The 80 Books I Read in 2020
By: Nina Li Coomes
Tags: Books, Reading, Authors

From the cover of Helen Oyeyemi’s WHAT IS NOT YOURS IS NOT YOURS

To be honest, I felt hesitant about posting this list. My interest in reading ebbed and flowed; I felt bad that I wasn’t spending all my “new” quarantine time reading classics or other Big Books; some weeks I didn’t have the attention span to read a chapter much less a page; I did a very bad job of keeping track of the books I did end up reading. Instead, I did a lot of podcast listening. I watched TV and movies and learned how to play video games. I’d sit down with a book only to find myself scrolling instagram for way too long. What can I say? I can think of a lot of reasons to yell at myself for not reading enough or reading good enough books, but life is short and pity is boring. So, without further ado, it’s the year in books!

As usual, the rules are the same. My default is to enjoy the thing I’m reading, I’m a pretty easy to please customer, so if I recommended something that means I extra-enjoyed it, and that’s noted by the book title being in bold. RR notes that the book was a re-read. Comments come after the //. This year, the list is not chronological.

So Sad Today, Melissa Broder The Man With Compound Eyes, Wu Ming Yi // Really excellent Taiwanese novel I still am thinking about. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Mo Yan (RR) Uncanny Valley, Anna Weiner Happiness, Aminata Forna // Perhaps one of the best novels I’ve read all year? I read this twice. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante The Story Of A New Name, Elena Ferrante Howl’s Moving Castle, Dianna Wynne Jones (RR x 6) The Water Cure, Sophie Mackintosh Wild Game, Adrienne Brodeur Very Nice, Marcy Dermansky // Another book rife with casual racism and orientalism — am I being oversensitive? Do editors not care? I have questions! Bough Down, Karen Green Lit, Mary Karr (RR) Afterlife, Donald Antrim Upstream, Mary Oliver Severance, Ling Ma // so eerie and prescient to read in 2020 My Education, Susan Choi Family Happiness, Leo Tolstoy Drifting Clouds, Futabatei Shimei The Broken Commandment, Shimazaki Toson Sanshiro, Natsume Soseki // I read this later in Japanese but I thought this novel was lovely and fragile. Kokoro, Natsume Soseki Minor Feelings, Cathy Park Hong Starling Days, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan / Rowan’s books are always good reads but I especially appreciated this one for its frank and generous portrayal of love and depression. Harmless Like You, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (RR) Miles From Nowhere, Nami Mun The Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami Jazz, Toni Morrison Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde Anna Karenina, Tolstoy (RR) // I read this when I was in high school to be annoying and brag to everyone that I read Anna Karenina. I succeeded in being annoying but I also remember really genuinely liking the book so I re-read it and I have to say, this book is great! So gossipy so rollicking, not stuffy at all. Build Yourself A Boat, Camonghe Felix Trust Excercise, Susan Choi Know My Name, Chanel Miller // sobbed the hardest I’ve sobbed while reading a book. Dub, Alexis Pauline Gumbs Soft Science, Franny Choi Hull, Xandria Philips Ornamentalism, Anne Anlin Cheng Sula, Toni Morrison // Toni Morrison is I think the best writer of the 20th century. All of her work is marvelous but Sula in particular rung me like a bell. Also, Jamila Woods put out a song based on the novel which is very good! There There, Tommy Orange How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay, Elena Ferrante A Burning, Megha Majumdar Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals, Saidiya Hartman // In particular the second to last chapter was incredible. The City We Became, NK Jemisin all about love, bell hooks (RR) Such A Fun Age, Kiley Reid Swing Time, Zadie Smith The Grave On The Wall, Brandon Shimoda Commencement, J Courtney Sullivan The Islands of Chaldea, Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula Jones The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker // I am confused by the standard of things being “good” in fantasy. I think NK Jemisin and Octavia Butler are good writers of this genre. This book was recommended to me (along w the VE Schwab below) in similar glowing terms but it didn’t even come CLOSE to holding up. There’s something to be said about books that get glowing reviews based on very well built worlds but poorly constructed characters and shoddy storylines. I say this as someone who unironically enjoys RA Salvatore novels, which are essentially guidelines for gameplay. Earthlings, Sayaka Murata // Incredibly disturbing, someone plesae talk with me about the ending. What is Not Yours Is Not Yours, Helen Oyeyemi // Like reading fairy tales you’ve never heard before, wonderful. Where The Wild Ladies Are, Aoko Matsuda Memorial, Bryan Washington Who We’re Reading When We Read Murakami, David Karashima Fathoms: The World In The Whale, Rebecca Giggs Beloved, Toni Morrison (RR) 焼きそばうえだ、さくらももこ ひとりずもう、さくらももこ // 特に漫画家になりたいと決めたときのエピソードが心に響きました。さくらももこさんのエッセイはユーモアがあって、おすすめです。 おんぶにだっこ、さくらももこ 憧れのまほうつかい、さくらももこ 私小説、 水村美苗 // 共感できすぎてちょっと怖かった。 三四郎、夏目漱石 （日本語） 海獣の子供、五十嵐大介 （１～５巻）RR /// I know some people don’t think manga count as reading books but a.) I pored over these bc I was Japansick and b.) stuff it, genre snob! 、、 、、 、、、 、、 きのう何食べた、よしながふみ （１～５巻き）// ドラマも見ました！ .. .. .. .. A Darker Shade of Magic, V.E. Schwab If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha // I read this twice, once more after finishing it through. A game changer for how I think about craft. Also just a really special example of a book that takes place in Asia but doesn’t cater to the white reader’s need for everything to be explained. The Memory Police, Yoko Ogawa Real Life, Brandon Taylor

What’s I have planned to read for winter break: