I’ve joked (mostly to myself) that of all things 2020 was, for me it was the year of the library. This year, I got a library card and I read...and I read...and I read. I devoured books and couldn’t believe I could pick up another one instantaneously thanks to Libby and the gift of Kindle books read on my phone.
So far in 2020 I’ve read 50 books, and will probably add another few to that number in the coming weeks. As much as I’ve always been a reader, I don’t think I’ve ever read this number of books in a year. (For context, in 2019 I read a total of 10 books and felt very content with that number.)
In 2020, I needed the escape books offer. I needed the perspective of books written before “social distancing” entered our vocabulary and everyone had an opinion about facemasks. My library card became a time machine and a passport all in one.
So here is my top 20 list of favorite reads in 2020. (20 in 2020 has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?) This list is a mixed bag of memoir, fiction, thriller, classic, and Christian living. It’s very honest - perhaps too honest - in that I didn’t include some of the books I read that would give me a bit more clout in the reading world if listed here as a favorite. But this list is not one for virtue signaling or pretending I only enjoyed the most cerebral of books this year. These are the books I loved. The books that kept me up at night to read “just one more page.” The books that helped me escape and the books that made me think deeply about the world around me and my role in it. Maybe you’ll find a favorite or two here as well.
20. I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
This book of essays is like a delightful and funny pep talk from an older sister. I laughed out loud at several points and felt a warm connection with the stories Mary Laura Philpott shared. This book is perfect for you if you’re looking for something lighthearted that also tackles some topics of perfectionism and mid-life crises with wit and humor.
19. The Terminal List by Jack Carr
This book was not at all one I would have naturally gravitated toward, but it ended up being one of my favorite pageturners of the year. The Terminal List is a thriller that tells the story of a Navy SEAL who returns home and follows the threads of a massive government conspiracy that led to the deaths of his entire team as well as his family at home. This book is for you if you’re looking for a story that pulls you in and keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next.
18. The Book of Waking Up by Seth Haines
This short book is one you can pick up and read in an afternoon, but I recommend reading it more slowly. Seth Haines’s writing is down to earth and disarming; he shed light on things in my life I use to “check out” instead of leaning toward Jesus. This book is for you if you’re struggling through some coping mechanisms - and it’s even more for you if you think you’re not.
17. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
This book of essays spanning from Ann Patchett’s childhood to the present day was delightful to read. Her writing is funny and the stories are somehow both wild and deeply relatable. My favorite essay was The Wall, in which Ann Patchett details her attempt to qualify for the Los Angeles Police Academy.
16. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
File this novel under: Books That Helped Me Escape Quarantine. Big Little Lies is the perfect escape read. There’s a murder and mommy cliques and an oh-so-satisfying ending. I enjoyed every minute of this page turner.
15. Courage, Dear Heart: Letters to a Weary World by Rebecca K. Reynolds
This book written as a series of letters to people enduring different flavors of brokenness in the world is a balm for the soul. Rebecca K. Reynolds writes with such gentleness, such love, that this book feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket and handed your favorite cup of tea. This book is for you if your soul feels rubbed raw by the brokenness in your life, and you’re looking for someone who can turn your face toward the light and whisper that things are hard and God is here.
14. Remember God by Annie F. Downs
Annie F. Downs’s honesty in this book is breathtaking. She takes you by the hand and gently leads you through several moments in her life that have led her to question if God is really kind. This is the kind of honesty I need in a book about wrestling with the difficult things in faith. It’s bold and brave and a kindness to us all. This book is for you if you have found yourself asking questions about God’s character - his kindness - and feeling guilty or alone. Annie F. Downs is a wonderful guide, and she will bring you along with love and laughter.
13. Women Talking by Miriam Toews
I thought this book would be difficult to read, but I couldn’t put it down. Women Talking is, heartbreakingly and shockingly, based on a real-life event in which over a hundred Mennonite women and girls were drugged and attacked by men in their own community. This book is a fictional recording of minutes at a secret meeting held by eight of the town’s women, in which they wrestle with decisions of what to do next: stay and forgive, stay and fight, or leave. This book deals with so many difficult themes with a lot of honor, and is one of the only books I read this year that made me tear up.
12. Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper
Mike Cosper’s book about practices that can help us re-awaken to the magic of living in an enchanted world full of the glory and wonder of God was a breath of fresh air to me. Prior to reading this book, a lot of “Christian Living” books began to feel really stale and lifeless to me, and I think part of that was due to my own disillusionment with the wonder at work around me. This book opened my eyes back up to a way of seeing the world I wasn’t sure I would ever get back.
