Favorite Book Roundup, Part I

I aim to read 52 books a year. Sometimes it’s a few more, sometimes a few less. I try to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and different types or genres of both. For the next two weeks, I’ll be talking about my favorites from 2020. Obviously, we still have a few weeks to go, so maybe one will surprise me, but these are the ones that really spoke to me in some way this year. I’ll pick 5 fiction and 5 nonfiction each week to share with you. Of course, some of my favorite books were by my clients, but I can’t share them with you yet! Note that some of these were published well before 2020 – I just got around to reading them this year. They are not in any order other than the general order I read them in.

 Nonfiction: 

1.     21 Lessons for the 21st Century – Yuval Noah Harari. His books are always fascinating, and this is no exception, covering such topics as the rise of technology and big data and what that means for our lives (especially work lives) and the crisis of liberal democracy.  

2.     How to Be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi – Compelling, thought-provoking read, which  uses personal anecdotes, history, and science to explore racism and the journey to antiracism, for individuals and society. This one has been talked about a lot, and for good reason. 

3.     So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeomo Oluo. This is the book to get if you’re wondering how to communicate with people who still think racism isn’t a problem. It’s written for an audience that doesn’t know what intersectionality is, or thinks that white privilege means all white people are privileged equally, or doesn’t see the school-to-prison pipeline, but that’s the beauty of it. Honest, upfront, succinct.  

4.     How to Talk to Strangers – Malcolm Gladwell. Another book about communication, this one about why and how we make assumptions about others, whether it’s a positive bias toward those we consider our in-group or a negative bias (sometimes with tragic consequences) toward those we see as different from us. I’d read about some of the neuroscience behind it before (most notably in Robert Sapolsky’s Behave), but Gladwell’s style of storytelling captured it for me in a new way.  

5.     No Time to Spare – Ursula K. LeGuin. This collection of essays from one of my favorite writers was written when she was in her 80’s, and goes from the charming (portraits of her cat) to musings on aging, the place of SF/F in literature, feminism, “belief” vs. acceptance in science, and more, with wit and sharpness. I practically read it one sitting.

Fiction:

1.     The Darkest Part of the Forest – Holly Black. This was my introduction Holly Black, and now I’m a convert. I love her mix of realistic teens grappling with their everyday lives, with fantastic creatures to battle, outwit, or befriend. Not the only book I read by her this year. 

2.     Daisy Jones and the Six – ­ Taylor Jenkins Reid. This one was off my radar for a while, but I was drawn in by the structure, of a journalist interviewing members of a band decades after their big break. Breezy style, well-drawn characters, really evocative of the music scene of a certain era. 

3.     The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern. Her follow-up the The Night Circus. I found it a little long, and challenging to follow, but that was part of the charm – like the underground world itself, you never know what or who will appear when, and how it’s all connected, until the last. 

4.     Euphoria – Lily King. A love triangle loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead, tracing the relationships of a female anthropologist in Papua New Guinea, her husband, and another anthropologist as they struggle not only with each other but with the difficulty of creating groundbreaking work in an emerging discipline. 

5.     All of Us with Wings – Michelle Ruiz Keil. Another YA fantasy, about Xochi, a girl running from an abusive and neglectful past, who ends up being nanny/friend to the daughter of a free-love rock star family. The girls perform a ritual accidentally raising a pair of spirits determined to avenge Xochi’s past. The fantasy aspects take a backseat to real themes of love, friendship, forgiveness, and navigating sexual and emotional relationships.   

That’s the list for this week. I’ll be back with more next week.

Please leave your favorites for the year in the comments!