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Goodreads Staffers Share Their Top Three Books of the Year
Every December, as we wrap up our annual Goodreads Reading Challenge, we ask our book-loving colleagues a simple yet incredibly tough question:
What were your three favorite books you read this year?
Oh, the agony! The internal debates! The anguish we caused our coworkers as they whittled down their lists to just their top few books! Hopefully our carefully considered staff picks will inspire additions to your Want to Read shelf.
You'll notice that our reading habits run the gamut. But careful perusal unveils some office favorites, including lots of love for The Vanishing Half, the novels of Yaa Gyasi, and Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race.
Now it's your turn! What are your top three books of the year? Please share them with us in the comments!
Oh, the agony! The internal debates! The anguish we caused our coworkers as they whittled down their lists to just their top few books! Hopefully our carefully considered staff picks will inspire additions to your Want to Read shelf.
You'll notice that our reading habits run the gamut. But careful perusal unveils some office favorites, including lots of love for The Vanishing Half, the novels of Yaa Gyasi, and Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race.
Now it's your turn! What are your top three books of the year? Please share them with us in the comments!
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Your turn! What are your top three reads of 2020? Share them with us in the comments!
Check out more recent articles:
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Comments Showing 101-150 of 314 (314 new)
Such a Fun Age by Kiley ReidDawn by Octavia Butler
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
*Honorable Mention* The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
All 8 Outlander Books for the third time. Becoming, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama's A Promised Land.
1. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins 2. Becoming by Michelle Obama
3. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, and two rereads:A Fine Balance by Robinson Mistry, and The Shell Seekers by
R. Pilcher
Hi if one person writes 20 books before they are 70 .How can we possibly keep up .I have loved reading since i learned to read over 60 years ago.i have 100s of books .i once had 10 book cases . I I now want to purge and share , since the covid pandemic , i dont know what to do with a bunch of large and small boos , i feel like every thing has value . Word the best tool besides our brains and eyes....
"Once Upon a River" by Diane Setterfield"Anxious People" by Fredrik Bachman
"The Guest List" by Lucy Foley
#1 A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler#2 The Nanny by Gilly Macmillan
#3 The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
The Dutch House, A Million Little Fires, Conspiracy in the Streets; The Extraordinary Trial of the Chicago Eight, edited by and introduction by Jon Wiener.
Non-fiction: Caste, Only Plane in the Sky, Know My NameFiction: Ordinary Grace, This Tender Land, The Giver of Stars
The long way to a small angry planet - Becky ChambersBoyfriend Material - Alexis Hall
A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik
The Likeness - Tana FrenchBrave New World - Aldous Huxley
Half-Broke Horses - Jeanette Walls
My top three, not necessarily in that order:The Heavenly Table, Donald Ray Pollock
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
Year of Wonders Geraldine BrooksSense and Sensibility Jane Austen
The Passage Trilogy Justin Cronin
1. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance During the Blitz/Erik Larson2. Where the Crawdads Sing/Delia Owens
3. Deacon King Kong/James McBride
My Dark Veronica, Kate Russell. Sometimes you just had to put it down.Every Note Played, Lisa Genova. Every bit as good as Still Alice and Left Neglected,
Reamde, (not a spelling error ) Neal Stephenson. Long, very long and enterainingly interesting.
The Girl with the Louding VoiceThe Great Believers
A Long Petal of the Sea, Allende
The Island of Sea Women
(I can't count!)
Love After Love Ingrid Persuad The Ninth Child Sally Magnusson
The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo
I never understood why all these "Best of..." lists come out in Nov and early Dec. What if a great book comes out on Dec 15th?
1. Lady Midnight 2. Lover Awakened
3. The boy who sneaks in my bedroom window
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth RussellHe Started It by Samantha Downing
True Story by Kate Reed Petty
Ayelet Tsabari, The Art of LeavingConversations with Friends, Sally Rooney
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
1. Spellbreaker by Charlie N.Holmberg2.Book Of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
3. Obesity Code by Jason Fung
1. Jamesland by Michelle Huneven 2. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson 3. The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett and a few more great ones... It was hard to pick
Girl, Woman, Other Bernadine EvaristoThe Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Still Life by Val McDiermid
The Midnight Library, Matt HaigThe Pull of the Stars, Emma Donoghue
A Secret History of Witches, Louisa Morgan
by AlisonAmerican Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line by David Nott
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony
The Extraordinary Life of Sam HellThe Henna Artist
Before We Were Yours
Dear Child by Romy Hausmann, The Better Liar by Tanen Jones, and All the Things We Never Said by Marc Levy.
1)Dear Child by Romy Hausmann, 2)The Better Liar by Tanen Jones,
3)All the Things We Never Said by Marc Levy.
1) Dear Child by Romy Hausmann2) The Better Liar by Tanen Jones
3) All the Things We Never Said by Marc Levy
Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled TeensMagic Marks the Spot
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen!
Runner-up: A Study in Scarlet
1. The Guest List 2. The Winter Garden 3. Mudlark
Dancing at the Rascal Fair Ivan DoigAmerican Pastoral Philip Roth
Masters of Atlantis Charles Portis
Anxious People by Fredrik BackmanThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Allie Brosh, Solutions and Other ProblemsScott James, Trial By Fire
Brooke Skipstone, Some Laineys Died
1. Beartown2. A Court of Mist and Fury
3.The Sun Down Motel
Innocent Traitor by Alison WeirQueen Victoria's Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
The Midnight Library Matt HaigHamnet Maggie O ‘Farrell
The Pull of the Stars Emma Donoghue
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk KiddThe Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Mexican Gothic The Guest List
The Giver of Stars
A Gentleman in MoscowMidnight Library
My Dear Hamilton
Once upon a river by Diane SetterfieldThe Selkie by Melanie Jackson
The Long Petal of the SeaThe Water Dancer
Dear Edward
1. the lines we cross2. the kite runner
3. the great alone
honorable mention: to kill a mockingbird
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, Lock In by Jon Scalzi and bonus non fiction A Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols
A Gentleman in MoscowThe Ocean at the End of the Lane
Riva Lehrer a Memoir
A Gentleman in Moscow Civil Warrior
Letter to a Suffering Church
Next to Last Stand
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Glass Castle