What were your highlights from 2020?

[Dazrin]

I'm posting this a little early this year because I'm tired of 2020 and want to be done with it already. Hopefully, this will help us reflect on some of the good things we experienced in 2020.

So, take some time to review your 2020 Challenge List, your GoodReads Year in Books, or your book diary then make some suggestions for everyone here as we make our 2021 reading lists, figure out what threads to lurk in at the Deals forum, and fill out our watch lists.

It'll take me a few weeks to know for sure what I want to post but wanted to have some prompts ready for everyone as we prepare for 2021.

First, what books did the best job at keeping your thoughts away from how awful 2020 was? What were the best things you read this year?

• Is there a book that you have been thinking about since March?
• A book you couldn't put down or have re-read three times just this year?
• What books have you added to your "I'm going to re-read this" list?
• Was that book you've waited years for (cough, Peace Talks, cough) worth the wait?
• What books did you tell your friends "you have to read this"?
• Did you have a favorite book club selection? From the New Leaf Book Club, the MR Literary Club or elsewhere?

Second, what wonderful books published in 2020 did you read?

• Are there any contenders for your favorite literary/genre/other award?
• What would you have in a hypothetical MR slate for the Hugos?
• What debut author is now on your must buy list?

Third, what books are on your "I cant wait!" lists for 2021?

• Are any of your favorite authors publishing something new next year that we should look for?
• Which authors have you followed in 2020 that spent their lockdown time writing 3 more novels than you were expecting?

If it is hard to remember what books you really enjoyed this year, issybird suggested making a "best of <year>" category at Goodreads (or wherever you track your reading) so you have it for next year.

If you want to see what some of the past favorites are check these out: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012

[Uncle Robin]

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

[haertig]

I did not get much reading in this year due to family medical issues.

Burial Ground by Michael McBride was pretty good. As was The Eye of God by James Rollins. Outland by Dennis Taylor was so-so (young adult-ish). I think back on it more fondly than I remember feeling when actually reading it.

[drofgnal]

My best two were:

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follet

The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

[Luffy]

My top 5 for 2020:-

01. Heir of Novron - in the top 10 of my best books ever read. I have read it only once, but its power pervades my memory still.
02. The Path to Power - This was a very, very good biography. Robert A. Caro deserves to be lauded for this effort. An effort of titanic proportions. An intellectual tour de force.
03. Moment of Truth - a superlatively nice book, underrated by me when I overlook this gem in my top books of all time. Maybe the second best YA book I have ever read.
04. The One - best YA book for me. Excellent.
05. Written in Blood - Wonderful thriller with nary a dull page or word. Chris Carter is criminally underrated.

[Luffy]

I am going to read Rhythm of War, a book I've been looking forward to, in mid December. It's the 2nd book, after Moment of Truth, that has been published in 2020 that I'll be reading.

[JSWolf]

I am looking forward to reading Ready Player Two.

[Tarana]

My main highlight was getting totally sucked into the Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor. Started it in March in response to COVID and listened/read the entire series in a couple of months. This was really just the thing for lockdown. Zara Ramm - excellent narrator!

I am currently finishing the final books of the Shannara world by Terry Brooks and enjoying them.

Battle Ground by Jim Butcher was the outstanding individual book for 2020 for me.

For 2021, Jodi Taylor additions to Chronicles and spinoff series, Time Police are all that I'm looking forward to specifically (Yes, I love it that much!). I'm spending another year focusing on working my TBR down. Peter Hamilton doorstops ahead....

[Dazrin]

I really enjoyed the first book of the Chronicles of St. Mary's but never got around to continuing the series. Maybe I'll look into that again next year. (That was 6 years ago! Wow, time flies.)

[Catlady]

Best of 2020:

Fiction. My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.

Nonfiction. Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino.

[issybird]

I’m going to take this in chunks, especially since I’m still working on my ten best list.

Book club reads: The NLBC January selection, The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, was a four-star read for me. Not a selection but a nomination in February, Something Wonderful, about Rodgers and Hammerstein, was quite wonderful itself and also got four stars from me.

[BelleZora]

Of the 144 books I read this year, Grant by Ron Chernow was my favorite.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Of the 144 books I read this year, Grant by Ron Chernow was my favorite.

On my TBR, along with so much else! I’ll have to bump it up.

[issybird]

Still taking this in chunks, Books Published in 2020.

This was very much a mixed bag for me. A few I liked very much, most especially Notes on a Silencing, a memoir of a student’s rape while at St. Paul’s and how it was suppressed, and The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal That Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern, a biography of the Duchesse de Berry. But overall, I read a lot of stinkers published this year; my overall rating at GR was only 2.5 stars, compared to 3.3 stars for all the books I read. I think at least in part it reflected the rotten year, as I postponed some of the more challenging books and read the junk; I still haven’t got to The Mirror & the Light, just as one example.

Just the same, I think I’ll be less likely to pursue new books next year. An additional factor is the library one, where current books have to be read immediately because they’ll expire. That said, two books I’m greatly looking forward to are the new offerings from George Saunders (who’s made my ten-best list twice, I think) and Joan Silber, a new discovery this year and who’ll be on my ten-best list for 2020.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

Of the 144 books I read this year, Grant by Ron Chernow was my favorite.

That's almost three per week! I am impressed. And you're not reading lightweight stuff either. I looked up that Grant book you mentioned to see if it might be something that interested me. It's shown as over 1100 pages. Quite the tome.

I consider my reading speed impressive if I finish one lightweight fiction novel in three weeks. I'm slow.