The 50 books I read in 2020

The 50 books I read in 2020

At the start of 2020 I challenged myself, on the app Good Reads, to read 5o books in 2020. I managed to achieve this goal. 2020 was a challenge in itself, for many reasons, so I felt a huge sense of success when I finished the last book. I found that by having this goal it actually gave me motivation to want to achieve it.

Here is a list of the books I read in 2020. They are in no particular order but I will show what star rating I gave it out of 5 on the app and a brief outline.

1.

Book: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Rating: 4 stars

About: It is about a woman, called Olive, who tries to understand the struggles of her own life but also the struggles of other people's lives.

2.

Book: Unexploded by Alison Macleod

Rating: 3 stars

About: A story about a young family struggling with love and fear in wartime Brighton.

3.

Book: The Dancing Bear by Michael Morpurgo

Rating: 4 stars

About: A short story about an orphan girl who finds an abandoned bear cub and she adopts it.

4.

Book: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Rating: 2 stars

About: A storm kills off all the island’s men. Women in the village struggle to survive both natural forces and the men who have been sent to rid the community of alleged witchcraft.

5.

Book: The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis

Rating: 4 stars

About: An eight year old orphan named Beth Harmon and how a game of chess changes her life. By the age of sixteen she is competing for the U.S. Open championships.

6.

Book: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Rating: 5 stars

About: A young woman named Kya is left to raise herself in the marshes of North Carolina when her family abandons her at a young age. There’s romance, mystery and a murder.

7.

Book: Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

Rating: 5 stars

About: Set in Somerset in the middle of a blizzard a school is under attack. It is told from the point of view of the people at the heart of it.

8.

Book: This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

Rating: 4 stars

About: A man and a woman who were born at the same hospital on New Year’s Day meet on their actual birthday and discover the many times their paths almost crossed before.

9.

Book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Rating: 4 stars

About: Book about what it means to be human. Three friends grow up together in a seemingly idyllic boarding school in the English Countryside. When they leave the school the truth of their true purpose is revealed to them.

10.

Book: Platform Seven by Louise Doughty

Rating: 4 stars

About: Set at Peterborough station. Lisa Evans, who is a ghost who has little memory of why she is there and she haunts the station musing about the passengers as they pass through the station.

11.

Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Rating: 5 stars

About: Set in 1939 Nazi Germany. Narrated by that of Death. Follows the story of Liesel when she picks up a single object, which was partially hidden in the snow. It’s a love affair with books and words.

12.

Book: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier

Rating: 5 stars

About: Mary Yellan chooses to honor her mother’s dying request that she join her frightened Aunt Patience and her huge, hulking Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn.

13.

Book: Miss Garnet’s Angel by Salley Vickers

Rating: 3 stars

About: A schoolteacher who decides to take an apartment for six months in Venice.

14.

Book: The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly

Rating: 5 stars

About: A psychological suspense novel about the secrets that remain after a summer that turns deadly.

15.

Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Rating: 5 stars

About: Theo Decker, a thirteen year old New Yorker, miraculously survives an accident. Theo is taken in by the family of a wealthy family friend. The tragedy changes the course of his life. He goes through girefl, guilt, reinvention and redemption. He holds on to one bit of hope - a paitny of a tiny bird chained to its perch.

16.

Book: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Rating: 5 stars

About: Boy meets girl. However, one of them can’t stop slipping in and out of time. The disappearances are spontaneous and the experiences are unpredictable.

17.

Book: On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back By Stacey Dooley

Rating: 5 stars

About: Stacey Dooley interviews certain people from different backgrounds and different life experiences. Covers various topics such as that of sex trafficking, Yazidi Women fighting back in Syria, victims of domestic violence in Honduras and many more incredible stories.

18.

Book: Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann

Rating: 4 stars

About: It follows the parallel stories of two unconsciously connected men in two different time eras motivated by the memory of love.

19.

Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Rating: 5 stars

About: Come on now do I really have to explain this one, if you don’t know please sort out your priorities ;)

20.

Book: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Rating: 5 stars

About: Follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. They tell stories of their families, friends and loves.

21.

Book: Moonfleet by John Meade Falkner

Rating: 2 stars

About: A story about smuggling set among the cliffs, caves and downs of Dorset.

22.

Book: Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Rating: 5 stars

About: Frustration about the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who aren’t affected by it. This book explores issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism and the link between class and race.

23.

Book: Magpie by Sophie Draper

Rating: 2 stars

About: Claire feels like she is married to a stranger, one who is living a double life. Her son also goes missing - I wouldn’t bother with this one

24.

Book: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Rating: 4 stars

About: Twins growing up together in a small, southern black community. They both run away at the age of sixteen. It’s about what happens when their lives intersect again.

25.

Book: Conclave by Robert Harris

Rating: 4 stars

About: The Pope dies. One hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election to see who will be the new Pope.

26.

Book: At Break of Day by Elizabeth Speller

Rating: 4 stars

About: Story about the tragedies of war. Starts when World War 1 breaks out and leads up to the Battle of the Somme. Story of four different men from different social classes.

27.

Book: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Rating: 5 stars

About: It follows two siblings who bond after their mother leaves their family home- a mansion she always hated. The siblings struggle to make sense of their childhood.

28.

Book: The Bell by Iris Murdoch

Rating: 2 stars

About: A new bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is rediscovered.

29.

Book: The Girl at the Lion d’Or by Sebastian Faulks

Rating: 4 stars

About: Story of passion, loss and courage. Set in France ( as his novels usually are). Anne Louvet is seeking a job and a new life. She comes across the run down Hotel du Lion d’Or.

30.

Book: The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell

Rating: 4 stars

About: Twenty-five years ago, police were called with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived they found a healthy ten month old child in her crib. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note.

31.

Book: The House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe

Rating: 4 stars

About: Follows four students who knew each other in college. They reunite to confront their sleep disorders.

32.

Book: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Rating: 4 stars

About: Private investigator follows three seemingly unconnected family mysteries.

33.

Book: Kaspar: Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo

Rating: 5 stars

About: I was reading this when I was at uni missing my cat, Ruby. It’s about a bellboy and how he is left to care for Countess Kandinsky’s cat.

34.

Book: Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Rating: 5 stars

About: Tells a story of a sixteen year old girl whose life is transformed. She herself is immortalised in canvas and oil.

35.

Book: How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

Rating: 3 stars

About: Tom may look like your average 41 year old however he has been alive for centuries.

36.

Book: Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

Rating: 5 stars

About: It follows the story of Shakespeare’s life and family.

37.

Book: Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

Rating: 0 stars

About: Not going to lie, I have absolutely no idea. It was one of those books where I had even less of a clue of what it was about when I had finished it. Just don’t even bother wasting your time.

38.

Book: The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell

Rating: 5 stars

About: A penguin is rescued from an oil slick by an English schoolteacher. The penguin refuses to leave his side so the young teacher has no choice but to take it with him and look after it.

39.

Book: Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

Rating: 3 stars

About: A boy wins a place at an esteemed university and becomes a suspect in a murder investigation after the disappearance of a girl from a nearby college.

40.

Book: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

Rating: 2 stars

About: Tells a young boy’s struggle to survive World War II in China.

41.

Book: The Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee

Rating: 5 stars

About: A young curate travels to a small hamlet outside Hereford to take up his first position. A book about a forbidden love.

42.

Book: Find Me by Andre Aciman

Rating: 3 stars

About: Second book of the ‘Call Me By Your Name’ series. Follows Elio’s father on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a young woman changes his life.

43.

Book: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Rating: 2 stars

About: Greeks led Achilles sacl Lyrnessus, describing the looting and burning of the city, the massacre of its men and the abduction of its women.... As you can tell it’s a really uplifting book…

44.

Book: I Saw a Man by Owen Sheers

Rating: 4 stars

About: After the sudden loss of his wife, Michael Turner moves to London and quickly develops a close friendship with the Nelson family next door. A catastrophic event changes everything.

45.

Book: The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish

Rating: 5 stars

About: About how a man goes missing and the discovery of how it came about.

46.

Book: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Rating: 3 stars

About: About a woman who lives a life again and again until she get’s it ‘right’.

47.

Book: The Secret Between Us by Louise Douglas

Rating: -1 stars

About: Honestly, I don’t want to even waste another brain cell thinking about this book. Just know that it was terrible.

48.

Book: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Rating: 3 stars

About: Set in Barcelona. The city is slowly healing from its war wounds. The story follows a book dealer's son who finds a mysterious book. He makes several shocking discoveries.

49.

Book: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

Rating: 5 stars

About: It provides an account of his time working on the NHS front line. This book is hilarious but also extremely heartbreaking.

50.

Book: Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

Rating: 5 stars

About: Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable town of Borg. She finds work as the caretaker of a soon to be demolished recreation centre.

Even though this challenge was difficult at times I really enjoyed doing it. I have re-found my love for reading. I also think it is really important to give yourself goals to achieve, especially in lockdown when motivation is really difficult to find at the moment. Personally, I set myself three mini goals each day to help me find purpose in each day. This has really helped me. I am planning on carrying on reading another 50 books for 2021. I hope this list of books can give you recommendations of books you might want to read. Do let me know what your favourite books have been.