My Top Books of 2020
2020 was quite the year for all of us. Many of the things that helped me through this time, books was the top. That is not to say I did not have times I did not want to read. I ended the year finished with 29 books read. I looked back and picked some that I choose as my top 5. These are not necessarily the one that are rated the highest, but the ones that I recalled the most and made the biggest impression on me. All of them are rate with 5 or 4 stars though.
Educated By Tara Westover
This book was read at the beginning of 2020 before COVID was even a thing. I had heard so much about this book and my mom highly recommended it. This is a memoir of Tara while she grew up in a very different lifestyle in rural Idaho. Tara eventually gets out and learns how different her life was, but there are many trials along the way. This story really can stick with the reader in how the lifestyle is so different from the usual way people grow up in the United States. It seems so long ago that I read this book because it was the beginning of 2020, but I can still recall so much about this book. The story can really inspire you and also make you grateful for your life and childhood. I know it did for me.
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine by Gail Honeyman
I owned and had wanted to read this book for a while. I bought it in an airport while traveling through the UK, which is fitting since it is about a British person. I included it in the 12 books I wanted to read for 2020 that I wrote about here. This book had me laughing, cringing from embarrassment, and crying. This story is about a traumatized girl and her life coping with the events from her childhood. Her character and unique quirks put her in unknown funny and strange situations, but she slowly starts to realize there is more to life that how she is currently living. I kept thinking back this year to scenes in this book and I wanted to reread it all over again. This was one of the books my family books club read. One of my sisters did not like the book, but the rest of us enjoyed it.
Can you keep a secert? by sophie kinsella
This is one of the few books I read in one or two days in 2020. It is a shorter novel, but I could not put it down also. This story had me laughing out loud so many times. Thank goodness we were required to stay at home, or I would have embarrassed myself in public reading this. I was recommended this book by two of my sisters, who have read other novels by Sophie, and I am glad they did. This book is funny and lighthearted. I choose to read it after reading some of the heavier, big books. The story is about a struggling young adult woman, who tells all of her deepest secrets to a complete strange. Thinks really start going sideways, when the stranger turns out to be the founder of the company she just started working at.
Ninth house by leigh barduga
If you want a great book to get you into the halloween spirit, this is a good option. This was the pick of my family book club, along with Rebecca, as the read for October. I loved the world created and the characters added. This novel tells the happenings of Alex Stern as she starts her first year at Yale, but she is working in a secrete society the controls the societies that deal with magic. The end left me wanting to read the next book right away, but I will have to read in when it comes out.
Where the crawdads sing by delia owens
This books seriously has to be one of the top books I read in 2020. I could not read it fast enough. The murder mystery aspect of this book will have you hooked from the beginning, and then the rest of the story will make you love (or hate) the characters. We are introduced to the main woman of the novel, who grew up on the outskirts of town all by herself. Her childhood will make you cry and also cheer for her for making it. The ending is probably my favorite, since I was so shocked and left with my mouth hanging open.