Favorite 2020 reads

I read 55 books in 2020 (as a part of the Goodreads Reading Challenge)

I started the year thinking that I’d be focusing on non-white writers because of the saturated market for white authors. Jokes on me, though, because shortly after setting this goal for myself, I decided to read books that were readily available to me via Libby* (which steadily messed with my initial goal).

The first book I read was If Cats Disappeared from the World and the last book I read was Everything I Never Told You. Both books dealt with suicide / death and the thinking that happens before everything goes down. Both books carry a sort of finality that made me wish I could sit with the person in the book and have open-heart conversations since the book only opened the conversation and left some things to the imagination.

I discovered two of my favorite authors – Fredrik Backman, a Swedish writer, and Jacqueline Woodson – and found my 2 new favorite books – A Man Called Ove & My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry (which instantly made me fall in love with Backman’s writing style). Both books shared this wholesome approach to storytelling that literally made me bawl.

I enjoyed A Man Called Ove so much that when I participated in that chain-letter-like instagram book sharing, I had to include it as one of the books I sent along. Similarly, as soon as I’d finished reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, I made the trek to Vroman’s (IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC) to purchase it for my sister. If you haven’t read either of those, make sure to add them to your TBR (to be read) list!