LIST: Best Books of 2020

Top Five Books of the Year

1. The Innocents - Michael Crummy
2. The Causeway: A Passage from Innocence - Linden MacIntyre
3. The Pull of the Stars - Emma Donoghue
4. Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams
5. Easy Prey - Catherine Lo

142 books read

13 nonfiction

83 audiobooks

24 ebooks

Best Mystery
Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

It's not even the mystery - it's Cormoran and Robin's relationship

Honourable Mentions Best Mystery (because I read a lot of mysteries)

IQ by Joe Ide

The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup

The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Best Start to a Series - Alex Morrow series
Still Midnight - Denise Mina (also read The End of the Wasp Season)

Best Historical Series

Lady Charlotte Holmes by Sherry Thomas

Best Graphic Novel

American Gods part 1 and 2

Best Young Adult 
Easy Prey by Catherine Lo

This was a free YA Sync listen, and I just loved how it all came together, and that is was Canadian.

Best Recommended Book (won the Booker Prize and was on the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist)

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

Favourite Characters

Evered and Ada, the orphaned brother and sister from The Innocents living on the outports of Newfoundland

Best  Book by a Tried and True Author 
Both The Last Anniversay and The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty were classic Moriarty - multiple views, a mystery and Australian. I can't even decide which I liked best.

Best Historical Fiction 

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue and

Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O'Farrell

Two plague books by two of my favourite authors. Hey, Tracy Chevalier (another great historical fiction writer - Where's your plague book?

Best Apocalyptic/Dystopian

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Best Book by a New to Me Author

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Best Debut Book

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

Best Short Story Collection 
The Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Funniest 

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

Most Heartbreaking
Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Creepiest Novel
The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Best Re-read
In May, during lockdown times, my library offered Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone all the time to whoever wanted to read it with no waiting. It was excellent, and I was hoping they would offer the rest of the series like that as well, but alas, no. And then because so many people were re-reading the HP series, the line-ups were long for the next books.

Best Audiobook/ Rec for a Book Club
Such a Fun Age by Kiley

Most Unique Book 
This is How You Lose the Time War- Max Gladstone

Best Nonfiction : I have broken this down a little more because I can't pick one

Best Nonfiction: science/history
How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Changed the Modern World - Steven Johnson
I count Johnson as a go-to NF author now. I like his connections, and writing, and topics. This isn't as fascinating as The Ghost Map, but it was still really good. 
(cold -refrigeration, time-clocks,  glass- eyeglass lenses,  light-lightbulbs, clean- sewer systems, sound)

Best Nonfiction: true crime
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Best Nonfiction: memoir/autobiography
Causeway by Linden MacIntyre 
My husband also read this book, and then we gave it to both our parents for Christmas after reading it. MacIntyre is a CBC reporter, and has written novels as well. This memoir was exactly what I like in a memoir - takes his personal memories and growth and sets it against a historical event and blends the two perfectly. The causeway in question is the connection between Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. Having lived through our own 'fixed link' in 1997 as PEI was connected to the mainland and the ferry done away with, it really is a turning point in memories of life. 

(Whew! Getting this posted and it is still January with 15 minutes to spare!)

TOP TEN TUESDAY: New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

I'm still working on my year-end wrap of of 2020 reading, but New-to-Me Authors is a bit of a preview of some great reads from last year. When I look at the books I read, I think I relied on tried and true authors quite a bit (shocking, in a year like last year, I know) but I did find some great new authors. My guide is - am I looking for some of their old books, or an I interested in the next one in the series?

Check out That Artsy Reading Girl for more posts from this week's Top Ten Tuesday, and to see future toics.

Denise Mina - Alex Morrow series

This was a great police procedural set in Scotland. It's everything I like in my mystery/police series - dark, messed up main character, and all the intrigue within the police

Read: Still Midnight, The End of Wasp Season

next up: Gods and Beasts

Martha Wells  - The Murderbot Diaries

Very unique science fiction series narrated by a rogue 'murderbot' who just wants to watch television shows but keeps having to deal with humans

Read: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy

next up: Network Effect

Joe Ide - Isiah 'IQ" Quintabe series

Private Investigator series set in Los Angeles with a back story that the main character is trying to figure out - who killed his brother?

Read: IQ, Righteous

next up: Wrecked

Ronan Farrow 

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

Investigative reporter Farrow is pretty amazing and as I probably don't read this kind of non-fiction very often, it was very compelling. Farrow was also an excellent narrator of his book.

next up: War on Peace

Julia Phillips

The Disappearing Earth (debut book)

Nice connected short stories that becomes a novel. I think it was the setting in Kamchatka Pennisula of Eastern Russia that made it so interesting. I had also just read a book called Tiger by John Vaillant set in the same region

Balli Kaur Jaswal 

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows

 The title of this book is a bit misleading as it was not as light and chick-lit as it first appears. I liked the immigrant experience in England that was portrayed and the challenge of second generation kids pulled between their home and their parents' life. I would definitely read another by Jaswal as the character development was enjoyable.

next up: The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters

Claire Lombardo 

The Most Fun We Ever Had (debut book)

 A good family epic that traces a couple and their children over a full generation, starting with the couple getting together, then following their children growing and having their own family. I still remember a lot about the characters and plot from this one, which is a good sign. Every person in a family has their own view of what happened in the family.

Lucy Foley 

The Guest List

 The trend of suspenseful, twisty books can be hit or miss for me as many can be rather generic and predictable. The Guest List was one of the better of this genre. I keep reading these suspense books and this is why - there are some really good ones mixed in with the trendy titles.

next up: The Hunting Party

Sally Thorne 

The Hating Game

I still like the odd rom-com type book. I read a Sophie Kinsella this year and was reminded again why she is the best of those type of chick lit books, but The Hating Game was pretty good too. British couple who are not liking each other, this one has movie written all over it. Which would be okay!

next up: 99 Percent Mine

Heather Cocks 

The Royal We

This was a long listen, but it was well done, especially if you are a Will and Kate and Harry fan and think a behind the scene fictionalized account would be fun. As a huge fan of watching The Crown, I didn't mind reading a more recent version of what might have happened. And there is a sequel, so that is fun.

next up: The Heir Affair

I can't wait to see your list of new authors, because obviously I need some more books to read, but I appreciate vetted titles by all you great readers.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To

 

Hello and Happy New Year! I've been working on a 2020 year end wrap-up of my reading and plan to get it posted.. sometime soon. In the mean time, here it is Monday night and I am preparing a Top Ten Tuesday post for the first time in a very long time. What are some books that I meant to read in 2020 but didn't get to? There are lots! Here are ten that are either on request or on a wish list at my online audio library. For other TTT lists, check out That Artsy Reader Girl who hosts this wonderful event every Tuesday.

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Just bought a kindle edition

Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken

One of Us is Lying by Karen M McManus

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

I loved her book about Moss

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

I remember reading Linda's Amazing Race and Survivor recaps back at TWoP

The Searcher by Tana French

I can't believe I missed the latest French book in 2020

The Henna Artist

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

VIRTUAL ADVENT TOUR: 2020 Edition

 

Hello, and welcome again to the Virtual Advent Tour, hosted by sprite writes. Check her blog everyday for a new Advent post from all over the world. Everyone is welcome to share a bit of their Christmas or holiday. If you would like to contribute, head over to sprite writes and pick a date. She has done such a great job keeping this tradition going. (The advent tour is where I first met sprite back in 2007 - how is that possibly that long ago?)

I know everyone says it, but 2020 has been a rough year. We have been extremely lucky here on PEI and have been quite Covid-free, but this week we had a case at my high school, so teachers all had to be tested, we've got 60 or so kids on quarantine as they were close contacts of the positive case, plus all the other kids who are rightly concerned and anxious and stayed home. So far, it doesn't appear to have spread, but it's been a crazy, stressful week as we joined the rest of North America in dealing with the pandemic. 

Everything about Christmas is going to be different for so many people, so falling back on the little traditions that make Christmas meaningful will be more important than ever. Enjoying some decorations you inherited or made, making some favourite recipes to eat with your household, listening to music and watching your favourite holiday movies can all still happen during a pandemic. 

Here's a song I quite enjoy, even if it becomes the biggest ear worm once I listen to it. Adam Sandler amuses me and it's a holiday song - enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by again this year. Having the Virtual Advent Tour is now a tradition at Christmas for me, and one that continues in spite of the pandemic. Here's a look back at my past posts:

In 2019, I shared the extra things that make Christmas sparkly

    - I shared my Nan's recipe for Frying Pan Cookies

In 2018, I shared several posts:

    - a look at some Canadian history on December 6th that I always remember

    - a look at advent calendars through my years

    - a look at my favourite Christmas breakfast

In 2017, I shared a song by local sister singers on a charity album

    - in a second post, I shared how I decked the halls with physics haikus with my class

In 2016, I shared the lights of my town, and a recipe for Spumoni shortbreads

In 2015, I shared my Christmas decorations in our new home

In 2014, there was no tour

In 2013, I shared a Christmas series of novellas by Anne Perry that I listened in audio

In 2012, I posted some favourite Christmas mystery  books

In 2011, I posted a 'recipe' for fruitcake that my grandmother had given me.

In 2010, I took a humorous look at some local events on Prince Edward Island.
In 2009, we played 'guess the carol'
In 2008, I played a game of 'guess the movie', and my favorite Christmas picture ever.
In 2007, it was the original 'guess the carol' game, with your vocabulary tested, and my whipped shortbread cookie recipe.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Books I Loved But Didn't Review

 

I barely get anything watched on Netflix that I want to watch, let alone imagine what books should be turned into a movie, so this week's topic, Top Ten Books that Should be Made into a Movie isn't going to work for me. Instead, I'll catch up on last week's topic, Books I Loved But Didn't Review, and adapt it a bit to be the last Ten Canadian Books I Read by Didn't Review (and I loved half of them a lot)

I'm mostly a rule follower, but when I break, I break bad.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl

Causeway: A Passage from Innocence by Linden MacIntyre

What a wonderfully written memoir! Set in Cape Breton, MacIntyre, a Canadian journalist, recounts his childhood, framed by the building of the Canso Causeway, which connected mainland Nova Scotia to Cape Breton in 1955. From the chronic poverty life of Cape Breton, to his somewhat difficult relationship with his father, MacIntyre does a great job of blending the large world with his small life. I was looking up information (Angus L MacDonald, now known as a Halifax Bridge but was once a premier) to realizing that in such a short time how the Gaelic language has disappeared (MacIntyre's grandmother only spoke Gaelic). I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Plus, I learned he is married to Carol Off, a CBC journalist. 

Easy Prey by Catherine Lo

This was a YA book through YA Sync, the free summer audiobook program. I don't always love YA books, and most of this summer's have been okay, but not great. Sometimes they focus too much on fantasy or witches, and sometimes they don't focus at all, trying to cover too much territory and ideas. So after a few YA books that seemed all over the place, I was very pleased with Easy Prey, which also happened to be set in Canada. Easy Prey is about a teacher who gets outed on social media with inappropriate photos and the three students who are suspected of posted the pictures.

Catherine Lo did a fabulous job of plotting and characters and dealing with the timely issue of cyber crimes. When I finished, I thought, That was a great book!

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

It's been a very, very long time since I read The Handmaid's Tale (published in 1986) and I haven't watched the series on television but I still remember the main points of the story, so decided to go ahead and listen to Atwood's latest volume. I am always so surprised at how readable her books are. She is so lauded and recognized as literature, that I expect more ephemeral writing, but it is very accessible. This book jumps around in time and characters a lot, and it wasn't always clear (in audio) when things were happening, but I just went along for the ride, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her plotting was excellent, and how everything came together at the end was well worth the listen. 

Don't get pulled in by the fact that is says Margaret Atwood is one of the readers. She only dramatically intones the chapter breaks, lol.

The Innocents by Michael Crummey

This was another well written, thoroughly engrossing read. Set in an isolated outport in rural Newfoundland in the late 1800s, what might happen if the parents of two young children died. leaving them to survive on their own? This is that tale. While they have more contact with the outside world that you would expect, they are isolated for much of their lives, struggling to survive in the most inhospitable setting imaginable. Crummey takes the reader along as the brother and sister grow and survive and, somehow, beautifully, tells their tale.

The Answer Is... Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek

Like Martin Short and Chris Hadfield before him, Trebek tells his thoroughly Canadian memoir of happiness and positivity. My husband and I have been Jeopardy fans since we first met in university, watching at 1 pm, and trying to catch final jeopardy before running across campus to get to a 1:30 pm chemistry lab. The Jeopardy prime time special in January with Ken, James and Brad was the best show of the winter, and all summer, Jeopardy has been 'opening the vaults' to some classic episodes. (OMG, Chuck! I forgot about Chuck!) With Alex's cancer announcement, Jeopardy has taken on new specialness knowing there is an end coming. This memoir is delightful and Alex is full of appreciation and positivity about his life. Nothing too dramatic at all happens, and even if it did, Alex  chalks it up to stuff happens in life and you have to get over it. Don't read this if you are looking of gossip or dirt, but do read it to get a peek at an awesome, kind man who is just what he seems.

