Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To

This week's topic for Top Ten Tuesday is "Books I Meant to Read In 2020 but Didn’t Get To." I added dozens and dozens of books to my TBR shelf last year, but here are a few that I'm extra anxious to read:

First, there are two books I still need to finish reading from last year: Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. They are both incredible books: enlightening, educational, shocking, horrifying and so important. But I had to get Stamped back to the library before finishing, and Randy and I are working through Saad's book together. Whenever we drive an hour or more to go hiking, we read a chapter of the book and discuss it. Sometimes our adult kids have been with us, and that's made for some excellent discussions.

Looking back at the books I added last year, these are the 10 that really jumped out at me:

Nonfiction

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein: "Essential… Rothstein persuasively debunks many contemporary myths about racial discrimination…. Only when Americans learn a common―and accurate―history of our nation’s racial divisions, he contends, will we then be able to consider steps to fulfill our legal and moral obligations. For the rest of us, still trying to work past 40 years of misinformation, there might not be a better place to start than Rothstein’s book." - Rachel M. Cohen, Slate

His Other Life: Searching for My Father, His First Wife, and Tennessee Williams by Melanie McCabe: "When Melanie McCabe's father died in 1973, she learned a startling truth about his life before he settled into a quiet suburban existence. Terrence McCabe had been married before; his first wife, Hazel, was Tennessee Williams' childhood sweetheart; and Williams wrote characters based on both of them, and their marriage, into his plays. As an adult, Melanie set off to discover the real story behind her father's former life, enlisting help from librarians, amateur genealogists, and Tennessee Williams' own writings to fill in the blanks. At the center of the investigation is the perplexing death of Hazel, who died at age 38 while living in Mexico City. Was it suicide? Was it an accident? And who was the unknown man with her when she died? Part memoir, part love story, part gripping mystery... "

A Promised Land by Barack Obama: I gave this to Randy for Christmas, and he's loving it.  Michelle Obama's Becoming was one of my favorite books last year, and I know President Obama's will be amazing, too!

A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper. This is my book club pick for this coming year: "The moving true story of a group of young men growing up on Chicago's West side who form the first all-black high school rowing team in the nation, and in doing so not only transform a sport, but their lives." I'm looking forward to the book and the movie!

Fiction

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: "Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed."

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: "A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup."

Woman 99 by Greer Macallister: "A vivid historical thriller about a young woman whose quest to free her sister from an infamous insane asylum risks her sanity, her safety, and her life." (I was excited to see this one is free with Kindle Unlimited, so it's on my Kindle now.)

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett: Going to Anne Patchett's independent bookstore, Parnassus Books, with my daughter and son-in-law was one of the last outings I had last year, back when "coronavirus" was a distant thing in faraway China....

My girl at Parnassus Books, when COVID was not part of our daily vocab

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins: “American Dirt is a literary novel with nuanced character development and arresting language; yet, its narrative hurtles forward with the intensity of a suspense tale. Its most profound achievement, though, is something I never could’ve been told…American Dirt is the novel that, for me, nails what it’s like to live in this age of anxiety, where it feels like anything can happen, at any moment.” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air). Also, Cummins is my maiden name, so I feel particularly drawn to this one. ;)

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I think I'm about #435 on the waiting list at the library for this one, so clearly there is a reason it's on the NYT Top 20 list. Like everyone else I loved A Man Called Ove, so I'll wait patiently for my turn to read Backman's newest!

The Guest List by Lucy Foley. "The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body" ... This one sounds deliciously suspenseful and gets great reviews. I've got a while to wait: I'm #68 on the library's waiting list.

What's on your list? Have you read any of these?

Linked up with Top Ten Tuesday at Artsy Reader Girl