I read 78 books in 2020. Here are my favorites.

And everything else I read!

Another year has gone by and it has been an intense one. No need for me to recap the myriad awful things that have occurred this year, so I will leave it at that. I will say, though, that I found it more difficult to find time to read this year. With everything going on (and not going on), I turned to TV and movies, Facetimes and Zooms, more than ever before. I didn’t want to shut myself away from what little human contact I could have (hanging with my fiancé and dog, walking to the park, talking to friends and family on the phone). When I was ready to veg out, I didn’t want to even think.

2 years ago, I made a goal for myself to read 1 book per week and I ended up reading 60 books that year. Last year, I got a little too into it and read 130 books. It made me think about reading as a chore and when 2020 rolled around, I knew I didn’t want to do that again.

I started 2020 thinking I would read whatever I wanted with an emphasis on classics. Not sure why I felt like classics were the way to go because once I began reading them, I realized they were the most chore-ish books out there. Nothing is more tiring than slogging through old English, both in language and in ideals.

Then, I focused on diversifying my book shelf and reading more non-fiction, both of which sparked new learning, conversations, and perspective shifts. Beyond my book club, I also joined a police and prison abolition reading group through the DSA. I highlighted whole pages in anti-racist literature and actively explored new titles rather than just picking whatever was suggested by the library’s website.

So, like I have done the past 2 years, I’d like to share my top 10 fiction and non-fiction books as well as all of the books I read this year and the ratings. I’d love if you shared your favorites with me, too! In 2021, I will continue to diversify my book shelf and read books that bring joy, teach lessons, and broaden horizons.

Top 10 non-fiction books I read in 2020 (in order they were read)

1. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
2. The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad
3. Me by Elton John
4. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin D’Angelo
5. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
7. Know My Name by Chanel Miller
8. Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela Davis
9. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her SuperPower by Brittany Cooper
10. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Top 10 fiction books I read in 2020 (in order they were read)

1. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
2. Dominicana by Angie Cruz
3. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
4. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
5. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
6. White Noise by Don DeLillo
7. The Vegetarian by Han Kang
8. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
9. Real Life by Brandon Taylor
10. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi — best book of the year hands down!

Once again, a very special shoutout to the San Francisco Public Library for all of the books — I could not have done it without you!

See below for everything I read this year and my ratings (and some commentary thrown in there as well):

January

1. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt — 1 star (honestly, this was one of the worst books I have ever read. My favorite review of this book comes from Goodreads: “The only thing holding this book together is the binding.” Amen to that).
2. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa — 4 stars
3. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino — 5 stars (nonfiction)
4. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood — 4 stars
5. Find Me by Andre Acimen — 3 stars
6. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson — 3 stars
7. Bear Town by Frederik Backman — 1 star (I also really hated this book, which is sad because I loved A Man Called Ove).
8. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie — 4 stars
9. The Grownup by Gillian Flynn — 3 stars

February

1. The Martian by Andy Weir — 3 stars
2. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne — 3 stars
3. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson — 5 stars
4. Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff — 4 stars (non-fiction)
5. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare — 3 stars
6. The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad — 5 stars (non-fiction)

March

1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — 2 stars (this book is fucked up!)
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker — 5 stars (hands down the best classic I read)
3. Little Weirds by Jenny Slate — 5 stars (half non-fiction, half not)
4. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd — 4 stars
5. Me by Elton John — 5 stars (non-fiction)
6. The Captain and the Glory by Dave Eggers — 4 stars
7. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells — 3 stars

April

1. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine — 2 stars
2. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw — 4 stars
3. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates — 4 stars
4. City of Thieves by David Benioff — 5 stars
5. How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs — 4 stars
6. Inland by Téa Obreht — 2 stars

May

1. Dominicana by Angie Cruz — 5 stars
2. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave — 4 stars
3. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan — 3 stars (non-fiction)
4. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson — 4 stars
5. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen — 5 stars
6. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux — 4 stars
7. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson — 5 stars
8. Apartment by Teddy Wayne — 4 stars

June

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman — 3 stars
2. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin D’Angelo — 5 stars (non-fiction)
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston — 4 stars
4. The Vegetarian by Han Kang — 5 stars
5. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi — 5 stars (non-fiction)
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou — 5 stars (non-fiction)
7. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad — 4 stars (non-fiction)
8. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead — 5 stars
9. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo — 5 stars (non-fiction)
10. White Noise by Don DeLillo — 4 stars
11. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown — 5 stars (non-fiction)
12. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin — 5 stars (non-fiction)

July

1. Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi — 3 stars
2. Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela Davis — 5 stars (non-fiction)
3. Know My Name by Chanel Miller — 5 stars (non-fiction)
4. I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying: Essays by Bassey Ikpi — 5 stars (non-fiction)
5. The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale — 4 stars (non-fiction)

August

1. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James — 4 stars
2. Verge: Stories by Lidia Yuknavitch — 5 stars
3. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her SuperPower by Brittany Cooper — 5 stars (non-fiction)
4. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward — 5 stars
5. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston — 4 stars
6. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite — 4 stars
7. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson — 5 stars (non-fiction)
8. Freshwater by Akwaeke Emzi — 5 stars

September

1. Beloved by Tony Morrison — 3 stars
2. A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet — 3 stars
3. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett — 4 stars

We were packing and getting ready for our move this month, so I had even less brain power and energy for reading in September.

October

1. Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac — 4 stars (non-fiction)
2. Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi — 3 stars
3. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado — 5 stars (non-fiction)
4. Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors by Edward Neidermeyer — 2 stars (non-fiction)

Another month with not a lot of reading. We were on our 2 week road trip and then unpacking. We listened to the Uber and Tesla books in the car (can you guess that Dan picked them lol?)

November

1. The Travelers by Regina Porter — 4 stars
2. Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby — 4 stars (non-fiction)
3. Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong — 4 stars (non-fiction)

Another short one! The election really did me in at the start of the month and then family time at the end. Not complaining though 🙂

December

1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote — 3 stars (non-fiction) (not sure what the hype was about for this one)
2. Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis — 4 stars
3. Real Life by Brandon Taylor — 5 stars
4. Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Stories of Horror by Lincoln Michael — 3 stars
5. Made for Love by Alissa Nutting — 4 stars
6. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi — 5,00000 stars — this book was SO GOOD
7. I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff by Abbi Jacobson — 4 stars (non-fiction)

Thanks for following along! Let me know your favorites so I can read them in 2021. Feel free to check out my Goodreads as well.

Originally published at http://lizziekreitman.wordpress.com on January 1, 2021.