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald

Narrated by a neuro-atypical girl, this book could have ventured into too cuteness, but the world of Zelda and her older brother Gert is a little to real and violent to be mushy. Orphans, Zelda and Gert are looking out for each other as best they can. Zelda has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and is pretty high functioning but needs lot of rules for life to work for her. Her brother is trying to stay in college but has to look out for Zelda at the same time. Drug dealing ensues. If you liked The Rosie Project, or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, I recommend Vikings. I liked, but didn't love, all of them.

An Irish Doctor in Love and at Sea AND

An Irish Doctor In Peace and at War

by Patrick Taylor

Since I discovered listening to this series and my library has all of them, I try to fit a couple in each summer. They are surprisingly long but very easy listening. Doctor Fingal Flaherty O'Reily continues on his tale of life in 1960s Northern Ireland, superimposed on his memories from the 1930s. He is up to his wartime service in the past, but it is the present world with Donal Donally, and Bertie Bishop and all the characters of Bally-Buckle-Bo that I really enjoy. 

The End of Her by Shari Lapena

Lapena is known for her suspenseful books. I am finding her hit and miss and the more I read of her, the more the same the books feel. I've listened to most of her books, and maybe this kind of suspense works better on the printed page, because I argue back continuously with the narrator in the audiobooks. If you have liked her previous books, you will probably like this one as well. 

The Elephants in My Backyard by Rajiv Surendra

This was a cute memoir by actor Rajiv Surendra (known for his role in Mean Girls as the rap-mathlete) as he tries to attain the role he feels he was meant to play - the boy in The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Once he discovers the book he loved is being made into a movie, he does all he can to prepare for the role. Luckily it took several years for the movie to get made, so he had lots of time to prepare. He goes to India, he learns to swim, he studies religions, and in the meantime, attends college in Toronto and acts in some other jobs. This memoir was fine, but it is always difficult to have enough material and perspective to write a memoir in your twenties.

TOP TEN TUESDAY: Most Anticipated New Releases for 2nd Half of 2020

What books are you looking forward to in the rest of 2020? That's the topic this week for Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. I'm not a person who pre-orders books, or who has to read the newest book immediately. I'll keep an eye on the library's new releases and hope to get near the front of the line for most of these. 

What I am excited about is Hamilton on Disney Plus this weekend! I've been listening to the songs this week to get ready!

(I've been having image issues on Blogger recently so I am not even going to try today. Could you see the images in my last few posts?)

Hamnet & Judith by Maggie O'Farrell

July 21, 2020

The last of the Women's Prize for Fiction books I expect to get to and I've read some great reviews already. 

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

September 15, 2020

The next in the Cormoran Strike/Robin Ellacott series - I didn't even realize there was an upcoming release until I was looking around for this topic

All the Devils are Here by Louise Penny

September 1, 2020

Another Inspector Gamauche - hope to get the audio version of this one

Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson

May 12, 2020

It's all ready been released, but I'm a fan of Johnson's nonfiction and I'd like to read his latest 

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

October 27, 2020

I recently read a Kinsella after a break of a number of years and forgot how great she is at her type of book. Really so good.

Rapture: Fifteen Teams, Four Countries, One NBA Championship by Nick Nurse

September 29, 2020

Basketball is just about back, and Nick Nurse is a very interesting character. I could read this as the Raptors defend their title

Again Again by E Lockhart

June 2, 2020

Another one that has already been released, but it's pretty recent, and Lockhart is a great writer

TOP TEN TUESDAY: My Summer TBR List

As we get close to the Summer Solstice (June 20th) it is time to be thinking about what books are on the summer TBR list. Every week That Artsy Reader Girl hosts a list-making extravaganza called Top Ten Tuesday. Check out That Artsy Reader Girl for all the lists, and future topics.

Continuing Series:

The Ghost Fields 

Elly Griffiths

The Abbot's Agreement

Mel Starr

The Women's Prize Nominees:

All This Could Be Yours

Jami Attenberg

Actress

Anne Enright

The Canadians: 

The Testaments

Margaret Atwood

Causeway

Linden MacIntyre

Books I Own and Want to Read:

Rebecca

Daphne DuMaurier

The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder

Sarah J Harris

YA Sync Books:

Like No Other 

Una LaMarche

Into White

Randi Pink