2020 Book Review

In a year when I felt so overwhelmed by social media, new Marvel movies, Disney+ Star Wars spin-offs, and the endless pandemic, books became my saving grace. 

Like 2019, I committed to reading 52 books for the Goodreads Reading Challenge. This should have averaged to about one book per week, which is a manageable goal for me. Once the pandemic hit, however, I went through periods of reading three books a day and then none for months at a time. Still, I made it to my 2020 reading goal (with two weeks to spare - I haven't picked up a book since). 

I read a lot of poetry this year, in part due to my final classes at college, and also because poetry was easy to pick up when I did not feel like reading a novel. Mary Oliver, anyone? I think this also made graphic novels even more appealing, and I read a few this year that were positively lovely. For my English capstone and Dance thesis (which feels so long ago - how could I possibly have graduated this year?), I read literary and movement theory. Made possible by recommendations of friends and the inspiration I felt by the Black Lives Matter movement, I also read more books by authors of color than in the past. All of this led to a challenging year of reading, but one that sustained me through all the tumult of 2020.

The best book I read this year was They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib, a collection of essays centered the relationship between music and culture. And the worst book? The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K. Dick. I have never felt so disoriented as I did after reading that one. I'm still glad I read it though (I rarely regret reading books), even if only to say I survived it. 

I am proud to say I renewed my library membership after moving home during the pandemic, so I bought less books than ever before. Looking forward, I think I'll stick to 52 books for 2021. This helps me hold myself accountable to putting down my phone and picking up the page. 

2020 Reading Challenge

Gillian has completed her goal of reading 52 books in 2020!

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52 of 52 (100%)

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A guide to my rating system:

★★★★★ - Reserved for my favorite books ever

★★★★    - A must-read

★★★       - Enjoyable, I recommend it

★★          -  Not recommended but ok

★             - Bad, not interesting at all

1. Life of the Party by Olivia Gatwood ★★★★
2. Honeybee by Trista Mateer ★★★
3. Remnants of Another Age by Nikola Madžirov ★★★★
4. Poets on the Art of Teaching by Megan Volpert ★★★★
5. The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer ★★★★
6. Break the Glass by Jean Valentine ★★★★
7. Poetry, Prose, and Pride by John Medeiros ★★★★
8. Georg Trakl: Gesture and Voice by Georg Trakl ★★★★
9. Paris: A Love Story by Kati Marton ★★★
10. The Orchard by Brigit Pegeen Kelly ★★★
11. Feminism Is Queer by Mimi Marinucci ★★★★
12. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver ★★★★
13. All Things New by Lynn Austin ★★
14. Blue Hour by Carolyn Forché ★★★★
15. The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin ★★★★
16. Leaping Poetry by Robert Bly ★★★★
17. Can You Drink the Cup? by Henri J.M. Nouwen ★★★
18. She Persisted Around the World by Chelsea Clinton ★★★★
19. She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World by Chelsea Clinton ★★★★
20. A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott ★★★★
21. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon ★★★
22. The Twenty-Ninth Year by Hala Alyan ★★★★
23. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber ★★★★
24. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ★★★★
25. The Cosmic Puppets by Philip K. Dick ★★
26. Break.up by Joanna Walsh ★★★
27. Felicity: Poems by Mary Oliver ★★★
28. The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis ★★★★
29. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal ★★★★★
30. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas ★★★★
31. Loving Day by Mat Johnson ★★★
32. Niobe: She Is Life by Sebastian A. Jones ★★★★
33. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah ★★★★
34. The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer ★★★
35. Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell ★★★★
36. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde ★★★★
37. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates ★★★★
38. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney ★★★
39. Find Your Voice: A Guided Poetry Journal for Your Heart and Your Art by Noor Unnahar ★★★★
40. The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal ★★★
41. Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience by Patrice Vecchione ★★★★
42. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden ★★★★
43. A Fortune For Your Disaster: Poems by Hanif Abdurraqib ★★★★
44. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg ★★★★
45. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib ★★★★★
46. Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib ★★★★
47. Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History by Tori Telfer ★★★★
48. Salt Houses by Hala Alyan ★★★
49. I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World by Kai Cheng Thom ★★★
50. Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deavere Smith ★★★
51. Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith ★★★★
52. Sula by Toni Morrison ★★★★