Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week we're talking about authors that were new to us in 2020. I tried to pick out authors who have written multiple books and weren't new to everybody in 2020, just to me!

1. Julie Berry
Although I wasn't head over heels for Lovely War like a lot of people have been, I quite enjoyed it and thought she wrote a well-researched historical novel. Her previous books didn't get nearly as much acclaim, so it will be interesting to see what she does next!

2. Angela Y. Davis
It took me far too long to get around to reading one of Davis' books, but I'm very glad I read Women, Race & Class in 2020. I'm also interested to read one of her more recent books, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.

3. Doris Kearns Goodwin
In 2020 I read what is definitely her most well-known work, Team of Rivals, but she has several other highly rated books that could be interesting to pick up.

4. bell hooks
I have no excuse for the fact that I didn't pick up any of hooks' works until last year, but I'm very glad that Ain't I a Woman had stuck on my to-read list for so long. I also very much want to read Feminism Is for Everybody.

5. Adib Khorram
It worked out well that I read Darius the Great Is Not Okay for the first time in 2020, since a sequel also came out last year! I loved the Darius books and look forward to seeing what Khorram does next.

6. T.J. Klune
I picked up The House in the Cerulean Sea due to all the buzz, but I didn't realize Klune had written a ton of other books as well that are also very highly rated on Goodreads!

7. Kate Milford
Before everything shut down, I had a chance to see Milford speak, and I read the first two books in the Greenglass House series in preparation. She had not been on my radar before but I'm glad to have been introduced to her books!

8. Kate Morton
Morton has written a ton of well-loved books, but The Secret Keeper was the one that had made its way onto my to-read list and the one I finally read last year. I really enjoyed it and would definitely be open to reading more of her books.

9. Beth O'Leary
I don't know why the description of The Switch was so compelling to me, but I loved it and then had to read The Flatshare as well. Hoping to get her next one just as soon as it comes out this year!

10. Renée Watson
I picked up Piecing Me Together as part of my goal of reading more books set in Portland, and it was so good! I don't know how she got on my radar originally, but she has a ton of other books that are not as well known as this one.

Which authors were new to you in 2020?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Ghosts of Greenglass House and Their Eyes Were Watching God
Five years ago I was reading: Lonesome Dove, Dancing with God, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Stolen
Ten years ago I was reading: The Luck Factor

Ten 2020 Publications I Still Want to Read

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is about books we didn't get to in 2020. Since one of my 2021 goals is to read books published in 2020, here are ten that I'm still very interested in reading.

1. Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
Every time I've heard this one mentioned it has stood out to me. I've never listened to their podcast, but I'm definitely interested in a book about friendship that includes honest conversations about the authors' own real-life, interracial friendship.

2. Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
I finally read The Warmth of Other Suns in 2019, and now Wilkerson has a new book out that showed up on just about every best-of list I saw for 2020.

3. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
I get skeptical about hyped YA books, but this one seems to have sustained its popularity, and I'm always down for more queer rep and teens of color in leading roles.

4. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Poet X is on my "shelf of shame" because I cannot believe I still haven't read it, and now Acevedo has another book out that people are consistently flipping their lids about.

5. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
The hosts of For Real raved about this one on multiple episodes, and then right after I put it on my list, my bibliologist recommended it to me because of how much I loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I'm now on my library's (very long) holds list for it.

6. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
This was one of the many anti-racist books recommended this past year, but this one stands out because it encourages the reader to do actual work as they go. As one of my other goals for this year is to continue reading books about race in America, I think this would be a good one for ensuring that I'm applying what I'm reading to my own life.

7. The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
I read the first two books in the Thomas Cromwell series and have been waiting forever for this third book to come out, so by the time it did I'd forgotten everything from the first two books and didn't want to devote the time to going back to them. But I would like to finish the story at some point.

8. Our Time Is Now by Stacey Abrams
I've felt discouraged by the voter suppression efforts in the past few years, but seeing the way that the work of Abrams and others made a difference in the 2020 election and the recent Senate elections in Georgia gives me hope.

9. We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper
This is another one that the For Real hosts are huge fans of, and although I don't necessarily gravitate toward true crime, it's another one where — like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — it sounds like the author was able to weave her own investigative process into the story in a way that was well done.

10. Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller
Yet another one that everyone couldn't say enough good things about in 2020. I was already intrigued the first time I heard someone emphatically rave about it, and since then it's come up again and again as a must-read.

Which 2020 publications are still on your to-read list?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Dreams from My Father, The Next Evangelicalism, and There There
Five years ago I was reading: Lonesome Dove, Dancing with God, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Stolen
Ten years ago I was reading: The Luck Factor

Review of 2020 Bookish Goals

It's 2021! It's time to look at my 2020 goals and see how I did.

1. Read at least three books published in 2020.
I actually read quite a lot of 2020 publications: 18! As is usually the case, many of the best books I read this past year were published in 2020.

2. Get roughly 1/3 of my 2020 reads from my TBR list.
So it turns out that when I set a goal of half my reads coming from my TBR list, I only managed about a third, and when my goal was a third I managed even less, haha. It was about 15%. The good news is that I cut my original TBR way down so there are only 41 books left on it.

3. Read 50% fiction and 50% nonfiction.
I only managed 38% nonfiction, which is slightly higher than normal. Nonfiction books can be hella long, though, so page-wise I might have been closer to 50/50.

4. Read at least five books on my "shelf of shame."
Success: I read eight! Side note: People seem really bothered by my shelf of shame, but I love it. It externalizes, in a cheeky way, a feeling I already had, and it gives me a finite list of the books I feel I "should" have read by now so I stop feeling like there are hundreds of books in that category and realize there are actually only 32 of them.

