Now that we’ve made it halfway (and a bit) through 2020, I have decided to do a roundup of the best books I’ve read this year before the end of June. I usually do a retrospective of my favorite books at the end of the year, but this year I have read far more books than usual — the current count is 96. Books appear in alphabetic order. I have not included any old favorites that I have re-read this year.
10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
Elif Shafak is my favorite author and The Bastard of Istanbul is my favorite book. Every single piece of writing by Shafak I have read, both fiction and non-fiction, has been brilliant and this book lived up to my high expectations. The story of Tequila Leila is both extraordinary and relatable and I found the circle of close friends that she has taken as an adopted family to be powerful and heartwarming. Though the book is centered around the murder of Leila, the story does not have a heavy vibe. Instead, it is a celebration of Leila’s life and trials. Everyone should have such supportive and devoted friends. I’ll leave you with a thoughtful quote:
“No one should philosophize on the nature of humanity until they had worked in a public toilet for a couple of weeks.”
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
This one was very short and it only took me an evening to get through it, but it left an impression on me. I found the characters’ heartbreaks and hopes to be relatable and the writing style to be minimalist, but not sparing. It was a thoughtful escape from the stress of living under new lockdown restrictions and an opportunity for self-reflection. It also made me crave a nice hot cup of coffee.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
I am not the only one to be enamored of this book, so I won’t say much about it, except that it lives up to the hype. It, alone, deserved to be the Booker prize winner.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
I consume a lot of true crime content, but this one is different to anything I’ve read or listened to before. McNamara has a special compassion for the victims of the Golden State Killer, which I also internalized, as the reader, without being saccharine, cheesy, or engaging in a creepy type of victim reverence that comes up in other high-profile murders, like JonBenét Ramsey. It also does not veer into reverence for the killer, in the way some content concerning Ted Bundy does. It has a balance and a sensitivity that all true crime media should aim for in their output.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
I borrowed this from a friend over a year ago and I finally read this in early March, right when people started getting a little antsy about the pandemic. I found the parallels of the Georgia Flu to the current pandemic oddly comforting. Even after much of humanity has been wiped out by the virus, the survivors still produce and reproduce music and theater for entertainment. The story opens with the unrelated death of a famous actor, Arthur Leander, onstage and follows characters that are all linked to him in some way. The actor’s first wife, Miranda, was my favorite of these characters, and I found her arc and legacy to be the most poignant. I am on my library’s waitlist for Mandel’s next book The Glass Hotel and I am very excited.
The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley
My recent discovery (and binge) of Caroline O’Donoghue’s podcast Sentimental Garbage led me to this gem. I have many war novels, but this one has a unique vibe. The Camomile Lawn follows five young cousins, Calypso, Polly, Walter, Oliver, and Sophy, on the brink of adulthood at the beginning of WWII, their trials through the war, and their eventual reunion forty years later. Like 10 Minutes 38 Seconds, it’s a character-driven story and it outlines the ways in which all the cousins process their various war traumas. It captures the emotional rollercoaster of trying to carry on a normal life while the world is in pandemonium and moves between intense cruelty and pleasant lightness. I can’t wait to read it again.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
I loved The Night Circus, so I was excited to read this book, and it far exceeded my expectations. The focus on stories, storytelling, books, and libraries warmed my little book-lover heart. The prose is beautiful, and the story is inventive. I was surprised by every twist and found nothing predictable. When I was finished, I had to fight the urge to start the book over again immediately.
