatha Christie, and OH MY GOSH why did I wait so long. She’s so brilliant at building suspense without making things too graphic and gory for sensitive readers. I don’t want to give any spoilers for And Then There Were None – just know that 10 people arrive on an isolated island and things get deadly. I stayed up way, way past by bedtime reading it because I just had to know how it would end. I absolutely loved Murder on the Orient Express too.
Want to browse the whole collection? Head to my Bookshop page! You can find all of the books I read in 2020 in my Bookshop page, as well as the list of my favorites from the year.
My Reading Goals for 2021
I like to make some loose reading intentions for the year while my reading energy is buzzing. In 2021, I want to focus on reading the books that I put off because they initially require a heavier mental load. A number of my favorites from 2020 dealt with some tough stuff: Where the Crawdads Sing has child neglect and abuse, Homegoing gives a searing look at slavery, The Poisonwood Bible paints a not-so-pretty picture of missionaries.
But even if I didn’t find every single second of those reading experiences fun doesn’t mean those books weren’t 100% worth my time. This year, I want to make the effort to dive into classics, more literary fiction, and nonfiction about weighty topics – Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jack by Marilynne Robinson, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell are currently rising to the top of my to-read list. I suspect these books will be excellent, if I’m willing to put in a little effort initially.
Move An Angle of Repose to the top! It is so good in only the way that Wendell Berry and Wallace Stegner can be. Loved it!
What a great list, and welcome to the Agatha Christie fan club!! And I love your goals for 2021 – I have very similar ones. You’re going to love Americanah. Happy reading!
Ariel, thanks for stopping by! I just heard from someone else they want to read more classics this year, too – an interesting trend (if you can call 3 people a trend, I guess…)
At the top now!
Love your reading tips. My favorite book in 2020 was Introverted Mom by Jamie C Martin.
Thanks for stopping by, Natalie! I’m not a mom yet…but I will most definitely need that book when I am…