Favorites from 2020: books.

Tags

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto, best books of 2020, best books of the year, C Pam Zhang, Children of the Land, favorite books, Hamnet, How Much of These Hills is Gold, Kawai Strong Washburn, Lily King, Lydia Yuknavitch, Lynn Steger Strong, Maaza Mengiste, Maggie O'Farrell, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Natalie Bakopoulos, Scorpionfish, Sharks in the Time of Saviors, The Shadow King, Verge, Want, Writers and Lovers

In a tough year, my saving grace was books. I did a lot of yoga, and spent good time with my husband, but books were the best escape from the ugliness of the world. I waited until January 1, 2021 to even consider my favorites, just in case the novel I finished New Year’s Eve (After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Wyld) would vault onto the list. Some of these are a surprise even to myself. Popular choices like Caste by Wilkerson, Leave the World Behind by Alam, and Luster by Leilani are just outside of my top ten. I considered others: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Hession, Real Life by Taylor, Little Weirds by Slate, The Night Watchmen by Erdrich, Horror Stories by Phair… but I stand behind the choices below as the best according to me. They are the books I still think about and will recommend without hesitation. They made me think, laugh, cry, reach out to friends to discuss. I remember where I was while reading, and sometimes recall specific lines, stories or passages. In no set order, these are my favorite books of the year.

Scorpionfish by Natalie Bakopoulos

I read this in late November over the Thanksgiving holiday break. I loved the feel of the story, relaxed and contemplative. Mira, returning to Athens after her parents’ death, is rooted and wandering at the same time, moving between the United States and Greece or between towns in Greece, always with a place to land and family or friends to welcome her but never quite at home. I get that: the idea of having a web of connectivity and yet feeling displaced. She is not the only character in motion; the Captain is between the islands and Athens, with family or alone. I loved the way the author developed relationships between the characters, creating plausible suspense, and particularly enjoyed the subplot of Dimitra and Fady.

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

With Mussolini’s army threatening Ethiopia, soldier Kidane rushes to set defenses against the coming attack. Fierce and brave Hirut and other women, including Kidane’s wife, Aster, rise to protect their families and neighbors in unexpected and breathtaking ways. I cheered through this book, but was dismayed to think that much of it is based on historical events of cruelty and horror. While rooting for the Ethiopian women, I sympathized with Ettore, a photographer for the Italian army. This is a novel of wit and bravery, strong women, and the terrors of war. It is beautifully written and much-deserving of its place on the Booker Prize shortlist. (I think it should have won.)

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

Early in the year, there was quite a bit of hubbub surrounding a certain novel which shall not be named. From lists of books suggested instead of the offending book, I learned about Children of the Land, a memoir about the author’s immigration experience and his father’s decades-long attempts to be with his family in the United States. The descriptions of being separated, and of the processes our government forces citizens to endure to move across the Mexican border to see family, are excruciating and infuriating to read. How and why do we do this to people? I was heartbroken and spitting mad on behalf of Marcelo and his family, particularly his mother, who seemed to bear the brunt of the trauma. An illuminating memoir written with love and frankness.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Just before the lockdown in March, I checked out a stack of ten books from the library. How was I going to read ten books in three weeks? Well, thank goodness I got that many because I had them for about three months. My favorite novel of the stack was Writers & Lovers; I read it in a single day and then had the luxury of revisiting a few passages over the course of several weeks. Casey is struggling: stuck in a bad living situation, not loving her job, eager to write and not sure how to pull it off. She meets two comically different men and makes a serious of bad choices (in hindsight, of course) in her relationships with them. Without spoiling the end I will say that it All Works Out, though maybe not as expected. This was a nearly perfect read; I thought I would never love another Lily King book like I loved Euphoria, and I was wrong.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn

This was also in my Lockdown Stack and it was an absolute surprise, a hopeful and emotional story about family, identity and belonging. Seven-year-old Noa falls overboard on a family cruise and is carried to safety by a shark; so begins his legendary status as a healer ordained by the Hawaiian gods. You can imagine how it might feel to have a hero for a son and brother, and the later story examines the limits and constraints of family ties, the idea of a homeland and feelings of being rooted to a place. I cried at the end for about five different reasons, primarily because I didn’t want to stop reading.

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang

This novel conjures memories of gut-churning anxiety as I worried how the characters would survive. It is raw with emotion and sharp with edges. It is scrappy, gritty and lean. I don’t want to give away the story; I read with no knowledge of what was going to happen and the experience of discovery seems important. What I will say: you can’t imagine the limits of what people can do, see, or endure until they do, see or endure them. The tiger symbolism is powerful and beautiful. The characters are crisp and the plot surprises again and again. A breathtaking read.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

How on earth did I go so many years without reading this book? Of all of my favorites, this was perhaps the finest crafting of characters and relationships. To sympathize with kidnappers, to know what was inevitable and hope that it wasn’t, to watch it all unfold, was so refreshing. Is that the word? I don’t know. I read this as part of a work book group and enjoyed the discussions so much. We talked about music as a unifying force, communication when you don’t have shared language, the development and strengthening of love and friendships in times of crisis. I’m still furious about the ending.

