Penny’s Year End Review for 2020

Oomph, 2020 is finally nearing it’s end! Hurray! It’s ending with maybe a touch of hope as we head into 2021? Overall, it was a fairly good year of reading, but as I’m nearing the end, I’m finding my search or really my reward of an excellent book to sweep me off my feet to be elusive, and this is colouring my perception of my reading year.

I’ve already found a pile of books the library is bringing in for 2021 and there’s many promising ones to look out for, but I was also fairly conservative with my trigger finger when marking them On Hold. Hopefully this helps to read the books I bought this year!

Pandemic book buying was definitely a thing for me! I spent some serious money on books this year. Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone (although based on how my shelves are jammed with books, it’s a bit obvious).

I’m going to use a format that I’ve used many times before for this year-end review. It will list my favourites and my not-so favourites. I hope you enjoy!

Best Books Read in 2020

1. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
2. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (audio)
3. Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
4. Be Frank With Me by Julia Clairborne Johnson (audio)
5. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner (2ce, the second in audio)
6. The Paris Hours by Alex George
7. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
8. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
9. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil
10. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
11. Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan
12. The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons

A nice round dozen! With the exception of two authors, it was clearly female authors for the win. I’ve listed three I listened to in audio. As there were work-from-home orders early on in the year, I had zero commute time so my time listening to audio was severely cut. Because of this, the number of books I read this year fell dramatically as well. The Dutch House read by Tom Hanks was a complete and utter highlight of this year. What a phenomenal story in audio! The second one was The Jane Austen Society – a book I so loved, but after learning the Richard Armitage was performing the audio, I had to listen to it as well. Tavia Gilbert’s narration of Be Frank With Me was phenomenal too. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been given 5-stars if it weren’t for her narration, especially of Frank’s voice.

So I did have an excellent reading year based on these mentioned above. Quite successful I’d say!

Honourable Mentions

There are quite a few to list here as well. There were many that were really very good and well deserving of honourable mentions.

1. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa. This has to be the first mentioned. The winner of the Shadow Giller Prize (which I was so happily a part of this year!) and the official Giller Prize, this is well deserving of an honourable mention! These stories are so excellent!
2. Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
3. Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin
4. The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan
5. Writers and Lovers by Lily King
6. House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild
7. Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed
8. The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
9. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
10. What’s Left of Me is Yours by Stephanie Scott
11. A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee
12. Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
13. Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey by Kathleen Rooney
14. Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
15. All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny

Women for the Win!

Most Disappointing Reads in 2020

1. Here the Dark by David Bergen
2. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
3. Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis
4. The Illness Lesson by Clare Beams
5. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore

The Books I recommended the most in 2020

1. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil
2. The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons
3. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
4. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
5. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (in audio)

Favourite new author(s) discovered in 2020

I finally read Esi Edugyan and what took me so long right?

Favourite Cover

Worst Cover

Most Beautifully Written

1. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
2. Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed
3. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
4. Exile Music by Jennifer Steil

Most Memorable Characters

1. Frank Banning from Be Frank With Me. Frank crushed my heart.
2. The girl in the short story, “How to Pronounce Knife” in the collection of the same name by Souvankham Thammavongsa.
3. The mom and dad in the short story, “Randy Travis” in the collection How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
4. As always, the characters of Lane, Darling and Ames in Iona Whishaw’s Lane Winslow series.
5. Violet Swan along with her son, grandson and daughter-in-law from Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed.
6. Everyone in The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner.
7. Definitely Cher Ami from Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey by Kathleen Rooney (I loved that pigeon!)
8. Simon and Abe from Clyde Fans by Seth
9. Eudora Honeysett, Rose Trewidney and Stanley from The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett.
10. Brenda and Charlie from Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan
11. Ana from The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
12. Ellen Hutchins in A Quiet Tide by Marianne Lee
13. The “five little Indians” in Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.

The Books that had the Greatest Impact

1. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
2. How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

There you have it! My look into the books I read in 2020. So far I’ve read 86 and based on this list a huge majority were written by women. At the very least, my favourites were written by women. I also increased my reading by BIPOC authors quite a bit this year.

I do not mention too often here in this post my turn as a Shadow Giller jury member which was a significant highlight of my reading year. I look forward to working with this great group (and maybe others too) next year!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful reading year despite the challenges and issues this past year has brought us. I’m wishing you all a very merry Christmas and happy holidays and everything wonderful for a better and hopeful new year! I am looking very forward to a break from work and just being able to sit by the fire and enjoy some wonderful reads.