2020 Reading Rundown

  2020 Reading List 

I read a lot of books in a year (well, by my standards anyway.) I also work, babysit my grandkids, bake a lot of bread, garden, and tend to those tedious things in life that suck up my time—which explains why I just can’t review all the books I read.  Some wonderful ones fail to get a mention and that’s just not right.

 

So before putting this remarkable year of 2020 behind us, I thought I’d give a rundown on all the books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year—books that allowed me to take my mind off of the pandemic and politics.

 

In reading order:

 

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – Mid-kids’ book, ages 9-12 – An unwanted girl with a crippled foot is sent away to the British countryside with her brother during WWII. There, she learns to trust again when she finds people who truly care about her. Great book about overcoming adversity and good introduction to one aspect of WWII.  

 

Mercy House by Alena Dillon – Fiction about a kick-ass nun.

 

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson – Fiction

 

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle kids’ books by Betty MacDonald as well as her hilarious memoir The Egg and I which I wanted to read for my wonderful vacation I had planned in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state where Betty lived.  Unfortunately the Coronavirus put a big wrench in that plan, so the closest I got was her memoir. 

 

Around the World with Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis – Laugh-out-loud fiction

The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg – Fiction about a woman remembering the people listed in her address book who touched her life in significant ways.

 

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi – Set in India. Loved it.

 

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian – Good mystery. 

 

Less by Andrew Sean Greer – Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction, funny and poignant.

 

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins – Interesting non-fiction, travel.

 

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Classic short story about a woman who has a nervous condition but with nudges from her controlling husband, she finally goes completely cray-cray.  I learned about this story while working my way through the cocktail book Tequila Mockingbird, which got good use during the pandemic!  

 

The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman – Fiction, circus story. Very good. 

 

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton – Classic fiction about people mysteriously dying in New Mexico.

 

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk – Mid-kid’s fiction. Very good! 

 

The Lost Orphan by Stacey Halls – Fiction. A young unwed mother is forced to leave her newborn daughter in a Foundling Hospital. She never forgets her beautiful girl and works six long years to earn enough money to get her back only to discover that someone else has claimed her as her own. Now she’s on a hunt to find her daughter and bring her back home. 

 

A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler – Fiction family saga. Through Tyler’s light, springy, and humorous narration we get a window into the Whitshank family that I imagine most people can relate to in one way or another. It was a gratifying book to get lost in. So glad I finally cracked it open.

 

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan – Non-fiction about the Dust Bowl.

 

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth – Good mystery. 

 

The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Emerson Wood – Historical fiction about Emily Warren Roebling who took over the Brooklyn Bridge project when her husband fell ill.

 

The Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer – A woman with postpartum depression learns that her late mother also suffered from it and much more—A thought-provoking reminder of how times have changed how times HAD changed; how women were finally given rights to control their own bodies in 1973 UNTIL those rights were once again taken away after 50 years. This book is sadly very relevant in 2022.    

 

Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza – Fiction that mixes personal stories with connections to famous art.

 

Cornerstones of Freedom: Ellis Island by R. Conrad Stein – Non-Fiction kids’ book about the history Ellis Island and U.S. immigration.

 

Women of Means by Marlene Wagman-Geller – Non-fiction anthology of the lives of rich and famous women.

 

The End of October by Lawrence Wright – Fiction about a pandemic—very fitting for this year. 

 

The Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die by Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay – Fiction in Bangladesh with biting humor and tragedy.

 

F*cking History by The Captain – Non-Fiction. This book is crude, vulgar and f*cking hilarious! With expletive-filled humor The Captain relays unusual, interesting and cringe-worthy facts of history. One of the stories is going to make it difficult for me to eat apples again. Horrifyingly wonderful!

 

The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks – Classic, about racism. 

 

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper – Historical fiction about American female track team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

 

Hiroshima by John Hersey – Non-fiction about the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WWII. 