5. Read something my sister recommends.
This year my sister's pick was Girls with Sharp Sticks. My sister's got dark tastes, y'all. It wasn't my favorite of the ones she's recommended, but I enjoyed it!

6. Read some modern books on feminism.
I forgot this goal was about modern-day feminism and read two books from 1981 (Ain't I a Woman and Women, Race, & Class, which were both excellent) but I read some more modern ones as well. I definitely recommend Hood Feminism and I Bring the Voices of My People.

7. Read some books set in Portland.
This goal led me to Adib Khorram's excellent Darius books, as well as another of this year's favorite reads, Piecing Me Together.

8. Read a Louise Penny book.
I read the first two in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and concluded that they're not for me. Now I know!

9. Listen to some classics narrated by celebrities.
I listened to five! I particularly appreciated getting to hear Tim Curry read Sabriel.

10. Start the Miss Marple series.
Success! I read four of the books and plan to continue with them this year.

How did you do with your 2020 goals?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Seeress of Kell, The Next Evangelicalism, and There There
Five years ago I was reading: Lonesome Dove, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and The Quran
Ten years ago I was reading: Human Happiness

Top Ten Fiction Reads of 2020

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Last week I shared my favorite nonfiction of the year. This week I'm sharing my favorite fiction of the year! (I'm in the middle of two long nonfiction reads that I don't think I'll finish before the new year, so that's why I feel confident sharing these favorites now!)

1. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

2. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

3. Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

4. Greenglass House by Kate Milford

5. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

6. Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli

7. The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

8. Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson

9. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

10. Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

What were your favorite fiction reads this year?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Sorceress of Darshiva, The Next Evangelicalism, and I Bring the Voices of My People
Five years ago I was reading: Middlemarch and The Quran
Ten years ago I was reading: Human Happiness

Top Ten Nonfiction Reads of 2020

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Just like last year, I'm splitting my favorites lists over two weeks, starting this week with my favorite nonfiction of the year!

1. Ace by Angela Chen

2. The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

3. The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale

4. Everyday Antiracism ed. by Mica Pollock

5. Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

6. How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids by Carla Naumburg

7. How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

8. I Bring the Voices of My People by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

9. I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown

10. Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis

What were your favorite nonfiction reads this year?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Sorceress of Darshiva, The Next Evangelicalism, and The Women of Brewster Place
Five years ago I was reading: Middlemarch, The Unthinkable, The Quran, and A Snicker of Magic
Ten years ago I was reading: I Like Being Married

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2020

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Just like last year, there isn't a weekly topic on bookish goals anymore and this week is one on anticipated 2020 publications, of which I have almost none (only A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor and Don't Overthink It), so I'm just using this week to share my goals instead! In case you missed it, I reviewed how I did on my 2019 goals.

1. Read at least three books published in 2020.
I'm keeping this goal from previous years because it gives me permission to pick up new releases even when I have a long TBR list. And I usually have at least a few favorites of the year that are published that year!

2. Get roughly 1/3 of my 2020 reads from my TBR list.
I decided to set this goal a bit more realistically this year, as my reading the past two years has been about 35% off my TBR even when I set my goal at 50%. I like having the push to clear out my original, capped TBR list, but don't want to stress myself out about it.

3. Read 50% fiction and 50% nonfiction.
Typically about 1/3 of my reading is nonfiction, but I have a ton of nonfiction on my TBR list, and I also find that I rate the nonfiction I read higher than the fiction on average. This year I'm going to try to up my nonfiction reading.

4. Read at least five books on my "shelf of shame."
I'm keeping this goal again this year because I keep having conversations with people who recommend books to me that are on my Goodreads shelf of shame and I keep having to say, "It's on my list! I haven't read it yet!" so I hope to knock more of those books off my list this year.

5. Read something my sister recommends.
Keeping this tradition again this year! My sister has recommended some great books to me and I like being able to talk books with her, since we both like reading but tend to have different tastes. I'm not sure how much reading she's doing for fun while in law school, but I'm sure there's at least something from her past reading that I haven't read yet.

6. Read some modern books on feminism.
Now that I have a podcast for Christian feminists, I want to stay well-versed in the conversations happening in present-day feminism, particularly from a diversity of voices. My first book of the year was I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation by Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes (which was AMAZING) and I'm excited to read more.

7. Read some books set in Portland.
I feel like I keep stumbling across recommendations for books that happen to be set in Portland (where I live) and I'd love to make it a priority to pick some of them up. I don't know all the areas of the city as well as I would like so I also think reading a book might push me to check out new areas of the city (either in person or, at the very least, through some internet research).

8. Read a Louise Penny book.
Anne Bogel has been recommending these for years, and even though I know I love murder mysteries, I don't often make it a priority to read them, except for Agatha Christie and Tana French. I'm going to read Still Life this year, and if I like it, hopefully read a few more in the Inspector Gamache series.

9. Listen to some classics narrated by celebrities.
I keep hearing about classic books that I read 10+ years ago that have recently been released as audiobooks narrated by famous people. I am interested in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston narrated by Ruby Dee, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery narrated by Rachel McAdams, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood narrated by Claire Danes. Unfortunately I don't have an Audible account and I think some of these may be Audible exclusives, so I will have to figure that out...

10. Start the Miss Marple series.
I've read all the Poirot books and all the Tommy and Tuppence books, so it's time to start the Miss Marple books in my quest to read Agatha Christie's complete works. I'm not going to attempt to get through all of this year (who knows, maybe I will) but I will at least start reading those books in publication order.

What are your bookish goals for 2020?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Cutting for Stone, Cold Comfort Farm, and Pachinko
Five years ago I was reading: The Great Gilly Hopkins and The Canterbury Tales
Ten years ago I was reading: Silas Marner