Year-end Book Wrapup 2020

My goal this year was to read 70 books and to complete the Read Harder Challenge. Achieved! You can see all my Challenge books on last year’s wrapup post. 

This year, I read 80 published books and 4 unpublished books by friends, which I did not blog about for obvious reasons but will when they are published! (They are all great. My friends are hella talented.) I read 60 books by women, 23 by men, and one collaboration between a nonbinary writer and female graphic artist.  At least 25 of these were young adult novels, mostly queer. Definitely my comfort reading of the year.

Top five books of the year:

1.  The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

I didn’t read a ton of litfic this year, it turns out (I am 0 for 12 in the Tournament of Books shortlist) so this is actually the only litfic in my top five!  But it is really great. The story of a girl who is granted immortality but cursed not to be remembered by anyone she meets. There are some plot holes in how this is handled, and the modern-day stuff is stronger than the flashbacks, but still a book I really enjoyed.

2. Stay Gold

This is a romance in which the main character is a trans teenager. Both he and his love interest are well-drawn and their chemistry and banter are wonderful. But this book is not light and fluffy. It has extremely vivid transphobic content and could potentially be triggering. If you are sensitive to transphobia and homophobia (against the lesbian characters), I would go read what others have to say about this book before listening to a cisgender person. All that said, I put this at the top of my list because not only are the characters great, it viscerally conveys what it feels like to be a trans man in an authentic way. (The author is a trans man.) I ugly cried at the end of this and felt a greater level of empathy for my transgender friends. That, for me, made it worthwhile.

3. The Murderbot series

This was recommended all over the place this year; I think Ask Metafilter was where I first heard about it.  Murderbot is a sentient humanoid robot who goes rogue, definitely does not want to be human, and loves watching their favorite series, Sanctuary Moon. They somehow end up being in charge of protecting a lot of humans and, unfortunately for them, having some emotions from time to time. Murderbot is a unique and completely loveable character. I didn’t always follow the broader intrigue and corporate espionage stuff, but who cares. Murderbot is delightful.

4. Catfishing on CatNet

A full length novel by the author of Cat Pictures, Please.  If you like that short story (and you must, right?!?) you will love this book. Creative, funny, entertaining, and overall such a pleasure.

5. Amelia Westlake Was Never Here

I read a lot of great (and some bad) YA romance this year but this was one of my favorites. Loved the characters and their chemistry and this was pure, unadulterated, fluffy lesbian goodness. I chased this high all year and never quite reached it again.

Honorable mentions: Frankly In Love, All This Could Be Yours, Quiet Girl in a Noisy World, Real Queer America, More Happy Than Not, Hot Dog Girl


Bottom three books:

Once again, since I abandon most books if I really don’t like them, this is more a list of “meh” than anything I truly disliked! That’s the one downside of being a DNF-er: I don’t get to truly rip into terrible books anymore.

1. New York 2040

Stuck with this because of the Read Harder Challenge but ultimately did not add up to much and was a slog to get through. Not my jam.

2. Like a Love Story

Figured I should probably identify my least favorite YA of the year, and this is it. A great premise torpedoed by unconvincing relationships and unrealistic events, along with some problematic content.

3. London Calling  

Lesbian romance without a good plot or a convincing romance. I probably finished this out of inertia, or maybe misguided optimism that it would get better at some point. 

On to 2021!

Last year I almost made my 2020 goal to read 100 books (I’m glad I didn’t, nobody needed more pressure in 2020).  I think 80 is a good goal though and I’ll up my goal to 80 books in 2021.

Of course, I’m going to keep going with the Read Harder Challenge as I enjoy challenging myself!  I’ll be updating this post as I get through the challenge and use a label on my posts so you can follow along.

I have ideas for some categories, but recommendations are always welcome. I’m not sure how to handle the very first category, “Read a book you’ve been intimidated to read.” A lot of people are doing books like Ulysses or Infinite Jest or War and Peace, but I’ve read all of those. #humblebrag. I never finished Swanns Way but I wasn't intimidated by it; I was just bored.

On the other hand I was really intimidated by Just Mercy this year, because I find it difficult to read about injustice and systemic racism. (Great book, though.) So I think I have to find a book that deals with something enraging or tragic or confronting. (This must be the right approach as I’m intimidated just thinking about it.)

Here are the categories:

Total: 24/24

[X] Read a book you’ve been intimidated to read: We Were Eight Years in Power
[X] Read a nonfiction book about anti-racism: Hood Feminism
[X] Read a non-European novel in translation: Breasts and Eggs
[X] Read an LGBTQ+ history book: Cruising
[X] Read a genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author: Firekeeper's Daughter
[X] Read a fanfic: for hire
[X] Read a fat-positive romance: Spoiler Alert
[X] Read a romance by a trans or nonbinary author: One Last Stop
[X] Read a middle grade mystery: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady
[X] Read an SFF anthology edited by a person of color: New Suns
[X] Read a food memoir by an author of color: Crying in H Mart
[X] Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color: Black Dahlia, Red Rose
[X] Read a book with a cover you don’t like: Billion Dollar Loser
[X] Read a realistic YA book not set in the U.S., UK, or Canada: Here the Whole Time
[X] Read a memoir by a Latinx author: My Beloved World
[X] Read an own voices book about disability: Their Troublesome Crush
[X] Read an own voices YA book with a Black main character that isn’t about Black pain: Smash It!
[X] Read a book by/about a non-Western world leader: The Woman Who Would Be King
[X] Read a historical fiction with a POC or LGBTQ+ protagonist: The Vanishing Half
[X] Read a book of nature poems: Bright Wings
[X] Read a children’s book that centers a disabled character but not their disability: Planet Earth Is Blue
[X] Read a book set in the Midwest: Eligible
[X] Read a book that demystifies a common mental illness: Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me
[X] Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn’t die: Get a Life, Chloe Brown