the best of books 2020

• Craft and Criticism
• Fiction and Poetry
• News and Culture
• Lit Hub Radio
• Reading Lists

• Literary Criticism
• Craft and Advice
• In Conversation
• On Translation
• Short Story
• From the Novel
• Bookstores and Libraries
• Film and TV
• Art and Photography
• Freeman’s
• The Virtual Book Channel
• Behind the Mic
• Beyond the Page
• The Cosmic Library
• The Critic and Her Publics
• Emergence Magazine
• Fiction/Non/Fiction
• First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
• Future Fables
• The History of Literature
• I’m a Writer But
• Just the Right Book
• Lit Century
• The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
• New Books Network
• Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
• Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
• Write-minded
• The Best of the Decade
• Best Reviewed Books
• BookMarks Daily Giveaway
• The Daily Thrill
• CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List

Reading all the lists so you don't have to since 2017.

This year has been “unprecedented” and “unusual” and “an outlier” and “anomalous” and “freakish” and “extraordinary” in many ways. The Covid-19 pandemic has upended our way of life, our topics of conversation, and our entire world. However, some things will always be the same. What I mean to say is: Nothing can stop listicle season.

Yet again, I have scoured he internet to find out which books were recommended most on the “best of the year” lists, consulting 2020 roundups published by everyone from Literary Hub (that would be us) to Apartment Therapy. I read a total 41 lists, which recommended a whopping 952 different books. But a few were mentioned repeatedly, and you will find those ranked below, by order of frequency of inclusion. Does this mean these books are The Best? Only as much as any popularity contest ever does, I suppose. But if you’re looking to add some books to your holiday reading list, you could do a lot worse.

Here are the results:

Brit Bennett,  The Vanishing Half  

Rumaan Alam,  Leave the World Behind

Yaa Gyasi,  Transcendent Kingdom

Raven Leilani,  Luster James McBride,  Deacon King Kong

Maggie O’Farrell,  Hamnet Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

Bryan Washington,  Memorial

Ayad Akhtar, Homeland Elegies Megha Majumdar, A Burning Hilary Mantel, The Mirror & The Light Jenny Offill, Weather

Danielle Evans, The Office of Historical Corrections Garth Greenwell, Cleanness Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir Robert Kolker, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family

Elena Ferrante, The Lying Life of Adults N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became Lydia Millet, A Children’s Bible Barack Obama, A Promised Land Claudia Rankine, Just Us: An American Conversation Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley: A Memoir C Pam Zhang, How Much of These Hills is Gold

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi Samantha Irby, Wow, No Thank You: Essays Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel Kiley Reid, Such a Fun Age

Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings Lily King, Writers & Lovers Brandon Taylor, Real Life Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown

Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism Helen Macdonald, Vesper Flights Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Mexican Gothic Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead are Arising V. E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Karla Corejo Villavinencio, The Undocumented Americans Jess Walter, The Cold Millions

S.A. Cosby, Blacktop Wasteland Emily Danforth, Plain Bad Heroines Anne Enright, Actress Erik Larson, The Splendid and the Vile Marilynne Robinson, Jack Kawai Strong Washburn, Sharks in the Time of Saviors Kevin Young, ed., African-American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song

Alyssa Cole, When No One is Watching Diane Cook, The New Wilderness Lacy Crawford, Notes on a Silencing Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians Peace Adzo Medie, His Only Wife David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue Wayétu Moore, The Dragons, The Giant, The Women: A Memoir Aimee Nezhukumatathil, illustrated by Fumi Nakamura, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Sigrid Nunez, What Are You Going Through Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham Danez Smith, Homie: Poems Zadie Smith, Intimations: Six Essays Adrian Tomine, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist

Full list of lists surveyed:

TIME’ s 100 Must Read Books of 2020 ;  Vanity Fair ‘ s 15 Best Books of 2020 ; The New York Times Book Review’ s 100 Notable Books of 2020 ; Vulture’s 10 Best Books of 2020 ; Literary Hub’s 65 Favorite Books of the Year ;  Esquire’ s Best Books to Elevate Your Reading List in 2020 ;  Los Angeles Time’ s 10 Best Books of 2020 ; Slate’s Best Books of 2020 (Laura Miller); Slate’s Best Books of 2020 (Dan Kois); Refinery29’s The Best Books of 2020, So Far ; The Washington Post’ s 50 notable works of nonfiction in 2020 ; The Washington Post’ s 50 notable works of fiction in 2020 ; The New York Times’ Critics’ Top Books of 2020 ; The Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2020 ; Book Riot’s Best Books of 2020 ; BuzzFeed’s Best Books We Read in 2020 ; Publishers Weekly’ s Best Books of 2020 ; Library Journal’ s Best Books 2020 ;  O, The Oprah Magazine ‘ s 20 Best Books of 2020 ; Chicago Tribune’ s 10 Best Books of 2020 ;  EW’ s 10 Best Books of 2020 ;  Teen Vogue’ s Best Books of 2020 You Should Be Reading Right Now ; Apartment Therapy’s Must-Read Books of 2020 ; Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2020 ; Barnes & Noble’s 10 Best Books of 2020 ;  Real Simple’ s Best Books of 2020 (So Far) ; Kirkus Reviews’s Best of 2020 ( Fiction and Nonfiction ); Marie Claire’ s The 2020 Books You Should Add to Your Reading List ; Town and Country’ s Best Books of 2020 ; Parade’ s 40 Best Books of 2020 ; The New York Public Library’s Best Books of the Year ;  The Wall Street Journal’ s 10 Best Books of 2020 ;  USA TODAY’ s Best Books of 2020 ;  People’ s Top 10 Books of 2020 ;  The Guardian’ s Best Books of 2020 ; The Undefeated’s 25 Can’t-Miss Books of 2020 ; Men’s Health’ s 14 Best New Books of 2020 ; BBC’s Best Books of the year 2020 ; and The Telegraph’s 50 Best Books of 2020 ; and The Independent’ s 20 Best Books of 2020 .

• Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Emily Temple

Previous article, next article, support lit hub..

Join our community of readers.

to the Lithub Daily

Popular posts.

Follow us on Twitter

How to Give Octavia Butler the Covers She Deserves

• RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

Become a member for as low as $5/month

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Best Books We Read in 2020

By The New Yorker

“ Cleanness ,” by Garth Greenwell

The casual grandeur of Garth Greenwell’s prose, unfurling in page-long paragraphs and elegantly garrulous sentences, tempts the vulnerable reader into danger zones: traumatic memories, extreme sexual scenarios, states of paralyzing heartbreak and loss. In the case of “Cleanness,” Greenwell’s third work of fiction, I initially curled up with the book, savoring the sensuous richness of the writing, and then I found myself sweating a little, uncomfortably invested in the rawness of the scene. The cause was a story titled “Gospodar,” in which the narrator, an American teacher living in Bulgaria, hooks up with a man who begins by play-acting violence and then veers toward the real thing. The transition from fantasy to horror is accomplished with the deftness of a literary magician, and Greenwell repeats the feat even more unnervingly in a later story, “The Little Saint,” in which his likable narrator takes the role of the aggressor rather than the victim. These stories are masterpieces of radical eroticism, but they wouldn’t have the same impact if they didn’t appear in a gorgeously varied narrative fabric, amid scenes of more wholesome love, finely sketched vistas of political unrest, haunting evocations of a damaged childhood, and moments of mundane rapture. Tenderness, violence, animosity, and compassion are the outer edges of what feels like a total map of the human condition. —Alex Ross

“ Stranger Faces ,” by Namwali Serpell

In an age of totalizing theories, it’s nice to watch someone expertly pull a single idea through a needle’s eye. “Stranger Faces,” by Namwali Serpell, is one such exercise. The book’s catalytic inquiry—“what counts as a face and why?”—means to undermine the face, the way its expressive capabilities give it the cast of truth. We seek meaning in a shallow arrangement of eyes, nose, cheeks, and mouth, despite how often faces lie, or how often they cloak the world-ordering phenomena of race, gender, and class. Rather than depress or shame readers with these facts, Serpell delights in them. Unencumbered by truth, the face becomes interesting, motile—a work of art. (“Unruly faces” are especially intriguing, according to Serpell, because they invite viewers to sever ties with the placidity of an ideal.) Serpell, a Harvard professor and critic capable of close-reading people just as well as novels or films, includes a dancing range of examples. Her first essay considers the moniker given to Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, whose features aren’t, in fact, so elephantine; another essay, on Werner Herzog’s “Grizzly Man,” becomes a study of Keanu Reeves’s himbo appeal. Serpell can reanimate any subject, be it Hitchcock or emojis, and her bright, brainy collection is a model for how to surface the fun in a critical question. —Lauren Michele Jackson

“ Want ,” by Lynn Steger Strong

New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.

New York novels are as various as the city they describe. But “Want,” a subtly glorious new entry in the genre by Lynn Steger Strong, is set in a town whose qualities—unaffordable, unrelenting, unquittable—many readers will recognize. The book’s narrator is a writer who lives with her husband and two young daughters in a cramped Brooklyn apartment; to keep them in it, she teaches at a charter school by day and in an M.F.A. writing program by evening, though her half-hearted hustling doesn’t stop the family from capsizing into bankruptcy. (The husband quit a job in finance to become an artisanal carpenter, a phrase that would fit nicely on a Green-Wood Cemetery tombstone.) The virtue of this life is its being defiantly chosen. To counteract the claustrophobic privacy of subway commutes, and the slights of rubbing up against the city’s rich and oblivious, we get sticky memories of Florida, where the narrator grew up in a repressive, bourgeois household. There, her closest friend was Sasha, a beautiful, daring girl a year older, whose fate has been uncomfortably linked with hers ever since. Strong uses the friendship as a tether, returning to it to mark time’s passing; her technique is so sophisticated that the murk of the present and the sharply remembered past hold seamlessly together. Her biggest triumph is the transmission of consciousness. I loved the tense pleasure of staying pressed close to her narrator’s mind, with its beguiling lucidity of thought and rawness of feeling. There is much anxiety and ache to be found here—but also, when it is most needed, radiance, humor, love, and joy. —Alexandra Schwartz

“ On Anger ,” edited by Agnes Callard

Unless you’re dealing with a hard-line Stoic, most philosophers tend to consider anger a morally justifiable response to being wronged—though too much anger, for too long , they might say, could start to hurt you or your community. In the explosive essay that kicks off this anthology, the philosopher Agnes Callard writes that such caveats defang the very point of anger. If anger is a valid response to being wronged, she argues, and if none of the ways we hold people accountable for wronging us—apologies, restitution, etc.—actually erase the original act, doesn’t it follow that “once you have a reason to be angry, you have a reason to be angry forever”? Cue the clamor of a dozen-plus philosophers debating the cause, function, and value of our most jagged emotion. There’s Myisha Cherry, whose work is always so marvelously elegant, on the irrelevance of virtue to the anger that fuels the anti-racist struggle—an anger she describes as “Lordean rage,” after the poet and writer Audre Lorde. Elsewhere, we get Judith Butler on anger as a medium: “[W]e view rage as an uncontrollable impulse that needs to come out in unmediated forms. But people craft rage, they cultivate rage, and not just as individuals. Communities craft their rage. Artists craft rage all the time.” I’m resistant to the idea that moral philosophy is just self-help dressed in tweed, but as this year lurched from one outrage to the next, and as I found myself becoming hoarse (metaphorically, but often literally) from what felt like shouting into a void, this collection became something of a workbook: a tool for parsing the more unwieldy parts of myself, and my loved ones, and the world. —Helen Rosner

“ Mexican Gothic ,” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In the fall, I cracked open Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Mexican Gothic” in the bath and found myself reading until the water turned cold. “Mexican Gothic” is Moreno-Garcia’s sixth novel but the first to break through as a major hit. (It has already been optioned for television.) This is a function both of its timing and of its addictive prose, which is as easy to slurp down as a poisoned cordial. The book follows a glamorous young socialite with champagne taste named Noemí Taboada, who lives in Mexico City, in the nineteen-fifties, when women were not yet able to vote. Noemí intends to study at university, but her father has other plans: he wants her to check up on a distant cousin, Catalina, who’s living in a crumbling manse with a British man, in a small village, called El Triunfo, where the family operates a silver mine. Catalina has written a distressing note claiming that the house is suffocating her; the family assumes that she’s hysterical, but Noemí is meant to investigate the situation. What she finds is more shocking than she ever expected—the house is an entropic catastrophe, where something sinister (that I won’t spoil here) is literally growing under the baseboards. What makes “Mexican Gothic” so fresh is not only its cramped, crawly ambience—comparisons to “ Jane Eyre ” are not too generous—but also the fact that it’s steeped in a deep colonial history that haunts the narrative. Is the house in El Triunfo really sick? Or is it just tainted by colonizers who want to strip the land down to its bones? Moreno-Garcia deftly raises these questions and then brings them all together in a gory, monstrous, and utterly satisfying twist. —Rachel Syme

“ Blindness ,” by José Saramago

José Saramago’s “Blindness” came by mail, last winter, one month after COVID came to the U.S. It arrived in a box, with a half-dozen other books, including Camus’s “ The Plague ” and Defoe’s “ Journal of a Plague Year ,” about the literature of infection, for an assignment . I read the Saramago in a cabin in the woods, a sugarhouse, while tending a fire, boiling sap. I’d get lost in the story of a plague of blindness and then put the book down to throw another log in the fire. The pages of the paperback got hot in my hands. I started to sweat, reading about the blindness that fell upon everyone, so that they could see only white, and then I’d stare into the flames and at the sap, bubbling, and the steam, rising, a cloud of white. I took one last trip after that, to Rutgers, the first week of March. I remember being worried about the virus on the train, wearing winter gloves and a scarf, thinking I should have cancelled. I gave a lecture and went out to dinner with a dozen people, professors of English and history. We sat at a long table by a fire, a last supper, and I happened to ask if anyone had ever read “Blindness,” and, weirdly, everyone had. So we went around the table, sacramentally, talking about our favorite lines, characters, moments: the doctor’s wife, the story of the dog, how the infected escape, blindly, from the lunatic asylum where they’ve been quarantined, and the part where they find soap and, finally, wash themselves, naked, on a balcony, with buckets of rainwater. And then, it was all over. —Jill Lepore

“ Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings ,” by Neil Price

Reading the archeologist Neil Price’s beguiling book feels a little like time travel—and who, in 2020, didn’t feel tempted to drop into another epoch? Price achieves this feat with an accumulation of sensory detail, along with a grounded but game approach to conjuring the inner worlds of people whose cosmology, for starters, is utterly different from our own. (As he writes, we’ll never really know what it might have felt like “if you truly believed—in fact, knew —that the man living up the valley could turn into a wolf under certain circumstances.”) Not the least of Price’s achievement is to rescue Viking history from the grasp of white supremacists who claim a specious lineage with it. He does so not by asserting any sort of moral superiority for the Vikings—theirs was a brutal society that practiced human sacrifice and slavery, as Price makes abundantly clear—but by restoring their rich and strange particularity. As seafarers who travelled and traded widely, Vikings were, almost by definition, multiethnic. “There was never any such thing as a ‘pure Nordic’ bloodline, and the people of the time would have been baffled by the very notion,” Price writes. The book is full of such insights, but what has stuck with me are Price’s descriptions of a world enamored with beauty. Surfaces, including those of the body, were intricately decorated, tendrilled over with runic inscriptions and tiny pictures. (Vikings do not seem to have been the unkempt beasts of pop culture legend—the archeological record is heavy on, of all things, combs.) I’ll long remember Price’s evocation of the wafer-thin squares of gold, stamped with images of otherworldly beings, that adorned the great halls where visitors drank and fought and recited poetry. Firelight would have animated those static images. Price has done something similar here. —Margaret Talbot

“ Rodham ,” by Curtis Sittenfeld

I have always been amazed by the novelist Curtis Sittenfeld’s talent for selecting people who we think we already know and convincing us that they are far more complicated and interesting than we ever dreamed. Before I read “ American Wife ,” I had a basic smug liberal contempt for Laura Bush, who I perceived as her husband’s mute appendage. But in Sittenfeld’s telling, the former first lady—or someone quite like her—was a shy but sharp bibliophile with seething guilt and compelling self-doubt. Now I kind of love her. Similarly, a Republican friend told me that reading Sittenfeld’s latest, “Rodham,” caused her to question everything she’d believed about Hillary Rodham Clinton. We were both riveted by Sittenfeld’s brave, passionate, and diligent heroine navigating lust, ambition, Arkansas, the Ivy League, and, of course, Washington. Sittenfeld’s writing is so fine, her characters so vivid, her empathy so profound that she manages to absorb the reader on a level that transcends partisanship. In 2020, that was a remarkable achievement and an enormous gift to her readers. —Ariel Levy

“ The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn ,” by Richard Hamming

Richard W. Hamming was a mathematician by training, but he cut his teeth as a researcher working at Los Alamos, programming the I.B.M. computers that physicists used to solve equations as they worked on the atomic bomb. After the war, he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he remained for thirty years. This was when big corporations such as I.B.M. and Bell led the charge of technological innovation, and Hamming’s fingerprints were all over the period’s advances. He invented so-called Hamming codes, now basic to digital processing, and co-created an early programming language, L2. After retiring, he taught at the Naval Postgraduate School, in California, giving courses in not just how to do things but how to think like a scientist and conduct a fruitful creative career. (He called it “style.”) In the mid-nineties, a few years before his death, Hamming turned his lecture notes into a book, “The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn,” which has been republished by Stripe Press—a young publishing house, created by the eponymous payment-software company, that brings out interesting left-brained books in beautiful, right-brain-friendly editions. Parts of “The Art” get technical enough to include equations, but Hamming is interested mostly in the big picture, and his subjects range from the limits of mathematics (and of language) to the slipperiness of data (“You cannot gather a really large amount of data accurately. It is a known fact which is constantly ignored”). “The Art” would be a great gift for a young scientist-to-be, yet I also loved it as someone on the fuzzy side of things, who always enjoyed science but lost daily touch with it when I left school. His chapter on “creativity,” which draws not just from his field but from history and art, is both stirring and humane. “My duty as a professor is to increase the probability that you will be a significant contributor to our society,” he writes. He was one of the last geniuses who believed in innovation as a shared public project, and, when he imagined the future for which he was preparing students, he looked to the year 2020. He’d be pleased to find his lessons are still urgent here today. —Nathan Heller

