2020 Year-End Book Superlatives

It’s our last show of the year! We’re talking superlatives from 2020 – the books we couldn’t put down, the ones that disappointed us, the weirdest ones, our overall favorites… and more.

Books mentioned in this episode:
Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Gayle’s review here)
Alone Together by Jennifer Haupt (Gayle’s review here)
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
The Night Swim by Megan Goldin
A Woman Like Her by Sanam Maher
The Works and Anatomy Of A Skyscraper by Kate Ascher (Gayle’s review here)

Links mentioned:
Obama’s Top 17 Books of 2020
The Queens Gambit on Netflix
Ted Lasso on Apple+
The Undoing on HBO

2020 Superlatives

Hardest Book To Put Down
28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand (Gayle’s review here)
Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Gayle’s review here)
Confessions On The 7:45 by Lisa Unger
The Return by Rachel Harrison
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Most Disappointing
The 8th Detective by Alex Pavesi
The Golden Cage by Camilla Låckberg (Gayle’s review here)
Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano (Gayle’s review here)
Followers by Megan Angelo (Gayle’s review here)
All Adults Here by Emma Straub (Gayle’s review here)
Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Oddest Book
The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao
The Shame by Makenna Goodman (Gayle’s review here)

Best Audiobook
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Gayle’s review here)
Smacked by Eilene Zimmerman (Gayle’s review here)
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Gayle’s review here)

Funniest Book
Home Is Burning by Dan Marshall (Gayle’s review here)
Conviction by Denise Mina

Most Unique Storyline
Oona Out Of Order by Margarita Montimore
His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie (Gayle’s review here)
Remembrance by Rita Woods

Book Set Longest Ago
The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
Remembrance by Rita Woods

Best Memoir
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (Gayle’s review here)
Inside Out by Demi Moore (Gayle’s review here)
Maid by Stephanie Land (Gayle’s review here)

Best Non-Fiction
Notes On A Silencing by Lucy Ward
The Office: The Untold Story Of The Greatest Sitcom Of The 2000s by Andy Greene (Gayle’s review here)
Secondhand by Adam Minter (Gayle’s review here)

Best Books of 2020
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener (Gayle’s review here)
The Cactus League by Emily Nemens (Gayle’s review here)
Long Bright River by Liz Moore (Gayle’s review here)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (Gayle’s review here)
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Gayle’s review here)
Plainsong by Kent Haruf (Gayle’s review here)
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
A Woman Like Her by Sanam Maher
One By One by Ruth Ware
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger
Notes On A Silencing by Lucy Crawford

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash