Earlier this week, I shared reader’s favorite recipes from 2020. Today, it’s time to recap last year’s reading, highlighting some of my favorite and reader favorite books.
My goal for 2020 was to read 24 books. If you follow me on Goodreads, you’ll see that I blew past that with 50, but it’s a bit misleading – over a dozen of those books were novellas that accompanied a couple of young adult series I got into. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that should count, but needless to say, I met my goal! I did read a bit more that usual because of COVID. My family was under a stay-at-home order for about 6 weeks and there were multiple weeks when I was not working. While we had some normalcy for a few months, life was never really normal, as we continued to avoid shopping in stores and didn’t see quite as many friends and family as usual…
I will say, in terms of reading, the year started off with a slow start. I usually enjoy most of the books I read throughout the year – books that may not be great literature but are enjoyable and entertaining. While the year started with a few historical fiction books that I enjoyed, the pandemic hit and the books I picked up fell short of expectations. The Starless Sea was a particular disappointment for me. I finally got into a groove with a more unique mystery, a couple of great historical fiction books, and a young adult series that I lost a couple months to and finished the year on a high note, reading wise.
While this year’s list may be shorter than usual, it’s got some good ones. If you want more recommendations, you can check out my favorite books of 2019, 2018, and 2017.
Without further ado, here are my favorite books read from 2020:
The reader favorite of my book reviews (according to Google Analytics page views), The Alice Network is one book I just couldn't put down. The historical fiction novel flips back and forth between two story lines - a WWI Ally spy ring in France and a post-WWII search for a missing girl. I can't recommend it enough. A young adult series of 7 novels and 15 novellas, I lost myself in The Lorien Legacies for most of fall. The series is about a bunch of kids who develop superhero-like powers from the planet Loren who flee to Earth when their planet is being destroyed. But their attackers followed them to Earth. Not only are the children hunted, but they must stop the enemy from taking over Earth as well. This mystery/suspense novel was a standalone that I flew through. It was fast-paced, a little dorky - a great one to lose oneself in for a week. This young adult novel is the fifth and final book in Rachel Caine's Great Library series. Published in 2019 (I missed it), the book sucked me right back into the fictional world she created where the Great Library of Alexandria was not just alive but playing a central role in world affairs. With the old, corrupt Great Library leadership overthrown, Jess Brightwell and his friends must stabilize the library under new leadership while simultaneously protecting it from two foes. Read early in 2020, this historical fiction novel was hard to put down. It followed the story of an architect living in Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII. It's a story of hope and change, of facing impossible choices and learning what you really have in you. Best Books of 2020
{Book Review} The Alice Network
{Book Review} The Lorien Legacies
{Book Review} Broken Genius
{Book Review} Sword and Pen
{Book Review} The Paris Architect
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