I thought it would be fun to do a round up of the best books I read during 2020. I listened to and read so many books this past year. For the first time I learned how to stop reading a book if I wasn’t loving it; it’s a skill I wish I had learned a lot earlier. Another freeing experience for me was realizing that even if other people really love a book, I don’t have to. I get to pick and choose which books I read and I don’t have to finish ones I don’t like. As a result of learning these two truths and putting them into practice, I got to love reading a lot of books this year. There were so many good ones, but here are my favorites!
Best Books of 2020
1. Lovely War, by Julie Berry A sweet romance and New York Times bestseller, set during World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates–and the hearts–of four mortals in their hands. Their story is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and finding beauty through love.
2. The Orphan Keeper, by Cameron Wright. This book was so unbelievable to me! After the first several chapters, I had such a hard time putting it down; always wondering if the little boy kidnapped in India and adopted by a family in the United States, would ever find his family again.
3. Lunar Chronicles (series), by Marissa Meyer. I actually listened to this series as audiobooks, and loved it! They are futuristic retellings of classic fairy tales. They’re so clever and the storyline is so exciting, it drew me in quickly!
4. Bomb: The Race to Build–and Steal–the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. This book was so fascinating, I’m still in shock after reading it, about how the Atomic Bomb was made and stolen by Soviet spies.
5. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, by Erik Larson. I learned so much from this book and truly had no idea what Great Britain experienced during WWII.
6. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou. Another book that was utterly shocking to me. I cannot believe something like what happened with Theranos is possible.
7. Alexander Hamilton, by Robert Chernow. Kurt and I love the Broadway phenomenon, musical inspired by this biography. I learned so much from the details and information compiled into this book about Alexander Hamilton’s life and contribution to the political and economic greatness of today’s America.
8. Digital minimalism, by Cal Newport. I definitely wanted to reduce my screen time after this one! Reading the years of experience and research about social media and technology usage, has lead to helping myself and many others to better enjoy the pleasures of the offline world.
9. Next Year in Havana, by Chanel Cleeton. Reading this I learned a lot, and really enjoyed the storyline. It brought to life the pain, sacrifice, and courage of Cubans who stayed and those who fled during the revolution putting Fidel Castro in power.
10. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. I’ve always known the general storyline, but just read it for the first time this year. I loved it! An orphan who endures a harsh childhood, Jane Eyre becomes governess at Thornfield Hall in the employment of the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Their impassioned love story is so captivating.
11. Still Alice, by Lisa Genova. I gained a lot of respect for the elderly and individuals struggling with dementia, after finishing this book. It’s about a woman in her mid-fifties who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Written mostly from her perspective, it is painfully eye opening.
12. The Giver of the Stars, by Jojo Moyes. Such a good book! It was so interesting, so unique, and really hard to put down. All about a prim and proper English woman who moves to a small town in Kentucky, soon after her marriage. She joins a team of women who deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, and life quickly becomes anything but boring.
13. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. By far one of my favorite books ever! It is a masterpiece! I hadn’t read it in 15 years, and soaked up every moment of the March sisters’ lives, and learning. I loved re-reading this one so much I’ll be writing a whole blog post just about this one book.
14. The Hiding Place, by Corrie ten Boom. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who became a heroine hiding and saving Jews during WWII. I’ve read this book several times and the lives’ of Corrie and her family are truly inspiring. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.
15. Front Desk, by Kelly Yang. Such a quick read, but so good! Yang weaves in autobiographical content while she achingly reveals life in America in the 1990s for persons of color and those living in poverty. Heavy themes, including extortion, fraud, and racism, are balanced with the naïve dreams and determination of a 10-year-old girl.
16. How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide for Life with Children Ages 2-7, by Joanna Faber and Julie King. I’ve made it a goal to re-read this book once a year. It was so good!! So many extremely practical ideas, that have really worked!
17. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, by Agatha Christie. Who doesn’t love a great murder mystery? This book is widely regarded as a favorite of the renowned author. It was clever and a perfectly twisted murder mystery.
18. Funny in Farsi, by Firoozeh Dumas. Such a quick, interesting, and funny read. In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country. In humorous (and telling) rhetoric the family grapples with American English, traditions, and culture.
19. The Indigo Girl, by Natasha Boyd. Based on historical documents, including Eliza’s letters, this is a historical fiction account of how a teenage girl produced indigo dye, which became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina. Largely overlooked by historians, the accomplishments of Eliza Lucas influenced the course of US history.
20. Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson. Kurt and I watched the movie that came out last year and the book is so good. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system.
If you’ve read any of these, which were your favorites? Are any on your list of books to read? I’m more than happy to discuss any of these, so let me know what books you liked or didn’t like and what you thought about the ones that you’ve also read.
If you enjoyed this post, here are a few more you might like too:
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Sincerely,
