Friday, January 1, 2021

Books I Read in 2020




  1. She Came to Slay:  The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman (Erica Armstrong Dunbar; audiobook, read by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Robin Miles)
  2. Dread Locks (Neal Shusterman)
  3. The Women of a State University:  An Illustration of the Working of Coeducation in the Middle West (Helen R. Olin)
  4. The Princess Diarist (Carrie Fisher; audiobook, read by Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd)
  5. The Magician's Elephant (Kate DiCamillo)
  6. Chi's Sweet Home, Volume 1 (Konami Kanata)
  7. The Fiddler in the Subway:  The Story of the World-Class Violinist Who Played for Handouts...and Other Virtuoso Performances by America's Foremost Feature Writer (Gene Weingarten)
  8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot)
  9. David Sedaris Live at Carnegie Hall (David Sedaris; audiobook, read by David Sedaris)
  10. Chi's Sweet Home, Volume 2 (Konami Kanata)
  11. David Sedaris:  Live For Your Listening Pleasure (David Sedaris; audiobook, read by David Sedaris)
  12. A Prairie Home Companion:  Live From the Hollywood Bowl (Garrison Keillor; audiobook, performed by Garrison Keillor, Royal Academy of Radio Actors, etc.)
  13. Chi's Sweet Home, Volume 3 (Konami Kanata)
  14. God Help the Child (Toni Morrison)
  15. Oklahoma's Atticus:  An Innocent Man and the Lawyer Who Fought for Him (Hunter Howe Cates)
  16. Counting Americans:  How the U.S. Census Classified the Nation (Paul Schor; translated by Lys Ann Weiss)
  17. *Knucklehead:  Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka (Jon Scieszka)
  18. The View From the Cheap Seats:  Selected Nonfiction (Neil Gaiman; audiobook, read by Neil Gaiman)
  19. The BFG (Roald Dahl)
  20. The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros)
  21. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (Bill Bryson; audiobook, narrated by Bill Bryson)
  22. *American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
  23. Tales of the Talented Tenth:  Bass Reeves (Joel Christian Gill)
  24. i:  six nonlectures (e.e. cummings)
  25. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Charlie Mackesy)
  26. Tales of the Talented Tenth:  Bessie Stringfield (Joel Christian Gill)
  27. Bad Feminist:  Essays (Roxane Gay)
  28. Monsters & Other Stories (Gustavo Duarte)
  29. Born to Fly:  The First Women's Air Race Across America (Steve Sheinkin; illustrated by Bijou Karman)
  30. A Private War:  Marie Colvin and Other Tales of Heroes, Scoundrels, and Renegades (Marie Brenner; audiobook, read by Marie Brenner)
  31. Bossypants (Tina Fey; audiobook, read by Tina Fey)
  32. Savage Appetites:  Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession (Rachel Monroe)
  33. Medallion Status:  True Stories from Secret Rooms (John Hodgman; audiobook, read by John Hodgman)
  34. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie; ebook)
  35. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie; audiobook, read by Phoebe Judge)
  36. A Black Women's History of the United States (Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross)
  37. The Great Influenza:  The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History (John M. Barry)
  38. *At Home:  A Short History of Private Life (Bill Bryson; audiobook, read by Bill Bryson)
  39. How To:  Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems (Randall Munroe; audiobook, read by Randall Munroe)
  40. In the Dream House:  A Memoir (Carmen Maria Machado)
  41. *A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson; audiobook, abridged, read by Bill Bryson)
  42. Sula (Toni Morrison)
  43. Bill Bryson's African Diary (Bill Bryson; ebook)
  44. *In a Sunburned Country (Bill Bryson; audiobook, read by Bill Bryson)
  45. *One Summer:  America, 1927 (Bill Bryson; audiobook, read by Bill Bryson)
  46. Why Fish Don't Exist:  A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life (Lulu Miller)
  47. This Brilliant Darkness:  A Book of Strangers (Jeff Sharlet)
  48. Comet in Moominland (Tove Jansson)
  49. The Warmth of Other Suns:  The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson)
  50. Say Nothing:  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Patrick Radden Keefe)
  51. Flora & Ulysses:  The Illuminated Adventures (Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by K.G. Campbell)
  52. Be Prepared (Vera Brosgol)
  53. Snapdragon (Kat Leyh)
  54. Jane, the Fox, and Me (Fanny Britt, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault, translated by Christelle Morelli and Susan Ouriou)
  55. El Deafo (Cece Bell; David Lasky, colorist)
  56. Anya's Ghost (Vera Brosgol)
  57. Roller Girl (Victoria Jamieson)
  58. Losing the War (Lee Sandlin; ebook version)
  59. Navigate Your Stars (Jesmyn Ward; illustrated by Gina Triplett)
  60. Caste:  The Origins of Our Discontents (Isabel Wilkerson)
  61. Becoming Duchess Goldblatt:  A Memoir (Anonymous)
  62. Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask (Anton Treuer)
  63. Essex County, Volume 1:  Tales from the Farm (Jeff Lemire)
  64. Essex County, Volume 2:  Ghost Stories (Jeff Lemire)
  65. The Chancellor and the Citadel (Maria Capelle Frantz)
  66. Press Enter to Continue (Ana Galvan)
  67. Failure is an Option:  An Attempted Memoir (H. Jon Benjamin; audiobook, read by H. Jon Benjamin)
  68. The Fearless Benjamin Lay:  The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist (Marcus Rediker)
  69. The Boardinghouse in Nineteenth-Century America (Wendy Gamber)
  70. Beyond the Trees:  A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic (Adam Shoalts)
  71. Essex County, Volume 3:  The Country Nurse (Jeff Lemire)
  72. Counting Descent (Clint Smith)
  73. The Tradition (Jericho Brown)
  74. Life Before Legend:  Stories of the Criminal and the Prodigy (Marie Lu)
  75. The Female Economy:  The Millinery and Dressmaking Trades, 1860 - 1930 (Wendy Gamber)
  76. How Long 'til Black Future Month (N.K. Jemisin)
  77. Bloodchild and Other Stories (Octavia Butler)
  78. Solutions and Other Problems (Allie Brosh)
  79. Intimations (Zadie Smith)
  80. Before the Ever After (Jacqueline Woodson)
  81. The Lady is a Spy:  Virginia Hall, WWII Hero of the French Resistance (Don Mitchell)
  82. In the Dark Streets Shineth:  A 1941 Christmas Eve Story (David McCullough)
  83. Conundrum (Jan Morris)

*indicates a reread
titles in bold were favorites