Here are the books I read in 2020. Do I think I'm showing off? Maybe a little. It's my privilege to convene a monthly book-show broadcast on WOSU 89-7 NPR News (third Friday of the month, 11 am) I can use that as an excuse for keeping track. In such a difficult years, books were more company and more of a comfort than ever.
This was the year of reading fived of the six Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope. You need to have an obsession with Victorian era politics to make your way comfortably through these. I don't have that. Somewhat tedious, but like running a seven minute mile-something I'll never do-reading this demanding series seemed like a challenge.
I delighted to discover the Chicago based author Brian Doyle, and dismayed to learn of his early passing. His novel' Chicago' was a rip snorting delight, God rest his soul.
I read Cleanness by Garth Greenwell on the elliptical at the gym, when we could still go to the gym. Parts of it shocked even me.
Conversations with Beethoven by Sanford Friedman was brilliant. The composer was deaf. What we have here are the written notes given to him by his inimaters, friends and enemies over twenty years until is death in 1827. Replies are implied, often hilarious.
In my sixties I finally read Kerouac, and the memoirs of Arthur Rubinstein and Pablo Casals. I'm not related to author James Purdy. His volume of short stories was a delight. One pundit called these, "like a box of poisoned chocolates. Closer to home I discovered Louis Bromfield.
If 2020 has exhausted and discouraged you, I found this book a wonderful balm:
Here are a few of my favorites read in 2020:
James Purdy |
An asterisk * means I really enjoyed the book. **** means hysteria.
You'll note some web addresses to cut and paste. I urge you to do so if you want to know more. I include these because I forget what I've read two days after finishing a book. Does this happen to you?
BOOKS READ IN 2020:
Nothing to
See Here by Kevin Wilson (fire children)
The
Adversary by Edmond Carerre (Jean-Claude Romand)
The
Mutations by Jorge Comensal (Ramon, cancer parrot)
Janis Her
Life and Music by Holly George-Warren
****Chicago
by Brian Doyle https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25663660-chicago
****One Long
River of Song: Notes on Wonder by Brian Doyle
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/books/review/one-long-river-of-song-brian-doyle.html
Long Bright River by Liz Moore https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43834909-long-bright-river
Cleanness by
Garth Greenwell https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/books/garth-greenwell-cleanness.html
The
Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/olaf-olafsson/the-sacrament-olafsson/
*When We
Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46205807-when-we-were-vikings
**On the
Road by Jack Kerouac
*Dear Edward
Ann Napolitano
A Drink
Before War by Dennis Lehane
Secret
Guests by Benjamin Black https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45186564-the-secret-guests
Sidney
Lumet: A Life by Maura Spiegel
The
Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
The Given
Day by Denis Lehane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHCzJxAlF70
Dangerous
Melodies: Classical Music in America from the Great War through the Cold War by
Jonathan Rosenberg
The Sun and
Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood, by
Donna Rifkind.
*’’This is Happiness’’ Niall Williams https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42972008-this-is-happiness
Since We
Fell Dennis Lehane
American
Dirt Jeannine Cummins
Brother and
Sister: A Memoir by Diane Keaton
*Conversations
with Beethoven Sanford Friedman
Speak Peace
in a World of Conflict by Marshall Rosenberg (NVC)
The
Wanderers Richard Price
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderers_(Price_novel)
Tightrope
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn
-----C-19
Quarantine March 17 2020---
Anna of
Kleve: The Princess in the Portrait by Alison Weir
The
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
Collected
Stories by Ernest Hemingway
An Infinity
of Little Hours by Nancy Klein MacGregor
In Praise of
the Useless Life by Brother Paul Quenon
The Mirror
and the Light Hilary Mantel
*Broken,
Novellas by Don Winslow
Victoria: A
Life by A.N. Wilson
Can You Forgive
Her? Anthony Trollope (Palliser I)
Queen Mary
James Pope-Hennessey
*The
Complete Stories of James Purdy
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-087140-669-9
Pablo Casals
by H.L. Kirk
My Young
Years Arthur Rubinstein
Hidden
Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
http://hidden-valley-road.com/
(Back to
work during Covid-19; Mayu 18)
Phineas
Phinn by Anthony Trollope (Palliser 2)
Actress by
Anne Enright
She’s Come
Undone by Wally Lamb
You Never
Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
Dorothy Day:
Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph
*I Know This
Much is True by Wally Lamb
***At the
Center of all Beauty: Solitude and the
Creative Life by Fenton Johnson
https://www.fentonjohnson.com/books/at-the-center-of-all-beauty/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otmv2oOX1pg
*The Glass
Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45754981-the-glass-hotel
Gather
Together in My Name by Maya Angelou
*Motion of
the Body Falling Through Space by Lionel Shriver
I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
*The
Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance during the
Blitz by Erik Larson
The Night
Watchman by Louise Erdrich
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/books/review/night-watchman-louise-erdrich.html
Katheryn Howard:
The Scandalous Queen (Six Tudor Queens #5)
by Alison
Weir
Miss Austen
by Gil Hornby
This is Big:
How the Founder of Weight Watchers Changed the World—and Me by Marisa Metzer
Lady in
Waiting: MY Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner
White
Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin
DiAngelo
Living with
the Monks, What turning off my Phone Taught me About Happiness, Gratitude and
Focus by Jesse Itzler
The Lives of
Isaac Stern by David Schoenbaum
The Algebra
of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love and Meaning by Scott
Galloway
Sing,
Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32920226-sing-unburied-sing
Too Much and
Never Enough How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L.
