By Daniel Ford
I don’t know how I got any reading done in 2020. It was a year of turmoil. A year of mourning. A year of distractions. Yet, as always seems to the case, words written by literary favorites old and new were a balm, an escape, and an education all at once. To paraphrase my Noir at the Bar – New England co-host Edwin Hill, every writer who had books pub in 2020 gets an A+.
Since this year has been so tumultuous, I decided to change the format of this post a bit. Typically, I only include books (both fiction and nonfiction) that I’ve read completely and rank them. Well, clearly, no author should have to worry about where they’re creations ranked in 2020. No one was better than anyone else this year. I just put these titles in alphabetical order by author and I’ll let you readers choose and debate your favorites in the comments and on social media. (There’s a good chance this approach will stick around in the future.)
Also, I normally would only include books I read completely. However, if you knew how many books I had half- or a third-finished lying around my house, you’d wonder why I continue to order books from local indies at a frequent rate (just ask as my wife). My apologies to Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel, Tana French’s The Searcher, C Pam Zhang’s How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic, Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, and so many others. You’re on my #bookradar, I’ll get there eventually! For a listing of books I’ve completed in full, visit my Goodreads page.
I can’t thank our listeners, readers, and literary guests enough for all of your recommendations and encouragement this year. We got through 2020 word by word and I look forward to the work that’s going to illuminate our path forward in 2021.
Keep reading and writing, everyone!
I don’t know how Elliot Ackerman does it or what it is exactly, but he’s certainly done it again with Red Dress in Black & White.
The novel’s claustrophobic atmosphere feels even more immediate now, and the characters resemble our neighbors, our family, our friends.
Female friendships, ambitious entrepreneurs, and murder. Top notch sophomore novel.
I'm a big fan of family shenanigans, witty banter, and characters full of warmth and surprises.
A novel I don’t think I’ve stopped talking about with people all year.
One of the things we really value about Calhoun’s work is how she’s able to take all of her interviews, a ton of data, and her own personal narrative and weave it into prose that’s hard to put down. It very much feels like a conversation and not a history or civics lesson. She never fails to make us think differently and more think more empathetically.
S.A. Cosby crafted some Grade A, Elmore Leonard-esque characters in this book and there’s a reason it’s been on fire with readers in 2020.
Minnie Darke breaks your heart and then pieces it back together one stanza at a time.
In addition to being a suspenseful story, The Blaze touches on so many timely and timeless themes.
Tomboyland is an insightful blend of personal narrative, investigative journalism, and boundless curiosity. We can’t wait to have a bourbon with the author post-pandemic.
A beautiful book from the first page to the last.
Leah Franqui made us readers for life with her debut America for Beginners. She hooked us all over again with her new novel Mother Land.
I can’t do the whole of Sea Wife justice, but Gaige has created a novel so human and raw and electrifying.—Caitlin Malcuit
Empire City is ambitious, relentlessly questioning, and endlessly thought-provoking.
Alex George’s new book The Paris Hours (which likely has the best cover of the year) really helped our Parisian withdrawals.
Stop binging “The Office” long enough to binge-read Andy Greene’s excellent oral history about the show.
The word masterpiece gets thrown around when discussing Garth Greenwell’s debut What Belongs to You and the same thing happened for Cleanness. There’s a good reason for that: Both books are masterpieces.
Hatemonger is essential reading for anyone interested in the human cost of radical right ideas and rhetoric that have been legitimized even more by the 45th President of the United States.
Heartbreaking on so many levels. Yaa Gyasi’s voice is such a gift.
You'll often feel like you're sleepwalking reading Simon Han's Night When Nothing Happened. A wonderful debut.
Rachel Harrison’s The Return didn’t make the list just because she’s been a frequent guest host this year. She wrote a spine-tingling debut that we couldn’t put down (even if we were holding our breath the whole time).
2020 can't be all bad, we're getting another Hester Thursby novel! Edwin Hill keeps raising the bar.
Try reading the prologue to Ava Homa’s Daughters of Smoke and Fire and not get swept away and keep yourself awake by any means necessary so you can finish it in one sitting. I dare you.
So so so funny. Insanely well written. You can’t ask for much more in an essay collection. A blessing this year.
Morgan Jerkins illuminates the journey taken by approximately six million African Americans took between 1916 and 1970 through her investigation into her own family’s past. I’m also inclined to like anything written by someone who says this about their writing process: "I got my ass whooped."
One of the strengths of Meng Jin’s structure is that the reader is able to learn about characters like Su Lan and her daughter Liya in a different way and often the insights that are revealed are even more heartbreaking and illuminating than it might have been otherwise.
When your fiercely independent goddaughter lets you read something to her, that book immediately goes on your favorites list.
I don’t know if reading Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians back-to-back with Paul Tremblay’s Survivor Song was the best thing for my sleep pattern, but with horror this good, who the hell cares about sleep!
It’s incredible how David Joy hypnotizes you with his poetry and then brains you with his violence and emotional destruction. There are few writers today that match his power on the page.
The Memory Eaters, which won the first-ever Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction, is such a powerful read and I had to remind myself at times this was a memoir and not a work of fiction.
Phil Klay set bar the high with his 2014 National Book Award-winner Redeployment and he somehow managed to set that bar even higher with Missionaries
Deeply thoughtful, expressively crafted, and, at times, darkly comical, I Know You Know Who I Am is one of those books you’ll return to time and time again to ignite a fire under your own writing.
