My Favorite Books of 2020
I know I forgot some stuff in my Year in Review. I'll just say my favorite newly discovered YouTuber is Call Me Kevin. He plays games, often deliberately badly and he's played just about everything you can think of. Except for adventure games of course unfortunately. But he makes funny commentary and he's really hilarious. Always cracks me up. I'm kind of addicted to his videos. Anyway, just wanted to add that. Onward to the books.
So, I read a total of 38 books last year. Of course one was a short story and another was more of a joke. I read less than in 2019. I can probably narrow this down to two reasons why. 1. The pandemic. Not that it specifically affected my mood to read, but the thing is that I tend to read more on the go and due to lockdowns I'm on the go much less and therefore get less read. 2. The other reason I think is because I read quite a few chunkier books. More than usual and those take longer to read. But hoping things will pick up again in the latter half of this year so I can read more again.
Now let's get into stats. I think this is my third year doing this, but only my second year using Book Riot's spreadsheet. I've looked over them already and here are some noteworthy stats to me. I had a goal set for 2020 to read more non-sff books, and they made up about 18% of my reading if I really stretch the definition and include horror. I think that's pretty good. I averaged about three books a month, which sounds about right. I read the most books in July. Not sure what was special about that month, but hey. 92% of my books were fiction and 8% were non-fiction. No surprise there. 76% were adult books, 13% were middle grade and 10.5% YA. I owe the middle grade to Rick Riordan. That stat could change whenever I get caught up with all his series, but I'm not there yet. Majority of my reads were novels with the second place going to novellas at 10.5%. 68% of the authors I read were male and almost 32% were female. Yeah, that there is not so great. I'd try to balance things out more with genders, but I don't usually take gender into account when I pick what I want to read next. It's whatever I'm in the mood for some of the time. But a good thing is that 52% of the books I read were either written by or featured a POC protagonist. And nearly 18% were either written by or featured a queer protagonist. A whopping 57% of the books I read in 2020, I purchased that year, while 25% were books I already owned. Uh oh. I probably need to work on that. That's why I have so many unread books that have been sitting around for years. Most of the books I read, I rated 4 stars. No surprise. Most of the books I read were in the 301-400 page range. OK, so that's about average length. But as I said, I read some chunkier books. I did read 7 that were 501-600 pages and 2 that were 601-700 pages. I didn't read anything longer than that. 52% of my reading was fantasy. I guess I read much less sci-fi than I usually do though. That made up almost 29%. The rest of the books were divided by different genres and of course they weren't a huge number. Most of the books I read were by U.S. authors. UK after that. But enough about stats, let's get to my favorite books I read in 2020. As always, these weren't necessarily all published in 2020. TBH overall it was kind of an average year of reading because very few, if nearly none of the books I read I could say actually blew my mind. But I did have some favorites.
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson - This book went in a very different direction. I preferred Skyward more, but I loved all the different aliens Sanderson came up with and it was still a solid read.
The Fire Within by D.K. Holmberg - One of a couple free indie titles I read last year. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's a little Harry Potter-esque with a magical school. I would like to continue the series, but I don't when I will.
Wool by Hugh Howey - When the pandemic hit, I was wanting to read something post-apocalyptic to set the mood. Most people would probably want to steer clear of that sub-genre right now, but I find it oddly comforting when you know the characters are going through a similar situation to you. And what better book than one about not being able to go outside lol. I loved this book. It was kind of a downer, but loved it. Loved the mystery and the big twist at the end. Another I wouldn't mind continuing the series, but who knows when.
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan - This is the second book of the Heroes of Olympus, which is a series I'm about to complete soon. I've been enjoying them, but maybe not as much as Percy Jackson because they've gotten repetitive. However, I really liked this one in particular because Percy is back and I loved his dynamic between the new characters of Frank and Hazel.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab - I picked this one as my favorite book of the year. Why didn't I read this series sooner? Love the world, love the characters, and it was a lot of fun to read and moves along at a great pace. My ideal fantasy book really. The second book was a little disappointing because it went off on an unnecessary tangent I felt, but I'm currently reading the third and it's more up to par with the first so far. Can't wait to see how it ends. I think Schwab will soon become a new favorite author. I have a couple of her other books, including one I'm planning on reading fairly soon.
Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan - The conclusion to the Legends of the First Empire series, and a fine conclusion it was. Boy was it grim in the beginning. It added a lot to the world and answered questions and wrapped up nicely. I didn't include Age of Death in my favorites though even though I read that too because I was a little let down by it. But definitely looking forward to what comes next and following a particular character.
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - I might not gush about this one as a lot of people do, but it's always refreshing to get some non-european centered epic fantasy, and a revenge story at that. I know some don't like the character of Tau, but he's young so I understand why he acts the way he does, and the revenge is definitely satisfying. I especially like that the characters you follow may not necessarily be the good guys. There were a lot of terms and names to get used to, so I think that challenge prevented me from giving a full five stars, plus for dragons being in the title, there was a surprising lack of them, but yeah, I really enjoyed this action packed novel. I have the sequel and hoping to get to it sometime this year.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Slower paced than I was hoping for, but that was OK because the wait really pays off. What a weird and twisted book. Loved the main character and it was highly entertaining.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark - Loved this novella. I really wanted more from this world, and fortunately it looks like the author does have another book in this setting waiting in the wings. It was a fun time.
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie - I have to admit this book didn't grab me in the beginning. There was only a couple of POVs I actually cared about, so I think middle book syndrome did hit, but it does pick up and wraps up well with another twist. I'm eager for the conclusion and I expect it to be explosive.
Those are my favorites, but I also have some honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut.
The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence - His books often tend to be hit or miss for me. This one was more of a hit and set in the Books of the Ancestor world. I like where it's going so far, overall liked the story, but it remains to be seen if it will hold up for me.
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - One of my favorite tropes is immortal characters or characters living their lives over and over, reincarnation, and all that jazz. And I did enjoy this one, but it was hard to ignore some of the flaws.
The Egg by Andy Weir - This is a very short three paged... I don't know if you could really call it a story. More like a thought provoking essay. I know the concepts he discussed and I found it surprising coming from a sci-fi author. He is very astute.
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - Cute, sweet, sad, yet simple. Adored the characters, and also liked the movie adaptation.
And for my dishonorable mentions, as in the worst books.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - This was actually a DNF for me, and haven't DNF'd a book in a while. It was just too confusing and I didn't really care about the characters either. I know there are plenty of people who enjoyed it though, so it's probably just me. A bummer because I was looking forward to it.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Ouch. Yeah. Maybe feel a bit guilty about this one. To be fair, I was sick while trying to read it and that always messes with my focus. But I just couldn't engage with the writing style.
The Black Khan by Ausma Zehanat Khan - I really liked the first book, but this one I couldn't even tell you what happened in the story. I was just not into it, and so I quit this series.
Network Effect by Martha Wells - This was more disappointing than a bad book. The first Murderbot novel and I'm sorry to say, but I prefer them as novellas. Luckily the next in the series will be a novella.
And, that's it. I'm not setting any reading goals for 2021 this time, but I hope I will be able to finish more books this year and find some great new reads. I might post a little something extra about the books I read later. A kind of book survey I did. My favorite movies of 2020 will be next.
So, I read a total of 38 books last year. Of course one was a short story and another was more of a joke. I read less than in 2019. I can probably narrow this down to two reasons why. 1. The pandemic. Not that it specifically affected my mood to read, but the thing is that I tend to read more on the go and due to lockdowns I'm on the go much less and therefore get less read. 2. The other reason I think is because I read quite a few chunkier books. More than usual and those take longer to read. But hoping things will pick up again in the latter half of this year so I can read more again.
Now let's get into stats. I think this is my third year doing this, but only my second year using Book Riot's spreadsheet. I've looked over them already and here are some noteworthy stats to me. I had a goal set for 2020 to read more non-sff books, and they made up about 18% of my reading if I really stretch the definition and include horror. I think that's pretty good. I averaged about three books a month, which sounds about right. I read the most books in July. Not sure what was special about that month, but hey. 92% of my books were fiction and 8% were non-fiction. No surprise there. 76% were adult books, 13% were middle grade and 10.5% YA. I owe the middle grade to Rick Riordan. That stat could change whenever I get caught up with all his series, but I'm not there yet. Majority of my reads were novels with the second place going to novellas at 10.5%. 68% of the authors I read were male and almost 32% were female. Yeah, that there is not so great. I'd try to balance things out more with genders, but I don't usually take gender into account when I pick what I want to read next. It's whatever I'm in the mood for some of the time. But a good thing is that 52% of the books I read were either written by or featured a POC protagonist. And nearly 18% were either written by or featured a queer protagonist. A whopping 57% of the books I read in 2020, I purchased that year, while 25% were books I already owned. Uh oh. I probably need to work on that. That's why I have so many unread books that have been sitting around for years. Most of the books I read, I rated 4 stars. No surprise. Most of the books I read were in the 301-400 page range. OK, so that's about average length. But as I said, I read some chunkier books. I did read 7 that were 501-600 pages and 2 that were 601-700 pages. I didn't read anything longer than that. 52% of my reading was fantasy. I guess I read much less sci-fi than I usually do though. That made up almost 29%. The rest of the books were divided by different genres and of course they weren't a huge number. Most of the books I read were by U.S. authors. UK after that. But enough about stats, let's get to my favorite books I read in 2020. As always, these weren't necessarily all published in 2020. TBH overall it was kind of an average year of reading because very few, if nearly none of the books I read I could say actually blew my mind. But I did have some favorites.
