My 5-Star Reads from 2020
Oh, hello. What a year, amirite? Good thing I wasn’t committed to a weekly positive post anymore… I’m also working with a broken keyboard so this post could take me another year to complete.
So, I read 107* books last year — surpassing my goal of 100 — thanks to living without Wi-Fi for a month and without a social life for nine.
If you’ve started (or abandoned!) a reading goal or are stuck on what to read next, here are the books I gave 5 stars to after reading them this past year. It’s a pretty even split between new and not, but I trended more toward enjoying nonfiction because I’m a glutton for pain and reality.
Are you on Goodreads? If so, you can check out a neat recap of my reading here.
As always, I’ll happily discuss books with anyone, anytime, but I don’t need to hear your thoughts on why a book “sucks.” We all have our preferences; if some (or all) of these aren’t your style, simply share your faves so I can try those out, too 🤓
Without further delay, presenting…
Fiction
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (re-read in anticipation of the prequel)
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (re-read in anticipation of the prequel)
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff
- American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Nonfiction
- The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
- Know My Name by Chanel Miller
- Do You Mind If I Cancel? (Things That Still Annoy Me) by Gary Janetti
- Me by Elton John
- Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
- She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey
- All The Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman
- Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Georgia Hardstark & Karen Kilgariff
- New Year, Same Trash: Resolutions I Absolutely Did Not Keep by Samantha Irby
- Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
- Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby
- Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
- The Vanity Fair Diaries: My Ride Through the Cash, Flash, and Trash of the 1980s by Tina Brown
- Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- Pretty Bitches: On Being Called Crazy, Angry, Bossy, Frumpy, Feisty, and All the Other Words That Are Used to Undermine Women by Lizzie Skurnick
- How to Be an Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America by John Robert Lewis
- Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from the Original Epicenter by Fang Fang
- Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West
- We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
- Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco by Alia Volz
- Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo
- Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
*I read 107 books from cover to cover. I allowed myself to abandon books I wasn’t enjoying. I listened to some samples in audiobook format, but did not make it through any from start to finish. </end disclaimer>
My 5-Star Reads from 2019
No time like the present, eh? I read 94* books last year — thanks to a long commute + it’s now part of my job — and have a goal to finish 100 in 2020.
If you’ve started (or abandoned!) a reading goal or are stuck on what to read next, here are the books I gave 5 stars to after reading them in 2019. It’s a pretty even split between new and old, fiction and nonfiction, plus various genres.
And while I’ll happily discuss books with anyone, anytime, I do not need to hear your thoughts on why a book “sucks.” We all have our preferences; if some (or all) of these aren’t your style, simply share your faves so I can try those out, too 🤓
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com
Fiction
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Me Before You by Jojo Meyes
- Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Nonfiction
- Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon
- Educated by Tara Westover
- We Should All Be Mirandas: Life Lessons from Sex and the City’s Most Underrated Character by Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni
- American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
- Karl the Fog: San Francisco’s Most Mysterious Resident by Karl the Fog…
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Library Book by Susan Orlean
- Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
*I read 94 books from cover to cover. For the first time in a while, I allowed myself to abandon books I wasn’t enjoying. I listened to some in audiobook format, but did not make it through any from start to finish. </end disclaimer>
WitLit 2018
You may have noticed how much I love reading and sharing book recommendations. As part of my new job, I won’t be able to do that on a regular basis anymore — but I thought I could provide a quick recap of All the Books I’ve Loved Before.*
I started 2018 with a challenge to read 15 books, aiming to double my paltry performance from 2017. With the help of Libby and a newfound taste for e-reading on a long commute, I smashed that goal and read 45 books this year.
In order of when I read them, here are the books I consumed in 2018. The titles in bold are my faves:
- Lying by Sam Harris
- The Emperor’s Children by Claire MesSud
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- Am I There Yet? by Mari Andrew
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
- Shrill by Lindy West
- Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- Meaty by Samantha Irby
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
- The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson
- Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
- It’s Not You by Sara Eckel
- The Heart Is a Shifting Sea by Elizabeth Flock
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
- The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
- Best State Ever by Dave Barry
- Refinery 29 Money Diaries by Lindsey Stanberry
- Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
- The Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz
- The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz
- China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
- The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
- Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
- Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
- The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
- Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
- The Sunshine Sisters by Jane Green
- Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
- The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell
- Fear by Bob Woodward
- The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck by Sarah Knight
- Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
There are plenty I’m awaiting from the library, so I have no doubt I’ll be off to a strong start tomorrow. Happy reading, and see you all in 2019!
*Yes, I am as cheesy as they come.
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