Trump
*Black Boy
by Richard Wright
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/228630.Black_Boy
The Silver
Swan In Search of Doris Duke by Sallie Bingham
The Manson
Women and Me: Monsters, Morality and Me by Nikki Meredith
*Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41723505-shadowplay
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope (Palliser III)
***The Planter of Modern Life: Louis Bromfield and the Seeds
of a Food Revolution by Stephen Heyman
*The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11337.The_Bluest_Eye
In Search of Queen Mary Pope-Hennessy ed. Hugo Vickers
More Than
Love: An intimate portrait of my mother, Natalie Wood by Natasha Gregson Wagner
*The
Equivalents: A Story of Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s by
Maggie Doherty
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555915/the-equivalents-by-maggie-doherty/
The House of
Kennedy by James Patterson
*The Patient
by Jasper DeWitt
Early Autumn
by Louis Bromfield
Execution: A
Giordano Bruno Mystery by SJ Parris (Babington Plot)
Serenade by
James M. Cain
Odetta A
Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zack
Those who
Leave and Those who Stay Elena Ferrante (Neapolitan novel 3)
We Are Water
by Wally Lamb
Raising A Rare
Girl A Memoir by Lanier, Heather Kirn
The author's daughter was born with a very
rare genetic syndrome and faced a daunting prognosis: she would be a fraction
of normal size, have innumerable physical and mental difficulties and likely a shortened
lifespan. Now, at age eight she is attending standard public school classes.
This is the story of her family's journey.
Cross of
Snow: A Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Nicholas A. Basbanes
My Brilliant
Friend by Elena Ferrante (Neapolitan novel 1)
The
Hilarious World of Depression by John Moe
Dean Dixon:
Negro and Conductor by Rufus Jones
*Shuggie
Bain by Douglas Stuart
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52741293-shuggie-bain
The Friend
by Sigrid Nunez
A Star in
Bored by Byron Lane (Carrie Fisher)
Hamnet by
Maggie O’Farrell
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43890641-hamnet
*Squeeze Me
by Carl Hiassen
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50644565-squeeze-me?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=2RB1AyuEOf&rank=3
*The Wild
Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes
Phineas
Redux by Anthony Trollope (Palliser 4)
The Queen’s
Secret by Karen Harper (Queen Mum WWII)
Rage Bob
Woodward
The Evening
and the Morning Ken Follett
Mantel
Pieces Hilary Mantel
Chasing the
Light by Oliver Stone
Mephisto by
Klaus Mann
*The Other
Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45186556-the-other-bennet-sister
The Beauty
in Breaking by Michelle Harper
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50043108-the-beauty-in-breaking
*Jesus: A
Life by A.N. Wilson
****The
Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566535/the-volunteer-by-salvatore-scibona/
The Red
Lotus by Chris Bohjalian
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51946068-the-red-lotus
*We Germans
by Alexander Starritt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358112-we-germans
A Time for
Mercy by John Grisham
*A Saint
From Texas by Edmund White
The Eyes of the
Queen by Oliver Clements
Messiah: The
Composition and Afterlife of Handel’s Masterpiece by Jonathan Keates
The Guest
List by Lucy Foley
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51933429-the-guest-list
The Prime
Minister by Anthony Trollope (Palliser 5)
Shelter in
Place by David Leavitt
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/shelter-in-place-9781620404874/
This is not
my memoir by Andre Gregory
Missionaries
by Phil Klay
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921194920/phil-klays-new-missionaries-is-an-ambitious-novel-of-ideas
Five for
Sorrow Ten for Joy by Rumer Godden
*Deacon King
Kong by James McBride
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51045613-deacon-king-kong
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