As a kid, I remember how big of a deal it was to visit Borders and Waldenbooks and how excited I was when Barnes & Noble opened in Cranberry. The first book I ever bought there was on in the Thoroughred series by Joanna Campbell. The recently opened store was so hectic they forgot to deactivate the security code and the security sensors wailed as I walked through the door. It’s been at least 20 years since that happened and I still get a bit nervous when leaving Barnes & Noble with a purchase.

Anyway, the point is that I love to read. In 2010, I challenged myself to read 52 books in 52 weeks (and succeeded). I had no such challenge last year, but, according to my Goodreads account, I read 48 books in 2020, not including children’s books.

Add in Landon’s books and I probably read about 2,048. OK. I exaggerate on that figure, but not by much. There’s a reason I can recite so many of his books from memory.

Below is a list of some of my favorite (adult) books from the past year:

This is How it Always Is

By Laurie Frankel

I really wasn’t excited to read this book, but gave it a shot after a food blogger I follow recommended it. I’ve encountered very few Lauries in my lifetime, and I picked up this book purely for the first name solidarity, plus the local library could get it. Well, it blew me away. I rarely think about books after I finish them, but I’ve thought about this book for almost a year. The challenges of being a mom, wife and professional resonated, and I really thought a lot about the struggles the mom especially went through to unconditionally love and support her child, especially through a circumstance that she herself was navigating and uncertain about. Her questions, her hesitancies, her sacrifices (and the sacrifices of her family), her mistakes and her triumphs all wove together to create a really powerful book.

The Ragged Edge of Night

By Olivia Hawker

I read a lot of historical fiction, which this technically falls under, although based on the author’s note at the end the majority of this book was steeped in fact. It was about a German man in WWII who responded to a newspaper classified ad for marriage. He and his wife entered into what was strictly a business deal at first. As he established himself in a small German village, he became very involved with the resistance against the Nazis and used music as one of his “weapons.” It took me awhile to get into this book, but an early quote in the book of “Music soothes hurts we didn’t even know we had” made me know I had to finish it. It didn’t disappoint. It was truly a beautiful story and really exquisitely written.

The Henna Artist

By Alka Joshi

This was a fascinating fiction read of a young Indian woman in the 1960s who left her abusive husband and made a life and success for herself in the big city. The cultural aspects of it intrigued me, and the story of her building a business, only to have it interrupted by a sister she didn’t even know she had, and the resulting repercussions and life upheaval was a great read.

The Evening the Morning

By Ken Follett

Ah, Ken Follett can do no wrong with his historical fiction. This book was the prequel to his Kingsbridge series, which now totals four books. Although this was my least favorite of the Kingsbridge series, it was still very well researched and crafted. The next three books in the series are Pillars of the Earth, World Without End and A Column of Fire, all of which I heartily recommend.

The Book of Two Ways

By Jodi Picoult

It’s been awhile since I picked up Jodi Picoult, and I was glad to read this one. It was full of Egyptology, all of which was interesting, but it did border on being almost too much. As a writer, though, I respect the tremendous amount of research Picoult did on those aspects. She wrote the book from what appeared to be two perspectives that she wove together in a surprising way. The ending, however, was a total cop out and very disappointing. Picoult generally doesn’t shy away from writing endings people might not agree with, and the ending definitely made me dock a star off from its rating.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

By Lori Gottlieb

This was a fun memoir to read, about a therapist who finds the need to go to therapy herself. I had a very positive experience years ago with a therapist (and a not-so-positive experience with one shortly after Landon was born). But it’s worth finding a good one. A friend and I have talked for years about the stigma around receiving mental health care/support and why is it often viewed as shameful to attend mental health therapy sessions but not physical therapy sessions? Perhaps books and conversations like this will help reduce that stigma.

Educated

By Tara Westover

I resisted reading this memoir for years and don’t know why. It was powerful, heartbreaking, inspiring and a real story of triumph and finding yourself, even in the face of challenges and sacrifices I can’t even begin to imagine. It also made me really appreciate my own education and opportunities, which I took for granted.

Where the Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens

I read this at the beginning of the year and struggle to remember the details, but my lasting impressions were of a very sweet story on multiple levels: a girl’s self-sufficiency when her family abandoned her, her growing up as an ostracized member of her town, her relationship and love story with nature, and the relationships she forged with two men throughout the years. There was also a “whodunnit” storyline throughout the book, which I almost always find completely irresistible.

The Most Fun We Ever Had

By Claire Lombardo

This was my first read of 2020 and, again, my memories are hazy, but it was well worth it. It follows the story of two people who get married relatively young and have four daughters, all of whom have very strong personalities but all of whom love, support and, at times, betray, each other in their own ways. The stories of the sisters was good, but it was the story of the parents (and once you’re a parent, always a parent) that I really latched onto.

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Honorable Mention:

A friend loaned me Philippa Gregory‘s historical fiction novels about the English Cousins’ Wars and into the Tudor reign. You might be familiar with The Other Boleyn Girl from it being made into a movie years ago. That’s one of her books. Starz also made limited run series of The White Queen, The White Princess and The Spanish Princess, all of which I also watched.

Although I can’t necessarily recommend a specific book (many of them are written about the same events, but from different perspectives, which I found to be redundant), her books as a whole are well researched, creative where history doesn’t give us insight and all written from the perspective of the women of that time, which is quite unusual. I’m on a bit of a break from her books right now, but do intend to pick them back up later this year!