 

Ragweed and Poppy by Avi – A sweet mid-kids’ story of a mouse helping other critters, especially little Poppy mouse, who puts Ragweed in unexpected danger. Although this book is part of a series, I enjoyed it as a charming stand-alone animal adventure!

 

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – Fiction Pulitzer Prize Winning story of slavery. Brutal and unforgettable.  

 

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell – Classic, humorous, non-fiction memoir about a family who moves to Greece in 1935.

 

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan – Feel-good fiction. 

 

Memorial Drive by Natasha Threthewey – Non-fiction. I couldn't put this book down! Natasha Trethewey was 19 years old when her mother was brutally murdered by her stepfather. In this memoir she glides the reader through her life with her mom before and after her stepfather came into the picture, and how she ultimately comes to terms with her own feelings of guilt and loss.

 

Miss Iceland by Audur Ava Olafsdottir – Fiction set in Iceland. 

 

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Read this one as part of a Book Bingo challenge, which I’m still working my way through. Can’t go wrong with Roald Dahl books. 

 

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan – Mid-kids’ fiction. Truly special book—well-written, gripping, a little bit fairy tale, a lot of historical fiction. Three children find a harmonica that helps them in difficult times: a boy in 1933 Germany during Hitler's regime, an orphan (and his brother) during the Great Depression, and a girl in California trying to understand internment camps and anti-Japanese-American sentiments during WWII. The harmonica is a sort of good luck charm that sees them through their predicaments and eventually strings these separate stories together likes notes on sheet music. Fantastic!

 

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner – Classic. If you like enigmatic, twisted writing with nonsensical stream-of-consciousness jibber jabber, this book's for you!! In other words: this book was, but I wasn't, it could have been, but never will be because the mother was a fish, a horse. Trains, bananas, bicycles, flour, sugar. Person, woman, man, camera, TV. I am emptified for sleep now. yes yes yes yes yes.

 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho – Classic, parable.

 

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline – Historical fiction—Australian penal colony. 

 

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys – Young adult fiction. Excellent! 

 

Who Was the History of the World by Paula Manzanero – Mid-kid’s non-fiction with a timeline of great historical events and people.

 

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford – Historical fiction. A sentimental and tragic story of a Chinese-American's recollection of his childhood in 1942 Seattle and his friendship with a Japanese-American girl who gets sent to an internment camp in Idaho.  It makes you think how WWII affected our own U.S. citizens turning innocent Japanese-Americans into enemy aliens. Very good book!

 

When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor – Historical fiction about Japanese Internment camps in China.         

 

The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe – Fiction. A young woman’s embezzling at her small town bookkeeping job and later as comptroller snowballs into a double life in the high-society art world in Chicago.  How long can she keep it up and where will it all end?  I got a big adrenaline rush out of the book, just like the main character did with each con she pulled off.  Addictive! 

 

438 Days by Jonathan Franklin – Non-fiction sea survival story. Wow! 

 

The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny LeCoat – Historical Fiction. Review coming in February.

 

Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger – Thriller. This book had the intrigue and tension of “The Girl on the Train”—kept me guessing until the end. 

 

Leave the World Behind by Raaman Alam – Fiction, suspense, about something ominous that is happening in the world.  Already optioned to be a movie with rumors of Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts starring in it.  Thought-provoking, goosebumpish!

 

Rutka's Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust, the true Diary of 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, before she was sent to Auschwitz. Chilling.  

 

The Light of Days by Judy Batalion – Non-fiction about Polish female resistance fighters in WWII.  Breathtaking!  To be released March, 2021.  Review coming soon.

 

The Overstory by Richard Powers – Pulitzer Fiction about the connection trees have below and above the ground, and the people who try to save them with disastrous effects. 

 

Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas by John Baxter – Delicious non-fiction. 

 

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce – Delightful female friendship book. Review coming soon.

 

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing – Non-fiction adventure at its best. Review coming soon.

Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton - Excellent non-fiction, review coming soon.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Loved it! Review coming soon.

 

Happy Reading!

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, better, and brighter new year!

Annette