Verge by Lydia Yuknavitch

A gut punch of a collection. I usually read so many short stories, but this year only managed twelve collections. This was hands-down my favorite, and I almost skipped it! To think. Here’s where I will give a nod to David Naimon and his extraordinary podcast, Between the Covers, which I discovered midsummer. I learned that I could listen while working and absorb/appreciate the intricate conversations without compromising my work. It is now my favorite part of working from home, which I am lucky to do. I have plans this month to revisit a few favorite episodes (Fernanda Melchor, Ayad Akhtar, Jenny Erpenbeck) and then deep dive into the archives and listen from the beginning. Back to Verge: I listened to David’s conversation with Ms. Yuknavitch and was so mesmerized by her words that I knew I had to read the book. It is so good; she is a genius with language. The stories are often brutal but so well-crafted. I need to revisit her other books, and listen again to the podcast.

Want by Lynn Steger Strong

In August we rented a gorgeous lakeside cabin with my siblings and escaped. The house was so large, we each had a sleeping bed and a reading or napping bed. I brought a hefty stack of books and spent a good chunk of the vacation on my reading bed; Want was the best book of the lot and I knew right away that it would be a favorite for the whole year. I don’t have children but I identified so strongly with the main character, and was impressed by the clarity of the children’s voices. In my Goodreads review: “I can feel the feelings of the narrator. I can put myself in her place and understand.” A deceptively simple novel, plot-wise, written with nuance, precision, and honesty.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

If I am being honest, this is the best book I read all year. It is nearly perfect. Based loosely on the family of William Shakespeare, we imagine the tragedy of the death of his son Hamnet (Hamlet) during the plague. The shining character is Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes, a doting mother who maintains independence despite living in her husband’s parents’ house with a temperamental father-in-law and opinionated mother-in-law. The author’s descriptions are paramount; there is a passage in which she details the migration of a flea from Italy to England. It is astonishing, creative, creepy, and well-placed as a turn in the narrative. The entire novel was a triumph, of character development, plot shifts and craftsmanship. If you haven’t yet read it, you must.

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And so a great year of reading concludes and I look forward to what will come in 2021. I hope to read more short stories and essays, and explore the backlist of some authors I enjoy — Jenny Erpenbeck, Lydia Yuknavitch and Maggie O’Farrell come to mind. I have grand plans to read some classics; we will see how that goes. I’m always looking for book suggestions; please feel free to comment with your own favorite books, or those you are excited for in the months to come. Happy reading!

Favorites from 2018: books.

Tags

Best Books of 2018, Feel Free, Go Went Gone, Heads of the Colored People, I Am I Am I Am, Jenny Erpenbeck, Maggie O'Farrell, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Paulette Jiles, R.O. Kwon, Rebecca Makkai, Scott McLanahan, Speak No Evil, The Great Believers, The Incendiaries, The News of the World, The Sarah Book, There There, Tommy Orange, Uzodinma Iweala, Zadie Smith

I look forward to this list every year, the chance to look back on the accomplishment of a year well read, revisiting books I enjoyed and even some I didn’t like at all. This year more than any in memory, books were a shelter: I read the day we said goodbye to our dog Maude, the day we learned our offer on a cute little house in a cute little town fell through, the day I discovered I would be making a career change in 2019. Without the escape of books I may have wallowed; instead, I escaped for a few hours (or days) and kept moving forward. There were happy reading times as well: I raced through There There by Tommy Orange on the porch at camp and Winter by Ali Smith on the coldest day of the year, snuggled with my Fennie. R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries is one I crowed about all year long, The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni was so good I read the rest of her books in the span of about five weeks, and I pondered the ending of Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry for days, even rereading it a few times for new perspective. There were countless impressive debuts (The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat, If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim, Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee), an exciting number of standout story collections (Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin, Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld), and several new books by favorite authors (Warlight by Michael Ondaatje, Awayland by Ramona Ausubel, Fox 8 by George Saunders). I am surprised to see I attempted so few nonfiction books (14) and proud how many books I read by women (68). I read 106 books total, and for the first time in many years, did not agonize over my choices for this list. I loved what I loved, fiercely, and want everyone else to read and love them, too. Here they are, not necessarily ranked… though I have to say that The Incendiaries and Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck are in a tier of their own and I will count them as favorites forever. Here’s to happy reading in 2019!

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

Without a question, The Incendiaries is my favorite book of the year. I had this mental image of Ms. Kwon choosing words with tweezers and placing them just so until each sentence was perfect. The build of the story was even, controlled even as fraught details are uncovered, the narrative shift between characters executed so well. As I wrote in February: “The genius here is the author’s ability to pull you in, then push you all the way out to be an observer, or vice versa. I sympathized with Phoebe until it was time to see her from a distance, which was clever. I took notes about Will until it was time to see through his eyes, and I could.” I am planning to reread soon and I hope you will add it to your list if you haven’t read already. My heartiest, most emphatic recommendation!

Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck

It is a fluke that I picked up this book and thank goodness I did. This tidy novel is about a retiring professor of classics who becomes compassionately involved with a group of African refugees in Berlin. The subject is timely, as our national news tells cleansed and yet horrifying stories about border walls, migrant caravans, detention camps for children, and travel bans. The beauty of Go, Went, Gone is how easily Richard, the main character, offers simple advice or assistance that meaningfully helps strangers in need. He listens to their stories, offers information about getting to appointments around the city, shares books and music, advocates on the men’s behalf with local officials. From my notes: “And yet, as we learn from Richard’s past, he is by no means a perfect figure. He is not romanticized. The language and tone of the novel, with interspersed segments from classic literature and music, remains calm and reflective while the actions of and against the asylum seekers become increasingly chaotic and troubling. As emotional and fraught as the over-arching theme was, I found Ms. Erpenbeck’s approach honest, empathetic, and frank in a way I haven’t encountered before.”

Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

My favorite story collection this year is Heads of the Colored People. The stories felt so fresh and modern, with unexpected twists and distinct characters that refuse the stereotype of a single, shared “Black experience”. The characters are relatable though not always likable, sometimes funny, sometimes sad. The title story was a favorite and I will be very excited to see Ms. Thompson-Spires future work.

There There by Tommy Orange

I try to avoid reviews and previews of books I plan to read and the buzz about There There was hard to miss. It was the novel of the hour, a depiction of an “off-reservation, urban Native American experience” like nothing previously written. Early on I was lost in the book, struggling to keep all the characters and their relationship to one another straight. All at once the intricacies made sense and I was able to lose myself in the story, which was as seamless as it was frenetic… and I could see immediately why everyone is so excited about Tommy Orange, his brilliant novel, and all the potential there is for future stories from him. Once again, as in Heads of the Colored People, we are seeing an author prove how limiting and limited it is to stick to literary stereotypes, instead showing us there is nothing cookie-cutter about these twelve characters– not emotions, intentions, histories, or pain.

The Sarah Book by Scott McLanahan

I still don’t know if this is a novel or nonfiction, and I don’t think it much matters. I admire Mr. McLanahan his ability to blur that line and create a book so emotional that I laughed on one page, was furious two pages later, and cried just after that. The Sarah Book is the story of a failing relationship, from the perspective of a husband desperately in love who sees that his wife is unhappy but can’t comprehend why or what to do about it. He writes love letters and makes awkward attempts at sweet gestures… but mostly he is swept along by her and seems to always be wrong, or behind, or misguided. There is a dog, Mr. King, and you will cry about Mr. King. I wanted to read this because of the title; I lucked in to a heart-rending story.

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala

A slim novel I saw few others mention this year though I absolutely adored it– Speak No Evil is the story of a young man working diligently to follow his own passions while respecting his upbringing and the wishes of his parents. There is so much tension in this story, heartbreak and inner turmoil while Niru and his father, especially, try to “keep up appearances”. The ending is absolutely shocking and I still think of it all the time. I hope more readers find time for this book.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

Perhaps the most epic of all the novels I read in 2018, The Great Believers tackles the enormity of the AIDs crisis in 1980’s Chicago. I was stubborn about this one, not wanting to read a thick “sad story” and have my heart broken, but once I got over myself I found so much to love here. First there is Yale: a good friend, a loyal companion, a conscientious employee, a lover of art. Seemingly in the center of a whirlwind of death and disease, he stays steady and true. My favorite part of the novel is Yale’s conversations with Nora about art and her time in pre-war Paris. I also very much enjoyed the current-day story of Fiona, the sister of Yale’s friend Nico, as she looks for her daughter in Paris. Though I usually don’t care for time jumps, the writing was so skilled, the narratives intertwined expertly. Thank goodness I made time for Ms. Makkai’s beautiful novel; I am richer for the experience.

I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

Called a memoir but unlike any other memoir I’ve ever read, I was astonished by this book. I am familiar with Ms. O’Farrell’s novels and some part of me thought this was a novel when I started reading. It is unsettling and fascinating, a compilation of vignettes describing incidents or instances when the author might have died. As I read I reflected on my own life; I thought about reactions to stress and danger in a new way. As I said in April, writing notes about I Am, I Am, I Am: “I found myself scanning my own past to frame things as Ms. O’Farrell does… not intending to one-up the author, just to wonder if I could relate. And though my life hasn’t been nearly as exciting (harrowing?) I find that I can absolutely relate, and sympathize, and grow and learn from having read her words.”

Feel Free by Zadie Smith

A sublime treat, to have this giant, varied collection of essays from one of the world’s best authors. Though I didn’t realize at the time how much I enjoyed it, I found myself thinking all year about her words: on libraries and the importance of free public spaces, on privacy and social media, on literature, music, family, and climate change. She is wise, funny, honest, precise, and biting at times. I have so much respect for Ms. Smith’s opinions; hers is a brilliant mind.

The News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Not a new book, but one that bowled me over with its earnest grace. “Kep-dun” and “Cho-henna” will forever be two of my favorite literary characters, and the story of their relationship and building trust is one I will recommend frequently.

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More Books I Greatly Enjoyed: Florida by Lauren Groff, The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan, Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin, The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling, Calypso by David Sedaris, and Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao.