My 25 Top Books For 2020

I read 160 books in 2020, and here is my top 25 list with mini-reviews. All of the books I read this year were by authors who identify as female, all but one were fiction, and all but three were novels.

During the year I had a mix of genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, mysteries, and thrillers) as well as non-genre/literary fiction. I also tried to balance reading recent books with those written earlier. It is my very strong view that most people tend to neglect older books, especially much older books. I also read books that are not from North America, not originally written in English, not written by white women, not written by straight women, and various combinations of the above. I did much better at these various kinds of reading diversity in 2020 than I did in 2019 and will try to do even better in 2021!

A question that I get asked every year is if I see any clear difference between books by women and books by men. One new observation: fewer rapes. It does happen occasionally, and there are some close calls, but I would estimate that it happens at least 50% less in books by women and might even be 90% less. My theory is that male authors are more likely to see a rape scene as a convenient plot device…while female authors use it more sparingly. There are many good online articles about the overuse of rape as a plot device.

Many of the books below have been made into movies or TV series. I have not seen the video versions and I don’t want to. The main reason I am able to read 160 books in a year is that I don’t watch video.

The books appear in three groupings, in roughly the order I read them during the year. In the interest of fairness, I only allowed an author to be on my top 25 list once.

Genre novels (fantasy, science fiction, mystery)

Martha Wells, Artificial Condition (2018)

This is the second book in the Murderbot Diary series of four novellas and one novel. They are all good: funny, tightly plotted and with an ultra-human-like robot as the lead (ungendered) hero, and its attempts at reconciling its theoretical vocation (killing people) with its hobbies (watching old TV shows). I may have transposed hobbies and vocation there.

Arkady Martine, A Memory Called Empire (2019)

What a debut novel: it won the Hugo. Brilliant combination of worldbuilding science fiction, but with a lot of humour and (same sex) flirtation, Martine (who is a PhD historian and city planner) stresses the importance of culture and poetry and language as we follow outworlder Ambassador Mahit Dzmare through murders, revolutions and diplomacy.

Patricia Highsmith, Ripley Underground (1970)

Featuring anti-hero Tom Ripley, all of Highsmith’s first three books in the Ripliad are good, but I found this one the best. You will definitely be cheering for the callous murderer, and the topics of art forgery and authenticity are perfectly handled. The first and third books of the Ripley series felt a little dated to me, but this seemed evergreen.

Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library (2015)

A time traveling librarian/spy/thief voyages to various exotic cities with her dragon/human assistant/lover searching for critical books. Oh, and there is a Sherlock Holmes analogue too. I read all six books in this series (the seventh is on order) in 2020, loved them all equally, but you might as well read them in order and start with the first book.

Octavia E. Butler, Kindred (1979)

A modern black woman travels back in time repeatedly to a slavery era Maryland plantation. Kindred is justifiably a classic SF novel, but also has elements of fantasy and historical fiction. That the heroine (Dana) has a white husband in the present really drives some of the experiences home. Also, an interesting example of how to deal with rape: Dana comes close several times when she travels to the past…but it never actually happens, which was an especially interesting choice 40 years ago.

Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth (2019)

Another debut novel (so many good first timers!) with an amazing combo of hard SF, fantasy (lots of swordplay) with a puzzle to be solved, an empire to inherit, and a same-sex love/hate relationship between bodyguard Gideon and her long time nemesis and now boss Harrow. I really liked the mix of language, which swerves between old fashioned horror writing and more modern speech. This is only the first in a trilogy, and I can’t wait to read the next.

Diana Gabaldon, Outlander (1991)

Post-WW2 married nurse Claire Randall travels back in time to 18th century Scotland where she meets Jamie Fraser, the love of her life. Most people will know the TV series, but the books in the series have sold over 25 million copies. They are deservedly popular: I loved each of the four books in the series I read in 2020, with all sorts of romance, adventure, travel (Scotland, France, the Caribbean, pre-Revolutionary US) medicine, and time travel questions (can we alter the past?) My personal favourite so far was #4, Drums of Autumn, but you really should read them in order of publication.

Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches (2011)

Harkness was previously best known as an academic (professor of history and the history of science) and has written what is basically high class porn for me: the characters are all PhDs in various disciplines which they discuss, travel to cool places and eras, drink great wines and foods…and have crazed sex with each other. There are witches, vampires and daemons, and quite a bit of bloodshed/violence/torture and so on. Some people find the books slow…but (as a history major) I love the historical details, and don’t find them at all excessive.

Kate Wilhelm, Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang (1976)

Wilhelm wrote a lot of science fiction, and this is her best known and award winning novel about a global environmental catastrophe that kills most of the planet and renders the surviving population sterile. One community succeeds in cloning…and the book takes a long hard look at what kind of divide there might be between the original founding generation and the succeeding clone generations. Spoilers: it’s complicated.

Mary Robinette Kowal, The Relentless Moon (2020)

The third book in the Lady Astronaut series (I read and loved the first two last year) this book shifts focus to Nicole Wargin, who was a relatively minor character in the first books. She is an astronaut and politician’s wife who is pretty darn political herself, and involved in mysteries on the Moon, battling racism and sexism…and grappling with her own eating disorder. I think this book may actually be the best in the series so far!

Novels from this millennium

Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2019)

Booker co-winner, plus another 25 awards, the book deserves all of them. Lots about gender, race, sexuality, intersectionality, and life in general, it crosses three generations of mainly black women, mainly in London. I loved it because it talked about a London I have not otherwise read much about...entertainingly and inclusively.

Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (2012)

Enormously popular, and with at least one famous plot twist, it is a page turner. It is well constructed, and although not literary writing it is solid enough. I mention that, because some other books (The Girl in the Mirror, for example) are too poorly written for me to enjoy.

Lisa Jewell, A Friend of the Family (2003)

I read eight Lisa Jewell books this year, and liked them all. Her later books tend to be more thriller-types, and are good, but I preferred her first book (Ralph’s Party) and her fourth, A Friend of the Family. There is a sweetness to the earlier books. Jewell isn’t George Eliot…but her books are well written, filled with strong characters, funny, and compulsive reading. If I’m in the mood for a lighter read in popular fiction, I would reach for a Jewell over most authors writing today. Plus my wife reads them all and being able to discuss them with her is very romantic.

Ann Patchett, Bel Canto (2001)

I was torn between favouriting this book or her more recent The Dutch House, and had to pick this one for the lovingly detailed way in which she worked in the opera material and the hostage-captor relationship. Although utterly different, both books were riveting (her characterization is so deep) and I look forward to reading more Patchett in 2021.

Min Jin Lee, Pachinko (2017)

An award winning historical look at Korean immigrants to Japan over multiple generations. The description of racism against Koreans was compelling, and although the main character is female, many of the male characters are well handled, and some complicated discussions of sexuality.

Ali Smith, Spring (2019)

The third book in the Scottish writer’s Seasonal Quartet (I haven’t read Summer yet) is the darkest but also the funniest. Terribly topical (Brexit, Trump, social media, detention of immigrants) its main character is the 12-13 year old Florence, wise beyond her years.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah (2013)

Multiple award winning third book by Nigerian author Adichie tells of racism and the immigrant experience in both the US/UK and in Nigeria. The excepts from her lead character’s (Ifemelu) popular blog form a book within a book, and the love story with Obinze starts in high school and resolves (sort of) in a complex way by the time they reunite.

Fiona Mozley, Elmet (2017)

If you’ve heard of Southern American Gothic (Carson McCullers and so on) this is Northern England Gothic. Giants, gender, and our relationship with wealth, property and the land we live on, an impressive Booker shortlisted debut novel from Mozley. Probably the least well known book on this list, if you want to impress someone with your eclectic-but-informed reading taste.

Novels published before 2001

Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (1913)

A tragicomedy of manners, this may actually be my favourite book by Wharton. The anti-heroine, Undine Spragg, is immensely unlikable, but the book manages to keep you cheering for her, in some odd way. Savage critique of US (note Undine’s initials) materialism and social mores. Quite funny.

Eliza Haywood, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751)

The earliest novel on this list, it is important in the history of the novel, of female novelists, and Haywood was clearly a pioneer. But it’s not only “important”, it’s a fun read with complex plotting and much more open discussions about sex and marriage and the role of women than Austen would end up writing 50 years later. For the history/literary types, this is basically the first ever bildungsroman about a young woman in English.

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Deservedly listed among the best 100 English language novels ever, it is also a foundational book for feminism and for black writing. Despite many awful things happening to Janie Crawford starting in her teens and through three marriages…it is weirdly happy and uplifting. A critical part of the story is set in the real life Eatonville, where Hurston grew up: one of the first all black towns. As a white reader, Hurston’s description of a town without whites was eye-opening.

Amélie Nothomb, Fear and Trembling (1999)

A Belgian friend recommended I read Nothomb (in English) and I read five of her books this year. Almost impossible to say which was my favourite – they are ALL amazing. She writes in this very clear and unaffected style: lucid, dry, bitter, observational? This is her best known book, about working in Japan as a foreigner (who speaks the language) and it is terribly funny. I’d like to read even more by her, but not all of her works have been translated or are available.

Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South (1854)

A contemporary of Dickens, and the first biographer of Charlotte Bronte, Gaskell is my vote for most under-rated 19th century female author. She belongs up there with Austen, the Brontes and Eliot, in my view. The critical consensus is moving my way, and she is prized for her gritty writing of “social novels” on the role of women and the divide between rich and poor. I read five of her books this year, and enjoyed them all, but North and South was my favourite: it has been called “Pride and Prejudice for socialists”…which is pretty accurate.

Anita Brookner, Look At Me (1983)

I read four books by Brookner this year, and considered picking Hotel du Lac, her Booker Prize winner. It is certainly excellent but (in my view) slightly surpassed by Look At Me in terms of exploring the life of a narrator who feels herself to be purely a bystander and not a participant in life. Like all Brookner that I’ve read so far: do expect perfect prose…and don’t expect a happy ending.

Francoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse (1954)

Nobody does boredom/ennui like the French, and Sagan’s debut novel (at 18!) caused a sensation when published. Many consider Sagan’s second book (A Certain Smile) the better novel…but although I liked it very much too, her first book seemed to cut a little closer to the bone for me. Death, sex, mistresses…and more cigarettes than one can count.

[1] I wanted to make it a top 15, but couldn’t get it narrowed down that far: a good problem to have!

[2] About three years ago, my daughter Caitlin asked why almost all the books on my shelves were by men? She offered to buy me books by female authors for my birthday, and I enjoyed them and resolved to read only women for a year. I am continuing to do it for four reasons: I am having fun and don't miss reading books by men, I really like the different perspective I am getting, I think it is important to continue to support women authors, and I likely have read nearly 5,000 books by men before 2018…so I need to keep at this for another couple of decades to merely bring my lifetime average up to gender parity, which seems a reasonable goal.

[3] I read many non-fiction articles and so on as part of my job. I prefer fiction for reading for pleasure, I think reading it makes me smarter and happier, and I think (hope?) it also makes me a better person.

[4] I like short stories and poetry too…but my real love is long form prose, aka novels.

[5] In 2020 I read five books published before 1900, 11 from 1901-1950, 17 from 1951-1975, 39 from 1976-2000, 10 from 2001-2010 and 78 from the last decade.

[6] For example: https://www.swantower.com/essays/craft/thoughts-depiction-rape-fiction/