“ Balzac’s Lives ,” by Peter Brooks

Honoré de Balzac’s “ La Comédie Humaine ,” grand in both ambition and scope, comprises approximately ninety titles, over whose course the occasionally intersecting stories of nearly two thousand five hundred characters form a portrait of France in the first half of the nineteenth century. In “Balzac’s Lives,” Peter Brooks—a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Yale—turns to nine of these characters to explore the author’s writerly obsessions with money and power, love and desire. To treat fictional characters as so-called real people, with their own lives and behavioral patterns, Brooks notes, has been considered a naïve, even gauche critical approach—at least since the time of the Russian Formalists, who encouraged us to analyze characters for their function as literary devices, rather than for their adherence to the rules that might govern flesh-and-blood individuals. But for Brooks, Balzac’s energetic, almost fevered attitude toward his characters—evident in their emergence and reëmergence over the course of many books, and in their dizzyingly varied social backgrounds, from courtesan to banker, baron to pauper—demands a closer critical look. As I read the book, I enjoyed Brooks’s sharp insights, which suggest the ways in which Balzac’s proto-modern world is not so different from our own. But I also felt a more basic, visceral pleasure. Though I consider myself a Balzac fan, I’ve read only a fraction of the author’s works, and so to be able to discover—or, in some cases, recall—what fates befall certain characters reminded me of the not unprimitive joy of tearing into a juicy morsel of gossip. In this case, it’s the kind that sends you on a mission to find out more—which means picking up a Balzac novel. —Naomi Fry

“ The Year of the French ,” by Thomas Flanagan

I’m not a recreational reader. I need a reason—usually, it’s something I’m writing—to read a book. But the semi-lockdown last spring seemed to me, as it did to many people, a reason to read a book for no reason, other than pleasure or distraction. So I pulled one off the shelf: “The Year of the French,” by Thomas Flanagan. The novel, published in 1979, is about the invasion of Ireland by the French in 1798. France was revolutionary France, and Ireland was effectively a colony of Britain. The French were hoping to combine forces with an Irish insurrection and liberate the island in the name of liberté, fraternité, and égalité. It didn’t quite work out. I was lucky that I knew nothing about this invasion, not even that it had happened, because Flanagan’s method is to plunge the reader into a strange, wild, poetic, cruel, and finally hopeless world of Irish peasants, absentee British landlords, revolutionary terrorists, and men and women trying to hold on to what they have in a universe threatening to turn upside down. You have to make your own way through this landscape, so the stranger everything is for you, the more adventurous the experience. The story Flanagan tells makes our own dark times seem eminently manageable. I wanted to be taken somewhere else by a book, and I was. And there: I’ve written about it, too! —Louis Menand

“ So Long, See You Tomorrow ,” by William Maxwell

During these long months of hiding out at home—of being thrown back upon recollections of the past, in place of new experience—I’ve been thinking about how to make literary use of memory. How might one capture the way that images or encounters lodge in the imagination and become, over time, layered with meaning? The title of William Maxwell’s short, stunning novel, “So Long, See You Tomorrow,” is a phrase that is said lightly but that comes to be freighted with tragedy; the book itself, which was published in 1980 after being serialized in The New Yorker , is a virtuosic blend of memoir and fiction. Maxwell, who was a fiction editor at this magazine for some four decades, and who died in 2000 at the age of ninety-one, drew in this book, as in a number of others, upon recollections of his hometown of Lincoln, Illinois. In part, it is a true-crime narrative: a jealous husband murders his wife’s lover, who is also his best friend. But the book is also about how that crime stays alive in the narrator’s memory, and how it becomes a means for him to explore his own experience of loss and of guilt. This is a book filled with passages that I wanted to transcribe in a hedge against the failings of my own memory, among them this pronouncement, about midway through: “If any part of the following mixture of truth and fiction strikes the reader as unconvincing, he has my permission to disregard it. I would be content to stick to the facts if there were any.” As well as encountering Maxwell on the page, I recommend listening to the audiobook, which was recorded in 1995. It’s beautifully read by the author, whose voice a listener can hear cracking with emotion upon reaching the novel’s final, breathtaking sentence. —Rebecca Mead

“ Corregidora ,” by Gayl Jones

When Toni Morrison first read the manuscript for what would become Gayl Jones’s début novel, “Corregidora,” she immediately heralded it as a turning point for fiction. “No novel about any black woman could ever be the same after this,” Morrison, then an editor at Random House, wrote. “Corregidora” was published in 1975. Set primarily in the late nineteen-forties, the novel follows Ursa Corregidora, a twenty-five-year-old Black blues singer from Bracktown, Kentucky. Ursa navigates tumultuous, occasionally violent relationships and works to carve out a place for herself as an artist. Following an unwanted hysterectomy, she also confronts her ancestors’ entreaty to “make generations,” which is key to continuing an oral tradition that can preserve, undiluted, the realities of slavery. (Her family carries the name of the Portuguese slave owner who fathered both Ursa’s mother and grandmother.) Storytelling, in this mode, becomes an intergenerational act—a way of maintaining evidence of violence, incest, and erasure. Jones’s writing resists self-conscious ornamentation in favor of casual, knowing vernacular, and her structure is unconventional but tightly controlled. Dialogue is often interrupted by memory or fantasy, and time turns in on itself. On a visit to Bracktown, Ursa’s mother offers an elliptical, bracing account of her own mother’s sexual abuse by Corregidora; later in the novel, which closes in the late nineteen-sixties, Ursa moves closer to reconciling with what has gone unsaid. And yet, despite this panorama, the novel’s actual spaces are intimate—relationships play out in bedrooms, kitchens, bars. Jones’s great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them. —Anna Wiener

“ Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World ,” by J. R. McNeill

J. R. McNeill’s “Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World” came out in 2000, but it’s just as relevant now as it was when it first appeared. It’s one of those rare books that’s both sweeping and specific, scholarly and readable. McNeill looks at how humans have, over the past hundred years, altered the atmosphere, the biosphere, and what he calls the “hydrosphere.” What makes the book stand out is its wealth of historical detail. The changes we have wrought, McNeill argues, have mostly been the unintentional side effects of economic growth. They’ve ushered in “a regime of perpetual ecological disturbance,” which will strain many species’ ability to adapt. How people will deal with this new “regime” will determine what the world looks like not just a century from now but for millennia. —Elizabeth Kolbert

“ The Known World ,” by Edward P. Jones

My reading life in 2020 was mostly distinguished by how hard it was for me to read. But my skittering stopped sometime this spring, when I opened “The Known World,” Edward P. Jones’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, from 2003. Reading it was like dropping anchor. My brain stabilized, and it felt like the only thing I could do, for a change, was focus in. This was the work of a genius. The clarity of Jones’s lines, the beauty of his descriptions, the mesmerizing character sketches: all of them were a function of the extreme specificity and intricacy of the world he had created. In a way, he’s a kind of cartographer. The book’s title is a reference to a map: “a browned and yellowed woodcut of some eight feet by six feet” that hangs behind the desk of a sheriff in antebellum Virginia. The seller of the woodcut—a Russian “with a white beard down to his stomach”—claimed it was the first time the word “America” had appeared on a map. The novel, which tells the story of a Black slave owner and his family, is also an account of territory—that marked out by the institution of slavery, which extends into the brains, bones, and souls of everyone it touches. After reading, I immediately picked up Jones’s other two books, both story collections, and raced through the more recent one, “ All Aunt Hagar’s Children .” I didn’t think it was possible for me to like a book as much as “The Known World,” but I began to think that I liked these stories even more. Now, the other collection, “ Lost in the City ,” is on my bedside table—a down payment on my next escape. —Jonathan Blitzer

2020 in Review

• The funniest cartoons , as chosen by our Instagram followers.
• Helen Rosner on the best cookbooks .
• Doreen St. Félix selects the year’s best TV shows .
• Richard Brody lists his top thirty-six movies .
• Ian Crouch recounts the best jokes of the year .
• Sheldon Pearce on the albums that helped him navigate a lost plague year.
• Sarah Larson picks the best podcasts .
• Amanda Petrusich counts down the best music .
• Michael Schulman on ten great performances .

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Amanda Petrusich

By Kyle Chayka

• NONFICTION BOOKS
• BEST NONFICTION 2023
• BEST NONFICTION 2024
• Historical Biographies
• The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies
• Philosophical Biographies
• World War 2
• World History
• American History
• British History
• Chinese History
• Russian History
• Ancient History (up to 500)
• Medieval History (500-1400)
• Military History
• Art History
• Travel Books
• Ancient Philosophy
• Contemporary Philosophy
• Ethics & Moral Philosophy
• Great Philosophers
• Social & Political Philosophy
• Classical Studies
• New Science Books
• Maths & Statistics
• Popular Science
• Physics Books
• Climate Change Books
• How to Write
• English Grammar & Usage
• Books for Learning Languages
• Linguistics
• Political Ideologies
• Foreign Policy & International Relations
• American Politics
• British Politics
• Religious History Books
• Mental Health
• Neuroscience
• Child Psychology
• Film & Cinema
• Opera & Classical Music
• Behavioural Economics
• Development Economics
• Economic History
• Financial Crisis
• World Economies
• How to Invest
• Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
• Data Science Books
• Sex & Sexuality
• Death & Dying
• Food & Cooking
• Sports, Games & Hobbies
• FICTION BOOKS
• BEST NOVELS 2024
• BEST FICTION 2023
• New Literary Fiction
• World Literature
• Literary Criticism
• Literary Figures
• Classic English Literature
• American Literature
• Comics & Graphic Novels
• Fairy Tales & Mythology
• Historical Fiction
• Crime Novels
• Science Fiction
• Short Stories
• South Africa
• United States
• Arctic & Antarctica
• Afghanistan
• Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
• Netherlands
• Kids Recommend Books for Kids
• High School Teachers Recommendations
• Prizewinning Kids' Books
• Popular Series Books for Kids
• BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS (ALL AGES)
• Ages Baby-2
• Books for Teens and Young Adults
• THE BEST SCIENCE BOOKS FOR KIDS
• BEST KIDS' BOOKS OF 2023
• BEST BOOKS FOR TEENS OF 2023
• Best Audiobooks for Kids
• Environment
• Best Books for Teens of 2023
• Best Kids' Books of 2023
• Political Novels
• New History Books
• New Historical Fiction
• New Biography
• New Memoirs
• New World Literature
• New Economics Books
• New Climate Books
• New Math Books
• New Philosophy Books
• New Psychology Books
• New Physics Books
• THE BEST AUDIOBOOKS
• Actors Read Great Books
• Books Narrated by Their Authors
• Best Audiobook Thrillers
• Best History Audiobooks
• Nobel Literature Prize
• Booker Prize (fiction)
• Baillie Gifford Prize (nonfiction)
• Financial Times (nonfiction)
• Wolfson Prize (history)
• Royal Society (science)
• Pushkin House Prize (Russia)
• Walter Scott Prize (historical fiction)
• Arthur C Clarke Prize (sci fi)
• The Hugos (sci fi & fantasy)
• Audie Awards (audiobooks)

The Best Books of 2020

Most recommended books.

Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King

“If you wanted to understand why anthropology matters you couldn’t get a better book. He’s both gifted and careful….The person who actually knows stuff but doesn’t bore you to death. And that’s not as easy to find as you would like.” Patrick Wright , Historian

The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad by Emily Thomas

“She’s taken a series of topics from the history of travel, from the 17th century onwards, and showed why this is a really interesting and important area for philosophers to consider…Emily combines a personal voice with highly informative, well-researched glimpses of particular philosophical travellers. And she’s pulled off a really good book that is directed at the general public. It’s accessible and it’s entertaining, but also opens up interesting philosophical ideas. It’s very original.” Nigel Warburton , Philosopher

How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy by Daniel Kaufman, Massimo Pigliucci & Skye C Cleary

“ How to Live a Good Life is a fantastic book. I dare anyone not to do something differently in their daily life at least once after reading it. There are 15 chapters, each devoted to a different philosophy, and written by a scholar who is a specialist in that field. It goes from Ancient Philosophies from the East (Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism) over to Ancient Philosophies from the West (Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Epicureanism) through to Religious Traditions (Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Progressive Islam, Ethical Culture), and, finally, Modern Philosophies (existentialism, pragmatism, effective altruism and secular humanism). It’s a wonderful summary of the collected wisdom of humanity in a highly readable book of less than 300 pages. You can dip in and out of it when the mood takes you. Also, it’s written by scholars, so while these are obviously summaries, none offer glib advice on how (insert philosophy) can change your life, though I expect some of them maybe can.” Sophie Roell , Journalist

Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers by Cheryl Misak

“This is a fantastic biography. Frank Ramsey was an extraordinary character, evidently brilliant from an early age. He made path-breaking advances in mathematics, philosophy and economics. In his spare time, he helped Keynes edit the Economic Journal, he translated Wittgenstein into English because nobody else could understand what Wittgenstein was saying. And he was a larger-than-life character who hung out with the Bloomsbury Group and had an extraordinary life, and who then died tragically young at the age of 26.” Diane Coyle , Economist

Blue Ticket: A Novel by Sophie Mackintosh

“Set in an alternate reality, possibly a dystopian near-future (as in The Water Cure , this is never made explicit), we meet our protagonist Calla as she is allocated a ‘blue ticket’ in the government-sanctioned lottery, which decides which girls should go on to become mothers. A blue ticket marks Calla for a child-free future – one in which she might prioritise independence and career. When we find her a decade or so later she has done just that: she is a scientist by day, hedonist by night. But when she becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming pregnant, and does so by underhand means, she becomes an outlaw and we see how quickly society turns on her.” Cal Flyn , Five Books Editor

Every year, we approach experts and ask them to recommend the best books published in their field that year, whether it's history or historical fiction , science or science fiction , philosophy or fantasy, self-help or romance . Below you’ll find all our interviews on the best books of 2020 as they are published on Five Books. (Our best books of 2019 ,  2018  and   2017 lists are also still available: those books are still well worth reading!).

Almost all the book recommendations are based on an individual expert's choices. Sometimes, as in the best novels of 2020, one of our editors may make a selection, based on the vast quantities of books we read every week. For very broad subjects like kids' books —where there are so many books and topics it's impossible for any individual to make a call on what the best books are—we will also interview the chair of distinguished prizes , as they have systematically gone through all the books published that year to choose the very best.

We now have a list of the best books of 2021 .

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 , recommended by Sophie Roell

Transcendence: how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time by gaia vince, slavery and bristol by gm best, war: how conflict shaped us by margaret macmillan, a world without work: technology, automation, and how we should respond by daniel susskind, twilight of democracy by anne applebaum.

As the world went into lockdown early in 2020, many of us without frontline jobs and lucky enough not to fall sick with Covid-19 found more time to read than usual. The sudden change to a slower gear also left more room to reflect on the state of the world and our place as humans in it. Sophie Roell , editor of Five Books, takes us through her personal choice of the best nonfiction books of 2020.  

As the world went into lockdown early in 2020, many of us without frontline jobs and lucky enough not to fall sick with Covid-19 found more time to read than usual. The sudden change to a slower gear also left more room to reflect on the state of the world and our place as humans in it. Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books, takes us through her personal choice of the best nonfiction books of 2020.  

The Best Fiction of 2020: The Booker Prize Shortlist , recommended by Margaret Busby

The new wilderness by diane cook, this mournable body: a novel by tsitsi dangarembga, the shadow king by maaza mengiste, burnt sugar by avni doshi, shuggie bain: a novel by douglas stuart, real life: a novel by brandon taylor.

Every year, the Booker Prize judges whittle a year's worth of fiction down to a shortlist of six books, each competing for the title of the best novel of the year. Margaret Busby , chair of this year's judging panel, discusses the six books that made the cut in 2020.

Every year, the Booker Prize judges whittle a year’s worth of fiction down to a shortlist of six books, each competing for the title of the best novel of the year. Margaret Busby, chair of this year’s judging panel, discusses the six books that made the cut in 2020.

The Best History Books of 2020 , recommended by Paul Lay

Poet of revolution: the making of john milton by nicholas mcdowell, fifth sun: a new history of the aztecs by camilla townsend, beethoven: a life in nine pieces by laura tunbridge, the jews and the reformation by kenneth austin, ovid: a very short introduction by llewelyn morgan.

From the great Latin poet Ovid to the poet of the 17th century English republic, John Milton. From the Jews in Reformation Europe to the world of the Aztecs across the centuries. From the life of Ludwig van Beethoven to the importance of language in all its varieties to studying history. Paul Lay , editor of History Today , recommends his favourite history books of 2020.  

From the great Latin poet Ovid to the poet of the 17th century English republic, John Milton. From the Jews in Reformation Europe to the world of the Aztecs across the centuries. From the life of Ludwig van Beethoven to the importance of language in all its varieties to studying history. Paul Lay, editor of History Today , recommends his favourite history books of 2020.  

The Best of Biography: the 2020 NBCC Shortlist , recommended by Elizabeth Taylor

The queen: the forgotten life behind an american myth by josh levin, l.e.l.: the lost life and scandalous death of letitia elizabeth landon, the celebrated "female byron" by lucasta miller, our man: richard holbrooke and the end of the american century by george packer, a woman of no importance: the untold story of the american spy who helped win world war ii by sonia purcell.

How do you find the perfect subject for a biography? “Pick a real bitch, or real bastard, and make sure they're dead,” a famous biographer once told Elizabeth Taylor . The author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee talks us through the books that made their 2020 shortlist.

How do you find the perfect subject for a biography? “Pick a real bitch, or real bastard, and make sure they're dead,” a famous biographer once told Elizabeth Taylor. The author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee talks us through the books that made their 2020 shortlist.

The Best Science Fiction of 2020 , recommended by Tom Hunter

The city in the middle of the night by charlie jane anders, the light brigade by kameron hurley, a memory called empire by arkady martine, the old drift: a novel by namwali serpell, cage of souls by adrian tchaikovsky, the last astronaut by david wellington.

Sci fi is booming, says Tom Hunter , the director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, as he discusses their 2020 shortlist: six novels that embrace classic sci fi narratives, while subverting or reimagining them for a contemporary audience.

Sci fi is booming, says Tom Hunter, the director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Science Fiction, as he discusses their 2020 shortlist: six novels that embrace classic sci fi narratives, while subverting or reimagining them for a contemporary audience.

Best Crime Fiction of 2020 , recommended by Sophie Roell

One by one by ruth ware, magpie lane by lucy atkins, a place of execution by val mcdermid, the searcher: a novel by roger clark (narrator) & tana french, guilt at the garage by simon brett.

If you're looking for escapism, crime novels can be a good way to go. Which is strange, given that nearly all of them revolve around murder. Sophie Roell , editor of Five Books and an avid consumer of the genre, picks her personal favourites published in 2020.

If you’re looking for escapism, crime novels can be a good way to go. Which is strange, given that nearly all of them revolve around murder. Sophie Roell, editor of Five Books and an avid consumer of the genre, picks her personal favourites published in 2020.

