Once again, I have to give credit to Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner for my favorite yearly reading wrap-up. Let’s jump right in, shall we?
2020 Reading Stats
Number Of Books You Read: 93
Number of Re-Reads: 6
Genre You Read The Most From: Contemporary YA
1. Best Book You Read In 2020?
The best book that wasn’t a re-read would have to be TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW by Rachel Lynn Solomon, which brought me more joy than anything else I read this year hands down.
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
There were far, far too many to list. It’s not you, it’s me (and the circumstances of 2020) was the constant refrain of my reading life this year.
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?
If you substitute surprising with horrifying, definitely The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?
Good Husbandry by Kristin Kimball, although I’m not sure it counts because I only wound up pushing my parents to read it after they’d pushed me into reading her first book, The Dirty Life, which they’d both read and loved. There was a lot of reciprocal pushing, haha.
5. Best series you started in 2020? Best Sequel of 2020? Best Series Ender of 2020?
Best series: The Lady Astronaut series, which began with The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal.
Best sequel: Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Best series ender: We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2020?
Alyssa Cole, whose Reluctant Royals series brought a lot of joy to my reading life in an otherwise difficult year.
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which is a well-researched, searing look at the ways in which the war on drugs and our criminal justice system work to lock up and disenfranchise staggering numbers of minorities.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Probably House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas, which I blitzed through in spite of how long it was and in spite of being ultimately dissatisfied with the ending.
9. Book You Read In 2020 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
Probably either Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin, which is my go-to whenever I want to start a new habit or re-evaluate my old habits.
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2020?
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, which is beautiful outside and in.
11. Most memorable character of 2020?
Emoni from With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, a teen mom and aspiring chef whose voice practically leapt off the pages and into my ears.
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2020?
Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore, which I actually wrote down a quote from to keep. (I almost never do that.)
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2020?
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, which completely re-shaped my outlook on race relations in America and on how racism is furthered by both systems and attitudes.
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2020 to finally read?
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee, which I remember hearing about when it first came out four years and a different lifetime ago, and which intrigued me even then, and which I enjoyed so, so much once I finally read it this year. I’m not always quick on the draw when it comes to choosing what to read next.
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2020?
Even in its first faint traces, love could alter a landscape. It wrote unimagined stories and made the most beautiful, forbidding places. Love grew such strange things. – Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore (Yes, this was the quote.)
16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2020?
Shortest Book: A minor Raven Boys Holiday Drabble (This is more of a short story than a book, but Goodreads says . . .)
Longest: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
17. Book That Shocked You The Most?
Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie, for setting up a totally brilliant twist that made perfect sense in hindsight but that I never even saw coming while I was reading.
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
Meg and Reid in Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn, who I somehow went from hardly caring about to being passionately invested in within a couple hundred pages.
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year?
Victor, Sydney, Mitch, and Dol in Vengeful by V.E. Schwab, for being my favorite weird little found family in fiction.
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2020 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?
Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon. I’ve read both of her other contemporary YA novels and really enjoyed them, but this contemporary enemies-to-lovers romance was exactly what I needed in the middle of the hellscape that was 2020.
21. Best Book You Read In 2020 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.?
The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball, which my mom pitched to me as a modern day Farmer Boy (by Laura Ingalls Wilder). I read a lot more nonfiction this year than I usually do, but I never expected I’d become so invested in the author’s budding (at the time) relationship and the self-sustaining organic farm she and her (now) husband were attempting to get off the ground.
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2020?
There wasn’t anybody who really leapt out at me this year, but I did love Neil from Today Tonight Tomorrow and Daniel, the love interest in Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett.
23. Best 2020 debut you read?
Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie, which was exactly the kind of character-driven, fast-paced, high stakes sci-fi novel I enjoyed.
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. I wanted to climb inside that book and visit the Starless Sea of old by the end of the story.
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon, hands down.
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2020?
Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee, The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed, and The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal all came close.
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, a delightful work of women’s fiction that contained almost everything I love in a book.
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
I didn’t read anything truly soul-crushing this year (see: 2020), but the endings of Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan and The Silence of Bones by June Hur both came close.
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2020?
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater was a great example of an author embracing every one of their weirdest ideas, and I was here for it.
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West and What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape by Sohaila Abdulali, both books I loved and both authors whose searing social and cultural critiques left me seething in all the right ways.
1. New favorite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube channel you discovered in 2020?
After (finally) joining Instagram this year, I discovered several cool Bookstagram accounts, among them @tomesandtextiles, @readingbringsjoy, @pieladybooks, and @honeybuttergal.
2. Favorite post you wrote in 2020?
I’m sure everyone was sick of hearing me talk about politics and the election and voting by the time I published this post, but I’m still immensely proud of Why I Voted (and You Should Too). Somehow, I managed to encapsulate all of my ideas about why voting is important and what we stand to gain from doing it, and why – especially this year – it’s one of the foundational democratic principles we should all participate in and work to protect.
3. Favorite bookish related photo you took in 2020?
Probably this one – my last reading haul of the year.
4. Best bookish event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, etc.)?
I participated in WriteOnCon for the first time back in February, before this whole year went belly up, and it was a delight. Given that I was in the middle of packing for my husband’s and my second move at the time, it was great to attend a conference from my house where I could go back and watch panels or read transcripts of interviews after they happened and on my own time.
5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2020?
Finally, FINALLY completing the shift from my old WordPress.com blog to this brand new self-hosted website. That was a lot of work – especially for this year – and I’m so proud of myself for pulling it off.
6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?
Focusing on either of those things for any length of time when the rest of the world was in chaos.
7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
What I Learned from a Year of Chasing Rejection, which actually doesn’t surprise me. Considering I write a lot about writing and my writing process, I figured that topic – and the fact that it’s a little off the wall – would appeal.
8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
It would’ve been great if the series of posts I did on my revision process – link to the first one is here – had fueled more discussion, because I love talking to other writers about craft and what works for them, how they approach their writing/revising, and why.
9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Bookstagram itself! I joined Instagram this year, and there were several bookstagram accounts–including the ones I mentioned above–that brought me a lot of pleasure in a year when I was otherwise incapable of going to libraries or bookstores.
10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
Not at all, and I refuse to feel sorry about that. The fact that I kept reading at all this year was enough for me.
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2020 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2021?
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2021 (non-debut)?
It’s a toss-up between The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon and Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo.
3. 2021 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
Amelia Unabridged by Ashley Schumacher, which is another one of those YA novels that appears to contain everything I like in a book.
4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2021?
Soulstar by C.L. Polk, the last book in the Kingston Cycle, a trilogy I’ve loved.
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2021?
Keep my focus more on my reading than on the news or doomscrolling, since reading makes me significantly happier and doesn’t require (too) much brain power.
6. A 2021 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):
Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant, a contemporary YA romance that I sensitivity read at the beginning of this year and really enjoyed. If you–like me–love stories about writers and boys who are more sweet than brooding, and if you’re looking for Black girl and/or anxiety #ownvoices rep, you really need to check this out.
What were some of your favorite books this year, and why? Let me know in the comments, or link me to your own survey!