Last week I published the final entry in my reading diary for books completed in 2020. As last year for 2019, I thought a collection in one place of all the titles I read during the year might be handy. Handy for me, if no one else. All these, each in it’s own way, are great books. (Though to be sure, some are greater than others.)
As usual, links from authors’ names go to their websites in the first instance, in the second to their Wikipedia entry or to a publisher’s bio. (Or sometimes I’ve been imaginative.) If there’s no link, I’ve not found anywhere to link to, imagination notwithstanding.
The book titles link in the first instance to each book’s GoodReads page, in the second to a publisher’s website or to Wikipedia again. Where I reviewed (or mentioned) a title in a previous blog post, I’ve added a link to the appropriate post too.
I haven’t yet added reviews of each title to GoodReads, but I’ve started and plan to continue doing so during the year. Here’s my GoodReads account.
The List
- Renata Adler – Pitch Dark – see Fat books
- Renata Adler – Speedboat
- Margaret Atwood – The Penelopiad – see M-m-My Corona
- Pat Barker – The Silence of the Girls – see Fat books
- Sebastian Barry – A Thousand Moons – see Historical fiction
- MC Beaton –The Walkers of Dembly – see How stories work
- Dino Buzzati – The Tartar Steppe – see How stories work
- Ryder Carroll – The Bullet Journal Method – see Organised and bulleted
- Catapult – A Map is Only One Story – see Strategies strained
- Ann Cleeves – The Long Call
- Dorothy Dunnet – The Game of Kings – see Historical fiction
- Terry Eagleton – Why Marx was Right – see Historical fiction
- Peter Englund – Tystnadens historia och andra essäer – see Historical fiction
- Aminatta Forna – Happiness – see M-m-My Corona
- Nick Hornby – High Fidelity – see M-m-My Corona
- DL Hughley (and Doug Moe) – How Not to Get Shot – see How stories work
- Stina Jackson – The Silver Road – see Fat books
- Tove Jansson (trans: Silvester Mazzarella, Kingsley Hart, David McDuff) – A Winter Book
- Antony Johnston – The Organised Writer – see Organised and bulleted
- Irmgard Keun (trans: Anthea Bell) – After Midnight – see Strategies strained
- Jonas Hassen Khemiri – Ett öga rött (One Eye Red) – see M-m-My Corona
- Michele Kirsch – Clean – see Strategies strained
- Laila Lalami – The Moor’s Account – see Historical fiction
- Julie Lindahl – The Pendulum – see Fat books
- Hilary Mantel – Wolf Hall – see Fat books
- Hilary Mantel – Bring up the Bodies – see Bringing up the bodies
- Peter May – A Silent Death
- Ian McEwan – Nutshell – see M-m-My Corona
- Ester Blenda Nordström – Motorcyckel genom Sverige (By Motorcycle through Sweden) – see Strategies strained
- Michael Ondaatje – Warlight – see Historical fiction
- Terry Pratchett – Equal Rites
- Ian Rankin – In a House of Lies – see Fat books
- Marieke Lukas Rijneveld (trans: Michele Hutchison) – The Discomfort of Evening
- Fermin Rocker – The East End Years: A Stepney Childhood – see Debbie Jimack
- Rudolf Rocker – The London Years – see Debbie Jimack
- William Ryan – Holy Thief – see Fat books
- George Saunders – Fox 8
- Karin Smirnoff – Jag for när till bror (My Brother – trans by Anna Paterson forthcoming from Pushkin Press) – see How stories work
- Karin Smirnoff – Vi for upp med mor
- Zadie Smith – White Teeth – see Fat books
- The Fiction Desk – Somewhere This Way – see How stories work
- The Poet – Winter 2019/The Seasons and Summer 2020/On the Road
- Olga Tokarczuk (trans: Antonia Lloyd-Jones) – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – see M-m-My Corona
- Sue Townsend – Adrian Mole – The Cappuccino Years
- David Foster Wallace – Brief Interviews with Hideous Men – see M-m-My Corona
- Andy Weir – The Martian – see How stories work
- Jacob Wiberg – Sjutiofem fotografier – see Historical fiction
- Gene Wolfe – Interlibrary Loan
- Writers Abroad – Far Flung: Celebrating a Decade of Writers Abroad
- John Yorke – Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them – see How stories work
Fifty one titles! I ‘d forgotten the poetry books. Plus I read Michele Kirsch’s Clean all the way through twice. I did better than I thought.
More…
