It’s been a little bit since I’ve written one of my fan-favorite book recaps. I lost some fevor for writing them when I realized that I have no critical eye whatsoever (more on this later) and therefore had no place truly reviewing books. But what I can do with a greater sense of comfort is list every book I read in 2020. I’ll also, for the sake of this post not being literally a bullet pointed list of 22 abridged book titles, give you the quick-hit “top 1” book in a number of categories.
The List
- Celestial Bodies
- Trust Exercise
- Handmaids Tale
- The MVP Machine
- Klosterman’s IV
- Bad Blood
- Coyote Blue
- The Testaments
- Klosterman’s X
- A Game of Thrones
- A Clash of Kings
- God Bless You Mr Rosewater
- How To Change Your Mind
- So You Want to Talk About Race
- I Wear the Black Hat
- A Storm of Swords
- Naked Statistics
- A Feast for Crows
- Player Piano
- But What if We’re Wrong
- The Stupidest Angel
- The Trial
Fiction Favorite – Trust Exercise
This category was a pretty close call, even looking back with over a year to digest. Reading four GoT books should have given ol’ Georgie Five-Books a fighting chance at taking home this coveted award, but Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise blew away the competition. A nice little mid-book twist had me recommending this book to many others after I received it as a gift at a 2019 end of year raffle at work.
Non-Fiction Favorite – Bad Blood
The trial for Elizabeth Holmes (and Sunny Balwani, but that’s a separate trial) has been dominating the news cycle for a bit now (as of this writing). If you haven’t heard the story, don’t spoil it by reading some shitty recap from Business Insider; instead pick up Bad Blood, a deep dive into Theranos, Holmes, and the downfall of it all.
Essay Favorite – Klosterman’s IV
“But Ryan,” you say “essays are non-fiction.” And you’re right. But I don’t care, and this is my website. Chuck Klosterman, the author of many of my favorite books, deserves his own category. This one was better than I Wear the Black Hat and But What If We’re Wrong, both of which I had very high hopes for but failed to live up to IV.
Least Favorite – The Trial
I bought both The Trial and a large anthology of works by Franz Kakfa on the same day in 2020, determined to crack open a book by the guy who wrote that story you read in high school where the guy turns into a beetle. Turns out, I don’t really like Franz Kafka like, at all. More works about guys turning into beetles please, Franz.