Year in Review: 2020 – Favourite / Best Book Picks of the Year

Want to know all of the books I read?

This is just a handful / my picks from the ones I read, the entire list of the 217 books I read for 2020 is here.

MONEY

I don’t really like reading MONEY books these days, so I read books that deal with the psychology of money, or shopping – all things related to money, but indirectly.

FOOD

The first one was such an eye opener… and Ruth Reichl by the way, has written a whole host of other books and they’re all good. She’s a truly gifted writer. I’ll read anything written by her.

STYLE

Not many style books this year, but the two I did read, were quite good.

CHANGE & ADVOCACY

All highly recommended. The last two are fiction – The Vanishing Half & Such a Fun Age- but it was such a strong theme of change & advocacy for me that I added it here.

PARENTING

I don’t read that many parenting books these days, but these two stood out as interesting.

HISTORY / HISTORICAL FICTION

I discovered a wonderful cache of great historical fiction writers this year. I’ve grouped their works by author below. I will read ANYTHING by these authors.

MICHELLE MORAN

MADELINE MILLER

KATE QUINN

FICTION

MEMOIRS

Haunting memoirs, I didn’t expect to connect to Simpson’s but it was fantastic.

LEARNING

Engrossing books, and once you start one chapter you can’t stop if it’s a topic that interests you (language and swearing may not be your thing).

CHICK-LIT

Out of the 51 books I read, these are my recommendations.

JUVENILE FICTION

She’s a gifted writer, the fairytales are great and on Little Bun’s future reading list for fun.

MYSTERY / THRILLER

I also discovered some great thriller / mystery writers grouped below:

GREER HENDRICKS & SARAH PEKKANEN

Haunting. That’s all I can say to describe their work…

BELINDA BAUER

She has some other ones I read, but these two were the only ones I truly enjoyed, the other ones were hit and miss due to the plots (one was very xenophobic, the other had a little boy in it around Little Bun’s age).

BEATRIZ WILLIAMS

Her books aren’t quite so ‘mystery’ based, but they all involve a mystery of sorts, which I find intriguing. I especially liked these ones, though I have read other works by her.

SHERRY THOMAS

Sherlock Holmes as Charlotte Holmes! A delightful series with a strong feminist twist.

SHANNON MAYER

Another good author if you enjoy Mayer’s work, is Sarah J. Maas, specifically her Court Series and her Throne of Glass Series. Avoid her Rylee Series, those books were interminably long, I was fatigued by Book 5, and there are TEN OF THEM.