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson - This book went in a very different direction. I preferred Skyward more, but I loved all the different aliens Sanderson came up with and it was still a solid read.
The Fire Within by D.K. Holmberg - One of a couple free indie titles I read last year. I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's a little Harry Potter-esque with a magical school. I would like to continue the series, but I don't when I will.
Wool by Hugh Howey - When the pandemic hit, I was wanting to read something post-apocalyptic to set the mood. Most people would probably want to steer clear of that sub-genre right now, but I find it oddly comforting when you know the characters are going through a similar situation to you. And what better book than one about not being able to go outside lol. I loved this book. It was kind of a downer, but loved it. Loved the mystery and the big twist at the end. Another I wouldn't mind continuing the series, but who knows when.
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan - This is the second book of the Heroes of Olympus, which is a series I'm about to complete soon. I've been enjoying them, but maybe not as much as Percy Jackson because they've gotten repetitive. However, I really liked this one in particular because Percy is back and I loved his dynamic between the new characters of Frank and Hazel.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab - I picked this one as my favorite book of the year. Why didn't I read this series sooner? Love the world, love the characters, and it was a lot of fun to read and moves along at a great pace. My ideal fantasy book really. The second book was a little disappointing because it went off on an unnecessary tangent I felt, but I'm currently reading the third and it's more up to par with the first so far. Can't wait to see how it ends. I think Schwab will soon become a new favorite author. I have a couple of her other books, including one I'm planning on reading fairly soon.
Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan - The conclusion to the Legends of the First Empire series, and a fine conclusion it was. Boy was it grim in the beginning. It added a lot to the world and answered questions and wrapped up nicely. I didn't include Age of Death in my favorites though even though I read that too because I was a little let down by it. But definitely looking forward to what comes next and following a particular character.
The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter - I might not gush about this one as a lot of people do, but it's always refreshing to get some non-european centered epic fantasy, and a revenge story at that. I know some don't like the character of Tau, but he's young so I understand why he acts the way he does, and the revenge is definitely satisfying. I especially like that the characters you follow may not necessarily be the good guys. There were a lot of terms and names to get used to, so I think that challenge prevented me from giving a full five stars, plus for dragons being in the title, there was a surprising lack of them, but yeah, I really enjoyed this action packed novel. I have the sequel and hoping to get to it sometime this year.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Slower paced than I was hoping for, but that was OK because the wait really pays off. What a weird and twisted book. Loved the main character and it was highly entertaining.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark - Loved this novella. I really wanted more from this world, and fortunately it looks like the author does have another book in this setting waiting in the wings. It was a fun time.
The Trouble With Peace by Joe Abercrombie - I have to admit this book didn't grab me in the beginning. There was only a couple of POVs I actually cared about, so I think middle book syndrome did hit, but it does pick up and wraps up well with another twist. I'm eager for the conclusion and I expect it to be explosive.
Those are my favorites, but I also have some honorable mentions that didn't quite make the cut.
The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence - His books often tend to be hit or miss for me. This one was more of a hit and set in the Books of the Ancestor world. I like where it's going so far, overall liked the story, but it remains to be seen if it will hold up for me.
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig - One of my favorite tropes is immortal characters or characters living their lives over and over, reincarnation, and all that jazz. And I did enjoy this one, but it was hard to ignore some of the flaws.
The Egg by Andy Weir - This is a very short three paged... I don't know if you could really call it a story. More like a thought provoking essay. I know the concepts he discussed and I found it surprising coming from a sci-fi author. He is very astute.
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate - Cute, sweet, sad, yet simple. Adored the characters, and also liked the movie adaptation.
And for my dishonorable mentions, as in the worst books.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - This was actually a DNF for me, and haven't DNF'd a book in a while. It was just too confusing and I didn't really care about the characters either. I know there are plenty of people who enjoyed it though, so it's probably just me. A bummer because I was looking forward to it.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Ouch. Yeah. Maybe feel a bit guilty about this one. To be fair, I was sick while trying to read it and that always messes with my focus. But I just couldn't engage with the writing style.
The Black Khan by Ausma Zehanat Khan - I really liked the first book, but this one I couldn't even tell you what happened in the story. I was just not into it, and so I quit this series.
Network Effect by Martha Wells - This was more disappointing than a bad book. The first Murderbot novel and I'm sorry to say, but I prefer them as novellas. Luckily the next in the series will be a novella.
And, that's it. I'm not setting any reading goals for 2021 this time, but I hope I will be able to finish more books this year and find some great new reads. I might post a little something extra about the books I read later. A kind of book survey I did. My favorite movies of 2020 will be next.