Weekend Writing: Best Books of 2020
Oh boy, what a year it has been. I know I am not the only one who feels like this year has been unusual, stressful, and unprecedented. When the COVID-19 pandemic started in March (in the United States), I think most of us thought the pandemic would end by the summer season. Then, it lasted into the fall season.
Here we are...Nearly a year later and we're still fighting the pandemic. We have a glimmer of hope that it will end soon, but there is still so much uncertainty. The pandemic has completely upended our lives.
Throughout the pandemic, books have kept us going. Reading can distract us from everything that is happening in the world. Books take us away--taking us on adventures with characters who feel like friends. This was important this year, and there have been several books that have left a lasting impression in 2020.
Unfortunately, some books were delayed with their publication due to the pandemic. We can look forward to reading them in the future. However, there were still plenty of books that provided entertaining stories this year. They're fun, reflective, intellectual, and important works of literature that deserve to be read.
I present to you my list of the best books of 2020. If you haven't read these books yet, what are you waiting for? Add them to your "to be read" list. They're definitely worth it.
1. "The Vanishing Half" - Brit Bennett
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| Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half (photo/Penguin Random House). |
Brit Bennett's novel, The Vanishing Half, was one of the most critically acclaimed and exciting novels of the 2020 summer season. Set in the 1960s, the novel follows the teenage Vignes twin sisters, Desiree and Stella, as they move to New Orleans. They were close sisters, but something happened during the move that forced them apart.
Years later, they're adults and they lead very different lives. Everything about them is different: their families, their communities, and even their racial identities. Desiree lives as a black woman, while Stella passes as white. The sisters haven't even seen each other in decades.
Stella's white husband doesn't know anything about his wife's past, but that's about to change. Stella and Desiree must reconnect and dive into their family history--the good and the bad. They have to confront the issues that drew them apart in the first place. What happened to the sisters? Why did they separate? Can they ever find a way back to each other? Can their relationship ever be resolved?
Weaving together their separate stories, Bennett delivered a riveting, emotional family story about the exploration of one's family along with American history. Bennett considers the lasting impact of the past and racial identity along with one person's decisions, desires, and expectations. The Vanishing Half is an engrossing, thought-provoking page-turner about family and relationships that we needed to read in 2020. We will still need to read it for many years to come.
2. "Hamnet" - Maggie O'Farrell
Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet (photo/Amazon).
If you are a fan of William Shakespeare's plays, Maggie O'Farrell's historical mystery, Hamnet, is the book for you. The novel dives deep into the emotional turmoil and intrigue of Shakespeare's 11-year-old son, Hamnet. He died of the bubonic plague in 1596, and historians believe he inspired Shakespeare's famous play, Hamlet.
O'Farrell imagines how Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, mourned the loss of their son. Four years later, the playwright transposes his grief to write his great masterpiece. However, instead of his son dying, the father dies in the play and the son avenges his father's death. O'Farrell's version of Shakespeare wishes he had died of the plague instead of his son.
The novel brilliantly conjures with the sensual vividness of Shakespeare's hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, and it takes readers back in time to show how Shakespeare met his wife (known as Agnes). She was a gifted healer, and then she's devastated when she can't save her own son from the plague years later.
The novel is a portrait of marriage and how a family copes with unbearable grief and loss. It's a tender story of a young boy who has essentially been forgotten about, but his name inspired one of the greatest plays of all time. Hamnet is mesmerizing and it's impossible to put down.
3. "Leave the World Behind" - Rumaan Alam
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| Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind (photo/The Seattle Times). |
Everyone loves a good thriller, right? With Rumaan Alam's Leave the World Behind, you might want to sleep with the lights on after reading the provocative tale. Amanda and Clay rent a country home for a week-long getaway trip with their teenage son and daughter. Everything is going well until a late-night knock on the door interrupts the quiet peace.
The owners of the home, an older African-American couple, return to announce that there has been a blackout in New York City. Without a television, cell phone service, and Internet access, Amanda and Clay have to believe the couple. But, should they? Are they safe in this home?
Alam has crafted a suspenseful story about trust, parenthood, race, and class. Who can you really believe in the moment of crisis? You'll be on the edge of your seat with this daring book. If you need some excitement after how this year has been, this is the book for you.
4. "Homeland Elegies: A Novel" - Ayad Akhtar
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| Ayad Akhtar's Homeland Elegies (photo/Amazon). |
Ayad Akhtar's novel, Homeland Elegies, has been praised as the next "Great American Novel" that reminds readers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The narrator is a first-generation American born to Pakistani immigrants. His father treated President Donald Trump for a heart condition and has decided that he's trustworthy. Even though his father didn't interact much with Trump, he believes he's a true American. This is frustrating to the narrator and he searches for the answer to his burning question: What does it take to be an American? What are the qualifications?
The collection of essays begin with Walt Whitman's depiction of America and a dream of national belonging. The narrator discusses the lure and ruin of capital, the wounds of 9/11, cultural rejection, and prejudice. Akhtar doesn't hesitate to criticize the country's narratives and America's obsession with money. Just like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, Akhtar's narrator reflects on the ugliness of society--hoping to inspire readers to grow and learn.
5. "Anna K" - Jenny Lee
Jenny Lee's Anna K (photo/Amazon).
Whenever a book happens to be a modern re-telling of a literary classic, it's bound to be successful. Jenny Lee's Anna K is no exception. A modern re-telling of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the novel begins with 17-year-old Anna K at the height of Manhattan and Greenwich society. She has a perfect (yet perfectly boring) boyfriend, Alexander. She has made her Korean-American father proud, even though he can be a little controlling.
Meanwhile, Anna's brother, Steven, and his girlfriend, Lolly, are involved in a sexting scandal. Lolly's younger sister, Kimmie, tries to return to normal life after an injury ended her ice dancing career. Steven's best friend, Dustin, is in love with Kimmie, but she doesn't return the feelings. As you can see, there is a lot of drama going on in Anna's life, and she always finds herself in the middle of the problems. She has managed to sail gracefully above it all.
That's until she meets Alexia "Count" Vronsky at Grand Central Station. A notorious playboy who has bounced from boarding school to boarding school, he lives for his own pleasure. Alexia is the complete opposite of Anna, but once he meets her...He's hooked. He's never fallen in love before because he's too busy living his own life. But now, everything has changed, and it seems to have changed for Anna, as well.
The two characters are pulled irresistibly together, and Anna has to decide if she's willing to give up her glamorous Manhattan life to be with Alexia. When a shocking revelation threatens to shatter their relationship, Anna has to make tough decisions she has never had to face before.
In this dazzling re-telling of a classic love story, Lee offers a heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak. It's the perfect book to read after the tumultuous year we have had.
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Of course, there were many other books from the past year that are worth celebrating. Because I can't properly feature them, below is a list of other books I recommend reading from this year:
- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
- Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Memorial by Bryan Washington
- When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
- The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
- The Harpy by Megan Hunter
- The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
- Monogamy by Sue Miller
- Beach Read by Emily Henry
- Sorry I Missed You by Suzy Krause
- The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
- A Burning by Megha Majumdar
- The Holdout by Graham Moore
- Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey
- In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
- In the Land of Men: A Memoir by Adrienne Miller
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
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