Books I read in 2020
I read at least 54 books in 2020. Below are most of the ones I finished.
Books with one asterisk are the ones that I liked the most, that made the most lasting impression, or that improved my writing. Books with two asterisks are the ones I finished, but didn’t find memorable. (If I don’t recall them very well, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy them.) Books with no asterisks are the ones I remember enjoying without finding special meaning or personal value.
Not on this list: Ten or so books I started to read and didn’t finish, for one reason or another. A few of these I just plain didn’t like. (Examples: The Last Life; Trust Exercise). A few were collections I didn’t intend to read cover to cover. (Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law; Reborn: Journals and Notebooks 1947-1963.) A few were nonfiction/self-help/psychology books that I browsed for curiosity’s sake. (The Drama of the Gifted Child; Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.) I’m always looking for principles and words that can help me understand my own experiences — both for the sake of understanding and so that I can better describe my inner world in my writing.
The list is in chronological order according to the date I finished reading.
My Name Is Lucy Barton**, Elizabeth Strout
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit**, Jeanette Winterson
Your Resonant Self: Guided Meditations and Exercises to Engage Your Brain’s Capacity for Healing*, Sarah Peyton
The Road from Coorain*, Jill Ker Conway
The Draw: A Memoir*, Lee Siegel
Fled**, Meg Keneally
What Is Missing, Michael Frank
Harriet the Spy *, Louise Fitzhugh
The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
High School, Tegan Quin
The Other Side: A Memoir, Lacy M. Johnson
Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma, Melanie, , Brooks
The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, Milan Kundera
1984, George Orwell
300 Arguments**, Sarah Manguso
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, Ronan Farrow
The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life*, Marion Roach Smith
The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order, Joan Wickersham
All I Ever Wanted: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Memoir, Kathy Valentine
The Magical Language of Others**, E.J. Koh
The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose*, Alice Munro
Drinking: A Love Story, Caroline Knapp
Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation, Rachel Cusk
Lives of Girls and Women*, Alice Munro
The Night Swimmers, Peter Rock
Writers & Lovers*, Lily King
Mémoire de fille (I read it in English), Annie Ernaux
The Post-Birthday World*, Lionel Shriver
Lurking: How a Person Became a User**, Joanne, McNeil
I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters*, Rabih Alameddine
The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon
The Inner Voice of Love, Henri J.M. Nouwen
Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions*, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Tomboyland: Essays, Melissa Faliveno
The Skin Above My Knee**, Marcia Butler
Dear Life*, Alice Munro
The Idiot*, Elif Batuman
Luster**, Raven Leilani
Chemistry**, Weike Wang
Too Much of Not Enough: A Memoir, Jane Pollak
Purple Hibiscus*, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Monogamy**, Sue Miller
Shuggie Bain*, Douglas,, Stuart
The Glass Castle*, Jeannette Walls
Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov
How to Change Your Mind* (psychedelics), Michael Pollan
22 Minutes of Unconditional Love**, Daphne Merkin
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir*, Jenn Shapland
Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me, Deirdre Bair
Wild*, Cheryl Strayed
The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May
The Topeka School, Ben Lerner
Torch, Cheryl Strayed
