What I Read in 2020

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I had several reading goals at the beginning of 2020. I wanted to read at least 40 books, but when the pandemic hit I did a lot of reading, mostly to avoid being online and reading horrifying news all the time. I kept increasing my reading goal by 5 books at a time, until I settled at a new goal of 60 books. Historically, books I read tend to be biased toward white male authors, so this year I made a special effort to diversify my reading list and read more women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ authors. I think I did especially well on gender, reading more women than men for probably the first year in my life (56.5% women, 38.7% men, 4.84% non-binary). I was disappointed to learn I  had misgendered Aldous Huxley my entire life. Apologies to Mr. Huxley – I’m not sure why I thought you were a woman and also I feel bad about how much less excited I was to read Brave New World when I found out you were a man. Another goal was to read more books by and about Australians (I managed 8.3% Australian authors). 

A recurring theme was a deep interest in fiction about time travel -- and even some about the physics of time -- perhaps brought about by this crappy year and our collective inability to travel through space. 

So here they are: the 60 books I read this year.

Novels:

1. Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

2. The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

3. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

4. The Deep by Rivers Solomon

5. Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

7. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

8. Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky

9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

10. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

11. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

12. The X-Files: Whirlwind by Charles L. Grant

13. The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

14. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

15. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

16. Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

17. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

18. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

19. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

20. A Maze of Death by Philip K. Dick

21. Pompeii by Robert Harris

22. The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

23. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

24. The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

25. The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

26. Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh

27. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

28. Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

29. The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag

30. Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

31. Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine

32. Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine

33. Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine

34. This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

35. Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

36. The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

37. Divergent by Veronica Roth

38. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

39. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

40. The Taxidermist’s Daughter by Kate Mosse

41. The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

42. The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas

43. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

44. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

45. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

46. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton

47. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

48. Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs

49. Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.


Short Story Collections:

50. The Time Traveller’s Almanac edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

51. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

52. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr.

53. Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson


Non-Fiction:

54. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

55. Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy

56. The Scientist’s Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career by Stephen Heard

57. Men Who Hate Women – From Incels to Pickup Artists: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All by Laura Bates

58. Classic Sourdoughs, Revised: A Home Baker’s Handbook by Ed Wood

59. The Sex Lives of Australians: A History by Frank Bongiorno

60. The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town by John Grisham



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