The Best Politics Books of 2020 , recommended by Yascha Mounk

The narrow corridor: states, societies, and the fate of liberty by daron acemoglu and james robinson, the great demographic illusion: majority, minority, and the expanding american mainstream by richard alba, self-portrait in black and white: family, fatherhood and rethinking race by thomas chatterton williams, a promised land by barack obama.

Despite the challenge of authoritarian populism and a new divisiveness in political debate in many countries around the world there are reasons for optimism, argues political scientist Yascha Mounk , author of The People vs. Democracy . He talks us through his selection of the best politics books of 2020.

Despite the challenge of authoritarian populism and a new divisiveness in political debate in many countries around the world there are reasons for optimism, argues political scientist Yascha Mounk, author of The People vs. Democracy . He talks us through his selection of the best politics books of 2020.

The Best History Books: the 2020 Wolfson Prize shortlist , recommended by Richard Evans

The five: the untold lives of the women killed by jack the ripper by hallie rubenhold, the boundless sea: a human history of the oceans by david abulafia, chaucer: a european life by marion turner, a history of the bible by john barton, a fistful of shells: west africa from the rise of the slave trade to the age of revolution by toby green, cricket country: an indian odyssey in the age of empire by prashant kidambi.

If you're looking for the best history books published this past year, the annual Wolfson History Prize is a great place to start. Each year, the judges pick out outstanding books that are both originally researched and readable. Historian and Wolfson judge Richard Evans talks us through the six history books that made the 2020 shortlist.

If you’re looking for the best history books published this past year, the annual Wolfson History Prize is a great place to start. Each year, the judges pick out outstanding books that are both originally researched and readable. Historian and Wolfson judge Richard Evans talks us through the six history books that made the 2020 shortlist.

The Best Economics Books of 2020 , recommended by Diane Coyle

Deaths of despair and the future of capitalism by angus deaton & anne case, if then: how the simulmatics corporation invented the future by jill lepore, boom and bust: a global history of financial bubbles by john d. turner & william quinn, rentier capitalism: who owns the economy, and who pays for it by brett christophers.

The global economy has been hit by another massive and unexpected shock this year in the form of the pandemic, which is already having knock-on effects on how people think about economics.  Here, Professor Diane Coyle of Cambridge University chooses the best economics books published in 2020.

The Best Cookbooks of 2020 , recommended by Becky Krystal

One tin bakes: sweet and simple traybakes, pies, bars and buns by edd kimber, the flavor equation: the science of great cooking explained in more than 100 essential recipes by nik sharma, vegetable kingdom: the abundant world of vegan recipes by bryant terry, in bibi's kitchen: the recipes and stories of grandmothers from the eight african countries that touch the indian ocean by hawa hassan & julia turshen, ottolenghi flavor: a cookbook by ixta belfrage & yotam ottolenghi.

If nothing else, 2020 has at least given many of us a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen. Here Becky Krystal , lead writer for the Washington Post's Voraciously, recommends cookbooks relevant for a year in which grocery shopping has been complicated and the world has become more interconnected than ever.

If nothing else, 2020 has at least given many of us a lot of time to experiment in the kitchen. Here Becky Krystal, lead writer for the Washington Post’s Voraciously, recommends cookbooks relevant for a year in which grocery shopping has been complicated and the world has become more interconnected than ever.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

© Five Books 2024

The 10 best books of 2020

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

The Year's Best Books

If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

This was supposed to be a banner year for big literary names — an apocalyptic DeLillo , a gossipy Amis , the grand finale of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy. And yet the brightest, most invigorating work came from outside the aristocracy. Authors from across the spectrum of notoriety and experience turned up with writing that cut particularly deep in this most horribilis of all the anni. Quiet debuts crept out and captured top prizes. Heavy hitters returned after almost a generation away from publishing. Legends in the making pushed themselves into uncharted territory. The lesson here? Trust your gut and not the dazzle of a fancy persona, and you’ll be amply rewarded. Or just read this list of the best books of 2020, in alphabetical order.

10 great books that got lost in the noise of 2020

In a noisy 2020, it was too easy to overlook these 10 literary gems, from Miranda Popkey’s “Topics of Conversation” to Mieko Kawakami’s “Breasts and Eggs.”

Dec. 10, 2020

Deacon King Kong By James McBride Riverhead: 384 pages, $28

Shouldn’t we just get it over with and declare McBride this decade’s Great American Novelist? Following up a radiant hit like “ The Good Lord Bird ” could have proved tricky for a writer with a more limited repertoire, but this one can apparently shift like the wind. “ Deacon King Kong ” bursts with energy in the story of Sportcoat, a church deacon and a drunk, who shoots a drug dealer and accidentally sets off a chain of desperation and absurdity. McBride has a way of inflating reality to comical sizes, the better for us to see every tiny mechanism that holds unjust systems in place.

Leave the World Behind By Rumaan Alam Ecco: 256 pages, $28

Remember that scene in “ Pulp Fiction ” when John Travolta’s character jams a syringe of adrenaline straight into Uma Thurman’s stopped heart? She shoots up and gasps: hhhhhhuuuu! That’s how it feels, approximately every 15 pages, as you pick your way through the artful wreckage Alam has sculpted in “ Leave the World Behind .” A family on a Hamptons vacation is surprised when their Airbnb’s owners show up, relaying news of a blackout across the East Coast. Then cell service disappears and a series of otherworldly events punctuate the story — massive herds of roaming deer, unexplained ailments, a piercing sound in the sky. This isn’t an apocalypse novel (2020 is too complicated for that); it’s a high-RPM meditation on how it feels to experience collapse.

Review: Apocalypse now: A funny, terrifying end-of-the-world novel is as 2020 as it gets

Rumaan Alam’s “Leave the World Behind” starts as satire and becomes the anatomy of “normal” life during global disaster — and a dire warning to us all.

Oct. 2, 2020

Luster By Raven Leilani FSG: 240 pages, $26

In a year when the “Bad Sex Award” was mercifully canceled, it’s time to start thinking about rewarding the rare feat of good sex writing. It’s far too easy to go overboard on the groans and the stickiness, but in this simultaneously horny and contemplative debut, Leilani takes the awkwardness of clanking genitals as a given and runs with it. Edie, a struggling painter and publishing grunt who has slept her way through the office, meets Eric, who is twice her age and in an open marriage. This isn’t some paint-by-numbers plot of romance and rejection; Edie eventually moves in with Eric, his wife and their adopted daughter, and begins to wonder what exactly makes her such a sop for touch, need, desire. Leilani knows how to talk about wanting in ways that make you sweat.

Memorial By Bryan Washington Riverhead: 320 pages, $27

There’s something to be said for quiet writing, sentences that breaststroke forward, making only the softest waves. “Memorial,” Washington’s debut novel, hums along softly like a symphony preparing to perform. It revolves around a couple who are on the verge of disintegration when we meet them: Ben is Black and Mike is Japanese American, and time has opened up a chasm between them and the ways they each relate to the world. While Mike heads to Japan to sit with his dying father, Ben plays host to Mike’s visiting mother; all of them navigate feelings of displacement. Washington is one to watch.

Entertainment & Arts

Top ten lists for 2020: The year’s best movies, TV, music and more

Movie theaters closed. Broadway went dark. Concert venues fell silent.

Dec. 11, 2020

Memorial Drive By Natasha Trethewey Ecco: 224 pages, $28

This makes the top 10 for my entire reading life. When former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey was 19, her stepfather shot and killed her mother, Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, outside their Atlanta apartment. Trethewey repressed memories of the murder, and the years of bruises and verbal lashings that preceded it, for decades. But this slim, transcendent memoir — covering her childhood as a biracial girl in the Deep South, the tension inside her mother’s house and the gut punch of the killing — gracefully brings the poet closer to something that looks like acceptance. Truly a work of genius.

Piranesi By Susanna Clarke Bloomsbury: 272 pages, $27

Fifteen years after the magnificent “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” reminded readers that fantasy belongs on the mainstream shelf, Clarke is back with a slimmer but equally riveting story about the cost of power. Piranesi lives in a never-ending colonnaded building with an Uffizi Gallery’s worth of statuary lining the walls. He visits the busts and occasionally sees The Other, an enigmatic man and the only other living being he knows. But has he always lived there? Why doesn’t he recall his young life? And what is he to make of his own diary entries, which tell a very strange tale about another world he’s never seen? “Piranesi” is vibrant, original, a true book lover’s novel.

35 years after her mother’s murder, a poet of Black struggle writes a monument

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey always wrote of public pain and private struggle. Her memoir, “Memorial Drive,” lets her mother speak.

July 22, 2020

Shuggie Bain By Douglas Stuart Grove: 448 pages, $27

I admit it: Though this novel was published in February, I only noticed it early this fall when it showed up on shortlists for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award and suddenly its debut author was everywhere. All for very good reason. “Shuggie Bain” is astonishingly good, one of the most moving novels in recent memory. The title character is a young boy in 1980s Glasgow shuttled from one public housing unit to another, starkly alienated from his already fractured family by his suppressed gay identity. Stuart writes so candidly, you’ll practically hear Shuggie’s mother’s beer cans clanking in her handbag, shiver from the chill of a childhood underheated in every way.

Want By Lynn Steger Strong Henry Holt: 224 pages, $26

Things weren’t so great in America before the pandemic, either. Reading Steger Strong’s swirling, incisive “Want” is like being caught in a windstorm of American familial crises: overpriced childcare, overlapping jobs, overreaching men. Elizabeth lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two small children; they’re filing for bankruptcy and constantly on the brink of financial collapse. They’d expected life to be … better than this, and therein lies the cruel slap so masterfully delivered in this novel. “Want” brilliantly exposes the daily exhaustion of generational decline.

Weather By Jenny Offill Knopf: 224 pages, $24

Offill’s fragmentary novels are like stepping-stones: You jump from one isolated phrase or anecdote to the next, sometimes sure-footed but occasionally thrown off balance. In “Weather,” a librarian named Lizzie is weighed down by the torrent of information she keeps encountering about our doomed planet. Slipping into what Offill calls “a kind of twilight knowing,” she confronts the fact that flooded New York streets and barren apple trees aren’t a possibility but a certainty. “Weather” isn’t a comfort or a little packet of wishes for a healthy planet — it’s a meticulously constructed (often hilarious, sometimes disconsolate) lament for our old modes of thinking.

This fall, we need books more than ever. Meet the authors making sense of a wild 2020

Perhaps no other medium has better helped us process 2020. Our fall books special brings you the books and authors who’ve helped make sense of it.

Oct. 9, 2020

Writers & Lovers By Lily King Grove: 320 pages, $27

Some novels are simply beautiful. That’s the word you exhale as you finish them. King’s fifth novel, a year-in-the-life of a waitress and almost-novelist in 1990s Cambridge, Mass., is one of them. Casey cycles around town, folds napkins for the dinner service, lingers awkwardly at literary parties — and parcels out her energy among two smitten men and her manuscript. It’s a traditional story, and it works on every level. There is nothing extraneous in the writing, just quiet dedication to shaping the story of a young woman adrift from herself.

Sign up for our Book Club newsletter

Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Mother who pushed kids from moving car, killed partner was astrology influencer disturbed by eclipse

April 10, 2024

UC Berkeley insider known for questioning the status quo is named new chancellor

99 Cents Only was an L.A. icon. Inside the fall of the popular chain

This L.A. director made a film in Russia. The Kremlin wasn’t happy. Then came death threats

The Best Books Of 2020 — If You Read Anything This Year, Make It One Of These Books

Want to spice up your TBR with the best books of 2020 so far ? You're in luck, because Bustle has put together an ongoing list of the finest books the year has to offer below. Whether you're looking for your next great read, or making sure you haven't missed a sleeper hit, this is your one-stop shop for great books in 2020 .

We're all still reeling from last year's great releases, but 2020 has already made a splash for readers everywhere, and it still has more in store for you! Loads of fantastic titles were released in January alone, and the reading just gets better with each passing month.

The books on the list below come from all corners of publishing. We've got books in translation, debut novels, long-awaited releases, YA and genre fiction, memoirs, and new works of nonfiction — and we're just getting started. No matter what kind of books tickle your personal fancy, you'll find plenty to choose from here. Don't restrict yourself to your reading comfort zone, though, because half the fun's in finding something new.

Check out the best books of 2020 so far below, and be sure to share your favorite titles of the year with us on Twitter !

We only include products that have been independently selected by Bustle's editorial team. However, we may receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis by Ada Calhoun

Ada Calhoun's Why We Can't Sleep began as a search for answers about why she and the other Gen-Xer ladies she knew were mentally and physically exhausted in middle age. The result is this new book, which fills a critical gap on women and aging.

F*ck Your Diet and Other Things My Thighs Tell Me by Chloé Hilliard

An irreverent essay collection about diet culture and the author's personal relationship with her body, Chloé Hilliard's F*ck Your Diet is essential reading for anyone who knows — or needs to learn — that there's more to life than losing weight.

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

A timely thriller set in the midst of the opioid epidemic, Long Bright River follows Mickey, a Philadelphia cop, as she investigates two, potentially connected cases — a series of local homicides and the disappearance of her sister, Kacey, who sleeps rough and lives with substance addiction.

Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey

A slim debut novel perfect for fans of Sally Rooney's Normal People , Miranda Popkey's Topics of Conversation follows an unnamed narrator as she moves through two decades of her life, having conversations with other women about the ways in which we create and become ourselves.

Creatures by Crissy Van Meter

As she prepares for her upcoming wedding, three things happen to shake up Evangeline's carefully constructed hermitage of a life — her fiance disappears, seemingly lost at sea; her estranged mother shows up on her doorstep; and a beached whale dies, permeating the area with the stench of decay. These events force Evie to confront the realities of her upbringing and all of the life choices that led her to now.

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston

This collection unearths eight forgotten stories from Their Eyes Were Watching God author Zora Neale Hurston's body of early work, begun during her time at Barnard College in the mid-1920s.

Little Gods by Meng Jin

Recently orphaned at 17 years old, Liya is tasked with delivering her late mother's ashes to China. As Liya sorts through her memories of Su Lan, two other people who knew her — Zhu Wen, who spoke with her just before she left for the U.S. when Liya was an infant, and Liya's father, Yongzong — offer their own stories of the woman whose death and memory drive Meng Jin's debut novel.

Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener

In her debut memoir, New Yorker tech culture writer Anna Wiener examines her time working at startups on both coasts at the height of the tech bubble. Uncanny Valley offers an insider's take on Silicon Valley and New York at the brink of collapse.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende's new novel, The Long Petal of the Sea , follows a young couple thrown together by circumstance in the wake of Franco's coup. Army doctor Victor marries Roser, the widowed mother of his brother's child, not out of any kind of affection, but as a necessity in their flight from Europe to Chile — a journey facilitated by Pablo Neruda. But as the two of them make the perilous journey toward building a life together, something like love begins to bloom.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Esther's lover is dead, executed for treasonous acts of publishing. Her betrothed is a vicious man she can't bear to marry. So when two Librarians ride through Esther's town with government-approved reading material, she seizes her chance and stows away on their wagon. Paired up with a third woman, an Apprentice Librarian named Cye, Esther begins training to become a Librarian herself. She's determined to remain on the law's good side, to avoid ending up like the woman she loved, to be a good Librarian, but she can't deny her feelings for Cye. As Esther will soon learn, however, that these Librarians are anything but "good" in the eyes of the fascist state.

The Resisters by Gish Jen

A near-future novel set in what was formerly the United States, Gish Jen's The Resisters centers on a lower-class family whose daughter's preternatural abilities make her a hot commodity in the upcoming Olympics. At turns funny and frightening, this is a novel to watch for in 2020.

Brother & Sister by Diane Keaton

Acclaimed actress Diane Keaton examines her relationship with her younger brother, Randy Hall, and the disparate paths of their lives in this new memoir. Combining Keaton's words with Hall's art and poetry, Brother & Sister is a deeply moving story of family bonds and affections.

The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams

Caroline Hood is the only female teacher at Birch Hill, a newly founded school for young ladies that harbors the secrets of its own grim past as a failed utopia. One of the school's most promising students, Eliza, is far more interested in what happened at the old Birch Hill than in keeping up with her lessons. But when Eliza contracts a mysterious illness that spreads through the student population like wildfire, and eventually infects Caroline, as well, the school's headmaster — and Caroline's father — calls in a physician whose ideas may endanger the lives of all the girls in the school.

Weather by Jenny Offill

From Dept. of Speculation author Jenny Offill comes this new novel about a degree-less librarian who moonlights as a fake psychiatrist. Living an unconventional life already, Lizzie takes a side gig answering fan mail for her former mentor's podcast. As her family begins to crumble under the weight of various pressures, however, Lizzie starts to realize that she can't do everything for everyone.

The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

Set in a Charleston, South Carolina hospital, Kimmery Martin's The Antidote for Everything centers on co-workers and BFFs Georgia Brown and Jonah Tsukada, who find themselves in an ethical quandary after their employer institutes a new policy preventing them from treating transgender patients.

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

This new release from the author of Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists calls out the white feminists whose privilege allows them to ignore the needs of women of color, poor women, and women with disabilities, among others.

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel brings her Thomas Cromwell trilogy to a close with The Mirror & the Light , which focuses on the final years of Cromwell's life. With Cromwell's attempts at civil diplomacy unsuccessful, Anne Boleyn has now been tried and executed to make way for her widower's new wife, Jane Seymour. Cromwell is at the height of his power, but nothing so good could ever last for long...

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Nearly 20 years after she was sexually involved with her high-school English teacher, new circumstances force Vanessa Wye to re-examine her relationship with the man, who has now been accused of sexual abuse by another of his students.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

New York City's avatar has been gravely injured in battle with the city's enemy — an old and evil threat, recently revived — which means that each of the five boroughs must put forth a warrior. Only through intense cooperation can the chosen five humans save the city, but Staten Island's Irish-American avatar has no interest in working with her ethnically diverse compatriots. That's exactly what the enemy wants in The City We Became , a novel born from N.K. Jemisin's short story, "The City Born Great."

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

A brother and sister, though estranged, remain in each other's orbit in Emily St. John Mandel's long-awaited follow-up to Station Eleven . Vincent has just disappeared somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean near Mauritania. Her husband, Jonathan, has finally been held accountable for running a Ponzi scheme, and has subsequently broken with reality. More important, however, is Vincent's brother, Paul — a man who has only just begun to recover from heroin addiction and start a life for himself when his kid sister vanishes.

Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life author Samantha Irby has an all-new book out in 2020. In its collected essays, Wow, No Thank You tracks Irby's change of scenery as she relocates her wife and their children to a conservative corner of Michigan, feels out of place in L.A., and reckons with being one of the country's top writers to know.