I don’t know what brought me more joy: Byron Lane’s debut novel A Star Is Bored (inspired in part by his time as Carrie Fisher’s assistant) or his engagement to Writer’s Bone favorite Steven Rowley.
Vanessa Lillie, a wonderful advocate for authors of all genres, stamps herself as an essential voice in the mystery/thriller genre with her sophomore effort.
One of the things I’ve had to grapple this year with is my love of baseball and how these games really fit into my life. I found myself gravitating more to the NBA and their social activism and thinking deeply about what it means to be a fan. Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back is likely to keep that conversation in my head going (and prevent me from shouting at the television when the Yankees are losing).
The Mountains Sing is a truly beautiful novel, and it was a true honor reading Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s words and spending time with her characters.
Other People’s Pets is the kind of fiction I not only love reading, but it’s also the storytelling I strive for as an author. The characters hit me right where I live. All of them. Animals included.
This was one of the most recommended books by authors we had on the show this year. It did not disappoint.
Love the premise, love the opening paragraph, love the author, love the cover.
While reading Claire McNear's excellent Answers in the Form of Questions, one of my takeaways was that Ken Jennings' fugue state listening to Trebek’s voice to decide when to buzz in is where I’d like to go when I die.
I was excited to dig into Liz Moore’s Long Bright River, a thriller featuring two sisters divided by the opioid crisis, because her previous novel The Unseen World is one of my favorites from the past decade. In this book, one sister, the addict, goes missing around the same time as several murders occur. The other sister, a beat cop, goes on the hunt. Why, yes, I did brew a pot of coffee and stayed up all night reading it.
Stephanie Ford had to ask me repeatedly what was going on in Matthew Norman’s new book Last Couple Standing because of my histrionic babbling while I was reading it. Also, I now have an unquenchable craving for Golden Oreos. And more Matthew Norman fiction.
Packed with heart and humor, the book was the perfect quarantine/summer reading companion.
Contrary to popular belief, Millenials are not the worst period generation period ever period. We work hard, too hard, don’t have outlandish desires for ourselves and our families, and most of us aren’t entitled, avocado-toast eating, themed-brunch-going, unicorn-latte swilling a-holes. Forgive us for railing against the broken promise of the American Dream we were sold as kids and the absolutely rigged economic system we grease the wheels of 24/7. Rather than trigger more anxiety, Petersen’s exploration of millennial life gave me hope that “it doesn’t have to be this way.”
I loved all of the characters we meet in The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. It was impressive how Deesha Philyaw made me feel so much for them in a matter of a couple of pages. Thanks to our pal Wesley Browne for putting this National Book Award finalist on our radar.
A crime thriller based in a New England town on its last gasp? Sign us up for that any day of the week.
Amy Poeppel’s latest novel Musical Chairs is filled characters we fell in love with, humor, warmth, everything we could ask for in a book, really.
I loved Kim Powers’ new book Rules for Being Dead; everything from the cover, to the time it’s set in, to the characters he populated the book with. I especially loved the relationship between the two brothers. That hit me right where I live. A fine mystery and a powerful depiction of a fractured family.
Heed my advice: Keep the lights on and your bourbon glass full.
Emma Straub is right up there with Richard Russo for me now. All Adults Here features great characters, wonderful prose, and sensational dialogue. Winner all around.
We’re bound to love any character that’s described as “alluring-yet-hard-drinking.” Halley Sutton's The Lady Upstairs is one of those books that makes you gleefully ignore everything else going in your life.
Souvankham Thammavongsa uses the short story form and her spare, moving prose to their fullest, delivering great characters, empathetic human depth, and timely themes sure to resonant around your reading nook
You sense something uneasy (and perhaps sinister) simmering beneath the surface early on in Elisabeth Thomas’ debut. Much like Rachel Harrison’s The Return, Catherine House invites you in, locks the door, and eventually turns off all the lights.
Maybe you don’t want the added pandemic anxiety, but you’ll be missing out on spending time with Dr. Ramola "Rams" Sherman and Natalie. The prelude/interlude/epilogue sections may be the best writing of Tremblay’s career (and that’s saying something).
Not a wrong note in any of these stories. Laura van den Berg has become one of our favorite authors. And she’s a local!
We like any book that features a blurb calling it “fast, furious, compelling, and angry as hell.” A fun read that set the tone for our fall reading.
M.O. Walsh’s characters will sing to you long after you’ve put the novel down.
There’s such a depth of intelligence in Walter’s writing, but he’s not afraid to mine emotional depths in service to the story. I can’t resist a story that revolves around two brothers. Set them in the early 1900s and I won’t be able to put it down, and that was exactly the case with The Cold Millions.
What treasures Bryan Washington’s words are. His short story collection Lot is one of the best I’ve ever read and his follow up novel Memorial is just as good if not better. Superb storytelling that sets the bar higher for the rest of us mere mortals.
Catherine Adel West writes with such assurance and compassion that you’ll swear she’s well into her career. From the opening lines to the final pages, Saving Ruby King captures your full attention. You’ll be hard pressed to put this book down, even when West is wringing your heart out.
My top non-fiction read of the year. Serena Zabin is at the top of my podcast interview wishlist for 2021.
R.L. Maizes recommended this one the last time she was on the podcast and, of course, it’s terrific. It's a real slice of life novel. No one will judge you if you pick up your dog (or any pet) and walk around with him or her while you read this book.
