Wow! Here we are, the last Tuesday of the year. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) topic is “Favorite Books of 2020,” but it’s been a tradition of mine, before I even had this blog, to put out my list of favorite books I read (for the first time) on January 1st. Especially since one year, I read my favorite book of the year on December 31st. So… I’m going to tweak the topic a bit and do Favorite 2020 Releases. And as of today I’ll read no more 2020 releases so this list doesn’t end up changing in the next three days.
This week was actually difficult! If you’ve read my monthly wrap-ups for this year, then maybe you’ve noticed that this has been an awful reading year for me. This has begun to turn around, but over the course of this year, I didn’t request a lot of ARCs and didn’t read a whole lot of new books. But these were the new releases I think stood out to me the most this year. While they are in order, it’s possible that tomorrow I might shuffle some of these around. Or put a couple different ones in.
10. The Kingdom of Back – Marie Lu. This is the story of Mozart’s sister, Nannerl. She wants to be remembered in a world where girls are supposed to grow up, get married, and be forgotten. It’s different than any of her other stories, but it has beautiful descriptions and made me tear up at the end.
9. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins. Am I the only person who gets Suzanne Collins the author mixed up with Susan Collins the legislator? Anyway, this is the story of President Snow when he was a teenager. How does a good person go bad? This book explains. It also tells the origin of the song “The Hanging Tree” which I loved.
8. Jo & Laurie – Margaret Stohl & Melissa de la Cruz. I first heard of this book when the Penguin Teen Tour, featuring Astrid Scholte, Melissa de la Cruz, and Marie Lu, came to Denver. I tried reading Little Women as a kid and got bored after the first page, so I initially wasn’t excited about this book. Then I got to read a sample of this on Bookish First and I wanted to read it. I ended up listening to it on audiobook on a road trip between my house and my in-laws in Arizona and it was good enough to make my top 10 this year.
7. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab. This book was cleverly done, and heartbreaking at times. I also enjoyed the historical aspect of this book.
6. Between Burning Worlds – Jessica C. Brody and Joanne Rendell. This year, it’s somewhat hard to tell whether a book would have done better on this list if I hadn’t read it in the middle of a pandemic. Sky Without Stars was #3 on my list of favorite 2019 releases. This book came out towards the beginning of the pandemic. I was planning on meeting Jessica Brody at The Tattered Cover towards the end of March, but the book signing was cancelled and there was a Zoom book launch I attended instead. I loved returning to this world, but it seems like reading books took longer this year than last. Including this one, which I loved.
5. The Best Laid Plans – Cameron Lund. On the other hand, I have to wonder if, looking back on 2020, I think on The Best Laid Plans so fondly because this is a feel-good book in a year that a lot of us weren’t really feeling so good. Four of the top 5 books on this list this year are pretty much that – they leave me with feel-good vibes and hope.
4. Today Tonight Tomorrow – Rachel Lynn Solomon. Oh how I loved this book! I started reading this before the pandemic started shutting everything down, and it was initially my “hot tub book.” I would go to the gym, swim, then get out of the pool and read this book. But then the pandemic closed the gym, so no hot tub. But I did make it a priority to read this book, and I loved it.
3. Skyhunter – Marie Lu. This is the only book in this year’s top five that doesn’t end on a hopeful, happy note (what do you expect, this is a Marie Lu book in the middle of a duology). Would it have ranked higher in another year? Possibly. But I’ve already pre-ordered Skyhunter 2 (even though it doesn’t have a title or a cover yet) and will do a reread before the second book comes out next September.
2. A Sky Beyond the Storm – Sabaa Tahir. I think A Sky Beyond the Storm is the perfect metaphor for 2020. It’s been horrible for so many people, but at the end of the storm, there may be some blue sky. This tetralogy had the perfect ending.
1. Chain of Gold – Cassandra Clare. In a year that I barely made my Goodreads reading goal, Chain of Gold is the only book I’ve reread already. And I’m going to read it again before March 2nd, when Chain of Iron comes out. Now, I said that Skyhunter was the only book that didn’t have a hopeful ending. If you’ve read this book, you may be thinking how was this hopeful? There was a fire, and then the epilogue… anyway, I’ve read the Shadowhunter Found Family Tree, and I know that things will work out. I love how this book ends though.
I’m so glad there’s only 10 weeks until Chain of Iron comes out. A few days ago, I started rereading The Infernal Devices, and plan to read all the Shadowhunter books and stories from Ghosts of the Shadow Market that take place between Clockwork Angel and Chain of Iron. I don’t own a copy of The Bane Chronicles or Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, which is why I won’t be reading those stories. If you’re wondering what order these stories come in, there is a Shadowhunter timeline you can use as a reference.
So there’s my top ten list of 2020 releases. There are a couple books I’d really like to include, and might have, had I written this list on another day.
What books did you come up with? I have a feeling I’m going to have to expand my TBR this week!
Next week we’re going to talk about my “Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2021.” I may end up having to cut that “first half of” out of my list though. I only have one unread book on Netgalley right now. I stopped requesting books because I was having a hard time reading so many books.