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

Still reeling from her husband's death and her sister's unexplained disappearance, recently retired college professor Antonia Vega finds herself called to action when a young, undocumented couple enter her life. Afterlife is Julia Alvarez's first novel for adults since 2006's Saving the World , making it one of the year's most-talked-about books.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

In Frances Cha's debut, four women — Kyuri, Miho, Ara, and Wonna — must sort out the complexities of their existences while living in the same apartment building in Seoul, South Korea. If you're looking for a novel that sucks you right into its characters' lives, you've found it in If I Had Your Face , where plastic surgery, financial woes, and obsession line the pages.

How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

In the title story of this collection focused on immigrant experiences, a man attempts to help his daughter with her homework, with painful ramifications. Somehow barebones and surreal, Souvankham Thammavongsa's How to Pronounce Knife is a collection whose stories will stay with you long after you've closed the book's cover.

Our Riches by Kaouther Adimi

Originally published in French in 2017, Kaouther Adimi's historical novel, Our Riches , is finally available in English this year. The story centers on Edmond Charlot, the real-life founder of Algiers' Les Vraies Richesses: an all-in-one bookstore, publisher, and library. As a young man, Charlot struggles to keep his enterprise afloat, but his story reveals deeper issues inherent to French colonialism in Africa. Our Riches is a deeply moving and thought-provoking novel that English speakers can finally read for the first time in 2020.

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin

A viral fad turns against its adherents in Fever Dream author Samanta Schweblin's new novel. The tiny, wheeled, robotic companions known as kentukis are everywhere, and the world just can't get enough of them. Whether you have one that follows you around the house all day, or you sign up to remotely pilot someone else 's kentuki, there's a good chance you've interacted with one of the little critters already. Through these Internet-age pets, Schweblin explores the magic we can make — and the damage we can do — in our hyperconnected lives.

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

From Pulitzer Prize-nominated novelist Lydia Millet comes this work of literary, cli-fi suspense. When several families convene at a lakeside retreat, the adults succumb to substance abuse while their 12 children, one of whom is the novel's narrator, are left to their own devices. While the narrator's brother searches in an antique Bible for answers to the climate crisis, the children decide to flee their parents' custody in the midst of a severe storm, in the pensive and haunting new novel, A Children's Bible .

Stray by Stephanie Danler

Sweetbitter author Stephanie Danler's memoir of abuse and recovery is one of the year's must-read books. Stray traces Danler's unhappy childhood, marred by alcoholism and absentee parenting, through a troubled adolescence and young adulthood — periods she found herself thrust back to in the wake of her novel's publication. A powerful look at the legacy of family trauma, Stray doesn't shy away from confronting all the painful little details, each of which Danler renders in her signature prose.

This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman by Ilhan Omar

At age 12, she immigrated to the United States after four long years spent fleeing war in Somalia. She's the first Somali-American elected to Congress, and one of only a few Muslim representatives to serve in U.S. history. Now, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has shared her life story with readers for the first time in This Is What American Looks Like . Looking back on an adolescence marked by war, racism, and Islamophobia, the congressional representative turns toward a new, better future in this striking memoir.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The sophomore novel from The Mothers author Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half centers on four women — identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella, and their daughters, Jude and Kennedy — whose lives have been shaped by colorism. As the dark-skinned daughter of a light-skinned mother, Jude has always known just how deep other people's prejudices can run. But nothing prepares her for a chance encounter with Stella, her mother's white-passing sister, who has never disclosed her ethnicity to her white husband and friends. That unplanned run-in puts the sisters and their daughters on a collision course in this can't-miss new novel.

Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America by Stacey Abrams

The gubernatorial nominee from Georgia's Democratic Party in 2018, Stacey Abrams continues to be politically active in the state. In her new book, Our Time Is Now , Abrams outlines a plan for political action to end voting rights violations in the United States. Her campaign against voter suppression may be more important now than ever, at a time when Black Americans and their allies are standing up and speaking out against racial injustice in all 50 states. As we head into the November 2020 elections, Our Time Is Now is a must-read.

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine

Seventeen-year-old Margot has had enough of her family's double life. The lovechild of a politician and actress, she lives with her mother, sees her father frequently, but can never publicly acknowledge him. Now, Margot's prepared to do the unthinkable: force her father to leave his wife and be with her and her mother instead. Joining forces with two journalists, whose intentions may not be entirely honorable, Margot recklessly navigates her transition to adulthood in Sanaë Lemoine's debut.

Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh

A nameless widow in possession of a strange note takes center stage in this new novel from the author of Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation . The note reads: "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body." The problem is, there's no body to be found. There is only the note, which Ottessa Moshfegh's protagonist will use to fuel her new obsession, in Death in Her Hands .

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When her cousin, newly married to an Englishman, writes her a frantic, fearful letter, Noemí packs her bags and heads for High Place: her new cousin-in-law's Mexican country home. The socialite arrives to find her relative affected by an apparent mental illness, her new family concerned. But is Noemí's cousin hallucinating the evils of High Place, or is her story strange, but true?

True Love by Sarah Gerard

Binary Star author Sarah Gerard's new book, True Love , centers on Nina, a flighty, selfish young woman looking for love in all the wrong places. But as she pursues creative projects with both her longtime boyfriend and another man, it becomes clear that Gerard's protagonist may not be the best narrator of her own experiences.

Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford

Kelli Jo Ford's debut novel follows four generations of Cherokee women — Granny, Lula, Justine, and Reney — across the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Justine moves her daughter out of Indian Country in the 1980s, in pursuit of a new life in Texas. But when new problems intermingle with the family's old ones, the four women must make tough decisions, many of which hinge on the things they can control... and the things they can't.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Set in an alternate version of the pre-WWII United States, Alaya Dawn Johnson's Trouble the Saints focuses on three people of color, all with magical powers, all working for a Russian mobster. Phyllis, Tamara, and Dev's abilities make them valuable to their boss and dangerous to his enemies. But as the war heats up, the three of them will be forced to reckon with the lives they've ended.

Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

A woman searching for her missing husband stumbles upon a revivalist preacher who looks just like him in Cherie Dimaline's Empire of Wild . A Métis woman largely disconnected from her ancestral traditions, Joan suspects that something is dangerously amiss when the man who is so obviously her husband doesn't recognize her. Working with allies more steeped in Métis lore than she, Dimaline's protagonist throws herself into the mystery of her husband's disappearance and what came after.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

The son of an Indian mother and a Nigerian father, Vivek Oji always stood out from his neighbors and family members. More interested in hanging out with the foreign wives than with his male cousins, Vivek grew up different. He grew up queer. Then he died, and his family realized they may never have known him at all. Akwaeke Emezi's latest novel takes a retrospective view of one young person's life.

No Offense by Meg Cabot

A small-town children's librarian finds herself at odds with the local sheriff in this new rom-com from Princess Diaries author Meg Cabot. The discovery of an abandoned newborn in the library bathroom has everyone in town talking. Sheriff John Hartwell wants to find the person who gave birth and charge them with a crime, but Molly Montgomery begs to differ. No Offense is a heartwarming must-read this summer.

A Room Called Earth by Madeleine Ryan

Madeleine Ryan's #OwnVoices debut follows an autistic Melbourne woman to a party, where she runs into people she knows and people she doesn't — including the man she invites home. Told from its protagonist's perspective, A Room Called Earth sheds some light on how autistic people mask their autism in front of their neurotypical neighbors.

Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig

Disability advocate Rebekah Taussig's debut memoir is out in 2020, and it's a must-read. Through the essays contained in Sitting Pretty , Taussig explores her late-90s, early-2000s childhood as a disabled person, and what's its like to interact with able-bodied people as an adult.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel's family doesn't want to accept him for the trans brujo he is, but he's determined to prove himself. With some help from his BFF, he tries to summon the ghost of his murdered cousin... but a different spirit shows up. Yadriel's just summoned his bad boy classmate, Julian, who has some unfinished business to attend to. Yadriel agrees to help him, but finds himself wanting Julian to stay on Earth for just a little longer in Cemetery Boys .

That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye

A vacationing Parisian finds himself trapped in paradise in Marie NDiaye's That Time of Year . Herman was getting ready to head home when he realized that his wife and child were missing. Now he's stuck in unfamiliar territory as he tries to investigate their disappearance, but finds nothing but hostility and strangeness at every turn.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi lives in a house he cannot escape — a labyrinthine collage of rooms that flood at a moment's notice. The only other living creature in his strange abode is The Other, a man who wants Piranesi to locate A Great and Secret Knowledge within the house. As Susanna Clarke's hero plumbs the depths of his home in search of answers, however, he turns up a dark secret that will change everything he thinks he knows.

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

After surviving a plane crash, a married woman fixates on rekindling an old love affair in Jodi Picoult's The Book of Two Ways . Dawn hasn't seen Wyatt in 15 years, but she knows she can find him on a digsite in Egypt. Recuperating from the crash, Dawn has a choice to make: fly home to her husband and daughter, or head back to Wyatt after all this time.

Bestiary by K-Ming Chang

Daughter wakes up with a new tail after Mother tells her the story of Hu Gu Po: the child-devouring tiger spirit. Shortly thereafter, strange holes begin to appear in their backyard, producing letters from Daughter's grandmother. She and another neighborhood girl, Ben, who has powers of her own, throw themselves into the mystery of the letters — and nurse a fledgling romance — in K-Ming Chang's Bestiary .

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Marcus was a big fan of the Gods of the Gates books, but the TV series leaves a lot to be desired. That's particularly bad news for him, because he plays Aeneas. As the star of the show, Marcus can't air his grievances publicly, so he limits himself to posting on his anonymous fandom account: Book!AeneasWouldNever. When April's Lavinia cosplay goes viral, Marcus winds up on a convention date with her... only to find out that she's Unapologetic Lavinia Stan: Book!AeneasWouldNever's BFF. He can't tell her who he is, because that would mean risking his career. But can Marcus stand to let a chance at romance with April slip through his fingers?

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Maryse Boudreaux is out to save the world, or die trying. Years after D.W. Griffith cast a grim spell over the United States with Birth of a Nation , the Ku Klux Klan has a plan to summon demons across the country and return the country to the days of slavery. It's up to Maryse — armed with a sword — and her allies to beat the KKK into submission, but doing good works in a country under an evil spell isn't easy.

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

Jebi doesn't want to fight, but they've just been conscripted to paint magical symbols on the army's robot troops. It's just a job... until Jebi learns where the pigments in their paints come from. Now that they can't turn away from what they know, there's only one option left: steal a dragon robot and fight on the right side of history.

The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg

Once upon a time, Whistle Stop, Alabama was Bud Threadgoode's whole world. Now his mother, Ruth, and his Aunt Idgie are both dead, and Whistle Stop's nothing but a boarded-up town full of specters from the Great Depression. But Bud's stopping in to check on his hometown, one last time, and he's about to uncover a wealth of new stories, just waiting to be told.

Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

Kerry Salter has spent years avoiding her family and the law, but the three of them are about to collide anyway. Her grandfather is dying, and their family's ancestral land is slated to become the build site for a brand-new prison. Back at home in New South Wales, she must decide whether to stick around or hit the road again, as her patriarch's health continues to decline, and the march of "progress" stomps closer to home.

We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence by Becky Cooper

The culmination of a 10-year-long investigation and a 50-year-old secret, Becky Cooper's We Keep the Dead Close is a compelling work of journalism like no other. Attending Harvard as an undergrad, Cooper heard the tragic story of Jane Britton, a 23-year-old grad student whose brutal murder in her Cambridge apartment had gone unsolved since 1969. Diving deep into the case, parsing legend from fact, Cooper's We Keep the Dead Close is perfect for tested true-crime fans and newcomers to the genre alike.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

This Romeo and Juliet retelling recasts the Montague and Capulet clans as rival criminal families in 1920s Shanghai. The young heirs to the White Flowers and the Scarlet Gang must work together to prevent a destructive plague from putting an end to both families' businesses. But can Juliette and Roma trust each other when darkness and danger lurk around every corner?

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

A trans boy looking for a new name connects with his late mother through the work of a missing artist in this new novel from the author of The Map of Salt and Stars . A graffiti artist working in Manhattan's Little Syria, Zeyn Joukhadar's protagonist — who ultimately chooses the name Nadir — stumbles upon a decades-old mystery when he finds the journal of another Syrian American artist, Laila Z, who went missing 60 years before. When Nadir discovers a tenuous connection between Laila Z's disappearance and his mother's tragic death, however, he's called to a higher purpose in The Thirty Names of Night .

Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley

From Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley comes this uplifting new novel about an escaped racehorse and her newfound family of misfits. Curious about the wider world, Paras wanders out of her stall and onto the Parisian streets. Making friends with a dog, a raven, and two ducks, she eventually falls in with a human boy who desperately wants to keep her a secret, even as Paras' keepers creep closer to finding her.

The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn

In Sumi Hahn's The Mermaid from Jeju , a haenyeo diver must work through her grief and find the strength inside herself to carry on in the wake of her mother's death. Junja and her mother swapped roles so that the teenager could see Korea's mountains, where her family trades seafood for pork. But when Junja's mother is killed on a dive that she would have taken, had they not traded places, the girl's family begins to drift away, leaving her to make her own way through the world.

This Is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

A college-bound teenager convinces her parents to let her out of the house, even though she's technically grounded for the summer, to join a Quidditch league in Anna Meriano's coming-of-age novel. Ellen planned to spend the last few weeks before college joined at the hip with her BFFs. But as her friends become engrossed in their own summertime fun, and Ellen draws closer to her Quidditch team, it becomes clear that the girls' relationships to one another may be in the process of radical change.

Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse

The winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, torrin a. greathouse's Wound from the Mouth of a Wound is a densely packed treasure trove of verse. Bodies rise up here as sites of gender, trauma, ability, and violence. A gut punch you won't soon shake off, this is one of 2020's absolute best releases.

A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de León

After she rolls over on her bosses in the wake of an F.B.I. raid, Harvard Law grad Yolanda finds herself working for the Feds, permanently. Tasked with infiltrating an African American activist organization, whose mission is to expose government exploitation in their community, Yolanda goes undercover... and risks it all when she falls in love.

This article was originally published on Jan. 22, 2020

The Books Briefing: The Best Books of 2020

Our favorite titles from a year that has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading: Your weekly guide to the best in books

This year has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading. Some found books impossible to pick up; sustained attention to text on a page is hard when the world is in so much pain. Others turned to literature anew, rediscovering the ways it can refresh and inspire. Below are some of the titles we were most drawn to in 2020: a wide-ranging list that includes new spins on epic poems, stories about the interior lives of women, memoirs that eloquently challenged industries, and, yes, essays that made us laugh.

You can read the Culture team’s full selections here .

​ Every Friday in the Books Briefing , we thread together Atlantic stories on books that share similar ideas. Know other book lovers who might like this guide? Forward them this email. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. This is our final Books Briefing of the year. See you in 2021.

What We’re Reading

Breasts and Eggs , by Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd)

The workaday lives and thoughts of women may not seem revolutionary, but Mieko Kawakami manages to make them so in Breasts and Eggs. Each of the central characters struggles, in her own way, with the effects of misogyny and poverty. Makiko, a hostess worn down by decades of grueling service work, is considering breast-enhancement surgery. Her 12-year-old daughter Midoriko, deeply affected by her mother’s difficulties, hates the idea of becoming an adult woman; her apprehension manifests as a refusal to speak out loud to her family. Makiko’s sister Natsuko, a writer who lives alone, mulls using a sperm bank to have a child. Kawakami makes blunt but dignified space for this trio. At one point, Midoriko, full of rage and grief and anxiety, finally breaks her silence in a breathtaking kitchen confrontation with her mother that involves dozens of smashed eggs. The electric moment channels the ethos of the book: raw, funny, mundane, heartbreaking. — Jane Yong Kim

Uncanny Valley , by Anna Wiener

Before she abandoned her ill-paid life in the publishing business for the San Francisco startup scene in 2013, Anna Wiener was a Brooklyn literary type, socially anxious and “affectedly analog” (owner of a record player she rarely used, dater of men of artisanal bent), not to mention oblivious to “the people behind the internet.” She was, in other words, just the unlikely observer of Silicon Valley I’d been waiting for: an outsider-insider, articulately insecure and hyper-self-aware. Her eye and ear for the tribal details of tech-bro culture are acute. Wiener is also unsparing about her own fascination with an ethos of social and generational arrogance: Variously employed on the customer-support side of the tech world, she feels driven to impress Millennial bosses who are her peers, yet all-powerful. Her indictment of the industry’s myopia and insularity, preaching connectivity while abetting the fracturing of America, is close-up and personal. She never aspired to the elite ranks of coders. But in Wiener, the Bay Area now has a brilliant decoder. — Ann Hulbert

Beowulf: A New Translation , by Maria Dahvana Headley

I’ll admit to a moment—more than one, actually—of fogey-ish recoil as I stepped into the jabbingly familiar/unfamiliar world of Maria Dahvana Headley’s Beowulf . “Blinged-out”? “Hashtag: blessed”? “Beowulf gave zero shits”? Too groovy, I feared, for this Beowulf nerd. But not at all. Headley’s text springs these surprises strategically, almost trickily, little fireworks of idiom to hold our attention as she winds with great fidelity of purpose into the depths of the Beowulf poet’s language—the alliteration, the compound words, the sinewy formality, the doleful magic, and the hard existential light. Thrillingly, it becomes a double act: Headley and her ancient forebear, diving together into the word-hoard. Her Grendel—“brotherless, sludge-stranded”—is more pitiable than ever, her Beowulf more of a thumping super-jock. As for the dragon: “the firedrake raked coast-to-coast / with claws, charred gilded Geatland without pause.” Right on. — James Parker

Transcendent Kingdom , by Yaa Gyasi

I remember reading Yaa Gyasi’s 2016 debut, Homegoing , and being blown away by the book’s ambition. An intergenerational story that crossed oceans and epochs, it stayed with me for years. Gyasi’s latest book, Transcendent Kingdom , uses a narrower lens but is no less gripping. It follows Gifty, a sixth-year doctoral student in neuroscience who is reckoning with her family’s relationship to mental illness, addiction, and abandonment. The work she does in her lab, studying the reward-seeking behavior of mice, channels the grief she still carries about her brother’s death from opioids. Gyasi skillfully moves back and forth between the present day and Gifty’s childhood, richly detailing her characters’ lives and treating these heavy topics with complexity and honesty; in particular, the scenes portraying Gifty’s brother’s addiction are devastating without being emotionally overwrought. Writing a successful follow-up to an impressive debut is difficult, but Gyasi certainly did.  — Clint Smith

Wow, No Thank You , by Samantha Irby

“Imagine if real life had an off switch!” Samantha Irby exclaims toward the end of her essay-length meditation on the joys of having a smartphone. It’s the kind of line Irby deploys to delicious effect throughout her books—at once wistful, snarky, and just a bit morbid. Wow, No Thank You , her most recent collection, reads like a series of confessions; her tone leans acerbic, but these essays on the difficulty of making friends in adulthood or the unmitigated terror of occupying a human body are deeply intimate. The collection weaves together insights about misogyny, racism, and the alluring ills of capitalist pursuits with Irby’s unfailing humor. “Uncreased, unlined foreheads and cheeks are a prerequisite for tricking people into believe you have a good life,” she writes, only to immediately reveal her real objection to Botox: “But life is fucking stressful and too goddamn long, and I am afraid to get needles in my face.” Brisk and inventive in form, Wow, No Thank You is a quarantine book that conjures that most elusive of experiences: idle time spent with a friend, talking about everything and nothing at all. — Hannah Giorgis

About us: This week’s newsletter is written by the Atlantic’s Culture desk. Comments, questions, typos? Reply to this email to reach the Books Briefing team. Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up .

