The Best Books We've Read This Year
Just like last year, we asked our contributors, book clubbers, and readers to share the best books they read this year. We have 12 lists for you, consisting of 59 separate books and a whole bunch that we all loved. These are our favorite novels we read this year, but we’d love to hear about yours in the comments! And if you’re looking for more best of lists, you can find our list of 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 right here.
Esmée de Heer
Co-host of Bored to Death book club + owner of this blog
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
It had been 16 years since Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, so the hype was strong on this one. But Piranesi was just as wonderful as I hoped it would be. I think it's the cuter nephew of House of Leaves and I would love to roam the Halls together with Piranesi if it wouldn't have such dire consequences.We Were Witches by Ariel Gore
A fictionish memoir filled with feminism, anti-capitalism and witchcraft. If this makes you go 'oooh' then you have to read it.Temporary by Hilary Leichter
My relationship to work is a little complicated and Temporary felt so recognizable. It's filled with magical realism, but at its heart it's about a temp looking for 'steadiness'. The best workplace novel I've read in a long time.Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Well, my list is full of mystical main characters and this novel is not an exception. In this 'crime-novel' our MC is a peculiar woman who is really into nature, studying astrology and William Blake. Although she turns out to be kind of crazy, she's still the kind of elder I someday aspire to be.Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson is a genius with words. In Housekeeping she writes about young female grifters and the strangeness of this book has been haunting me since April.
Yuliya
Book clubber, find Yuli on instagram
Blindness by José Saramago
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
M Train by Patti Smith
Jasper de Jong
Book clubber, find Jasper on instagram
There are a bunch of books that I swear I enjoyed reading but cannot remember a single thing about. Most books after all get forgotten pretty easily, no matter how pleasant the reading experience was at the time. Now, these books might not have been the ones that I necessarily enjoyed reading the most but they are the ones that keep bothering me, nipping at my heels at odd moments, long after they have been put back on the shelf.
Ron McLarty – Traveler
A bartender heads to the neighbourhood he grew up after his childhood crush dies. Soon he gets stuck trying to figure out a series of mysterious shootings that happened there when he was young.
Some of this book feels very obvious, but comfortingly so. Like a half remembered detective or television movie. Things keep happening to move the plot along whilst our hero tries to put the pieces together before it's too late. But it still muses very effectively on nostalgia, male friendship, the passing of time and cherishing what you have.
Graham Greene – The End of the Affair
As the title suggests this book is about the affair one man has with another man's wife. I particularly liked the strong sense of time and place of London nearing the end of WW2, with bombs still falling in the background of the story. I appreciated the writing a great deal as well, especially how different it felt from most contemporary stuff. It veers into melodrama and unearned romanticism at times, but that was part of its charm as well.
Carson McCullers - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
I don't know if this book was intended as a very dark joke about existential isolation but that's how it landed with me. Set in a small town in the deep South of 40s America it centers on deaf mute man who the other characters in the book go to vent their innermost feelings and struggles to, projecting an understanding on him that is not entirely warranted. Feels surprisingly contemporary as it deals with class, sexism, racism, loneliness, poverty and desperation in very engaging ways, that never feel cheap. Darkly comedic and heart-breaking.
David Vann – Legend of a Suicide
This book tricked me by starting with a couple of chapters that read like beautifully condensed short stories. Mainly consisting of fragmented impressions of a troubled childhood and the author's relationship with his parents.
After thirty five pages however the book comes to a screeching halt and narrows down to a terrible camping trip the author went on with his father. This tale turns ever more granular, punishing, banal and slapstick as the book goes on. – Then at a certain point the author leaves autobiography completely behind and veers off into the absurd. This infuriated me and made the book a chore to finish. With some distance, however I have to admit that this book bothered me so much me not by being a bad book but by actually striking a nerve. Will have to reread it at some point.
Chuck Palahniuk – Consider This (as an Audiobook)
Chuck lays out his ideas about storytelling and where he got those ideas from. Not an absolute set of rules that will guarantee success by any means. Just Chuck showing how he charted his own course and what he now believes about writing and telling stories. It does a fair bit of showing, not telling as well by having plenty of interesting stories to tell and by being an engaging read/listen with classic punchy Palahniuk style. Surprisingly warm hearted and shot through with loss and affection to the people who taught him.
Carina Pereira
Book clubber, find Carina on instagram
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
Roy den Boer
Book clubber, find Roy on instagram
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
This collection of short stories is far and away my favorite of the books I read this year. My first time reading O’Connor, and am very glad I did. This is by no means a light read, but then again it hasn’t been the lightest year. In each of the nine stories we get plunged into a lot of darkness, but it never overwhelms the beauty of the writing and the humanity that aches throughout.
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 1 by Emil Ferris
A 400 page graphic novel where every page is so dense with gorgeously rendered faces, inventige style and imagery that honestly at half the length it would’ve been an overwhelming masterpiece. Based on reviews I had been expecting it to be gorgeous, but I was surprised by how thoroughly I was drawn into the emotions of the characters and the story contained within the style.
Flicker by Theodore Roszak
This novel is about a young academic discovering a German film director from the silent period and that leads him down the path of uncovering a large, complicated conspiracy about film. All that is very much the plot of the book, and we get pages upon pages explaining the conspiracy as our main character learns things. All of that is competent and interesting, but where the book really sings is when it is just about the characters hanging around a dingy Los Angeles repertory theater where they watch and talk about movies - wonderful stuff that I could’ve kept reading for hundreds more pages.
Not Being On A Boat by Esmé Claire Keith
This is a very dark comedy that made me laugh quite a bit. In a world that is on the brink of collapse a company offers the rich to spend the rest of their lives on a luxury cruise ship. If you like your main character to be likeable or sympathetic, I would recommend steering clear of this book. Rutledge is the pettiest and nastiest main character I have ever experienced, but I very much enjoyed following him as life on the ship begins to crumble.
Apartment by Teddy Wayne
The second novel by Wayne that I’ve read and it certainly bears quite a thematic resemblance to Wayne’s earlier Loner - both are about characters that have a hard time connecting to other people and the corrosive desperation that this loneliness breeds in them. He inhabits these characters very effectively, making the desperation very real and doesn’t resort to cheap sympathies to get you on their side.
Nathania Jacobsson
Find Nathania on instagram
My top five are
Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker (THIS IS A MUST READ FOR LITERALLY EVERYONE)
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Do No Harm by Henry Marsh
Corina Maduro
Boekencurator, find Corina on instagram
Once the ‘best of’ lists start showing up, there is no denying it any longer: it’s the end of the year! Time to reflect on everything I have read, and fill my own TBR list, with titles such as “Mexican Gothic,” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, this book keeps popping up everywhere!
My five favorite books read in 2020, in random order:
📖Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo
From a non-binary social media influencer to a 93-year-old woman on a farm, in this novel, you will meet 12 beautiful people: mothers, daughters, friends and partners. They all experience oppression, but because of their life experiences, class or social status also contribute to it themselves. A heartwarming book that makes you think about how we are connected to each other.
📖Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
An exciting murder mystery starring the eccentric Janina, a Polish woman in her sixties, who loves nature, astrology and translates William Blake's poetry. I will never forget her plea for animal rights at the police station. Applause for Janina! I now want to read all of Olga Tokarczuk's books.
📖Circe - Madeline Miller
An impressive story about the witch Circe, inspired by Homer's Odyssey. This book is a page-turner, dramatic and grotesque, as myths should be, but it’s also delicate and heartwarming. I read this book during our way too hot summer with my feet in a bucket of cold water and forgot everything around me.
📖Winter - Ali Smith
Four people are having a Christmas dinner: two grumpy elderly sisters, a son, and the girl he hires to play his girlfriend. I missed my train stop because of this book, and it was totally worth it. This was the year Ali Smith became my favorite author.
📖The Copenhagen trilogy - Tove Ditlevsen
I absolutely love the candid autobiographical books by the biggest Danish literary star of the last century. She writes about her oppressive childhood, about the development of her talent and her career as a writer, about her longing for security within a relationship, and, in the last part, about her radical escape from reality and her drugs addiction. I fully agree with the Dutch critic who said: “… never before have I seen the various stages in a wild and oppressed female life described so completely sober, horrible and witty at the same time.”
Sophie van den Akker
Find Sophie on instagram
Top 3 (didn’t get to 5 unless I include two other Poirots too):
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry & Tobias Iaconis
The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah
Ikigai by Hector Garcia Puigcerver & Francesc Miralles
Bindu
Find Bindu on Twitter and Goodreads
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: a therapist, her therapist, and our lives revealed: It's funny, easy to read, gripping and insightful. Whether you have been to a therapist or not in your life, it's definitely worth reading.
Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design: I recommend this book to everyone, not just designers. It brings attention to various ways in which we exclude people. Loved every bit! If you are in a managerial or leadership position, this is a must-read.
A Man Called Ove: This was such a lovely, heartwarming book. I really liked the writing style (or maybe that's the effect of translation). Towards the ending, the book moved a bit faster than the pace set earlier. I did tear up a bit towards the end. It taught me how people can express their love, while they're facial expressions or verbal communications might not convey the same. Makes you think about the different forms of love people in your life offer, and that you either don't see or value. I definitely recommend this book to my fellow readers.
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men: Such a well researched book! I am amazed at the author and her calibre. I hope many more professionals read this book. It can help us identify where we are excluding groups, generally minority groups.
Americanah Having moved countries, like Ifemelu (the protagonist), I could relate to many incidents and insights from her life. I am a fan of Adichie's writing as well, quite deep. I could just pick excerpts from this book in an attempt to make myself understandable to those around me. The commentary on race is very interesting and I could not stop thinking how on point it was.
Urvi Pathak
Find Urvi on instagram
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
The Mothers by Britt Bennett
Jochem F. Melis
Book clubber, find Jochem on Goodreads
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A conceptual novel, perfectly executed. Grand, magical, emotionally conveying.Molloy by Samuel Beckett
My favorite book of the year. Read it in April and again in December. The prose is godlike, humor unparalleled. Both parts of the book are very different, but equally great.Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Beautiful, funny and thought provoking novel. Genre-bending, but very natural.Karakter by Ferdinand Bordewijk
Best Dutch novel that I read this year. The prose, the characters, the images, the craziness and set in pre-WW2 Rotterdam.The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
I never expected to like this book so much, Very well composed and surprisingly dreamy and emotional novel about soft Austrian army-men that feel their lives are slipping away from them.
Suzanne Peet
Owner of Just plain Suus & organizer of Undercover Book Club
Obviously the year isn’t over yet, so it is very possible that another book makes it in the top 5 but as of 22 December my top 5 reads (actually 9) in random order are:
Frankissstein - Jeanette Winterson
I love metafiction that takes a classic and turns it into this new thing that is both an analysis of the original piece and a critical look at today and the future. LOVED it.Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo
An amazing collection of the stories of 12 women that tells the history of black womxn in the UK, while also being a multifaceted look at daughter/mother relationships and a study of feminism and how it can/should evolve. A worthy booker prize winner.The Vegetarian - Han Kang translated by Deborah Smith
So weird. So amazing. When I finished it, I wanted to start again. For me, this feels very much like ‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ in the way it makes me feel, the way it looks at mental health. I will probably reread this next year (and the next and the next).The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
Told from the ‘we’ perspective, this was a unique experience. It was not at all what I expected, but I read it in a huff and a puff and I can’t stop thinking about it.In combined fifth place are four very different books, which is what makes choosing so hard. So here goes:
Persuasion - Jane Austen (trumping Emma for my fave Austen)
The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern (another magical world by Morgenstern to disappear into)
Horrorstör - Grady Hendrix (it still haunts me)
Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston (delicious)