This is a list of the books, I read in 2020 that I found to be okay to fabulous. However after participating in writing critique groups for the last 25 years or so and book clubs for the past 45 years, I appreciate an author’s effort and recognize that different people have different tastes. Therefore the books I found entirely dull or horrible are simply excluded from the list and there is no ranking system among titles. If you choose to read books off my list you will have to make your own decision about what you like.
You will see I like to read in series and a body of work by a singular author. I often do this to try to have a better understanding of the writer and their form of storytelling to figure out what I can learn from their efforts. As you will see from the assembled lis, I don’t just read “fine literature.” I read children’s books, non-fiction, fantasy, science fiction, novels, memoir self help books, romance and history. I read for escape, enjoyment, sometimes for a world where magic or good people can set the world to rights within a few hundred pages. This feels especially important when the real world around me becomes harsh and people act in ways that are unrecognizable to me.
I share this list because I am so often asked for recommendations. I hope you discover something new that delights you among these many authors and their efforts. If you are seeking to purchase some of these titles may I suggest supporting your local independent bookseller as my family owned my hometown bookstore for years. If you don’t have one nearby, I’d like to recommend a few favorites of mine: Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, NH; Belmont Books in Belmont, MA; The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY; An Unlikely Story in Plainview, MA; Books and Books in Key West, FL; Oblong Books in Rheinbeck, NY; Still North Books and Bar in Hannover, NH; Longfellow Books in Portland, ME; Print, A Bookstore in Portland, ME and Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. I’ve found the booksellers in each shop knowledgable and they all seem to have good fulfillment when ordering from them on line.
The 2020 List
Title | Author |
Little Fires Everywhere | Celeste Ng |
World Without End | Ken Follett |
The Pillars of the Earth | Ken Follett |
The Evening and the Morning | Ken Follett |
A Court of Frost and Starlight | Sarah J. Maas |
A Court of Thorns and Roses | Sarah J. Maas |
The Henna Artist | Alka Joshi |
One Day in December | Josie Silver |
The Activist | John Grisham |
Slaughterhouse-Five | Kurt Vonnegut |
Uncommon Type | Tom Hanks |
The Tattooist of Auschwitz | Heather Morris |
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Betty Smith |
All We Ever Wanted | Emily Giffin |
A Minute to Midnight | David Baldacci |
City of Girls | Elizabeth Gilbert |
American Dirt | Jeanine Cummins |
The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett |
The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters | Balli Kaur Jaswal |
The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides |
Olive, Again | Elizabeth Strout |
Long Road to Mercy | David Baldacci |
The Scent Keeper | Erica Bauermeister |
Rough Magic | Lara Prior-Palmer |
La Belle Sauvage | Philip Pullman |
The Lost Girls of Paris | Pam Jenoff |
Dear Edward | Ann Napolitano |
The Late Show | Michael Connelly |
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer | Fredrik Backman |
Less | Andrew Sean Greer |
Smoke Bitten | Patricia Briggs |
Burn Bright | Patricia Briggs |
Becoming Mrs. Lewis | Patti Callahan |
The Winter Bride | Anne Gracie |
The Autumn Bride | Anne Gracie |
The Proposal | Jasmine Guillory |
Sing, Unburied, Sing | Jesmyn Ward |
The Rosie Effect | Graeme Simsion |
Two Steps Forward | Graeme Simsion, Anne Buist |
The Rosie Project | Graeme Simsion |
Cottage by the Sea | Debbie Macomber |
Good Prose | Tracy Kidder, Richard Todd |
Not Becoming My Mother | Ruth Reichl |
Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout |
Moon Called | Patricia Briggs |
Kingsbane | Claire Legrand |
The Tiger’s Wife | Téa Obreht |
Furyborn | Claire Legrand |
River Marked | Patricia Briggs |
Silver Borne | Patricia Briggs |
Echo | Pam Muñoz Ryan |
Fair Game | Patricia Briggs |
Blood Bound | Patricia Briggs |
Hunting Ground | Patricia Briggs |
Bone Crossed | Patricia Briggs |
Cry Wolf | Patricia Briggs |
The Guilty | David Baldacci |
How to Win Friends and Influence People | Dale Carnegie |
The Scandal | John Grisham |
The Fugitive | John Grisham |
The Activist | John Grisham |
The Accused | John Grisham |
Facing the Sun | Janice Lynn Mather |
The Abduction | John Grisham |
Separation Anxiety | Laura Zigman |
Loki’s Wolves | Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr |
40 Love | Madeleine Wickham |
A Gentleman in Moscow | Amor Towles |
Dark Sacred Night | Michael Connelly |
A Better Man | Louise Penny |
Witness to a Trial | John Grisham |
Partners | John Grisham |
Nine Perfect Strangers | Liane Moriarty |
Framed in Lace | Monica Ferris |
Little Women | Louisa May Alcott |
Storm Cursed | Patricia Briggs |
Silence Fallen | Patricia Briggs |
To Scotland With Love | Patience Griffin |
The Inn at Rose Harbor | Debbie Macomber |
Divine Evil | Nora Roberts |
Ash Princess | Laura Sebastian |
Sting | Sandra Brown |
The Evening and the Morning | Ken Follett |
The Wish Collector | Mia Sheridan |
Laidlaw | William McIlvaney |
Death in a Strange Country | Donna Leon |
The Big Man Upstairs | JD Kirk |
Half Moon Harbor | Donna Kauffman |
A Whisper of Sorrows | JD Kirk |
Pelican Point | Donna Kauffman |
The Last Bloody Straw | JD Kirk |
Blood and Treachery | JD Kirk |
Killing Code | JD Kirk |
Thicker Than Water | JD Kirk |
A Litter of Bones | JD Kirk |
Peace Like a River | Leif Enger |
Jeremiah’s Bell | Denzil Meyrick |
PS, I Love You | Cecelia Ahern |
Postscript | Cecelia Ahern |
Walk the Wire | David Baldacci |
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows | Balli Kaur Jaswal |
Peace Talks | Jim Butcher |
Silverswift | Natalie Lloyd |
American Dirt | Jeanine Cummins |
The Country Guesthouse: Sullivan’s Crossing | Robyn Carr |
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer | Fredrik Backman |
Any Day Now | Robyn Carr |
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes | Suzanne Collins |
Fire Touched | Patricia Briggs |
All the Devils Are Here | Louise Penny |
Knife | Jo Nesbo |
You Are a Badass | Jen Sincero |
Night Broken | Patricia Briggs |
Dead Heat | Patricia Briggs |
Born a Crime: Stories from an South African Childhood | Trevor Noah |
The Girl Who Lived Twice | David Lagercrantz |
A Breath on Dying Embers | Denzil Meyrick |
The Relentless Tidey | Denzil Meyrick |
Well of the Winds | Denzil Meyrick |
Astrid & Veronka | Linda Olsson |
The Rat Stone Serendade | Denzil Meyrick |
Dark Suits and Sad Songs | Denzil Meyrick |
Last Witness | Denzil Meyrick |
The Witch Elm | Tana French |
What’s Better Than This? | Lorraine Salmon |
Spring Bride | Anne Gracie |
Summer Bride | Anne Gracie |
Captivated and Entranced | Nora Roberts |
Highland Shifter | Catherine Bybee |
Wishing for a Highlander | Jessi Gage |
My One and Only | Kristan Higgins |
Above the Bay of Angels | Gemma Dawson |
One Mississippi | Mark Childress |
Roommates Wanted | Lisa Jewell |
The Best of Us: Sullivan’s Crossing | Robyn Carr |
Virgin River | Robyn Carr |
Whispering Rock | Robyn Carr |
The Family Gathering | Robyn Carr |
Virgin River Christmas | Robyn Carr |
Second Chance Pass | Robyn Carr |
Temptation Ridge | Robyn Carr |
Paradise Valley | Robyn Carr |
Forbidden Falls | Robyn Carr |
Angel’s Peak | Robyn Carr |
Moonlight Road | Robyn Carr |
Promise Canyon | Robyn Carr |
Tis the Season | Robyn Carr |
Harvest Moon | Robyn Carr |
Wild Man Creek | Robyn Carr |
Hidden Summit | Robyn Carr |
Redwood Bend | Robyn Carr |
The Wanderer | Robyn Carr |
The Newcomer | Robyn Carr |
The Hero: Thunder Point | Robyn Carr |
Just Over the Mountain | Robyn Carr |
Shelter Mountain | Robyn Carr |
Down By the River | Robyn Carr |
The Chance | Robyn Carr |
Bring Me Home For Christmas | Robyn Carr |
The Promise | Robyn Carr |
The Homecoming Thunder Point | Robyn Carr |
One Wish | Robyn Carr |
Wildest Dreams | Robyn Carr |
Sunrise Point | Robyn Carr |
My Kind of Christmas | Robyn Carr |
The View from Almeda Island | Robyn Carr |
Informed Risk | Robyn Carr |
Summer in Sonoma | Robyn Carr |
The Wedding Party | Robyn Carr |
The Summer that Made Us | Robyn Carr |
Chelynne | Robyn Carr |
Woman’s Own | Robyn Carr |
Mind Tryst | Robyn Carr |
Swept Away | Robyn Carr |
Four Friends | Robyn Carr |
What We Find | Robyn Carr |
Life Ever After | Carla Grauls |
Mr. Dickens and His Carol | Samantha Silva |
Inside Out: A Memoir | Demi Moore |
Redhead by the Side of the Road | Anne Tyler |
Daisy Jones and the Six | Taylor Jenkins Reid |
My Wife Said You May ant to Marry Me | Jason B. Rosenthal |
The Yellow House | Sara M. Broom |
The Known World | Edward P. Jones |
Battle Ground: Dresden Files Book 17 | Jim Butcher |
One Good Deed | David Baldacci |
The Overstory | Richard Powers |
The Queens Gambit | Walter Tevis |
The Murmur of Bees | Sofia Segovia |
The Secret Commonwealth | Phillip Pullman |
Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World | Ashley Herring Blake |
The Shadow in the North | Phillip Pullman |
Call Down the Hawk | Maggie Stiefvater |
Euphoria | Lily King |
Just Kids | Patti Smith |
This is a list of the books, I read in 2020 that I found to be okay to fabulous. However after participating in writing critique groups for the last 25 years or so and book clubs for the past 45 years, I appreciate an author’s effort and recognize that different people have different tastes. Therefore the books I found entirely dull or horrible are simply excluded from the list and there is no ranking system among titles. If you choose to read books off my list you will have to make your own decision about what you like.
You will see I like to read in series and a body of work by a singular author. I often do this to try to have a better understanding of the writer and their form of storytelling to figure out what I can learn from their efforts. As you will see from the assembled lis, I don’t just read “fine literature.” I read children’s books, non-fiction, fantasy, science fiction, novels, memoir self help books, romance and history. I read for escape, enjoyment, sometimes for a world where magic or good people can set the world to rights within a few hundred pages. This feels especially important when the real world around me becomes harsh and people act in ways that are unrecognizable to me.
I share this list because I am so often asked for recommendations. I hope you discover something new that delights you among these many authors and their efforts. If you are seeking to purchase some of these titles may I suggest supporting your local independent bookseller as my family owned my hometown bookstore for years. If you don’t have one nearby, I’d like to recommend a few favorites of mine: Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, NH; Belmont Books in Belmont, MA; The Golden Notebook in Woodstock, NY; An Unlikely Story in Plainview, MA; Books and Books in Key West, FL; Oblong Books in Rheinbeck, NY; Still North Books and Bar in Hannover, NH; Longfellow Books in Portland, ME; Print, A Bookstore in Portland, ME and Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN. I’ve found the booksellers in each shop knowledgable and they all seem to have good fulfillment when ordering from them on line.