Bookworms - your favourite book from 2020?

Mrs_Z

Hello fellow bookworms!
I'll be soon looking to get some new books to read and thought it would be interesting to ask others for some recommendations. So, what was your favourite read in 2020 and why?  This is not your all time favourite book (more difficult to pick - at least for me) - so I've intentionally worded the question to refer for the past year.
My no 1 book from last year would be Tayari Jones' 'An American Marriage'.  It's a story of a newly wed couple where the husband gets sentenced and prisoned for a crime she knows he did not commit. The book is really well written, and the chapters are written from the different characters' perspectives.  Every time I read a chapter, I thought - yes, I definitely agree with the wife only to read on and then completely seeing the husband's point of view.  
I often buy paperback books new and second hand - and once read, I let them go, unless they made an impression and this one definitely earned its place on my bookshelf.

herbily

For me, it was "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon - I don't normally read doorstep-sized fiction, don't have the time or the patience, and wouldn't have said time-slip historical novels were my kind of thing. (Set largely in 1740s Scotland, with forays into 1946.) Lockdown has changed my reading habits, what can I say? I spent much of last year reading all 8 of the Outlander sequence, all the Lord John books by the same author, and am trying to justify it as a kind of indoor weightlifting. My attention span hasn't miraculously improved but my forearm strength definitely has.

Mrs_Z

Thanks Herbily - I shall look that up.  
I'm surprised nobody else has commented... surely there are more readers in the forum!

Seakay

I did more re-reading than new book reading in 2020 because our library was shut for a lot of the time, as it is now, but one that I really enjoyed was The Wild Life by John Lewis-Stempel which I've owned for a while but only dipped into before. It's sub-title is A Year of Living on Wild Food - and finding and cooking that does form the narrative line and structure - but the joy is in the observation of the countryside and the wildlife, the changing seasons and the local history and people; the descriptive language is almost poetic at times:
"On these daily trips through the hay meadows the pollen from the buttercups paints my wellingtons a startling gold". Followed by a recipe for yarrow tea! 

Rosa_Damascena

Mrs_Z said:

Thanks Herbily - I shall look that up.  
I'm surprised nobody else has commented... surely there are more readers in the forum!

Blame it on the NHS - couldn't sit on my backside and read when there are patients in need. Feel like President of the Society of Illiterati for the last 9 months

VJsmum

I didn't read tons of books last year as i was finishing my thesis but my favourite non-fiction was "Wham! George and Me" by Andrew Ridgely.  Very very readable and great memories for an 80's teenager.  
My favourite fiction was "Lethal White" by Robert Galbraith.

I'm trying to make up for it this year and have already read loads - my favourite being "The Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman.

C_J

I’ve just finished Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner and can thoroughly recommend it as a gentle, amusing and well-written piece of period writing. 

balabooberlies

I picked up what turned out to be a distopian novel, but gentle in it's delivery.  'A boy and his dog at the end of the world' by Charlie Fletcher.

 I loved it so much I ordered (2nd hand) his 'Oversight' trilogy, more fantasy than anything else.  Who knew I would like these genres as I have always stuck to court room dramas/crime.

Thanks to all whom have contributed so far.  Will research some of the books mentioned.

bala

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

My find last year was The Shipyard Girls (set during World War 2) by Nancy Revell. I had picked up book 3 in the cs before the 1st Lockdown & enjoyed it so much I persuaded my DH to buy the entire series. Read books 1 to 8 but still have Book 9 to read. 

Nonnadiluca

Definitely 'The Salt Path' and the sequel ' Wild Silence' by Raynor Wynn. 
She and her husband walked the South west coastal path, I won't give any spoilers, but it's beautiful and moving, the follow up even more so.

balabooberlies

Nonna I have that on my list.  Saw her being interviewed........