Best of 2020

 Best Book of 2020: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 

"Once awakened, we then have a choice. We can be born to the dominant caste but choose not to dominate. We can be born to a subordinated caste but resist the box others force upon us. Caste is a disease, and none of us is immune. A world without caste would set everyone free." A historical overview of the four hundred year old caste system in America, this is the Must Read book of 2020.

Best Literary Fiction: Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

A character study of life in Odessa, Texas, as women's lives are examined through the lens of a rape of a young girl, this debut novel still haunts me. 

Runners Up: A good neighborhood, Normal People, In Five Years, Writers & Lovers, The Unseen World, Long Bright River, A History of Loneliness, Heft, Saving Ruby King, Anxious People, Homeland Elegies, Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan, Dear Edward

Best Historical Fiction: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett AND Greenwood by Michael Christie

A march back and fourth through the history of a Canadian family, what a brilliant family saga

Runners Up: The Mountains Sing, Hamnet, The Stationery Shop, The Book of Longings, Rodham, Hum if You Don’t Know the Words, Greenwood, The Lost Queen,, If You Want to Make God Laugh, The Exiles, Against the Loveless World, Your House Will Pay

Best Mystery: The Searcher by Tana French

Ireland, a bond, and a missing brother, the deliberate plotting and writing is stunning

Runners Up: the Louise Penny series, Winter Counts, Ellison Cooper series, Take It Back, The Burning, 

Best Thriller:  The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Two women, a plane ride, and a page-turning mystery, the one thriller that satisfied in 2020

Runners Up: We Are All the Same in the Dark, The End of October, Blacktop Wasteland, When You Disappeared, When No One is Watching, Dear Child

Best Humor: Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West

A crazy PTA mom, social media, and a school setting, this book gives some very pointed laughter

Runners Up: Shit Actually, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, 

Best Modern Day Classic: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

The classic story of a friendship, a mother, and life, I could read this book every year.

Runners Up: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Kindred, Stoner, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon

Best Non-Fiction, History:  His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of

Hope by Jon Meacham, John Lewis

The story not only of John Lewis and the march in Selma, but the history of how we arrived in this moment and where we are capable of going now

Runners Up: Death in Mud Lick, Wandering in Strange Lands, The Splendid and the Vile

Best Non-Fiction, Memoir: When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter

Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele

A woman's life growing up in urban Los Angeles, her family, and the beginning of a movement

Runners Up: All boys aren’t blue, My Vanishing Country, The Girl Who Smiled Beads

Best Non-Fiction, Social Commentary: Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by

Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn

An deep look at working class neighborhoods across America, and the devastation as well as the hope found there

Runners Up: How to be an Antiracist, The Undocumented Americans, A Knock at Midnight, 

Best Audio:  The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

A chilling account of September 11, 2001, and the thousands of people involved and impacted by it

Runners Up: Mercy House, Saving Ruby King, We Are Not from Here, The Death of Vivek Oji, Poet X

Best Adult Fantasy/Dystopia: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

An inspector, some magical children, and an orphanage, this is a heart happy book I want to read every year

Runners Up: The Midnight Library, Wanderers, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Best YA:  Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

A boy, a prison cell, racial injustice, a friendship, this book delivers everything

Runners Up: All American Boys, The Boy in the Black Suit, the Burning, Dear Martin,Truly Devious series, Clap When You Land

Best YA Fantasy: Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

The finale of the Throne of Glass series, best finish to a series EVER

Runners Up: House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1), Serpent & Dove, 

Best Middle Reader: Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Roades

A young boy guided through death by Emmett Till, the is a book for all ages

Runners Up: Track series by Jason Reynolds, They Called Us Enemy, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, March