2020 By The Books

It's my habit in January to look back at the books I read in the year just ended. In 2020, of course, everything was different, but reading was the one part of my life that didn't change all that much.

I read 46 books in 2020. While that looks like a notable increase from the previous year's 39, the number of novellas and other shorter works means I don't think I spent substantially more time reading. I've been fortunate not to have the sort of reading block many people have experienced during the pandemic, though my ability to focus on a story certainly fluctuated week by week and hour by hour. Often fiction was the only thing that could distract me from the news, and I might have ended up reading a whole lot more if I hadn't eventually started writing again.

My book selection patterns remained fairly stable in 2020. More than half my reading was brand new books, with almost all the rest from the past five years. I read my usual mix of realistic fiction, speculative, and stories that fall somewhere in between. As always, fiction dominated, but I also read a couple of books about writing, two other nonfiction works, and a book of poetry. The one type of book I wanted little to do with was my previously beloved apocalyptic genre (though I did make one exception). And a weird trend was that without meaning to, I happened into quite a few stories involving characters who see ghosts.

I read a lot of good books in 2020, which is perhaps the nicest thing I have to say about the year. Here's a rundown of the ones that impressed me most, each linked to the monthly recap with a full review:

→ The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells brought me the most reading delight, though it has an unfair advantage as a series. I was hooked by ALL SYSTEMS RED (May), the first thrilling adventure of the Security Unit who's great at its job but not at interacting with humans. Three more novellas and a novel (so far) provide further action, intrigue, and space travel, while also developing an increasingly complex exploration of friendship, anxiety, and feelings. I love how Wells combines these elements, and I can't wait for more Murderbot this spring.

→ SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (January) was one of my first reads of the year and remains one of my most frequent recommendations. This page-turner revolves around a babysitter and her employer when the mother decides to address the race and class differences between them. Good intentions and bad assumptions go wonderfully awry as the plot winds tighter, and Reid brings the story to life with fantastic dialogue and nuanced, compassionate character portrayals.

→ LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam (October) was the one apocalyptic scenario I was willing to read this year, because I was so intrigued by the combination of author and premise. Alam writes such strong, well-observed character interactions, and the story starts with a promisingly uncomfortable dynamic. A family on vacation at an Airbnb is surprised by the late-night arrival of a panicked couple who say they're the owners, and that something terrible is happening in New York City. Events outside the house grow more and more disturbing as the occupants try to cope with the awkwardness inside. This novel is profoundly unsettling, and so good.

→ THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU by Michael Zapata (February) is a novel set in the real world that's about and for lovers of science fiction. The mystery of a lost and found manuscript connects characters across generations in a tale that explores immigration, loss, and family. Zapata has crafted a gorgeous, inventive novel about stories, journeys, and the rambling path both often take, and I was captivated all the way through.

December Reading Recap

I closed out last year with some great reading. Now that I've caught up on reviewing everything I read in 2020, I'll get to work on my list of favorites to share next week.

→ HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD by C Pam Zhang: In 1862 California, two young siblings are left orphaned by the death of their father, a man hardened by poverty and failure. After a racist incident in town, the kids decide they must flee without taking time to bury their Ba. Sam packs a trunk with their belongings, and they load it onto a stolen horse. They travel for days before Lucy discovers that the trunk contains Ba's body. Sam is determined to find the right place for burial, and though Lucy is the older one, she's never been able to tell stubborn Sam what to do, so they continue their journey into unknown territory.

This is a powerful novel full of both beauty and ugliness. As you might guess from my summary of the opening events, it's not a story for the squeamish, and there's a wide range of difficult content as the story unfolds. That unfolding comes gradually, through shifts in time and perspective, and sometimes reluctantly. Lucy, Sam, and their parents hold close the secrets of their selves and pasts, so the suspense in this novel is not only about what will happen, but what has happened. Zhang wields perfect control over the narrative to make discoveries about this complicated family as rewarding as a glimpse of hidden gold.

Zhang's sentences are carefully honed, mixing tight dialogue with vivid imagery. I was constantly admiring the writing style, and I particularly appreciated every description of the hills: "From afar the wet hills shine smooth and bright as ingots—riches upon riches stacked to the Western horizon." I was blown away by this intense, absorbing novel, and I'm eager to see where Zhang will take readers next.

→ THE PULSE BETWEEN DIMENSIONS AND THE DESERT by Rios de la Luz: This collection of brief short stories covers a range of styles and genres. Some stories are brutally real, some involve time travel, others encompass both. What unites them all is beautiful, dreamy images and powerful emotions.

In "Lupe and Her Time Machine," a grandmother builds and carefully decorates a contraption in her garage. Maybe it's a time machine powered by rose petals, maybe she's simply remembering, but the difference between these isn't as important as the insights she finds. The protagonist of "Esmai" lives prepared for apocalyptic scenarios, but instead she encounters a version of herself from another dimension.

"Ear to the Ground" shifts from childhood innocence to shocking violence, with a pause at this magical interlude: "One night, on your way home, you passed the giant pecan tree in the middle of the neighborhood. A pecan landed on your head and when you cracked it open, there were rounded sprinkles inside. You opened more, one of them had honey inside and another had pomegranate seeds inside. The last pecan you picked up had confetti inside and a photograph. It was of you and Soledad. She made bunny ears behind your head."

If these descriptions intrigue you, you're definitely the right audience for this collection, and I encourage you to seek it out.

→ NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells: Murderbot is the private name of a cyborg known as SecUnit to its clients and friends. Having friends, and working with them as a security consultant out of choice, is a new experience for Murderbot, who until recently was owned by a company and treated (badly) as sophisticated rental equipment. Now it's not only made friends with a group of humans, but it's starting to form a life in their society outside the Corporation Rim. Murderbot has a lot of feelings about this, and it's not wild about feelings, or the way humans always want to talk about them. All of this becomes significantly more complicated when Murderbot's humans are attacked and kidnapped (again), possibly by someone who Murderbot thought was also a friend.

I have become a big Murderbot fan over the course of the four novellas that precede this novel-length installment, and everything about this book delighted me. I was thrilled by the return of some favorite characters and the introduction of excellent new ones. The longer form allows for a more complex plot, as well as space to slow down between action and planning scenes to delve into the nuances of character relationships. This book is a tense adventure, and it's also all about feelings, relationships, trauma, and how hard those are to process, even for someone with the capacity to monitor a dozen inputs while watching an episode of bad TV. I loved it.

NETWORK EFFECT could be read without prior knowledge, but I really recommend starting at the beginning of this great series for a fuller understanding of the characters. The next book will be out in April.

→ In THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James, a young governess takes a first job with strange conditions: She's instructed not to tell her employer anything that happens with the children under her care, and her predecessor has died. She's nervous, but when she arrives at the county estate, things start out well. She becomes fast friends with the housekeeper, and the two children are sweet and well-behaved. But soon she is disturbed by strangers around the house who nobody else acknowledges. These ghostly appearances make her question whether there's a sinister side to the children's perfect behavior.

I enjoyed the slowly building tension in the first half of this novel. Toward the middle, I started to wish things would build a bit less slowly, and I grew tired of James's convoluted sentences. I was eager for some reveal or shift that would pay off all the buildup, but when I reached the abrupt ending, I was utterly confused by how to interpret what had occurred. Then I learned that people have been arguing about the interpretation for the last century. After reading some analysis, I have more appreciation of what the story is doing, but I didn't really get it on my own, even while looking. This leaves me with a mixed reaction: I'm glad to have familiarized myself with the story and its ambiguities, and it was a frustrating read.