Books I have read in 2020, a thread. I hope you find something you enjoy.

Sweet Sorrow is such a charming book about Shakespeare, first love and teenage summers. I enjoyed it, but despite my teenage performing arts phase, I didn't *love* it. https://amzn.to/2Ge4bDL 

Lady in Waiting gets much more interesting a third in. It's less about Princess Margaret than I'd anticipated, but Glenconner's life is fascinating. And the cover photo is magnificent. https://amzn.to/38jpkZk 

I've read all of TJR's novels and After I Do is my least favourite. I couldn't finish it, but Daisy Jones and Evelyn Hugo are such standouts from last year. Read those instead. https://amzn.to/2NJkjBk 

You might think this is a thread about all sorts of books but it's really a thread about how much I adore Sarah Moss. Read Signs for Lost Children. Read them all. She is my favourite writer and deserves an abundance of praise and recognition. https://amzn.to/2Rbe1N0 

I've been dipping in and out of Jellyfish all month. It's a short story collection about sex, parenthood and Scotland. Stand outs are Peak, Opera and the title story. https://amzn.to/2RcIWZk 

I didn't hate A Visit From The Good Squad, but I don't think I'll remember anything about it after a week. (Read Egan's Manhattan Beach instead, that's incredible.) https://amzn.to/2RuCTjb 

Hoo boy, Idaho is the most arresting book I've read in months. It's about a shocking act that tears a family apart. It's beautiful and haunting and I'm really pleased I read it. Also pleased I can move onto something less intense. https://amzn.to/36TWsG7 

MK Fisher's The Gastronomical Me is a greatest hits compilation of her essays. This is delicious food writing. https://amzn.to/37fUBvs 

I gasped so loudly reading Our House this weekend that an entire room of people turned to look at me. It's a domestic thriller (not usually my thing, it's been on my shelf for over a year), and I loved it. It's a vg holiday/long train journey read. https://amzn.to/2w6UJk3 

Things I Learned From Falling is an *astonishing* book of survival and loneliness. I couldn't put it down and cried buckets through the last few chapters. It's out in March, pre-order it right now. https://amzn.to/2SbACcV 

I really enjoyed Silence of the Girls (do note the trigger warnings, it's pretty hard going) but if we're comparing badass Greek mythology retellings, Madeline Miller's Circe is the one that will stay with me in my bones. https://amzn.to/2VzAPca 

There's so much going on in this book that the brilliant main character – 9-year-old wannabe jazz singer Madeleine – gets completely swallowed up. Bertino has a brilliant turn of phrase, though. https://amzn.to/39dqw18 

Oh dang. I really wanted to love Making It Up As I Go Along but I think I'd have preferred new and longer essays, rather than v short, previously published articles. She's very funny about Bono, though. https://amzn.to/2Tpz2DM 

Do you enjoy historical fiction about witches that feels incredibly rich but is really easy to sink into even when you're on a lot of painkillers? Samesies! I practically inhaled The Familiars. https://amzn.to/39eVrdu 

Flesh and Bone and Water is such a glorious, quiet book. It's about a doctor who leaves his life behind in Brazil, and the ties that draw him back. It's emotional, heart-wrenching in places, without ever feeling forced. https://amzn.to/32So124 

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo is my favourite read of 2020 so far. It's a huge, messy family saga and if your own family is sometimes difficult, right on the money. It's on the Women's Prize longlist, I really hope it's shortlisted. https://amzn.to/2Wdrp6q 

How Do You Like Me Now? is a really smart book (and if you happen to be a woman who works online it hits really close to home). I didn't love the main character so it's not my favourite recent read, but the digi version is only 99p. https://amzn.to/2WJleY3 

What a lovely book On Turpentine Lane is. Part madcap comedy, part mystery, part romance. Also, have discovered that in America bungalows have stairs?! https://amzn.to/3dyor2m 

