July 7, 2020

everything else: cheat day

dear internet,

i said i'd never do this, but here i am! as a result of a complex combination of boredom, peer pressure, and probably exactly two people asking me to do this, here is my list of books i've enjoyed in the first half of 2020. these aren't all 2020 releases, nor do they purport to be a 'best of', but i loved them all in different ways!

• ghost wall by sarah moss: i have been known to say, frequently, that there's nothing hotter than a 30-minute episode or a 90-minute film, and the same is true of this slim, disquieting novel that i read early this year and still think about often.
   
• such a fun age by kiley reid: this was both very, very good and more emotional than i was expecting, given the way it gets spoken about as a light, sparkly read. it is ... not that, but it is layered and wonderful and often very funny.
   
• scratched by elizabeth tallent: this is not a book i would recommend easily, because it is solipsistic and pretentious and very stream-of-consciousness, but i also loved it very, very much. it's a memoir of the author's struggles with perfectionism, and felt both very real and very voyeuristically interesting to read.
   
• square haunting by francesca wade: excellent title. excellent book! looks at the lives of five women who lived, at different times, at the same address in bloomsbury. the sections about the women you're least likely to have heard of are the longest, which i appreciate.
   
• writers & lovers by lily king: once in a while you come across a book that does nothing out of the ordinary—trades, in fact, in a bingo card of tropes of the genre—but does it so competently and enjoyably you don't even mind. this is that book!
   
• the dark is rising sequence by susan cooper: alongside tamora pierce, the biggest gaps in my children's lit knowledge that i remedied this year. the first book is spectacular, chilling, slightly incomprehensible; the rest are varying. the last chapter of the last book made me cry and cry.
   
• the likeness, faithful place and the secret place by tana french: everything you've heard is true. tana french is incredible, and i've been hesitating to read the rest because then i won't have any more and i will be bereft.
   
• the need by helen phillips: [hustlers voice] motherhood is a mental illness
   
• gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir: apparently the author is problematic, which i am pointing out in case this affects your decision to read the book, but i did not know this before i read the book and, after a slow initial section, i was so sucked into it that i read it in a day, immediately tried to buy the sequel, and was red-hot furious to find out it hasn't been released yet. so.
   
• the vanishing half by brit bennett: i am genuinely overjoyed when a book is hyped for deserving reasons. this was just so, so beautiful in every way, and such an easy book to recommend to anyone you meet. it's just that good.
   
• luster by raven leilani: i adored this! again, it hit many Novel About The Millennial Woman bingos, but it is also so well-written and funny, slightly off-kilter, and somehow constantly surprising even when you know there's only one way the story can go. also tangentially belongs to my favourite genre, Rich People Problems.
   
• nothing to see here by kevin wilson: i'm not sure how exactly to describe this strange book, but i loved it and think you, my little tinyletter community, will love it too. this is also the token male representation on this list.
   
• the midnight lie by marie rutkoski: things about this book that are indisputably hot: the fact that it's the first book of a series but doesn't end on a painful cliffhanger. satisfying worldbuilding. a scene involving a party and a Very Fancy Dress that made me scream. longing, pining, wanting, etc.

if you've made it this far, i promise i've learnt how to navigate replies on this thing, so please, please tell me your fave books you've read this year!

love,
t