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Best fiction of 2020

Hilary Mantel, Ali Smith and Tsitsi Dangarembga completed landmark series, Martin Amis turned to autofiction and Elena Ferrante returned to Naples – plus a host of brilliant debuts

As the first lockdown descended in March, sales of Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year and Camus’s La Peste soared, but there were uncanny echoes of Covid-19 to be found in this year’s novels too.

Maggie O’Farrell’s tender, heartbreaking Hamnet (Tinder), which went on to win the Women’s prize, illuminates life and love in the shadow of death four centuries ago. Focused on Anne Hathaway rather than her playwright husband , it channels the family’s grief for son Hamnet, lost to the plague, with a timeless power. From public information slogans to individual fears, Emma Donoghue’s The Pull of the Stars (Picador), set in a Dublin maternity hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic, shows how little our responses have changed. Don DeLillo completed The Silence (Picador) just before the coronavirus hit; but this slim, austere vision of what it’s like to be in a room as screens go dark and disaster unfolds outside chimes with current fears.

Unfolding disaster was the theme of novels that spoke explicitly to the present moment, too: Jenny Offill’s Weather (Granta) assembles shards of anecdote and aphorism into a glittering mosaic that faces up to Trump’s America and climate collapse with wit, heart and moments of sheer terror. Naomi Booth’s Exit Management (Dead Ink) expertly dramatises the crisis in housing, jobs and community. Sarah Moss’s menacing Summerwater (Picador) is set over one rainy day in a Scottish holiday park: catastrophe lurks in the near future as we dip into the minds of various daydreaming, dissatisfied holidaymakers, in a sharp investigation into the meaning of community and otherness. Also deeply attuned to the anxieties of both Brexit and our long, slow post-industrial collapse is M John Harrison’s masterly The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again (Gollancz). An unsettling and multilayered narrative foregrounding two lost souls in a haunted, unheimlich England who don’t know how lost they are, it took the Goldsmiths prize for innovative fiction.

Summer (Hamish Hamilton) completed Ali Smith’s rapid-response Seasonal quartet: four novels written over four years that have encompassed Brexit, climate change, corporate takeover and the refugee crisis along with the bracing consolations of art and nature. Reuniting characters from previous volumes and juxtaposing second world war internment with today’s migrant detention centres, Summer brought a much needed note of hope and resilience to the finale of a landmark series that explores how we live in and out of time.

This year saw the final volume, too, of Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, which has conjured a vanished age to such extraordinarily vivid life and cast profound insights about power, ambition and fate on to the present one. The Mirror & the Light (4th Estate) had to end on the executioner’s scaffold, but the reader is suspended in the unfolding present moment until the axe falls.

Another trilogy was completed in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body (Faber); written three decades on from her classic Nervous Conditions , it is a brutal, intimate reckoning with the psychological trauma of colonialism. Also shortlisted for the Booker, Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King (Canongate) is a beautifully crafted account of the female soldiers resisting Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and their own oppression in Ethiopian society. Lyrical, furious and meticulously researched, it is a necessary act of historical reclamation.

Marilynne Robinson turned her Gilead trilogy into a quartet with Jack (Virago), a romance across the race divide in segregated mid-century America which explores the redeeming, transcendent power of love and faith. Brit Bennett also anatomised racism in The Vanishing Half (Dialogue), a stunning family saga about passing for white and the hollowness of the American dream that won her comparisons to Toni Morrison.

There were historical escapes from David Mitchell, in 1960s muso epic Utopia Avenue (Sceptre), and Jonathan Coe, with a bittersweet visit to one of Billy Wilder’s last film sets in Mr Wilder and Me (Viking). Curtis Sittenfeld’s Rodham (Doubleday) spun wistful alternative history, imagining what the world might have looked like if Hillary hadn’t married Bill, while Martin Amis drew on his own history for Inside Story (Cape), a baggy but fascinating autofiction combining cameos from Saul Bellow and Christopher Hitchens with tips on prose writing.

Andrew O’Hagan’s poignant Mayflies (Faber) explores the way all our lives recede too quickly into history, with a joyous nostalgiafest of young Scots chasing music and girls on a wild weekend in the 80s segueing into sober mid-life realisations and difficult decisions decades later. A brilliant portrayal of male friendship, it’s also the perfect gift for middle-aged alternative music fans.

The year began with an impressively assured debut from US author Kiley Reid; Such a Fun Age (Bloomsbury) is a razor-sharp take on white fragility and millennial uncertainty, beginning when a black nanny is accused of kidnapping her white charge. Also witty and fresh, Naoise Dolan’s deliciously dry Exciting Times (W&N) sees cynical Irish twentysomething Ava unsettled by genuine emotion while teaching in Hong Kong.

Two semi-autobiographical Scottish debuts from Picador showcased essential new voices: Douglas Stuart took the Booker prize for his moving, devastating Shuggie Bain , the tale of a boy’s desperate love for his alcoholic mother in the deprived, post-industrial 80s; while Graeme Armstrong’s The Young Team , set among teenage gangs in Lanarkshire, updated Trainspotting for a new generation.

Other notable first novels included Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez (Dialogue), a fearless coming-of-age story about racial and sexual identity and masculinity focused on a young, black gay man who flees his Jehovah’s Witness community to become a sex worker. Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi (Hamish Hamilton) coolly explores a toxic mother-daughter relationship in middle-class India, while Brandon Taylor’s Real Life (Daunt) weighs contradictory urges towards solitude and intimacy. The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams (William Heinemann), which continues the lexicographical playfulness of her short stories, is a singularly charming jeu d’esprit about two people a century apart doing the difficult, essential work of defining words and defining themselves.

In translated fiction, Elena Ferrante returned to her emotional heartland, the psyche of the teenage girl, in The Lying Life of Adults (Europa, translated by Ann Goldstein). As Giovanna tackles parental hypocrisy, self-disgust and the disconnect between upper- and lower-class Naples, the novel builds into what feels like a portrait of the artist as a young woman. Originally conceived as a true crime story, Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (Fitzcarraldo, translated by Sophie Hughes) is a savage, unstoppable chronicle of misogyny and murder in a small Mexican village. Another rawly compelling novel won the International Booker: young Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening (Faber, translated by Michele Hutchison ) focuses on a girl in a deeply religious family that is falling apart in the wake of her brother’s death.

Daniel Kehlmann’s darkly funny Tyll (Riverrun, translated by Ross Benjamin), a picaresque journey through early 17th-century Europe, follows the progress of a folkloric jester figure from village to court against the bloody backdrop of the thirty years’ war. In Samanta Schweblin’s fiendishly readable Little Eyes (Oneworld, translated by Megan McDowell), the new must-have tech gadget allows users to leapfrog into the lives of strangers – a sharp idea that became even more pertinent with the isolation and atomisation of lockdown. When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut (Pushkin, translated by Adrian Nathan West), a “nonfiction novel” focused on the exceptional minds looking into the dark heart of maths and science in the 20th century, traces revelatory connections between discovery and destruction.

Some of the most exciting short stories of the year were to be found in Kathryn Scanlan’s The Dominant Animal (Daunt), with its fiercely sculpted sentences and unnervingly off-kilter scenarios. Cathy Sweeney’s Modern Times (W&N) has a comically surreal energy and verve, while in Reality and Other Stories (Faber) John Lanchester structures a collection of ghost stories around the most dangerous, intrusive, unknowable force in our lives – technology.

Two striking books unfolded in the fertile space between story collection and novel. In poet Frances Leviston’s The Voice in My Ear (Cape), 10 different protagonists, all called Claire, contend with the demands of the world and their difficult mothers; the stories glance off each other to build into a cubist portrait of contemporary womanhood. Maria Reva’s Good Citizens Need Not Fear (Virago), meanwhile, uses interlinked tales centred around a crumbling apartment block in Ukraine to convey the absurdity of post-Soviet life.

Finally, two novels that were a long time coming. From the 18th century to the 21st, Evie Wyld’s The Bass Rock (Cape) explores violence against women in three subtly linked time periods: a blazingly angry, darkly witty tour de force, Wyld’s third novel is bleak but bracing, and as ever, beautifully written.

Sixteen years after her bestselling debut Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell , Susanna Clarke returned with Piranesi (Bloomsbury), the story of a man trapped in a many-halled House with an Ocean surging within it, his only companion a mysterious Other. Written out of long illness, but published into a world in which every reader was struggling with confinement and thrown on their inner resources, Clarke’s fantastical parable of solitude, imagination, ambition and contentment is a spectacular piece of fiction, and the perfect reading accompaniment to a year like no other.

• Best books of the year
• Best books of 2020
• Fiction in translation

Most viewed

• About Amazon (English)
• About Amazon (日本語)
• About Amazon (Français)
• About Amazon (Deutsch)
• Newsroom (Deutsch)
• About Amazon (Italiano)
• About Amazon (Polski)
• About Amazon (Español)
• Press Center (English)
• Press Center
• About Amazon (Português)
• Press Release Archive
• Images & Videos
• Investor Relations

Amazon Announces 2020’s Best Books of the Year

Brittany K. Barnett’s “A Knock at Midnight” named the best book of 2020 by Amazon’s Books Editors

The diverse, hand-curated list features top picks across genres, interests, and reading levels to help make holiday gift shopping easier

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2020--  Amazon.com  (NASDAQ: AMZN)-- Today, Amazon announced 2020’s  Best Books of the Year , selecting Brittany K. Barnett’s “A Knock at Midnight” as the top pick. The inspiring true story is a brilliant memoir of Barnett’s own journey navigating the criminal justice system, which also chronicles the stories of three of her clients. Their lives—including their crimes, their families, and their jail time—are rendered with such care and compassion that the Amazon Books Editors found it impossible to put down.

The process of choosing the Best Books of the Year begins the year prior, as the Amazon Books Editors begin debating the list for January’s Best Books of the Month. The editors collectively read thousands of books each year in service of creating an editorially curated list and reviews each month. These monthly lists culminate in the Best Books of the Year, which includes an overall Top 100 for 2020 as well as top lists for individual genres like literature & fiction, mystery and thriller, children’s books, cookbooks, food & wine, and young adult—all to help customers find their next favorite book or thoughtful holiday gift pick.

“It’s been a year, and the editorial team set out to create a list that reflected what we’ve collectively been experiencing, hearing and seeing in 2020, and also the books that gave us a welcome respite from the anxieties of the world,” said Sarah Gelman, Editorial Director, Amazon Books. “Our number one book practically chose itself. Brittany K. Barnett’s empathetic and genre-bending ‘A Knock at Midnight’ provides a glimpse into the criminal justice system and the seemingly impossible path to freedom. This book is timely and powerful.”

Brittany K. Barnett adds, “I am deeply grateful and honored that ‘A Knock at Midnight’ was chosen Best of the Year. This life has taken me on a remarkable journey – one that continues to transform my understanding of justice and the very definition of freedom itself. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans buried alive under unjust laws, and I hope this book draws attention to their plight and inspires people to take action to push for impactful change.”

For Kindle readers, the most highlighted passage echoed Brittany’s sentiment on how race and class impact our societal norms: “On the very first day of class, this dynamic, poised Black professor – my very first – laid out in the first moments as an inarguable premise something that by now I knew in my very bones: that race shaped all of our lives, brown, white, or Black, in both visible and invisible ways, and that our legal systems were inseparable from our sordid racial past.”

“A Knock At Midnight” joins other incredible titles from the last few years to receive the Best of the Year accolade, including Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments,” David Grann’s “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” and Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad.”

The Amazon Books Editors Top 10 picks of 2020 are:

• A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom  by Brittany K. Barnett: At times, Barnett’s memoir reads like page-turning crime fiction; at others, a galvanizing and redemptive portrait of a lawyer trying to defend Black lives that were never protected in the first place. Urgent, necessary, hopeful—and a knockout read.
• Migrations  by Charlotte McConaghy: Teeming with adventure, darkness, love, and loss, Migrations is a novel that’s impossible to put down as you learn about the life of Franny Stone—a sharp, flawed, and determined woman who will stop at nothing to regain what she’s lost.
• Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel  by S.A. Cosby: A pedal to the metal thriller about a retired getaway driver, caught between the rock of poverty and the hard place of Southern racism, who gambles on one last heist to get him ahead. Toggling between high-stakes action, and quiet—even tender—family scenes, this is Southern noir with heart.
• Group  by Christie Tate: Tate was a summer intern at a law firm and top of her class, and yet her memoir opens with her sitting in her car alone, wishing someone would shoot her. Written with the gift of hindsight, Group is an honest, heart-breaking and hilarious look at reaching rock bottom and climbing your way back to life.
• The Vanishing Half  by Brit Bennett: Ideal for book clubs, The Vanishing Half examines sisterhood, personal identity, starting fresh, and what it means to be Black (and white) in America. Bennett is known for creating taut family dramas, and like her brilliant debut, The Mothers, this novel shows just how strong the bonds of sisters are, even at their weakest.
• Fifty Words for Rain  by Asha Lemmie: Set in post WWII Japan, this sweeping story about a love child left with her scandalized, and brutal, grandparents will have you rooting for its resilient heroine, Nori, who must summon the courage to assert her own identity and live life on her own terms. This is a debut you don't want to miss.
• Caste  by Isabel Wilkerson: Ten years after her award-winning The Warmth of Other Suns, Wilkerson argues that our entire social structure is built upon an unrecognized caste system. White people—whether their ancestors were slave owners or abolitionists—have been able to live and thrive under these set assumptions of inequality. This is a mind-expanding book.
• The Girl with the Louding Voice  by Abi Daré: In this rousing tale of courage and pluck, a 14-year-old Nigerian girl is sold into servitude by her father when her mother—a proponent of education—passes away. You will root for Adunni as she endeavors to escape her sorry—and often harrowing—lot, and applaud the kind strangers who buoy her efforts, and her spirits.
• Memorial  by Bryan Washington: Memorial unfolds with depth, humor, and telling detail. Mike is a Japanese-American chef. His partner, Benson, is a Black daycare teacher. When Mike leaves Houston to visit his ailing father in Osaka, his mother comes to live with Benson. You will laugh, cry, and ask yourself: What makes a family?
• Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family  by Robert Kolker: A medical mystery story—with twists and reveals to rival any thriller—that shows how an all-American family was ravaged as an elusive, centuries-old mental illness caught and kept them in its crosshairs for decades.

Authors of the top three books—Brittany K. Barnett, Charlotte McConaghy, and S.A. Cosby—will come together for an Amazon Live Author Series conversation in celebration of the Best Books of the Year selection on November 19, 2020 at 12 PM PT. To tune in, visit  Amazon Live .

For more information on the books featured on the Best Books of the Year list, as well as insightful reviews on new books, author interviews, and hand-curated roundups in popular categories, visit the Amazon Book Review at  www.amazon.com/amazonbookreview , and subscribe to the Amazon Book Review Podcast on Amazon Music,  Apple  or  TuneIn . You can also follow the Books Editors recommendations and conversations @amazonbooks on  Facebook ,  Twitter , and  Instagram .

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit  www.amazon.com/about  and follow @AmazonNews.

View source version on  businesswire.com :  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201119005144/en/

Amazon.com, Inc. Media Hotline [email protected] www.amazon.com/pr

Source:  Amazon.com

The Best Books of the 2020s: What Lifted Us Up and Out

Ann-Marie Cahill

Ann-Marie Cahill will read anything and everything. From novels to trading cards to the inside of CD covers (they’re still a thing, right?). A good day is when her kids bring notes home from school. A bad day is when she has to pry a book from her kids’ hands. And then realizes where they get it from. The only thing Ann-Marie loves more than reading is travelling. She has expensive hobbies.

View All posts by Ann-Marie Cahill

So far, the 2020s have been the longest century of my life while simultaneously feeling like they passed in a blur. For three years running, I was asked to pick a fave book – and for three years running, I have drawn an absolute blank on what I have read. I’m not alone on this. I know y’all have been feeling it too. There have been plenty of moments when my fellow Book Rioters have suggested a book, thinking it was published in 2022, only to find out it has been sitting on their shelves since 2020. Of course, it’s much better when you no longer have to feel guilty about your TBR pile – It’s not that bad, after all!

For those needing a little catch-up, I have revisited some of the best books of the 2020s. These books were funny, light-hearted, uplifting, and showed the best of us during the last three years. Because let’s face it: the last three years sucked. Just a couple of ground rules:

• No Medical Dramas : We have already had enough of that.
• No Horror: Good vibes only.
• Keep It Light and Simple : Pretty self-explanatory.

Seems fair, doesn’t it? And I promise you – once we have finished this list, you will feel ready to hit 2023 running. Good vibes only!!

Best Books of 2020

Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks and Scones by Ngozi Ukazu

I had completely forgotten about Book 2! I remember being so eager for this sequel and the return of my favourite little cinnamon rolls. This is the book where Bitty becomes confident enough to share himself with the world. Despite its release in April 2020, there were so many elements we could relate to: baking obsessions, vlogger obsessions, and romance obsessions. Revisiting CP#2 is like revisiting 2020 with a fondness I didn’t think I had. I know it’s a fave here at Book Riot because it has been mentioned 29 times in 2022 alone.

Finna (LitenVerse #1) by Nino Cipri

2020 was the year many of us started working and learning/teaching from home. Our living space was suddenly changed, and we weren’t even allowed to go shopping at IKEA to prepare for it!! It would have been fairly easy to escape to an alternate universe through any of the portals available at our local IKEA store. That’s essentially the concept behind Finna . There’s a missing granny in the store – well, in one of the multiverse dimensions you can reach within the store. Unfortunately, Ava and Jules are assigned to find the sweet granny. Even more unfortunate is their recent relationship breakup and a lot of debris left over from that. Finna is as much about surviving relationships as it is about surviving retail work.

Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch by Julie Abe

More with the escapism, be it ever so sweet and wholesome. This middle grade fantasy is in the vein of Kiki’s Delivery Service , with the kind of “feel good” vibes that appeal to readers of any age, and it’s one of the best books in 2020. Eva is an almost-13-year-old girl hoping to ace her tests and become a Novice Witch. Or at least bumble through and pass with a moderate level of dignity. She is the daughter of a powerful witch, but only holds a pinch of magic herself. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to help others.

Best Books of 2021

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala

This is a super cozy mystery centred on Lila and her family’s Filipino restaurant. Lila is pulling herself back together after she finds out her now ex-boyfriend was cheating on her. She returns home, hoping to regroup and reconnect with the family amidst harsh reviews of their restaurant from another ex-boyfriend. And then suddenly, that guy dies. Face down in a bowl. It’s a murder mystery surrounded by lots of Filipino food and family hijinks. There are now three books in the series, and I still have room for dessert.

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

By 2021, I was struggling to find books I could read with my kids and NOT pull my own eyes out. Amari and the Night Brothers brings the best of Percy Jackson and X-Men: Generation X with a strong sense of good family vibes. Amari is a 13-year-old whose big brother has suddenly disappeared. The only clue he left her (and only her ) is a nomination for Amari to attend the summer tryouts at the secretive Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. If Amari wants to find her brother, she must first find her way through the mermaids, dwarves, yetis, magicians, and whatever-the-hell-that-was. The good news is book two, Amari and the Great Game , was released in 2022, and book three is scheduled to come out in 2023.

Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku, Translated by Leo McDonagh

Easily the best graphic novel of 2021, Boys Run the Riot touches on real life in Japan while exploring social issues faced everywhere. It was released just as manga experienced a massive boom in the North American market, paving the way for comics like this to be readily available in English. It’s a story about a transgender teen living in contemporary Japan, finding social connections through street fashion. There are four volumes available in Japanese (the original was first published in Japanese in 2020), but only one in English.

Best Books of 2022

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

I am the biggest fan of books featuring treasure-hunting mysteries ( check out my long list of faves here ). In 2022, we were all looking for our own map to navigate this reality, and The Cartographers ticked all the boxes. Nell’s greatest passion is cartography, just like her father – the same father she has not spoken to since they fought over a map, and he subsequently fired her and ruined her reputation. But now he is dead, and the same map is the only key she has to solve the mystery.

Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner

The last three years have left me with mild social anxiety. It takes a bit for me to build up the confidence to go out and socialise again. I’m afraid of meeting people in the wrong settings, but after reading this book, I don’t think I could experience anything as absolutely MESSED UP (at least to begin with). It easily was my fave romcom of the year. This book is told through the eyes of Erin and Cassie, two gorgeous women who hook up for a one-nighter and then meet again the next day, thanks to Erin’s daughter…who is Cassie’s best friend. Oh, yeah. Mistakes were made.

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, Illustrated by Daniel Minter

Nothing prepared me for this children’s picture book. It hit me out of the blue. Visual art was one of the few activities that helped my daughter and I hold on to happiness during Lockdown Learning. Finding a book filled with such beauty, history, and careful consideration was an absolute treasure. You start by thinking it is a book about art: the cultivation of colour and our association with it. Then the book guides you down a path of appropriation, consumerism, and understanding of the price we pay for “blue”. However, by the end of the book, there is a newfound wonder that encourages you to step outside and seek out this colour. To find it in nature and bring it back to everyone’s everyday lives. It’s absolutely stunning, and I hope they consider making more books about other colours too.

Naturally, there are MANY books published in the 2020s, and not all of them can fit on this list. These are the books with the most uplifting reading experiences, floating to the top as Best Books of the 2020s, almost despite everything thrown at us during those years. You might also be interested in the Best Books of 2020 , the Best Books of 2021 , and the Best Books of 2022 .

Now, it’s time to prep for the new books coming in 2023. It’s a fresh new year with new reading delights. Check out some Readathons and Reading Challenges for 2023 (yes, you can still catch up!).

You Might Also Like

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

The Best Books of 2024 (So Far)

The year may still be young, but 2024 has already brought a treasure trove of surprising new books. Multiple celebrated first-time authors have returned with highly anticipated, ambitious follow-up novels . Memoir and reportage are skillfully blended together for a collection of essays on the climate crises. A former Village Voice journalist delivers a vibrant oral history of the beloved alternative weekly. And we’d be remiss not to mention a brilliant debut novel that deftly brings humanity and humor to existential dread. Here are the titles that we already can’t stop thinking about.

Titles are listed by U.S. release date.

Headshot , by Rita Bullwinkel

In a shabby gym in Reno, Nevada, teenage girls face off in a youth boxing tournament under a shifting ray of daylight that “fills the whole space with a dull, dusty brightness” and surrounded by a sparse crowd of mostly uninterested coaches and parents. The novel enters deep into the girls’ minds as they assess one another’s weaknesses and coax themselves through the rounds, which are described in brutal, bloody detail. Each fighter has her own source of competitive energy, but they’re all realistically ambivalent, too — unsure about why, exactly, they’re drawn to a sport that gives them so little for their trouble. Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel is as tense and disciplined as its characters, and she has a gift for capturing the way their minds wander far from the ring and back again: One girl counts off the digits of pi, while another obsesses over a death she witnessed as a lifeguard. There’s a mesmerizing sense of limitlessness to the narrative, which roams far into the future of these fighters even as they’re absorbing hits in the ring. — Emma Alpern

Lessons for Survival , by Emily Raboteau

Raboteau emerged on the scene some two decades ago as a writer of sharp, incisive fiction that mapped the contours of identity and race. In recent years, she has become a literary voice of consciousness about the ongoing climate crisis. Across a series of essays, book reviews, and conversations, Raboteau has charted the progression of the crisis, our shared culpability, and our responsibility to develop practical solutions. Lessons for Survival is, in many ways, a culmination and continuation of this work. Raboteau travels locally and abroad to capture stories about the impact of the environmental crisis, and the resilience of communities that find themselves on the front lines. She also writes authentically — her prose seamlessly melds slang and heightened language — about her own experiences as a Black mother, whose identity has shaped her understanding of these issues. This is scintillating work, an essential primer for our times. — Tope Folarin

Help Wanted , by Adelle Waldman

Set at a big-box store in upstate New York, Help Wanted recalls Mike White’s Enlightene d in its textured portrayal of how small humiliations and injustices at work inevitably boil over into righteous rage. It’s a novel that lingers in the imagination, by which I mean, after you read it you’ll think of it every time you shop at Target, forever. — Emily Gould

➽ Read Emily Gould’s interview with Help Wanted author Adelle Waldman on The Cut .

Stranger , by Emily Hunt

Emily Hunt’s second book of poems considers real intimacy mediated by apps. In “Company,” a long poem originally published as a chapbook, the speaker works for a flower delivery startup, gently pulling roots from soil, culling, clipping, and handing off arrangements. These moments are sensorily rich, slotted into 15-minute assembly-line shifts, and short lines. In “Emily,” Hunt uses messages from Tinder as her source material, not to mock (or not only to mock) the senders or the stilted situation of meeting online, but to construct a self in relief, as seen and spoken to by strangers. A funny and surprising interaction with dailiness, including our phones — the hardware and the relationships maintained through them — and whatever else is still tactile. — Maddie Crum

Dead Weight: Essays on Hunger and Harm, by Emmeline Clein

Emmeline Clein’s Dead Weight seems destined to fundamentally reshape how we think and write about the subject of eating disorders. What separates Clein’s book from others on the topic is her commitment to treating the sufferers of eating disorders with the kind of dignity that clinicians tend to withhold. She writes as an insider, telling both her personal story and sharing the stories of her “sisters,” which range from Tumblr accounts to clinical studies co-authored by their subjects. Throughout, she refrains from including the graphic details that have historically plagued books about the subject. “Too many people I love have misread a memoir as a manual,” she writes. The book she writes instead confronts the complicated entanglement between eating disorders, race, capitalism, and the ongoing erosion of social safety nets. Stereotypes about eating disorders commonly portray the illness as one rooted in control. Dead Weight not only exposes how little control patients have had over their own narratives and bodies, it returns the narrative to those who have suffered from the disease. This is a moving, brilliant, and important book. — Isle McElroy

The Freaks Came Out to Write , by Tricia Romano

If you were reading The Village Voice in the 1990s, as I was, it wasn’t as good as it used to be. That was also true ten years later, and 20 years before, and frankly it was probably what people started saying upon reading issue No. 2 in 1955. What the Voice was, inarguably, was shaggy, sometimes under-edited, alternately vigorous and undisciplined and brilliant and exhausting and fun. The infighting in its pages and in its newsroom was relentless, amped up by the very aggressiveness that made its reporters and editors able to do what they did. You’ll encounter more than one office fistfight in The Freaks Came Out to Write , this oral history by Tricia Romano, who worked there at the very end of its life. She got a huge number of Voice survivors to talk, including almost every living person who played a major role in this beloved, irritating paper’s life, and good archival interviews fill in the gaps. If you read the Voice in its glory days (whenever those were!) you’ll miss it terribly by the end of this book; if you weren’t there, you will be amazed that such a thing not only existed but, for a while, flourished. — Christopher Bonanos

Wandering Stars , by Tommy Orange

Orange’s Pulitzer-finalist debut, 2018’s There There , is a tightly constructed, polyphonic book that ends with a gunshot at a powwow. His follow-up, which shares the first one’s perspective-hopping structure (and several of its characters), is a different beast, an introspective novel about addiction and adolescence. The story begins in the 1860s, when a young Cheyenne man becomes an early subject in the U.S. government’s attempts to assimilate Native Americans. The consequences of this flurry of violence and imprisonment will reverberate through generations of his family, eventually landing in present-day Oakland, California, where three young brothers live with their grandmother and her sister. The oldest brother, Orvil, was shot at There There ’s powwow, and even though he survived, the heaviness of that day is weighing on him and his family. Prescribed opioids for the pain, he finds that — like several of his ancestors, though he has no way of knowing that — he likes the sense of removal they give him. Orange’s novel is unusually curious and gentle in its treatment of addiction; he lets his characters puzzle out why they’re drawn to intoxication, managing to balance a lack of judgment with an understanding of the danger they’re in. — E.A.

➽ Read Emma Alpern’s full review of Wandering Stars .

Come and Get It , by Kiley Reid

In Come and Get It , the second novel from the breakout author of Such a Fun Age , the University of Arkansas serves as the backdrop for Kylie Reid’s assessment of race, class, and social hierarchy on a college campus. Over the course of a semester that shifts between the perspectives of Millie, a meek yet dutiful R.A., Kennedy, a shy transfer student with a traumatic secret, and Agatha, a visiting professor out of her depths, the primary characters are forced to grapple with the heady concepts of desire, privilege, and the rules of social conduct in an environment where the the game is rigged and fairness is reserved for a select few. Light on plot and heavy on character development and social commentary, Come and Get It is the kind of book you put down and immediately want to discuss . But fair warning: If you ever lived in a college dorm in the U.S., this book might inflict a non-negligible amount of PTSD. — Anusha Praturu

Martyr! , by Kaveh Akbar

In Poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel, Cyrus Shams is a nexus of dissonant identities: He’s a 20-something Iranian-American, a straight-passing queer, a recovering addict, a depressive insomniac, and a writer who’s recently gotten some unflattering feedback. He’s also grieving his parents, who he considers to have died meaninglessly, his mother on a passenger flight out of Tehran that was accidentally shot down by the U.S. military (a real event that occurred in 1988), his father “anonymous[ly] after spending decades cleaning chicken shit on some corporate farm.” Martyr! traces Cyrus’s obsession with the idea of dying with a purpose, disrupting linear time and moving miraculously between worlds and perspectives. Sometimes, the dead speak for themselves; we hear from Cyrus’s mother and his uncle, who recounts his life as a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war. The book also shines with humor, including an imagined conversation between Cyrus’s mother and Lisa Simpson. Akbar’s prose courses with lyrical intelligence and offers an interrogation of whose pain matters — and what it means to live and die meaningfully — that is as politically urgent as it is deeply alive. — Jasmine Vojdani

The Rebel’s Clinic , by Adam Shatz

In these chaotic times, Franz Fanon’s work is constantly and enthusiastically referenced. A new generation of activists — as many before them — has repurposed Fanon’s words to describe our current travails, and to propose how we might move forward. Fanon persists in the activist imagination as a kind of radical soothsayer, an intellectual who can speak authoritatively about our moment because of his identity as a Black man and colonial subject who personally experienced the barbarity of a colonizing power. In The Rebel’s Clinic , Adam Shatz complicates our understanding of Fanon’s life and work, and persuasively conjures the human being who wrote the words that have inspired so many. Among Shatz’s most important interventions is to highlight Fanon’s vocation as a doctor who “treated the torturers by day and the tortured at night.” Shatz’s book is a chronicle of a man who, because of his identity and gifts, was obliged to constantly reconcile opposing ideas and ways of being. — T.F.

• best of 2024
• vulture lists
• tommy orange
• wandering stars
• help wanted
• adelle waldman
• the freaks came out to write

Most Viewed Stories

• Cinematrix No. 33: April 10, 2024
• Shōgun Recap: A Funeral in Edo
• Vanderpump Rules Recap: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Breakup
• Mark Knopfler on the Most Patient and Wistful Music of His Career
• Tokuma Nishioka Brought the Shōgun Set to Tears
• Every HBO Show, Ranked

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

More From Forbes

Colleen hoover books, ranked and in order.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Colleen Hoover attends the 2023 TIME100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Colleen Hoover has become a publishing sensation. She began self-publishing her books in 2012, became a phenom on BookTok, the book-talk wing of TikTok, and eventually signed with a traditional publisher, where her books have sold more than 23 million copies . Colleen Hoover books are known for tackling big issues, such as domestic abuse and heartbreak, and ratcheting up the emotions, whether she’s writing romance , suspense or young adult novels. Her ability to create relatable characters and her down-to-earth, everywoman approachability in real life have made Hoover one of the world’s most popular authors. She has written more than 20 books in just over a decade, and her bestselling novel, It Ends with Us , has sold more than 6 million copies.

Colleen Hoover Books In Order

Colleen Hoover has written 26 books. She penned 23 of them herself and teamed up with co-author Tarryn Fisher for the three-book Never Never series. Here are the 26 books Colleen Hoover has written in chronological order:

1. Slammed (2012)

2. Point of Retreat (2012)

3. Hopeless (2012)

4. This Girl (2013)

5. Losing Hope (2013)

6. Finding Cinderella (2013)

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

7. Maybe Someday (2014)

8. Ugly Love (2014)

9. Maybe Not (2014)

10. Never Never (2015)

11. Confess (2015)

12. Never Never: Part Two (2015)

13. November 9 (2015)

14. Too Late (2016)

15. Never Never: Part Three (2016)

16. It Ends with Us (2016)

17. Without Merit (2017)

18. All Your Perfects (2018)

19. Maybe Now (2018)

20. Verity (2018)

21. Finding Perfect (2019)

22. Regretting You (2019)

23. Heart Bones (2020)

24. Layla (2020)

25. Reminders of Him (2022)

26. It Starts With Us (2022)

Colleen Hoover attends 2023 TIME100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 26, 2023 in New York ... [+] City.

Colleen Hoover Books Ranked

Ranking Colleen Hoover’s 26 books is no easy task, as her novels have wide appeal and are all beloved by readers across the United States, as evidenced by their long stays on the New York Times and other bestseller lists. Based on critical and commercial success that have grown her net worth, here’s a ranking of Colleen Hoover books in order.

26. Too Late (2016)

Hoover had already established herself as a popular romance writer when she penned this thriller about Sloan, a woman who double-crosses her dangerous drug trafficking boyfriend (Asa) while falling in love with a DEA agent. But Asa won’t let Sloan get away, and she’s worried about how to continue supporting her ailing brother.

This book is best for fans of dark romance with some family complications thrown in. Colleen Hoover’s Too Late is available from HarperCollins .

25. Layla (2020)

No one writes tragic love stories like Hoover. Layla and Leeds’ promising romance is derailed by an attack that lands Layla in the hospital. She begins acting strangely during her recovery, and when the couple tries to save their relationship with a nostalgic trip to a B&B, the consequences could break them up—or worse.

This book is best for those who want suspense first, romance second. Colleen Hoover’s Layla is available from Montlake Romance .

24. Hopeless (2012)

The first book in the Hopeless series, Hopeless has an engaging storyline, but the later books in the series are even better. The book sets up the romance between Sky Davis and the challenging Dean Holder, who may not warrant the faith Sky has invested in him.

This book is best for romance fans who can’t get enough troubled male protagonists. Colleen Hoover’s Hopeless is available from Atria Books .

23. Maybe Now (2018)

Maybe Now marks the third and final book in the Maybe series, and it wraps up Ridge and Sydney’s story with one final challenge from Ridge’s past relationship with Maggie.

This book is best for those who have already read the first two books in the Maybe series. Colleen Hoover’s Maybe Now is available from Atria Books .

22. Losing Hope (2013)

Volume two of the Hopeless series dives into Dean Holder’s past and why he’s continued searching for a way to atone for his failure to save a girl when he was young. His inability to move out of that past could submarine his romance with Sky Davis.

This book is best for those who enjoyed Hopeless , book one in the series. Colleen Hoover’s Losing Hope is available from Atria Books .

21. Finding Cinderella (2013)

A novella squeezed into the Hopeless series following Losing Hope , Finding Cinderella follows the storybook meet-cute between Daniel and a girl who agrees to spend an hour with him pretending they’re in love. An hour later, they go their separate ways, but a year after, Daniel’s still struggling, until he meets the mysterious Six.

This book is best for Hopeless fans, obviously, but also those who love reimagining classic stories a la Sarah J. Maas. Colleen Hoover’s Finding Cinderella is available from Atria Books .

20. November 9 (2015)

Sooner or later, every author pens a book about a writer, and Hoover’s first effort features Ben, a novelist who meets Fallon on the day she’s moving across the country. They spend an amazing day together, which they recreate once a year. But has Ben been lying to Fallon all this time?

This book is best for fans of romances about big gestures and anyone who wished Sleepless in Seattle had a bit more edge. Colleen Hoover’s November 9 is available from Atria Books .

"November 9" is one of Colleen Hoover's many bestselling romances.

19. Maybe Not (2014)

This novella comes second in the Maybe series, and it profiles fan favorites Warren and Bridgette (who also appear in the final book). The two initially clash heads as roommates from hell, but the heat they generate may mean something else, too.

This book is best for fans of the Maybe series and enemies-to-lovers devotees. Colleen Hoover’s Maybe Not is available from Atria Books .

18. Point of Retreat (2012)

Another of Hoover’s earliest efforts, Point of Retreat is the second in the Slammed series. Layken and Will continue to fight for their relationship, despite so many challenges to their love—including a surprise from Will’s past that threatens to derail them permanently.

This book is best for those who want to see how Hoover’s writing has evolved in the past decade. Colleen Hoover’s Point of Retreat is available from Atria Books .

17. Never Never (2015)

Hoover can write compelling prose in any genre, including the first in her three-volume YA series written with Tarryn Fisher. In the original, best friends-turned-lovers Charlie Winwood and Silas Nash wake up one day with all the memories of their relationship wiped away. Why did it happen and can they recover?

This book is best for romance fans open to speculative and fantasy elements. Colleen Hoover’s Never Never: Part Three is available as part of the three-book volume from HarperCollins .

16. Never Never: Part Two (2015)

The saga of Charlie and Silas continues in part two of the novel. The three parts have now been combined into one set since it came out nearly a decade ago.

This book is best for fans of the original Never Never . Colleen Hoover’s Never Never: Part Three is available as part of the three-book volume from HarperCollins .

In part three, Charlie and Silas’s ruined love story reaches its exciting conclusion. All the evidence they’ve seen suggests they shouldn’t be together, but love often doesn’t follow logic.

This book is best for Never Never fans eager to hit the exciting conclusion. Colleen Hoover’s Never Never: Part Three is available as part of the three-book volume from HarperCollins .

14. Heart Bones (2020)

An unexpected death lands Beyah Grimes with her estranged father in Texas, and things get more complicated when she meets wealthy neighbor Samson. They promise it’s nothing more than a summer fling, but it quickly becomes apparent that’s a lie—and there are bigger problems they must deal with, too.

This book is best for those who enjoy opposites-attract romances. Colleen Hoover’s Heart Bones is available from Atria Books .

"Heart Bones" is Colleen Hoover's 23rd book.

13. Regretting You (2019)

A mother-daughter relationship rife with conflict becomes even more troubled after a tragic accident that takes the person closest to them. Mom Morgan wants to stop daughter Clara from repeating her mistakes, but as they investigate the accident, that becomes less likely.

This book is best for fans of family relationship dramas. Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You is available from Montlake Romance .

12. All Your Perfects (2018)

Book four in the Hopeless series sees Hoover hitting her stride. The book about Graham and Quinn asks if love is enough—and if not, what happens then?

This book is best for romantics who hope love will overcome all. Colleen Hoover’s All Your Perfects is available from Atria Books .

11. Finding Perfect (2019)

The conclusion of the Hopeless series returns several fan-favorite characters for a novella told from the perspective of Finding Cinderella ’s Daniel.

This book is best for fans of the Hopeless series—but you could also read this one first for a totally different take on the series. Colleen Hoover’s Finding Perfect is available from Atria Books .

10. This Girl (2013)

The third book in the Slammed series finds Will and Layken married (finally!) but their long-term outlook is no less uncertain. It turns out Will still has a few surprises from his past that rock Layken’s world and could derail their union.

This book is best for fans of the Slammed series and books about doomed love. Colleen Hoover’s This Girl is available from Atria Books .

9. Ugly Love (2014)

Hoover knows how to write an enemies-to-lovers story, and this tale of Tate Collins and Miles Archer clicks all the boxes on that most delicious of romance tropes. Their physical-only relationship develops unexpected complications tied in part to Miles’ mysterious past.

This book is best for enemies-to-lovers fans and those who like a little intrigue with their romance. Colleen Hoover’s Ugly Love is available from Atria Books .

Colleen Hoover's "Ugly Love" is another of her popular romances.

8. It Starts with Us (2022)

The sequel to Hoover’s most beloved book, It Ends with Us , It Starts with Us shifts perspectives to Atlas’s side of the story, as he and Lily reconnect in the messy aftermath of her divorce. Can they overcome the ire of her ex-husband to get a happily ever after?

This book is best for those who loved It Ends with Us and want more of Atlas’s story. Colleen Hoover’s It Starts with Us is available from Atria Books .

7. Confess (2015)

There’s just something about the propulsive plots of Hoover’s early novels. Young Auburn Reed has already had to put her past behind her, so when she meets artist Owen Gentry, she’s ready to commit—but he has some major secrets in his past that threaten their future.

This book is best for those who may have read one or two Hoover books and are hungry for more. Colleen Hoover’s Confess is available from Atria Books .

6. Without Merit (2017)

Hoover flexes some creative muscles with a different setup, chronicling an oddball family and the daughter who craves escape from their oppressive secrets. She sparks with a boy who seems to offer an out, but she may have to explode her family to get what she wants.

This book is best for anyone who loves fast-paced storytelling and interesting characters. Colleen Hoover’s Without Merit is available from Atria Books .

5. It Ends with Us (2016)

Hoover’s most popular book isn’t actually her best—but it’s pretty darn good. Hard worker Lily thinks she’s hit the jackpot with handsome neurosurgeon Ryle, but she discovers his disturbing dark side. Hoover drew inspiration from her mother’s story for this sometimes-difficult-to-read book. Trigger warnings for depictions of domestic abuse.

This book is best for those who want to know what all the Hoover fuss is about. Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us is available from Atria Books .

"It Ends with Us" and "It Starts With Us" are two of Colleen Hoover's most popular books.

4. Maybe Someday (2014)

The first book in the Maybe series, Maybe Someday follows Sydney as she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, then falls into the arms of mysterious next-door neighbor Ridge, a musician who enters a passionate affair with Sydney. But betrayal sits in the offing.

This book is best for fans of traditional romances with lots of excitement. Colleen Hoover’s Maybe Someday is available from Atria Books .

3. Reminders of Him (2022)

A nominee for Goodreads’ Best Romance of 2022 award, Reminders of Him chronicles the homecoming of Kenna, who served five years in prison and is now reunited with her young daughter. Kenna connects with bartender Ledger as she fights to win back the trust and custody of her beloved child.

This book is best for those looking for some depth to their romances. Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him is available from Montlake Romance .

2. Verity (2018)

Hoover tries something different with Verity , and it pays off. In this thriller, Lowen Ashleigh is hired to complete work on a bestselling series that Verity Crawford is too ill to complete. But when Lowen stumbles on the author’s unfinished autobiography with ghastly allegations, finishing the books becomes the last thing on her to-do list.

This book is best for those who love twists and gasps. Colleen Hoover’s Verity is available from Hachette Group Publishing .

Hoover’s debut book is a fan favorite for a reason. The first book in the Slammed series is the story of first love between Layken, who at 18 just lost her father, and Will, her new neighbor. But their burgeoning relationship is “slammed” before it can really begin by a startling revelation.

This book is best for traditional romance devotees and anyone looking for a compelling new series. Colleen Hoover’s Slammed is available from Atria Books .

Bottom Line

Colleen Hoover has become the romance novelist for the 21 st century. With her interesting character names, startling plot turns and unwavering devotion to love and happy endings, Hoover serves up romance novels you can enjoy over and over again.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Entertainment

Here Are the 12 New Books You Should Read in April

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.

T he best books coming in April include historian Erik Larson ’s latest nonfiction thriller, former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey ’s meditation on writing, and Salman Rushdie ’s agonizing account of the brutal knife attack he suffered two years ago. Other notable releases include a pair of career-spanning anthologies that celebrate the works of cultural critic Maggie Nelson and historian Nell Irvin Painter , as well as Amor Towles ’ first collection of short stories. Alyssa Cole ’s new mystery features a protagonist struggling with dissociative identity disorder, while former therapist Patric Gagne hopes to recontextualize the term “sociopath” with her debut memoir of the same name. 

Here, the 12 best books to read this month.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories , Julia Alvarez (April 2)

In Julia Alvarez ’s seventh adult novel, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, acclaimed writer Alma Cruz inherits a piece of her homeland, the Dominican Republic. After the death of her close friend and fellow author, Alma decides to retire and turn her plot of land into a graveyard for the unpublished tales she’d like to finally put to rest. But just because Alma is ready to abandon her characters, some of whom are based on real historical figures, it doesn’t mean they are ready to go peacefully. Mystical and moving, The Cemetery of Untold Stories shows why some stories must be told no matter how hard you try to bury them.

Buy Now : The Cemetery of Untold Stories on Bookshop | Amazon

Village Weavers , Myriam J. A. Chancy (April 2)

For fans of Elena Ferrante : Myriam J. A. Chancy’s Village Weavers is a wistful look at a complicated female friendship that spans decades and continents. Growing up in1940s Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Gertie and Sisi are the best of friends until a devastating secret that bonds their families tears them apart. The book follows the two women as they fall in and out of one another’s lives amid a violent dictatorship, and struggle with infertility and terminal illness. When Sisi gets an unexpected call from Gertie in 2002, decades after they last spoke, she must decide whether she is ready to forgive—or forget—all that they have shared.

Buy Now : Village Weavers on Bookshop | Amazon

Sociopath , Patric Gagne (April 2)

Writer and former therapist Patric Gagne first discovered she was a sociopath in college. But, in her provocative debut memoir, Sociopath , she admits that there were signs long before she was diagnosed. With incredible candor, she details the violent outbursts she exhibited as a child that would lead to near run-ins with the law in her teens and 20s. “Most of the time I felt nothing,” she writes, “so I did bad things to make the nothingness go away.” Despite her lifelong lack of empathy, shame, and guilt, she has become a loving wife and mother, something she knows doesn’t fit with pop culture’s portrayal of sociopaths as murderers, villains, and monsters. In her memoir, Gagne looks to destigmatize the often misunderstood mental disorder, now more commonly known as antisocial personality disorder , while offering compassion to those, like her, who are trying to change what it means to be a sociopath.

Buy Now : Sociopath on Bookshop | Amazon

We Loved It All , Lydia Millet (April 2)

Lydia Millet ’s first foray into nonfiction, We Loved It All: A Memory of Life, questions what humans lose when they ignore their connection to the animal kingdom. With great passion and indignation, the acclaimed novelist behind 2022’s Dinosaurs takes aim at corporations whose greed has endangered the world’s wildlife. She looks at how the “ Crying Indian” anti-litter campaign from the 1970s allowed big business to place the onus on consumers to clean up the environmental mess they played the largest role in causing. By sharing personal anecdotes about her own childhood, as well as the experiences of raising her son and daughter, Millet shows how caring about the smallest creatures that live among us is tied to the fight for economic justice around the globe. With her mournful yet often hopeful rumination on our current state of existence, Millet reminds us that we are not alone in this world.

Buy Now : We Loved It All on Bookshop | Amazon

Like Love , Maggie Nelson (April 2)

Like Love draws on two decades of Maggie Nelson’s career as a critic of art in all its forms. The collection of previously published work, arranged in chronological order, includes essays on, tributes to, and conversations with creatives the author deeply admires: musician Björk, poet Eileen Myles, fine artist Kara Walker , the late queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , novelist Ben Lerner , philosopher Judith Butler , and writer and theater critic Hilton Als, whose words inspired the book’s title. When examining the art she loves, Nelson uses incisive and analytical prose, but her scholarly style doesn’t take away from the joy she feels for the work. “Words aren’t just what’s left,” she writes of why we need criticism. “They’re what we have to offer.”

Buy Now : Like Love on Bookshop | Amazon

Table for Two , Amor Towles (April 2)

Amor Towles ’ Table For Two is an intimate collection of six short stories that take place in early 2000s New York, and a 1930s Hollywood-set novella that picks up where his 2011 debut, Rules of Civility , left off. The book, which was written while he was meant to be working on his fourth novel , focuses on brief but fateful encounters between strangers, would-be business partners, and estranged relatives. Most of these conversations take place at a table set for two, the perfect place to share a tête-à-tête about forgery or bootlegging or even the blackmailing of screen legend Olivia de Havilland . Table For Two is a smorgasbord of deliciously mischievous tales imbued with Towles’ signature wit and worldliness.

Buy Now : Table for Two on Bookshop | Amazon

The House of Being , Natasha Trethewey (April 9)

In The House of Being, which was originally delivered as a 2022 prize lecture at Yale University, Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey takes readers back to her grandmother’s home outside of Gulfport, Miss., where the author learned to read and write. It was there that her neighbors flew Confederate flags with pride, and her late mother—whose death at the hands of her ex-husband was the focus of Trethewey’s best-selling 2020 memoir, Memorial Drive — took to singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” any time she passed one. It was also where, Trethewey would later learn, formerly enslaved men and women were educated after the Civil War, their stories lost to time because they had not been written down. With The House of Being, Trethewey doesn’t just explore the reasons why she writes. She also offers a compassionate argument for why we must all be the authors of our own stories.

Buy Now : The House of Being on Bookshop | Amazon

One of Us Knows , Alyssa Cole (April 16)

Best-selling author Alyssa Cole ’s latest novel, One of Us Knows, is a paranoia-filled murder mystery full of twists and turns. Preservationist Kenetria “Ken” Nash has taken a job as the caretaker of a gothic castle on a remote island on the Hudson River in the hopes of getting back on her feet. For the last six years, Ken has struggled with dissociative identity disorder, which causes her to, without much warning, “switch” between multiple identities. Lately, Ken has found it harder to keep her “headmates”—precocious toddler Keke, judgy perfectionist Della, and the sophisticated Solomon, to name a few—in check. When a man from Ken’s past is found dead in the historic home, she must enlist her headmates’ help in hopes of clearing her name, all the while knowing she could be the killer she is looking for.

Buy Now : One of Us Knows on Bookshop | Amazon

Knife , Salman Rushdie (April 16)

On Aug. 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed nearly 10 times while at a speaking engagement in western New York. With his new memoir, Knife, Rushdie writes about the violent attack that left him with PTSD , limited mobility in his left hand, and the loss of sight in his right eye, offering an intimate and often harrowing account of what happened that day and what life has been like for him since. (The trial for Rushdie’s alleged attacker , who has been charged with attempted murder, has been postponed due to the release of this book, since it can serve as potential evidence.) Rushdie has said that writing Knife was an important step in the healing process. “This was a necessary book for me to write,” he said in a statement . “A way to take charge of what happened, and to answer violence with art.”

Buy Now : Knife on Bookshop | Amazon

I Just Keep Talking , Nell Irvin Painter (April 23)

For the past five decades, acclaimed writer, artist, historian, and critic Nell Irvin Painter’s work has felt ahead of its time. I Just Keep Talking, a decades-spanning collection of more than 40 of her previously published essays, shows just how prescient her work really was. The anthology includes a 1982 essay on the effect white educators’ reluctance to teach Black resistance would have on how the history of slavery is taught in America . In other pieces, she examines how Spike Lee ’s film Malcolm X reinvented the activist and breaks down the gender and racial stereotypes that hurt Anita Hill ’s case against Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. A more recent essay from 2022 offers a strong warning to Democrats: If you “jettison voting rights in order to court white voters without college degrees,” she writes, you’ll risk repeating the mistakes of Reconstruction . This insightful anthology shows why Painter, now 81 years old, is still one of the most important voices in America.

Buy Now : I Just Keep Talking on Bookshop | Amazon

Lucky , Jane Smiley (April 23)

As the title of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley ’s coming-of-age novel Lucky implies, protagonist Jodie Rattler has always been more fortunate than most. While attending college at Penn State in the 1960s, Jodie decides she’d like to become a folk singer, so she records a song that becomes a surprise hit. She soon finds herself living like a true bohemian, recording an album in New York, touring the country, and earning comparisons to musical luminaries like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell . But as the pressure builds for her to leave school and focus on her music career full time, she finds herself questioning her future. Lucky offers a tender look at one young woman’s journey to understand who she has become and who she’d like to be when she finally grows up.

Buy Now : Lucky on Bookshop | Amazon

The Demon of Unrest , Erik Larson (April 30)

After tackling World War II by focusing on Winston Churchill’s leadership during the Blitz with The Splendid and the Vile , one of TIME’s best books of 2020 , Erik Larson returns with a historical nonfiction thriller set before the start of the U.S. Civil War . The Demon of Unrest looks at the chaotic five-month period between the November 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln and the April 1861 surrender of Fort Sumter , which marked the official beginning of the war. Using journals, slave ledgers, plantation records, and secret correspondence, Larson offers an intriguing look at a young country on the brink of collapse. He reexamines the lead-up to the four-year conflict by putting the focus not only on the rebellion’s major players, but also on those on the periphery: Maj. Robert Anderson, the Union commander at Fort Sumter, Edmund Ruffin, an agricultural reformer and ardent secessionist, James H. Hammond, a senator and wealthy plantation owner from South Carolina, and Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wealthy wife of a lawyer and senator whose diary became an invaluable resource for the author.

Buy Now : The Demon of Unrest on Bookshop | Amazon

More Must-Reads From TIME

• Exclusive: Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel
• Jane Fonda Champions Climate Action for Every Generation
• Stop Looking for Your Forever Home
• The Sympathizer Counters 50 Years of Hollywood Vietnam War Narratives
• The Bliss of Seeing the Eclipse From Cleveland
• Hormonal Birth Control Doesn’t Deserve Its Bad Reputation
• The Best TV Shows to Watch on Peacock
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

You May Also Like

10 Best Sci-Fi TV Shows Based on Books, Ranked

W hether it's within the pages of books or on TV screens, sci-fi narratives are always thrilling. The best of them often stimulate the mind and captivate people’s imaginations while remaining grounded in reality. The increasing demand for sci-fi stories imply that viewers will not tire of this genre any time soon. Considering that unique and intriguing science fiction TV shows and movies continue to be churned out, it is evident that sci-fi is one of the most prevalent genres today.

Fans of sci-fi books understand the thrill of seeing their favorite stories adapted for the screen. If skillfully executed, seeing characters come to life deepens the reader’s connection to them. These visual adaptations not only bring intricate details in source materials to life, but also create a more immersive and tangible experience that extends beyond the reader’s imagination. Silo , for example, is one of the newest sci-fi TV series based on books, which has garnered a dedicated audience after it premiered in May 2023.

These 10 sci-fi TV shows bring the imaginative worlds created by authors to a larger audience.

Brave New World (2020)

Brave new world.

Release Date 2016-00-00

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Brave New World is loosely based on Aldous Huxley’s classic novel of the same name, which is set in a future where technological and scientific advancements have created a highly controlled and stable society. While everyone may seem happy in this utopian world, a hidden decay lurks beneath the surface.

What Makes It Great

This sci-fi TV show boasts a thought-provoking narrative that will appeal to both fans and non-fans of the source material. Despite not following the book closely, the series compensates with its great acting, excellent pacing, camera work, and visual effects. Rooted in the book’s universe, Brave New World proves to be an absolute enjoyment across its nine episodes for those willing to see it as its own story. Overall, it is a riveting sci-fi series that exposes the hypocrisies of the modern world.

