A Year of Reading: 2020

Below are all the books I read in my spare time in the tumultuous year that was 2020. I’d aimed to read 100 books, but I’m glad to have gotten to 93. As usual I ended up reading a lot of contemporary fiction, though there are a few older books that had been on my TBR list for years that I finally made my way through. Where in 2019 I read a lot of fiction in translation from Japanese, apparently this year was a year for French literature, though that wasn’t necessarily intentional. I’ve linked reviews I’ve done in orange, and will try to add more for the second half of the list soon.

1. On Love by Alain de Botton (fiction, 1993)

2. How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones (memoir, 2019)

3. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (reread, fiction, 2000)

4. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (fiction, 2018)

5. The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy (fiction, 2019)

6. Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan (fiction, 2020)

7. The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (fiction, 2019)

8. The Collection by Nina Leger (fiction in translation from French, 2019)

9. Lie with Me by Philippe Besson (fiction in translation from French, 2017)

10. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain (memoir, 2000)

11. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (memoir, 2016)

12. What’s Left of Me is Yours by Stephanie Scott (fiction, 2020)

13. Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth (fiction, 2020)

14. Upstream by Mary Oliver (essays, 2016)

15. The Blue Jay’s Dance: A Memoir of Early Motherhood by Louise Erdrich (nature writing/memoir, 1995)

16. My Wild and Sleepless Nights: A Mother’s Story by Clover Stroud (memoir, 2020)

17. The End We Start From by Megan Hunter (fiction, 2017)

18. No Is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics by Naomi Klein (nonfiction essays, 2017)

19. The Overstory by Richard Powers (fiction, 2018)

20. Weather by Jenny Offill (fiction, 2020)

21. Recollections of My Non-Existence by Rebecca Solnit (memoir, 2020)

22. Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey (fiction, 2020)

23. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (fiction, 2019)

24. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (fiction, 2020)

25. A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings: A Year of Keeping Bees by Helen Jukes (nature writing / memoir, 2018)

26. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams (nature writing / memoir, 1991)

27. Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby (humorous essays, 2020)

28. Normal People by Sally Rooney (reread, fiction, 2018)

29. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (fiction, 2019)

30. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (fiction in translation from French, 1954)

31. Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town by Lamorna Ash (nonfiction, 2020)

32. The Beautiful Summer by Cesar Pavese (fiction in translation from Italian, 1949)

33. The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (fiction in translation from Swedish, 1972)

34. Summer Solstice: An Essay by Nina MacLaughlin (prose poetry, 2020)

35. The Offing by Benjamin Myers (fiction, 2019)

36. Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems by Audre Lorde (nonfiction essays, 2017)

37. Summer by Edith Wharton (fiction, 1917)

38. The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (nonfiction, 2017)

39. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (fiction, 2020)

40. Pew by Catherine Lacey (fiction, 2020)

41. Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi (nonfiction, 2020)

42. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (memoir, 2019)

43. The Boston Massacre: A Family History by Serena Zabin (history, 2020)

44. Heat Wave by Penelope Lively (fiction, 1996)

45. The Lightness by Emily Temple (fiction, 2020)

46. How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright (nonfiction, 2019)

47. Passing by Nella Larsen (fiction, 1929)

48. Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg (fiction, 2020)

49. The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla (nonfiction essays, 2016)

50. Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore (fiction, 2020)

51. Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times edited by Carolina de Robertis (nonfiction essays, 2017)

52. Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith (short story fiction, 2019)

53. Writers and Lovers by Lily King (fiction, 2020)

54. Belonging: A Culture of Place by bell hooks (nonfiction essays, 1990)

55. Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert MacFarlane (nonfiction, 2019)

56. Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith (nonfiction essays, 2020)

57. On Beauty and Being Just by Elaine Scarry (theory, 1999)

58. The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (nature writing, 1977)

59. The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District by James Rebanks (memoir, 2015)

60. Feminist City: Claiming Space in a Man-made World by Leslie Kern (nonfiction, 2019)

61. True Story by Kate Reed Petty (fiction, 2020)

62. Woolgathering by Patti Smith (memoir / prose poetry, 1996)

63. The Mothers by Brit Bennett (fiction, 2016)

64. Sisters by Daisy Johnson (fiction, 2020)

65. Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Molly Smith and Juno Mac (nonfiction, 2018)

66. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer (fiction, 2020)

67. The Years by Annie Ernaux (memoir / autofiction in translation from French, 2008)

68. Daddy by Emma Cline (short story fiction, 2020)

69. Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh (fiction, 2020)

70. The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard (theory / essays, 2017)

71. A Girl’s Story by Annie Ernaux (memoir in translation from French, 2020 ed.)

72. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (fiction, 2020)

73. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (fiction, 1980)

74. Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman by Rebecca Tamás (nonfiction essays, 2020)

75. A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (nonfiction / memoir, 2020)

76. English Pastoral by James Rebanks (nonfiction, 2020)

77. A Man’s Place by Annie Ernaux (memoir in translation from French, 2020 ed.)

78. Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year by Laurie Lee (essays, 2015)

79. In the Kitchen: Essays on Food and Life (edited collection of essays, 2020)

80. Confabulations by John Berger (essays, 2016)

81. 10:04 by Ben Lerner (fiction, 2014)

82. Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine (nonfiction, 2020)

83. How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (nonfiction / memoir, 2019)

84. Essayism by Brian Dillon (theory, 2017)

85. Who Killed My Father by Édouard Louis (memoir in translation from French, 2018)

86. The Little Library Christmas by Kate Young (cookery, 2020)

87. This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill (short fiction, 2019)

88. Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill (essays, 2020)

89. This Happy by Niamh Campbell (fiction, 2020)

90. The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas (fiction in translation from nynorsk, 1963)

91. Kindred by Octavia Butler (fiction, 1979)

92. The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector (fiction in translation from Portuguese, 1977)

93. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman (fiction, 2019)