The best books you read in 2020?

[southeastdweller]

They don't necessarily need to have been published this year.

I really loved these books:

1. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
2. Clothes and Other Things That Matter - Alexandra Shulman
3. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
4. Talking Heads - Alan Bennett
5. Eating for England - Nigel Slater

What have been your favourite books this year?

Troubled Blood
The Weekend
The Most Fun We Ever Had
The Dutch House
Olive Kitteridge (both)
The Cockroach
Small pleasures
Book of Dust part 2
Ask Again, Yes

The long song

@BookWitch Thanks! Woman of no Importance is 99p on the kindle!

Piranesi by Susannah Clarke. Joyous.

Woman of no Importance is 99p on the kindle!

Good tip, that definitely looks worth reading, I’ll add it to the virtual pile!

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart was my standout read this year.

Honourable mentions go to:

Bring Up the Bodies (re-read in anticipation of The Mirror and the Light and far better IMO)
Unorthodox
Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
The Dutch House
Redhead by the Side of the Road

The Porpoise - Mark Haddon
The Island of the Sea Women - Lisa See
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
Bass Rock - Evie Wyld

I think those have been my stand outs so far this year.

My top reads have been:
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The Five by Hallie Rubenhold
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Girl,Woman,Other by Bernadine Evaristo - loved it!

My favourite reads of the year have been:

The Idiot by Elif Batuman - understatedly witty. The sort of wit that if you try to explain why you are laughing nobody would get it.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I’d never read it before and don’t remember loving Jamaica Inn but I loved this. Everything about it, I couldn’t put it down.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I just found the prose so beautiful and the characters jumped off the page even though he didn’t really spend a lot of time drawing them if that makes sense.

I’ve actually had a good reading year with lots that I have enjoyed and to have 3 standouts is quite unheard of for me.

I really enjoyed
Invisible Girl - Lisa Jewell
Magpie Lane - Lucy Atkins
Little Darlings - Melanie Golding

I love this thread each year, I always add some to my list because of it. Like many others, I haven't read nearly as much as I thought I would this year but I have had some crackers:

Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell
Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid
American Dirt - Jeanne Cummins
Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart
Writers and Lovers - Lily King I think @SlightDrizzle also mentioned this and you are the only other person I know that has read it this year, well apart from my sister but I bought it for my sister. I've chosen it for my book group lucky dip present.
The Glass Hotel - Emily St John Mandel

Oh and I also reread Normal People after watching the adaptation and still love it.

Just finished reading the package by sebastian fitzek..very apt for these times.
Totally absorbing
.

@Timeforatincture

Piranesi by Susannah Clarke. Joyous.

Another vote for this.

I've enjoyed
The Words in my Hand Guinevere Glasfurd
The Library Book Susan Orlean
The Ninth Child Sally Magnusson
The Most Fun we Ever Had Claire Lombardo
The Life Project Helen Pearson
I'm enjoying looking at everyone's lists

Hamnet
The Forty Rules of Love
Ask Again, Yes

It hasn't been an amazing year for reading..

The Five was excellent. I also thought American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and All The Remains by Prof Sue Black were very good.

American Dirt Jeanine Cummings
Asta's Book Barbara Vine
Where the Crawdad's Sing Delia Owens
The Golden Rule Amanda Craig
Machines Like Me Ian McEwan
Troubled Blood Robert Galbraith

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I've read lots of good books this year, but harder than some years to pick the absolute standouts. Overall I'd say non fiction would be:
Mindf#ck by Christopher Wylie (about Cambridge Analytica)
& Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal which reminded me how good a writer Jeanette Winterson can be.
Fiction my two top are both SF:
Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

I haven't done much reading this year, but for me The Binding and Slade House.

*3. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

1. Talking Heads - Alan Bennett*

84 Charing Cross Road has been on my list for year and I read Talking Heads for my A level English (more years ago than I care to remember )

Piranesi.

Again.

The Salt Path
The Old Ways
Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
The Crow Road (again)
A Chip Shop in Poznan

I can't say it's felt like a vintage year, but some stand out:

The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel. Love love love the whole series and want more (and yes I know there can't be more!). She is unmatched, IMO.

Days Without End, Sebastian Barry. Read A Thousand Moons too, which is not as great but a worthy read still.

The Shell Seekers. Do not know how I got to my 40s without having read Pilcher. This is MAGNIFICENT.

Apeirogon, Colum McCann. Almost unbearably sad and brutal in parts, but stunningly good.

Precious Bane, Mary Webb. A real oddity. Beautiful about nature; perceptive about people.