♡

Safe to say I read a hell of a lot more in 2020 than the previous year as there was quite literally nothing else to do (let's not talk about it). However, this wasn't a bad thing as I discovered so many amazing books, hence my favourite books of the year amount to 20 (worked out well for the title of the blog post too, whoop). These are in no particular order, I love them all equally.

This book follows three best friends - Hanna, Cate and Lissa - starting when they are young and inseparable, living in East London together and excited for what life might bring for each of them. We then see them ten years on, when things have not turned out exactly as they hoped it might. From career woes to failing marriages, the struggles of motherhood and maneuvering their way through life and adult friendships as a mother, a daughter, a wife and someone who rebels against it all, each envying the others' lives in one way or another.

As the name suggests, the book looks at the expectations the three had in their younger years versus the reality of what panned out, while they each struggle to figure out how to make their lives meaningful through the dreams, desires and pain that comes with growing up.

I really loved this book in every way - I loved the way it looked at female friendship and expectations in life, how each of the women think the others have life sussed and are living their dream, when in reality that is not always the case. Great book, easy read, would recommend.

Ove is an old, grumpy man who lives alone and misses his late wife unbearably. He lives a solitary life since she passed and doesn't feel as though anything is worth it anymore. He keeps to himself and would like to keep it that way... however the young family that move in next door have other ideas.

His rigid rules and routines in life mean his short temper comes to the fore if said rules and routines are interrupted. This begins one morning when Ove wakes up to the father of the new family next door having accidentally run over Ove's mailbox in his car. This seemingly minor event leads nicely into the comical story of Ove's life when he realises that people want him around, and the tale of friendship and love that transpires changes him in ways he never thought possible.

This was such a lovely, lovely book - comical and heart-warming in equal measures. Definitely a feel good book and an easy read.

This book tells the story of a young Black woman, Emira, who is wrongly accused of kidnapping by a security guard at a supermarket while babysitting a white child, and the events, twists and turns that follow the incident. The child's mother, Alix, while having seemingly good intentions, wholly mismanages the situation in a performative, harmful and self-serving manner, ultimately making the entire situation even worse for Emira.

I absolutely loved this book for so many reasons. I loved the way it was written, the engaging plot and the important topics it covered (namely race, privilege and racism, along with attempts to be "non-racist" that are in fact racist in themselves and why that is) and I loved how the characters were described. 

The book held a conversation around important issues while still being accessible and easy to digest. I really felt that I knew the characters and I loved Kiley Reid's writing style - I can't wait to read more by her. She managed to capture such an important discussion while simultaneously weaving humour in to the storyline, as well as the relatable complex events that often make up a young woman's life. Great, great book.

This book tells the story of 6 teenagers who meet at a Summer Camp in the 70's and become inseparable. The book follows them through their lives and explores the roles that talent, envy, class, wealth and power play in society and how it can change a person and therefore a friendship with the passing of time. 

Throughout the decades, the group's bond remains strong, but their world's have continued to change around them, highlighting the never before seen difference between the 6, bringing them together and apart again as they muddle through life. We see them transition from youth, all the way through to middle age and how their happiness, talents and fortunes lead them down different paths, despite the lives they envisioned for themselves when they first met in Summer Camp.

This is such a lovely book, again really makes you feel like you're in the characters' lives and that you know them in real life. Great story, great and important topics covered, overall a must-read.

This book is an absolute HOOT - literally laugh-out-loud funny. David Sedaris writes with hilariously dark humour and candor about his personal life. He has bought a beach house - naming it the "Sea Section" on the Carolina coast and is envisioning lengthy, relaxing stays spent lounging in the sunshine - his visions become reality, along with the stark realisation that you cannot take a break away from yourself.

Sedaris discusses hurtling towards middle age and mortality,observing his life in a way that makes you feel like you are listening to your hilarious older best friend. The humour is dark - so if you are easily offended then I suggest you skip right over this book, but I do love a writer with the ability to be humourous about even their darkest times. 

This book follows Sofia and her mother, Rose, in their quest to solve the mystery of her Rose's debilitating illness that no doctor seems to be able to explain. The process of caring for her mother (amidst Rose's constant, never-ending complaints and criticisms) is testing at the best of times, albeit allowing Sofia a welcome respite from facing her own disappointing life.

The mother-daughter duo travel to the southern coast of Spain to see a famous consultant, in a last-ditch attempt to find a cure for the mystery illness which causes sporadic limb paralysis. This famous consultant, however, seems to run a peculiar sort of clinic, far from the norms of modern medicine, but Rose and Sofia figure anything is worth at shot. Their stint in Spain opens Sofia's eyes to many things about her mother, the consultant and - to her surprise - herself and her own desires.

It is a peculiar but great book, with an interesting look at the mother-daughter/carer relationship and how stepping outside of that allows Sofia to realise, recognise and learn things about herself for the first time since her mother got sick.

This book broke and filled my heart in equal measures. It is a memoir written by Tembi Locke about the love of her life - from meeting him, to loving him, to losing him and attempting to keep going afterwards when living seemed entirely impossible.

Their love story is set in the Sicilian countryside over three summers, where Tembi and her daughter, Zoela, attempt to navigate their loss through food and family (Tembi's in-laws). She tells such a beautiful story about when she first met her beloved, Saro, when he was a chef in Florence and she was studying there. Saro's traditional family did not approve of him marrying Tembi - a black American woman - however, undeterred, they push through and end up building a happy life together with their true love - their adopted baby girl, Zoela.