11. Placemaker by Christie Purifoy
From the About: “Placemaker is a call to tend our souls, our land, and our homes--to cultivate comfort, beauty, and peace in the places God has us.” I read this book in January, just a few weeks before I found myself at home for a very long time. This book was a gift to me, allowing me to see the beauty around me, both inside my home and outside in our community. This book is for you if the walls of your home are feeling too close for comfort; maybe a new perspective on home can help you cultivate fresh beauty and peace.
10. Handle With Care by Lore Wilbert
This is another book I read in January this year and it has stuck to me like a burr in the best way possible. I’ve spent most of this year wrestling through how to live well as an embodied person, and so much of that work was started by reading this book about touch. Lore Wilbert writes with gentleness and humility, and I am better for having read her words in this beautiful book.
9. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
This book will undoubtedly make it onto countless “best of” lists this year and for good reason. This novel is a deep look into multi-layered familial suffering. It tells the story of Gifty, a PhD candidate at Stanford studying reward-seeking behavior in mice after her brother died of an overdose and her suicidal mother shows up on her doorstep. Yaa Gyasi is a beautiful, beautiful writer. Her sentences hold so much power to evoke just the right emotion in the moment. This book is for you if you’re looking for a beautifully written emotional, evocative book that explores themes of suffering and hope.
8. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
This book tells the story of the US Olympic rowing team at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I never would have picked this up were it not for the sparkling recommendation of a friend. This book mixes bits of world history and information about the sport with the personal life stories of each of the nine Americans who rowed for the US in Germany in 1936. It was so moving, so engaging, I didn’t want to stop reading. This book is for you if you enjoy books that mix personal stories with history and sport, (and even if you don’t generally like those things, I think this book may still be for you.)
7. The River by Peter Heller
This book made my heart race almost the whole time I was reading. This novel includes attempted murder, a quickly approaching wildfire, and two young men who have to navigate their way to safety with very little to help them. This was another novel that I really enjoyed escaping into. Not to mention the descriptions of the natural world around the characters, even in the midst of such harrowing circumstances, were beautiful to read.
6. The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
This novel follows two couples through decades of love and friendship, heartbreak and trial, as the men attempt to co-pastor a Presbyterian Church through times of social change in the mid-1900s. It is a quiet and gentle book about falling in love and how faith in God can be a deeply personal and deeply communal thing. This book is for you if you’re wanting to sink into beautiful character development and a gentle story that spans whole lifetimes of the characters.
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
After falling in love with Greta Gerwig’s screen adaptation of Little Women last winter, I started reading it again and man-oh-man it’s a story that hits differently every time I read it. For the first time I really paid attention to one of the most underrated characters of the story: Marmee. Her love for her girls, her quiet ferocity, her humble mothering - all of it was so deeply moving to me in a way I never quite caught before. If you’re considering picking this one up for a reread (or a first time read!) you will not be disappointed. It is new with every reading. It’s a book that grows and changes right along with you and right along with the March sisters.
4. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
In this book, the Kingsolver family tells of their experiment in eating only locally grown/sourced foods for an entire year and the effects it had on them as a family. This book is a treat. The writing is amazing - part investigative journalism, part memoir, all beautiful. I’ve thought about this book nearly every day since I read it. It has impacted how I think about and shop for food, and I can’t wait to have my own garden someday soon. This book is for you if you’re at all interested in agriculture or what it would be like to eat locally for an entire year.
3. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
If ever a book to listen to on audio, The Dutch House is the one. Tom Hanks narrates this story and it’s even more wonderful than you’re imagining. The Dutch House is very character-driven, and the characters are ones you will find yourself falling in love with. This book is for you if you’re looking for an understated read about a family, a house, and the ways in which we all at times feel misunderstood.
2. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
I went back and forth about the top 1 and 2 slots on this list. Jayber Crow is simply incredible. Ann Bogel described this book as “the opposite of The Great Gatsby,” and I think that is just the most wonderful description. This book is quiet and gentle and contemplative. It’s hard to put into words exactly what I most loved about it, but the entire book was one I could just sink into. I wanted to slow down my reading so it would never end. It was one of my favorite reading experiences of my life. This book would be perfect for wintertime reading, so grab a nice cup of hot tea and settle in for this treat.
1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
In contrast to Jayber Crow’s slow pace and following of a single character, Homegoing is written as eight generations of vignettes starting with two half sisters who were born in different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. One finds herself in comfort in the rooms of a Cape Coast castle, and the other is imprisoned in that same castle and sold into slavery. This novel is heart-wrenching and suspenseful and gorgeously written. It’s for you if you enjoy generational stories that tell of the human experience in a unique and beautiful way. To be honest though, this is the book I want to push into the hands of every person I know, so I could just stop at: “It’s for you.”
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