Welcome one and all to the list that makes me gush, rush to multiple bookstores and publish Amazon lists in the hopes that one or two of the people who would like to purchase me Christmas gifts will take a peep at the list and purchase me one of these gems. I also LOVE the satisfaction of going through the list and seeing which books I’ve already read. OK, so I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.
Each year, the New York Times publishes a list of the Top 100 books of the year — they then make final cull to discuss their top 10. In previous years, Brittany and I have made a decision to tackle this list, first in the first quarter of the following year, then in the next year and it has since become a list that we look at, with a hopeful nod, but some of them just aren’t our cups of tea. But, I digress again. First, let’s get into the list!
New York Times top 100 books of 2020
You can access the full list here. I encourage you to peruse it yourself and perhaps choose at least one book you wouldn’t normally have chosen for yourself. Here are a few of my reactions from looking it over.
Books I’ve read (or am reading)
(Not going to lie, the brevity of this list is a kick to my pride.)
Books I’m excited about
- Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism Anne Case & Angus Deaton
- Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreich
- The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir by Wayetu Moore
- Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
- Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump
- Fallout by Lesley M.M. Blume
- Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family
- Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
- The Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid
- The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargave
- Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
- Monogamy by Sue Miller
- A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Cabterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith by Timothy Egan
- Sea Wife by Amity Gaige
- Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro
- Sisters by Daisy Johnson
- The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg
- This is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home by Lauren Sandler
- The Tunnel by A. B. Yehoshu
- Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
- Until the End of Time by Brian Greene
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret MacMillan
- Why I Don’t Write and Other Stories by Susan Minot
Ok, so now that I’ve basically copied the entire list and put it together here for you, what are you looking forward to?
Reminder, or in case you’re new here, the Top 10 Book List will be released on Monday! Check back to the New York Times website to see where your favorites landed.
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By My Pen 