When Saro gets sick with cancer, his family reconcile with the pair as his illness consumes all of their lives. In the face of Saro's death, we see Tembi's relationship with her mother-in-law blossom and change in ways that she could never have thought, as they both navigate through their loss and Tembi tries to heal her heart and piece her life with her daughter back together.

This book was so great. It is an honest, inclusive, political (in a ballsy, not boring way) book. I read a review on it that said it will "speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place", which is such a great summary of the book that I just had to quote it instead of trying to come up with another way of describing it myself.

The book follows Queenie Jenkins, a 25 year old Jamaican British woman living in London. Queenie finds herself pulled between two cultures and feeling as though she doesn't really "fit in" to either. In her job, she feels constantly forced to compare herself to her white, middle class colleagues.

She goes through a messy break up from a long-term relationship and - as we all have - seeks comfort in the wrong places. While trying to heal, she appears to take one step forward and be pushed five steps back by toxic men who do no favours for her self-worth.

We follow Queenie as she battles through, searching for meaning, and tries to figure out who she is and who she wants to be. A great book, very relevant and relatable.

I cannot tell you how much I adored this amazing - albeit heartbreaking - book. I actually cried real tears at points during the book, something that rarely happens with a book (usually it has the be a film that triggers the tears).

Cyril Avery has been told all his life by his adoptive parents that he is not a "real" Avery, due to the fact that he is adopted. So Cyril wants to find out who he is.

Cyril was born out of wedlock to a young woman who was shunned from her 1940s rural, Catholic Irish (*eye-roll*) community as a result of getting pregnant. She gives Cyril up to a Redemptorist nun and he is adopted by a wealthy couple in Dublin, however they don't do a great job at making him feel accepted into their family. He befriends the son of his adoptive family's friend, Julian Woodbead, who he realises he is in love with, and the story begins to weave its way from there.

The book follows Cyril through a heart-breaking series of events as a gay man in Ireland at a time when it was essentially a "sin". He struggles to find his identity, learn to know himself, and to find somewhere that feels more like home than his childhood "home" did.

This book is so beautifully written and - albeit graphic at points - really makes you feel what Cyril must have felt in a time where HIV/AIDs was rampant but homosexuality unaccepted by society in Ireland as he grows up in the 1960s, and how that has affected him and changed up to the modern day. 

It surprised me how much I ended up enjoying this book to be honest, as it doesn't have much in terms of a storyline/plot, but is written so beautifully and with such vivid description, to the point that you feel as though you are in the book, living life alongside the main character, running through the World's Fair. Because of that, it turned out to be one of my favourites.

This novel follows the ordinary life of a young boy living in New York City in the 1930s with his family, the sights and sounds, smells and emotions that he experiences. It shows the importance of family and sticking together against all the odds, to finally experience the extraordinary experience that is the World's Fair.

Okay so I know I'm late to the game here, but I was dying to read the book before watching the movie (still haven't watched the movie because I'm worried it will disappoint, as movies of books so often do). I absolutely adored this book and all-encompassing love story.

The book tells the story, starting one summer, of a young, impressionable and adolescent boy and a guest that comes to stay at his parents' house in Italy for the summer, and their rollercoaster romance that ensues. From denial, to tentativeness, to acceptance, to obsession, to full-on passion for one another within 6 weeks, we follow the love story of Elio and Oliver. 

We see their fear, desire and attraction intensify across the summer - albeit only 6 weeks long - it marks them for the rest of their lives. This is an unforgettable story - one that continues in the sequel, Find Me, another gorgeous story, but Call Me By Your Name was the better of the two, in my opinion. Now I cannot WAIT to watch the movie *cue me getting emotionally involved in the fictional relationship in the film and hysterically crying at the end*.

This gorgeous and heart-wrenching book is set in the quiet French village of Carriveau in 1939, right as World War II is about to begin.

We follow Vianne, who must say goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he is called to fight on the frontline of the war, and her sister Isabelle. Vianne doesn't believe that the Nazis will really invade France, but they do, and to her horror, much closer to home than she would like. Isabelle is 18 years old and rebellious, believing her purpose is to fight along with thousands of Parisians who refuse to stand by and watch the Germans storm their country.  

Vianne is forced to make one impossible choice after another in order to protect her family, while Isabelle risks her life to save others and protect her country and the ones she loves.

Another heart-wrenching story (there appears to be a running theme here, 2020 did it's THING with my reading choices clearly). This is set in the 1980s in Glasgw, during Margaret Thatcher's reign in the UK and the resulting unemployment, forcing men into the coal mines.

This story follows Shuggie Bain, a young, lonely boy who spends his childhood looking after his alcoholic mother in run-down public housing in Glasgow, as his father and - one by one - his siblings leave in search for a better life. 

This is an amazing, profound and important book that everyone should read, I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn't want it to end.

The book follows the differing stories of twelve characters - mostly women, Black and British. We hear the stories of their families, friends and lovers, as the narrative bounces back in forth in time across the years, and in to modern day Britain. 

The womens' voices throughout the novel are diverse - as they each come from different background, varying in age, roots, occupation, family and sexuality. It discusses race, and surviving in a predominantly white culture and the effects this has on these women and their identities.

This was such a moving, celebratory, beautiful book, written in a sensitive and compassionate way and portrays the womens' connections to one another brilliantly. A great read.

... and breathe! Sorry, that was a long one. But I couldn't not ramble on about how much I loved these books. Let me know what your favourite books of the last year have been, and which ones of these have been added to your reading list for this year!

Thanks for reading & stay safe,