You know when everyone tells you a book is brilliant but you still don't get around to read it for ages? I wish I'd read Queenie months ago, it is everything everyone says. https://amzn.to/33Kf4Za 

There's a good book somewhere in The Female Persuasion but it was really preachy. The interesting characters didn't save the distinct lack of story. https://amzn.to/2RCFwiH 

I suspect I'm not in the right headspace at the moment to really appreciate Weather. Offill's writing is beautiful as ever, and the short snippet format is interesting. I just need more story to sink into atm. https://amzn.to/34jmenx 

Their Brilliant Careers is *masterful*. It's so smart and funny and original. I've been dipping in and out for a while and it's ideal lockdown reading if your focus is in tatters. https://amzn.to/3e86tnF 

The Rise & Fall of Becky Sharp is such a fun, charming book and exactly what I needed to read. Lots of lovely little nods to Vanity Fair, too. https://amzn.to/2XTYDsf 

I think this short book about class and teen pregnancy is one to be read in one sitting and I was a bit all over the place when I started it. Also, there's a lot of dialogue so italics instead of speech marks drove me to distraction. https://amzn.to/3eAJySq 

This lockdown really needed some sexy, gossipy scandal. God I adored Swan Song. I stayed up so late reading that I got a bloody lip from falling asleep and hitting myself in the face with my ereader. https://amzn.to/34U3njg 

Glam escapism is very much my lockdown reading niche, and The Aviator's Wife is exactly that. It tells the story of the Anne Lindbergh (which I wasn't too familiar with) and it's got a dark edge to it. There's a dose of irony around the title, too. https://amzn.to/3baXDTI 

My first Penny Vincenzi! No Angel is a dreamy whirlwind of rich people, fancy outfits, and publishing in the early 1900s. It's delicious. It's the first in a trilogy and I'm diving into part two very soon. Surprisingly dull sex scenes, though. https://amzn.to/2SIHRc6 

Pretty much every morning since lockdown started I've been dipping into Nigella's classic How To Eat for a few pages and it is so soothing. Her writing makes everything just a little bit better. https://amzn.to/3dkrDhm 

For a book about the close bonds of female friendship, I really wish that The Other's Gold had been... warmer. The prose and dialogue felt distant. https://amzn.to/3bzhz2N 

Sue Perkins is such a talented writer. She's incredibly funny but there's a chapter in Spectacles that completely winded me. Not a lot of Bake Off, though. https://amzn.to/3bBZBfQ 

Oh how I loved The Boston Girl, about a modern girl in a Jewish immigrant family at the turn of the 20th Century. It's one of those "nothing really happened" books, where you just some spend time with someone living their life. It's gorgeous. https://amzn.to/2z2wPI5 

Consider The Fork is such a fascinating book. Eight essays about the elements of a kitchen that we don't give much thought: fire, pans, ice, forks. It's made me cry twice, and I've kept reading bits to Tom today while he's been trying to work. https://amzn.to/3cyY1Na 

I was lured in (as always) by 1920s New York but I can honestly say that A Certain Age is my least favourite book of this year. Let's move on. https://amzn.to/2Bp5kJz 

Despite the oddly abrupt ending, I really enjoyed Park Avenue Summer. Dubbed "Devil Wears Prada meets Mad Men", it tells the story of 1960s Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown. It's light, but very fun. https://amzn.to/2zQkWFQ 

I've been dipping in and out of The Good Immigrant this week. It's such a brilliant collection of essays (Coco Khan's Flags is my favourite. It's important right now, but it's also really funny. https://amzn.to/2Xu5gAY 

I'm so conflicted about Rodham – I think I hated it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. The good bits were good – Sittenfeld is a great writer – but the premise and first person POV felt really off. I recommend American Wife instead. https://amzn.to/2Y0Uoti 

Elaine Welteroth is so inspiring and her memoir about claiming space as a black woman in the media industry is incredible. Come for the dirt on Teen Vogue, stay for the gumption and pep talks. https://amzn.to/3cGfkLB 

I really wanted to get caught up in Number One Chinese Restaurant but after getting to the end I realised I still didn't know much about any of the characters. https://amzn.to/2NJqS6E 

I was absolutely mad about Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – it's so warm and funny and original – but then it unexpectedly became a crime novel. If you enjoy quirky crime fiction, buy it immediately. https://amzn.to/38cKVUA 

Stopped reading The Indenticals when the author opted for racism as characterisation. https://amzn.to/2ZsAzfa 

I couldn't resist My Friend Anna – the story of the fake heiress who duped New York's elite and media industry. I'm fascinated by the whole thing and gobbled it up a day. https://amzn.to/3igayIx 

How rich The Lonely Hearts Hotel is, a book about love and loss and clowns in Montreal during the Depression. It's long and the prose is so vivid it's quite intense, but I adored it. https://amzn.to/2NKRowp 

What a weird, chilling and brilliant book The Empress and the Cake is. I've never read anything quite like it. (TW eating disorders.) https://www.peirenepress.com/shop/books/the-empress-and-the-cake/

I read Expectation in a single afternoon and it was such a glorious celebration of modern female friendships, especially through that weird patch between our 20s and 30s where none of us really has it figured out. (TW infertility.) https://amzn.to/2BSY1KU 

My goodness The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna is the best book I've read this year. I don't think I heard a peep about it when it came out? It's like a glorious cross between My Brilliant Friend and I Am I Am I Am. https://amzn.to/2ZRqeKb 

Do you need a stern but caring pep talk? Year of Yes is exactly that. I'm halfway through watching Scandal at the moment and Shonda Rhimes is now on my dream dinner party guest list (we eat fried chicken and drink margaritas). https://amzn.to/3hLd6NR 

I like Mindy Kaling so much and the funny bits of Why Not Me? were really, really funny. I found myself skipping some of the dull chapters, though. https://amzn.to/335r7C7 

The covers of Penny Vincenzi's books do them a disservice. Something Dangerous is the second instalment in the Spoils of Time trilogy and it is a RIOT. Covers the war, fascism, and several illicit affairs all against a backdrop of a publishing house. https://amzn.to/2EpM7ZL 

I stopped midway through the book I was reading after picking up A Half Baked Idea for a second. It's a gorgeous memoir about cake, love and grief, and it'll probably make you cry, but in a good way. (Plus it's only 99p at the moment!) https://amzn.to/2DGyxBc 

However, I am SO GLAD that I went back to Homegoing – it's one of the most glorious books I've read this year (that cover!). It's about roots, family and the consequences of our actions. It was my 50th read of 2020 (!) and I already want to read it again. https://amzn.to/3im4TQo 

I enjoyed The Mercies so much. It's such a haunting book, with the bonds of female friendship and love running right through it. And the cover is a beaut. https://amzn.to/3hyS5p9 

I wonder if I'd have enjoyed Theatre For Dreamers more if I'd read it at the start of summer? I was so excited about it but I didn't even get halfway through. https://amzn.to/2RylqWm 

I jumped straight into The Secrets We Kept. I had no idea about the story of Dr Zhivago, so it was really interesting. The plot is a bit wooly, but the detail is beautiful throughout. https://amzn.to/2ZZ5xgj 

I think when you buy a fashion biography you want amazing detail about fabulous dresses, or scandalous gossip. Ideally both. Christian Dior mainly talks about... admin. https://amzn.to/2RvEYul 

Dark Skies is wonderful, exactly the kind of nature writing I love. It mades me think more about the world and plan a midnight road trip. The author's illustrations throughout are beautiful, too. https://amzn.to/3kop1Te 

I adored Dominicana. It's such an interesting story about New York and immigration. And the food descriptions are *incredible*. Also a big fan of a tiny chapter – this is a particularly great choice if your concentration is all over the place. https://amzn.to/2RysMZY