I was so busy working though the worst of the COVID pandemic here that I actually didn't read much during the first wave, so my reading highlights are mostly more recent. Here are books I've tagged as "2020-best" (read in, not published in) at
The StoryGraph
Judas Unchained (January)
Sea People: In Search of the Ancient Navigators of the Pacific (June)
The Conjuror's Bird (September)
Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar (October)
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (November)
Two books published in 2020 that I scored 4/5, meaning they missed the cut for my "best" list
Jeeves and the Leap of Faith: A Novel in Homage to P. G. Wodehouse (November)
The Shooting at Chateau Rock (September)
As for books I'm looking forward to being released next year, top of the list is
A Desolation Called Peace book 2 in Arkady Martine's
Teixcalaan series. I am keen to see if it is good as
A Memory Called Empire