A few years ago, I started out on a personal mission to read more. I grew up loving to read (although I never held a candle to my sister, which is probably why it took me a long time to realize that I am, in fact, a bookworm). After several years of high school, college, and post-grad life during which I read very little for fun, I set a goal and armed myself with several library books through the Libby app. Momentum has only picked up since then, and this year was my best reading year probably ever!
Sidenote: if you’ve never used your library card to check out e-books and audiobooks, you’re missing out! Download the Libby app (or OverDrive, or Hoopla), and get reading.
Each year, I look forward to rounding up my favorite reads. I’m pretty stingy with my 5-star reviews, so every book I recommend here is one that I loved reading. In terms of reading, 2020 was a much different year than 2019 (read that post here). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many books I completed this year! Despite not having a work commute to listen to audiobooks or a maternity leave to get lots of extra reading done, I read even more than I did in 2019 – and even crossed the 100 books mark! I have a lot to cover, so here we go!
Note: this post may contain affiliate links (i.e., if you click my link and make a purchase, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you). Read my full disclosure policy here.
Summary
My total for this year was 110 books! This is a personal record for me and one that I do not expect to beat in 2021 (but who knows?). Here are a few quick stats on what I read this year:
- In 2020, I read 102 fiction and 8 nonfiction books (nonfiction books did not work for me this year); 97 e-books and 13 audiobooks (audiobooks also didn’t work for me this year – no commute!).
- Almost every single book I read, I checked out through my local library (using the Libby app) for free. This year, I also started using Netgalley to read and review a few early release copies of books, which was a really fun addition to my reading life!
- I read primarily using my Kindle paperwhite, but also through the Kindle app on my phone. I enjoy having a device that’s only for reading since I can get easily sidetracked on my phone.
- We bought some bookshelves this year, which means I did spend some money on books (unlike last year!). However, I generally only spend my money on books that I have already read and thoroughly enjoyed.
- My favorite genres are fantasy, YA, mystery/thriller, and sci-fi, and I also like a good romance every so often.
- I love a book with beautiful imagery, lots of action, and strong/interesting relationships between characters. (I love to cheer for a friendship or romance.)
- Unlikable protagonists don’t bother me, but I hate unrealistic ones. I want characters who make decisions that are consistent with their personalities.
- I love a good plot twist (or betrayal), especially when I totally don’t see it coming but feel like I should have.
Book Reviews: My Favorite Reads of 2020
I am not good at writing brief summaries of books, so I’m just going to include the official synopses with a few of my own notes for each title. Obviously, my choices are very heavily influenced by my preferences, but I do think there’s something in here for everyone!
The Road Back to You
Nonfiction, psychology/self-help (link). This is a must-read book on the Enneagram personality typing system; it was a great resource for me in learning about myself and learning how to communicate with others better. (It’s a great tool for marriages!) I originally rated this as a 4-star book, but went back and changed it to 5-stars, because I think about it more than almost any other book I read this past year.
Ignorance is bliss – except in self-awareness. What you don’t know about yourself can hurt you and your relationships – and even keep you in the shallows with God. Do you want help figuring out who you are and why you’re stuck in the same ruts?
The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach – a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God.
Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people’s eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do. Beginning with changes you can start making today, the wisdom of the Enneagram can help take you further along into who you really are – leading you into places of spiritual discovery you would never have found on your own, and paving the way to the wiser, more compassionate person you want to become.
The Starless Sea
Fantasy (link). Not a story for everyone, but definitely a story for me. A perfect fantasy story for romantics who love books and have always dreamed about walking through wardrobes into a magical land. Erin Morgenstern delivers beautiful prose and expertly weaves together different stories. The Starless Sea is perhaps my favorite example of world-building in a fantasy book. (If you haven’t read The Night Circus, I’d recommend that first. If it’s too abstract for you, this definitely will be too.)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world – a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues – a bee, a key, and a sword – that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.
What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians – it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose – in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Nonfiction, gardening/permaculture (link). I enjoyed this book so much, and it caused me to think about the food I consume in a totally different way. Some reviews call it preachy, but I didn’t get that vibe from it at all. Kingsolver simply shares the story of how her family decided to move away from the typical American food culture in a quest to produce their own.
When Barbara Kingsolver and her family moved from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they took on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Concerned about the environmental, social, and physical costs of American food culture, they hoped to recover what Barbara considers our nation’s lost appreciation for farms and the natural processes of food production.
Since 2007, their scheme has evolved enormously. In this new edition, featuring an afterword composed by the entire Kingsolver family, Barbara’s husband, Steven, discusses how the project grew into a farm-to-table restaurant and community development project training young farmers in their area to move into sustainable food production. Camille writes about her decision to move back to a rural area after college, and how she and her husband incorporate their food values in their lives as they begin their new family. Lily, Barbara’s youngest daughter, writes about how growing up on a farm, in touch with natural processes and food chains, has shaped her life as a future environmental scientist. And Barbara writes about their sheep, and how they grew into her second vocation as a fiber artist, and reports on the enormous response they’ve received from other home-growers and local-food devotees.
With Americans’ ever-growing concern over an agricultural establishment that negatively affects our health and environment, the Kingsolver family’s experiences and observations remain just as relevant today as they were ten years ago. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is a modern classic that will endure for years to come.
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Fantasy (link). I honestly don’t remember a ton of details about this book, because I finished it in March which as we all know, was approximately 63 years ago. I do remember really loving the depth of the story and the rich world-building, and I was very impressed with the pacing of the book. Despite being quite long, I never felt that the plot moved slowly. It was a really lovely read.
A world divided.
A queendom without an heir.
An ancient enemy awakens.The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tan has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
The Stone Sky
Science fiction (link). I really loved this series, which I began in 2019 and finished in 2020. Perhaps my favorite thing about it is that the main character is a mother who is still going on adventures. The whole teen protagonist thing is overdone, especially in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and it’s rare to have a main character who is also a parent. This is the final book in the Broken Earth trilogy, and the ending was stunningly done. A really interesting premise, a fascinating “magic” system, and characters with (so much!) depth all made it a great read. (The description below is for The Fifth Season, the first book in the trilogy.)
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this “intricate and extraordinary” Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution.
This is the way the world ends…for the last time.
It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world’s sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
Graceling
Fantasy, YA-ish (link). I loved this book – it was a really fun read. I feel like this entire series fills a hole in YA literature in that it’s heavy on strong female characters and light(er) on traditional romance. With an interesting world and magic system, it checks all my boxes for YA fantasy!
Katsa is a Graceling, one of the rare people born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she lived a life of privilege until the day her ability to kill a man with her bare hands revealed itself during a royal banquet. Now she acts as her uncle’s enforcer, traveling the kingdom and threatening those who dare oppose him.
But everything changes when she meets Po, a foreign prince Graced with combat skills who is searching for the truth about his grandfather’s disappearance. When Katsa agrees to help him, she never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace–or about a terrible secret that could destroy them all.
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe
Magical realism (link). I really enjoyed this book – it had Hallmark-movie-esque small-town romance vibes but didn’t feel cheesy at all. This book has everything: baking, small-town Alabama, a sweet romance, family relationships, magical pies that bring messages from the dead (no, seriously). It was a great cozy read and had just enough magic to make it a standout.
Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Cafe.
It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the cafe and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.
As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.
Thunderhead
Science fiction, YA-ish (link). This book got 5 stars almost entirely because of the ending, which was one of my favorites of the year; it was entirely unexpected (I don’t want to give anything away, but it was GOOD). The book tackles a really fascinating premise – turning the idea of a malevolent AI on its head. It has a dystopian feel but without any real dystopian circumstances, and asks what problems might humanity face if the world were “perfect”? The entire series is so great, and it’s a series I’d recommend to most people. (The description below is for Scythe, the first book in the Arc of a Scythe trilogy.)
A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life – and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.
Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe – a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.
Scythe is the first novel of a thrilling new series by National Book Award-winning author Neal Shusterman in which Citra and Rowan learn that a perfect world comes only with a heavy price.
Lore
Fantasy, YA-ish (link). I received an early digital review copy of this book through Netgalley. It’s Percy Jackson meets The Hunger Games, but with feminism. Set against the backdrop of a mythical hunt called the Agon, descendants of ancient Greek heroes get the chance to kill the old gods and take over their powers. It’s fast-paced, action-packed, and has the sweetest friends-to-lovers romance. The world-building is outstanding and makes it a must-read, especially for fans of mythology! You can read my full review on Goodreads here.
Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality.
Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man-now a god-responsible for their deaths.
Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek her out: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed to be dead, and Athena, one of the last of the original gods, now gravely wounded.
The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and a way to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to rejoin the hunt, binding her fate to Athena’s, will come at a deadly cost-and it may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.
The Raven Boys
Fantasy, YA-ish (link). This book stayed on my TBR list for awhile, but once I finally dived in, I was hooked! REALLY beautiful, atmospheric writing, a hefty dose of magical realism, a compelling plot, and the slowest slow-burn romance make it an easy winner in my book. I’ve read 3/4 books in the Raven Cycle series, and the final one is on my list for 2021.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them – until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her.
His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul whose emotions range from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher who notices many things but says very little. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
A Deadly Education
Fantasy, YA-ish (link). I’ve been a huge fan of Naomi Novik’s work for a few years now (Uprooted is one of my all-time-favorites). Her latest release was no exception; it was such a FUN read! The setting (a dark spin on Hogwarts if it was built into the void, monsters killed most of the students before graduation, and there were no teachers) and the protagonist (a snarky witch who just wants to survive, but with an unfortunate talent for mass destruction) made this an easy 5 star read for me! Smart, irreverent, adventurous, and quick; it’s a book that I’d recommend to literally anyone. (Note: a number of people have identified some problematic racial themes in this book; they are addressed well in this review.)
I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.
Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.
At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.
But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either. Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.
With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages–a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.
Obsidio
Science fiction, YA (link). This is the final book the Illuminae Files trilogy, which was an extremely fun read. The entire trilogy is told through a “docket” – transcripts of videos, chats, and audio recordings, maps, illustrations, and more. It was an interesting and unusual format, and while it seemed like it would be hard to read at first, I didn’t have that experience at all. One note is that it was not a great e-book read; this is one that I’d definitely recommend you read on paper if possible. (The description below is for Illuminae, the first book in this trilogy.)
Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she’d ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.
But the warship could be the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents–including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more – Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
A Sky Beyond the Storm
Fantasy, YA (link). This was perhaps my most anticipated release of 2020 – the Ember in the Ashes series is one of my all-time favorites! This conclusion to the series was so good. I was in literal tears by the end, which I don’t think happened any other times in 2020. Fantastic world-building, emotional depth, and fully developed characters (even for the villains) mean it was an easy 5-star read for me. (The description below is for An Ember in the Ashes, the first book in this series.)
Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.
Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.
But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier–and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined–and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few of my favorite 4-star reads from this past year, just in case my recommendations above weren’t enough:
- Ninth House (fantasy; secret magical societies at Yale)
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January (magical realism; a story about stories)
- The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (mystery; told in an innovative way)
- Vicious (superhero fantasy where the protagonist is a villain)
- The Shadows Between Us (YA fantasy romance; a Slytherin love story)
- The Lunar Chronicles (YA; sci-fi fairytale retellings)
- A Flame in the Mist (YA; a Mulan retelling but with assassins)
- The Lazy Genius Way (self-help; name what matters and “lazy genius” it)
- Mistborn: The Final Empire (high fantasy meets My Fair Lady meets Ocean’s Eleven)
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (magical realism; fantasy for people who don’t like fantasy)
- The Midnight Bargain (historical fantasy; feminism in the Regency era)
Pin This Post: The Best Books I Read in 2020