Stream on Peacock

Under the Dome (2013-2015)

Under the dome.

Release Date 2013-06-24

Cast Eddie Cahill, Mackenzie Lintz, Alexander Koch, Rachelle Lefevre, Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, Colin Ford

Main Genre Drama

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, Under the Dome unfolds in the small town of Chester’s Hill, where a massive transparent dome descends, cutting the town from the outside world. As the town grapples with this abrupt isolation, tension arises, prompting characters to delve into the mystery behind the doom and its origins.

Opinions on Under the Dome are mixed, with some commending its suspenseful premise and exploration of individuals trapped in a confined environment. Others, however, argue that it deviates from its source material and has pacing issues. Nonetheless, for enthusiasts of Stephen King’s works or those who enjoy sci-fi shows set in small towns, this series proves to be intriguing, especially when viewed with an open mind. Notably, this sci-fi series features great love stories between its characters, emerging as one of its strongest points.

Stream on Paramount+

The 100 (2014-2020)

Release Date 2014-03-19

Cast Marie Avgeropoulos, Lindsey Morgan, Richard Harmon, Eliza Taylor, Bob Morley, jr bourne

Genres Family, Drama, Thriller

The 100 is a dystopian sci-fi series that sees the Earth no longer habitable, with the world's population residing in various spacecrafts. After some time, 100 delinquents are sent back to the planet's surface to test its habitability. While there, they form a new colony, but also face off against multiple threats that include, among many things, human survivors with no restraint and mutated creatures. Beyond its simple survival story, The 100 incorporates elements of political intrigue and power struggles among characters, making it more intriguing.

While there are some significant changes in plot, character development, and narrative direction, The 100 shares some fundamental concepts with Krass Morgan’s book series, on which it is based. Viewers who expect an exact adaptation may be disappointed, but the TV series is equally intriguing as the book, never afraid to delve into darker themes while constantly keeping viewers guessing about the fate of the characters and, by extension, humanity.

Stream on Netflix

Related: Best Sci-Fi Movies of 1950s, Ranked

Altered Carbon (2018-2020)

Altered carbon.

Release Date 2018-02-02

Cast Renee Goldsberry, Will Yun Lee, Anthony Mackie

Genres Sci-Fi

Set in a futuristic urban landscape reminiscent of Blade Runner , The Matrix and Akira , this Cyberpunk cinematic work centers on Takeshi Koviacs, who awakens centuries after his death to discover his consciousness has been placed in a new body. A gritty noir series, Altered Carbon is based on Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 novel of the same name.

While screen adaptations can’t translate every detail of a book, Altered Carbon effectively captures Takeshi Koviacs’ journey in a strange world marked by a big divide between the privileged and the less fortunate. Despite certain discrepancies between the book and series that may be noticed by those who have read the source material, Altered Carbon will be enjoyed by viewers who appreciate dystopian futures with a blend of well-choreographed action and philosophical exploration. The series boasts a compelling combination of an intriguing plot, strong characters, thought-provoking themes, and more, just like Morgan's novel.

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-Present)

The handmaid's tale.

Release Date 2017-04-26

Cast O.T. Fagbenle, Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Joseph Fiennes, Ann Dowd

Genres Drama

Regarded as one of Hulu’s finest series , The Handmaid’s Tale unfolds in an authoritarian regime where women are treated like second-class citizens and any who tries to escape is punished. June is one of those who tried to escape her fate in this oppressive society but ends up getting caught and is forced to become a Handmaid, tasked with bearing children for childless government officials.

The Handmaid’s Tale transforms one of the most celebrated works of contemporary literature into a compelling yet nightmarish television series. It undoubtedly captivates viewers, immersing them in the miseries and emotions of its characters. Critically acclaimed for its faithful adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s book, the show, like its literary counterpart, has earned praise for its powerful exploration of real-life injustices and the dangers of religious extremism.

Stream on Hulu

Foundation (2021-Present)

Release Date 2020-00-00

Cast Lee Pace, Terrence Mann, Jared Harris

Inspired by the classic sci-fi novel series by American author Isaac Asimov, whose work has had a profound influence on the science fiction genre, the high-concept sci-fi series, Foundation , follows a band of characters as they join forces to prevent humankind from falling into the dark age.

While the series does stray somewhat from the book, Foundation is quite exceptional in its own rights. Although fans of the book may not be entirely happy with its deviation from the book's core aspects, some viewers agree that it is an epic story with an intellectual depth seen in its source material. For those willing to look beyond its faults, this AppleTV+ original emerges as a well-crafted, modernized sci-fi series with a cool concept, well-executed character arcs, and outstanding performances.

Stream on AppleTV+

The Man in the High Castle (2015-2019)

The man in the high castle.

Release Date 2015-01-15

Cast Ferry van Tongeren, Jaap Sinke, Chelah Horsdal, Jason O'Mara, Rufus Sewell, Brennan Brown, Alexa Davalos

The Man in the High Castle is a well-crafted portrayal of an alternate world where Nazi Germany and Japan both won World War II, and subsequently divided up America. Various characters living in this divided America navigate political intrigue, resistance movements, and a series of films depicting an alternate reality where the Allies won the war.

The Man in the High Castle is as ambitious and thought-provoking as Philip K. Dick’s historical novel, from which it is adapted. Despite its flaws, the series is a unique and visually striking series that delves into the darker side of authoritarian rule, while capturing humans' indomitable spirit in the face of harsh realities and adversity. As a brilliant alternate history TV show, it does its best to earnestly follow its well-written source material, with actors skillfully breathing life into both virtuous and villainous characters.

Stream on Prime Video

The Peripheral (2022)

The peripheral.

Release Date 2022-10-21

Cast T'Nia Miller, Gary Carr, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, Jack Reynor, Chloe Grace Moretz

Genres Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction

Rating TV-MA

Ranking among the best sci-fi series on Prime Video , The Peripheral is adapted from the 2014 novel by the renowned sci-fi author, William Gibson. The narrative revolves around a gamer who, after witnessing a murder in virtual reality, embarks on a journey to save humanity from a menacing force bent on destroying it.

The Peripheral is one of those adaptations that feel like you're actually watching the book come to life. It’s an exciting and original Prime Video show that demands viewers’ attention right from the onset as its twisty plot unfolds. While it’s often praised as a solid sci-fi series with great visuals and outstanding performances, others feel its premise is not fully developed. Despite any shortcomings, viewers who enjoy mysterious and engaging sci-fi will find satisfaction in both the book and the series.

Silo (2023-Present)

Release Date 2023-05-05

Cast Rebecca Ferguson, Common, Harriet Walter, Will Patton, Tim Robbins

Genres Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Creator Graham Yost

Read Our Review

An AppleTV+ series, Silo is an adaptation of the first book, Wool , from Hugh Howey’s trilogy of the same name. Set in a distant future where Earth has become uninhabitable due to toxic air and environmental hazards, this dystopian series follows a group of survivors who live in a massive underground structure known as the Silo.

Much like the book, the series presents an engaging storyline with great world-building and a gradual revelation of truth that keeps viewers invested in the characters’ fate. While some aspects of the show may be puzzling to viewers, fans of the book will, however, have a better understand of the unfolding of events and characters. It is an interesting and suspenseful dystopian series that many may find difficult to stop, just as readers similarly couldn’t put down the book.

The Expanse (2015-2022)

The expanse.

Release Date 2015-00-00

Cast Wes Chatham, Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Cas Anvar

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi

The Expanse is adpated from the series of sci-fi novels written by James S. A. Corey, the collective pseudonym for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Remaining true to its source material throughout its six seasons, the series begins with a mysterious conspiracy involving a missing woman which threatens the fate of earth. As the tension escalates, a tough detective and a renegade ship’s captain join forces to investigate the unfolding crisis.

The Expanse stands as a show committed to closely following its source materials, even though there may be minor differences between the show and the book, due to the latter’s more detailed nature. Also, while the book tells the story from the point of view of certain characters, the show unfolds through the perspective of various characters. Nevertheless, it is one mind-blowing sci-fi series .

In thrilling historical fiction, powerful women find their voices

Revisiting ella fitzgerald, marilyn monroe and mary, queen of scots.

Ella Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe and Mary, Queen of Scots, are among the forceful women highlighted in these stirring works that mix fact and fiction.

‘The Girls We Sent Away,’ by Meagan Church

After teenaged Lorraine Delford becomes pregnant, her parents abandon her to a home for what her father calls “girls like you.” On the drive, her parents force her to lie on the floor of the family car so neighbors won’t notice her condition. In this compassionate novel about loss and broken dreams, Lorraine and the other pregnant teens Church so lovingly creates pay tribute to the estimated 4 million women and girls banished to U.S. maternity homes in the mid-20th century. Many were forced or tricked into surrendering their babies, part of what’s become known as the “Baby Scoop Era.” Family and strangers condemned them as “loose girls” when they were often innocents tricked or pressured into having sex. The author vividly describes the austere institution where girls were deprived of education and left clueless about the birth process. The novel’s theme — about the trauma caused by victim shaming — will leave readers heavy hearted.

‘Becoming Madam Secretary,’ by Stephanie Dray

In 1933, after Frances Perkins is sworn in as the first female Cabinet secretary, a journalist asks her, “How should we address you?” “Miss Perkins is all right with me,” she responds, but the speaker of the House pronounces: “She will be addressed, hereafter, as Madam Secretary.” Dray’s portrayal of the exchange is a poignant reminder of Perkins’s unique place in history, and this portrait of the labor secretary’s remarkable life details her dedication to eradicating child labor, protecting immigrants and establishing social security programs. In this immersive, first-person narrative, Dray places us alongside Perkins as she works with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to pull the U.S. out of the Great Depression. Dray makes us privy to Perkins’s inner fortitude as she fights to solidify a legacy she knows will impact other women who want to work in government, even as she faces the wrath of men who, like one letter writer, demands she resign so that “a red-blooded HE-MAN” can take her place.

‘The Tower,’ by Flora Carr

The queer historical fiction genre is growing, and Carr’s worthy addition is a devastating portrait of what it was like to be a woman in the 16th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, was branded a murderer, a whore, a heretic; her beauty and fertility were held up as evidence that she was too sexual. Rebels locked her in a damp and dirty tower in Scotland’s Lochleven Castle for nearly a year and forced her to abdicate her throne. Through Carr’s lively re-imagining, we huddle with Mary and the women imprisoned with her as they plot an escape and recall with nostalgia the time Mary disguised herself as a man to freely walk the streets of Edinburgh. Meanwhile, the forced solitude of prison frees two of Mary’s companions to explore their sexual identity. Carr imbues this visceral story with the female empowerment that much of male-centric history lacks.

‘All We Were Promised,’ by Ashton Lattimore

In the years leading up to the Civil War, Philadelphia was home to thousands of free Black residents. Some were wealthy, like the family of Nell Garner, one of the three inspiring women at the center of this cinematic debut set in 1837. Nell befriends Charlotte Walker, who pretends to be the enslaved servant of furniture craftsman James Vaughn, even though she and James are hiding their true identities after escaping from their enslavers. Disregarding laws that punish people for aiding runaways, Charlotte and Nell conspire to help Evie, another enslaved woman, escape to the North. Draped in the history of Philadelphia’s thriving abolition movement, this superb novel shares edge-of-your-seat suspense with classic thrillers as the window to help Evie begins to close, endangering the lives of all three women.

‘Can’t We Be Friends,’ by Denny S. Bryce and Eliza Knight

Ella Fitzgerald was the “Queen of Jazz” and Marilyn Monroe the “Queen of the Silver Screen.” In this bittersweet confection of a novel, dusted with historical record and fact-inspired fantasy, their friendship comes luminously to life. Knight and Bryce build the novel around pivotal events: their traumatic childhoods and episodes in which the women clawed back against the husbands, boyfriends, record labels and movie studios that wanted to control them. Ella’s additional burden was racism; Marilyn’s was drug addiction. Ella is criticized for her plus-sized body, and Marilyn is deified and hated for her sexuality. Their powerful stories are told in alternating chapters that perfectly meld while paying homage to the power of their friendship.

Carol Memmott is a writer in Austin.

More from Book World

Love everything about books? Make sure to subscribe to our Book Club newsletter , where Ron Charles guides you through the literary news of the week.

Best books of 2023: See our picks for the 10 best books of 2023 or dive into the staff picks that Book World writers and editors treasured in 2023. Check out the complete lists of 50 notable works for fiction and the top 50 nonfiction books of last year.

Find your favorite genre: Three new memoirs tell stories of struggle and resilience, while five recent historical novels offer a window into other times. Audiobooks more your thing? We’ve got you covered there, too . If you’re looking for what’s new, we have a list of our most anticipated books of 2024 . And here are 10 noteworthy new titles that you might want to consider picking up this April.

Still need more reading inspiration? Super readers share their tips on how to finish more books . Or let poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib explain why he stays in Ohio . You can also check out reviews of the latest in fiction and nonfiction .

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Advertisement

Supported by

Two Women, United by Climate Change and the Man They Both Married

In her far-reaching latest novel, “The Limits,” Nell Freudenberger forges connections between the global and the familial.

• Share full article

By Charles Finch

Charles Finch is the author, most recently, of “What Just Happened,” a chronicle of 2020.

THE LIMITS, by Nell Freudenberger

“The future is already here,” goes a line usually attributed to William Gibson. “It’s just not very evenly distributed.” So it can seem with climate change. Floods in Libya, temperatures above 125 degrees in China and Iran, wildfires across Hawaii and Canada and Tenerife: Those of us lucky enough not to be directly affected by these multiplying events can only watch from the intimate but infinite distance of our phone screens, a peculiarly modern kind of powerlessness.

In her involving new novel, “The Limits,” the gifted veteran author Nell Freudenberger wants to close this gap. The book is set during the first year of the pandemic, partly in New York and partly in Tahiti; its subject, as it roves among characters in the two places, is the essential human similarity of our complicated families and communities everywhere on this imperiled planet.

“The Limits” revolves around two women, the past and current wives of a prominent Manhattan cardiologist. The ex-wife is Nathalie, a French scientist studying coral at the CRIOBE, a research station on the island of Mo’orea in French Polynesia. As the book begins, she sends her daughter, the bright but stubborn 15-year-old Pia, to live in New York with her father, Stephen, and his new wife, Kate, a high school teacher who has just become pregnant.

Some novelists might confine their story to this quartet. Freudenberger, whose work has been ambitious in its scope since her sensational 2003 debut collection, “Lucky Girls,” introduces an additional focal character, Athyna. She’s a student of Kate’s from a disadvantaged background, and has to balance her schoolwork and standard teen problems with caring — tenderly but distractedly — for her 4-year-old nephew.

By the time Athyna meets Pia, in the culmination of the book’s plotlines, the reader already knows how different their lives are. Take what they eat. Athyna makes her nephew mac and cheese:“They were out of milk, but Marcus didn’t care. He was happy with the cheese powder mixed with some butter and the macaroni.” Not much later, Pia’s father goes shopping and picks up “local milk and butter, swordfish, baby lettuce and butternut squash. Fresh sage and rosemary, and … at the last minute, a plum pie and some honeycomb ice cream. He thought they deserved a treat.”

These contrasts sound like the grounding for a big, global, omnidirectionally curious midcareer novel, reminiscent of the work of Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie or Jonathan Franzen. And Freudenberger, with topical contemporary novels like “The Newlyweds” and “The Dissident” behind her, gamely meets that challenge.

But more often, in fact, “The Limits” feels microscopically small. The book’s success in drawing together its threads is mixed — Pia and Athyna’s meeting doesn’t lead to much, and a fuzzy subplot hinting at a possible terrorist act is swept quickly away in the finale — but it is easily most alive and nuanced when Freudenberger is writing about contemporary New York parenting, the impossible task of raising a teenager with quicksilver moods, the sheer physical exhaustion of it all. The pregnant Kate “looked tired,” the author tells us in one of many beautifully alert moments, “as if the baby was the one doing all the sleeping.”

Partly, this is doubtless because the novel is set in the homebound months of 2020. And Freudenberger is scrupulous in her depictions of Tahiti, as well as the lives of public high school kids in New York; the book’s acknowledgments reveal she visited French Polynesia for research and has long taught as a visiting writer in Brooklyn schools.

On the other hand, there’s still something slightly paternalistic about the book’s tone. “The Limits” is effortlessly attuned to wealth, full of references to second homes in Amagansett (but barely a shack!) and the legendarily illiberal Maidstone Club; Stephen’s mother, a retired doctor, is casually revealed to be on the board of the New York City Ballet. All of this feels less consciously fabricated than the scenes about Tahitians or Athyna, and Freudenberger certainly seems from the outside to belong to the affluent milieu she describes — a graduate of Harvard living with her husband and children in Brooklyn, recipient in her distinguished career of a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Pulitzer grant.

In other words: Does she agree that her characters deserve that treat?

It’s a sad fact of the novel as a genre that so worryingly many of the great ones can be boiled down to the hypothetical question “What if a rich person had to experience a crisis?” “The Limits” is that kind of book, it must be conceded. But to her vast credit, Freudenberger has a brain and a conscience, and it’s clear that she is trying to simultaneously scrutinize her experiences as a particular kind of parent in New York and tie them to a larger world. If she sometimes feels pinioned between the two — well, so are we all.

The very best parts of “The Limits” are its descriptions of the natural scenery around Mo’orea. Perhaps the key theme of Freudenberger’s career is dislocation — the idea that seeing the foreign in the world can elicit, too, the foreign within us — and Nathalie, the book’s watchful conscience, personifies this idea. She observes her beloved corals in despondent farewell, sentient beings “that had been around when the pharaohs ruled Egypt … a whole miraculous world that had been undisturbed because nothing had changed there — not the darkness or the pressure or the clarity of the water — for all those thousands of years.”

Soon enough, climate change will cease to be a problem divided this neatly between rich and poor. We are so laughably ignorant of what we have wrought, “The Limits” suggests, that we can scarcely conceive of what we may yet lose. Freudenberger’s writing, which has so often touched on the personal ramifications of the impersonal vectors of globalism and science, has in a way been leading to exactly this subject. But it is the usual story, familiar to fathers and mothers and caretakers like Athyna the world over. We can pretend that catastrophes will always happen elsewhere, until they’re happening to us.

THE LIMITS | Nell Freudenberger | Knopf | 368 pp. | $29

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

The actress Rebel Wilson, known for roles in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, gets vulnerable about her weight loss, sexuality and money  in her new memoir.

“City in Ruins” is the third novel in Don Winslow’s Danny Ryan trilogy and, he says, his last book. He’s retiring in part to invest more time into political activism .

​​Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation,” is “wildly optimistic” about Gen Z. Here’s why .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .