Sunday Salon: Best Reads of 2020

As I have in other years, I wait until the year is truly over just in case I read a knockout book in the last few days of that year. I guess I'm always hopeful! But now that 2020 is in the rear view mirror, I have a top ten list for you. These are books I read in 2020, not necessarily books that were published in 2020 and the list could certainly change depending on the day. And while I usually can't keep it to ten, in looking back at this weird year, I find can't remember a lot of the books I read so I suspect that pandemic brain has influenced this unfairly and that many others I read are also quite worthy of being on this list but just didn't stick with me due to rotten circumstances.

The BookNAround Top Ten of 2020

Favorite of the Year:

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

And the other nine in no particular order but divided by type:

Contemporary Fiction:
A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Historical Fiction:
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
Raphael, Painter in Rome by Stephanie Storey

Thriller:
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Non-fiction, essays:
At the Pond compiled by Daunt Books

What were the best books you read this year? What did I miss that I need to add to my reading list for next year?

Sunday Salon: The Importance of Reading

With a mother like me, you'd think my children would realize how important it is to read, to read everything, and to read carefully. But like children the world around, they don't always pay attention to me. And here's the result:

Let me tell you what exactly you're looking at. When you move a boy child into college, the joke is that you hang up a flag and you're done. It's funny because it's essentially true. And my youngest is a huge flag fan so it's extra true of him. His college delayed move-in for the kids in the dorms by a month but when he finally did get to move in, the only decoration he cared about was the state of Ohio flag his girlfriend gave him. He can (and will) wax poetic on why the Ohio flag is the best state flag out there. So of course he took it from his room at home to hang in his dorm room. It took up one entire wall. But he had another wall that needed something so he decided he needed a state of North Carolina flag to hang there. I fully intended to buy and ship him one. Before I could, he had ordered one himself and sent me the above picture. In case it's hard to tell, that grey wrinkled thing at the bottom of the picture is his pillow. And it's just a standard size pillow. "My NC flag just arrived" and "It's 4x6 inches not feet" and "I'm a little upset." (By the way, I don't think he intended the humor of that last bit, a "little upset," but boy howdy did it make me howl with laughter.) When I finally talked to him, it turns out that he didn't read the description fully. Let that be a lesson to you. Reading is important. And mama told you so.

And before you ask, yes, I sent him a full sized North Carolina flag. Because I'm a good mom. He did hang the large flag but he also left up the itty bitty mini flag. Because it's also important to laugh at yourself.

Sunday Salon: The 2020 Great Group Reads List

Some people look to October for Halloween and spooky stuff. Me? I'm a coward so what I look forward to this month is the release of the Women's National Book Association Great Group Reads list. The list is always phenomenal and this year is no different. The included books are perfect for book clubs. They contain issues that we're already talking about right now and will be for a long time to come. They're well written and engaging, fiction and memoir. I've read them all and I recommend them for sure. (Full disclosure, I'm the Great Group Reads Chair so this is very much my baby although my committee chooses the books so it's not just a personal passion project.) All books can be bought through your local independent bookstore or online through Bookshop as well as from all other in person and online sources. Read one or two (or all) of these and let me know what you think.

Sunday Salon: Book Advent Calendar

Everywhere I go this year, I hear someone say that Thanksgiving was late this year. This is undoubtedly true. And for me, and presumably for those making the observation, this lateness has left them less time than usual to focus on holiday tasks. My to do list this time of year rarely varies much but somehow, it always seems insurmountable right about now. I still have a lot of gifts to buy/make/find. I have the annual Christmas letter to write; as it's the 25th year of the famous letter, I can't let it go this year although I might retire it once this version gets written. I have lots of Christmas baking and cooking to do. I make and freeze a bunch of meals for my dad (and mom) as his gift. Mom hates to cook. He's hard to buy for. And he likes my cooking. Predictable and time consuming but we're all happy with the results. Several of the stocking gifts I give (every year) are also food that I make from scratch and haven't even started assembling. I spent more than 8 hours the other day making sure that my mother's present will be under the tree. (So mom, if you're reading this--and of course you are, because you're my mom--even if the gift is terrible, pretend you love it and it's the best thing ever. Thanks!) I haven't decorated my house at all beyond throwing a wreath I bought at the grocery store up on the front door. That may be the thing that gives this year.  Or maybe I'll just go wrap scarves around the necks of the flock of plastic flamingos that showed up in our yard the night before Thanksgiving and are still there and call those my festive decorations. Surely my neighbors won't just shake their heads in disgust at my laziness, will they?

I may not be terribly on the ball this Christmas but I did add one new thing to my list this year and it's bringing me such happiness, with minimal effort, that I will probably keep it on the list in future years too. I am making a book advent calendar. I pull a Christmas/holiday themed book from my to be read stacks each day and post about it on Litsy (a book app I adore). Note I am not actually reading these books, at least I haven't yet. But it's fun to pull them and see what I might read in the coming weeks if I get on top of the to dos, or even if I don't and need a complete break from reality but still want to wallow in the season like I'm on track. It's interesting to see how many of the books are romances or mysteries. Maybe this is true because between them they capture the two most common emotions around the holidays: heartwarming and murderous. It probably tells you a lot about my state of mind that I am leaning more towards murderous right now!

So far my book advent calendar has these entries:

Day 1: The Last Noel by Michael Malone

Day 2: A Noel Killing by M.L. Longworth

Day 3: The Mistletoe Matchmaker by Felicity Hayes McCoy

Day 4: Mutts and Mistletoe by Natalie Cox

Day 5: Tinsel by Hank Stuever

Day 6: The Adults by Caroline Hulse

Day 7: Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders

Day 8: Christmas at the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean

I have a big stack of others to add to my calendar as the days go by. Are you reading things for the holidays? the winter (or if you're in the southern hemisphere, summer) season? Do you have any books I definitely need to put in my list?

Sunday Salon: Does Your Book Club Need Help Choosing It's Next Read?

Do you belong to a book club? If you do, you're probably always looking for good books to read and discuss with them, right? I mean, there are books out there that are good fun to read but that you can't talk about beyond saying, "It was fun, right?" and "I liked it. Did you?" Now if your book club is really just an excuse to get together and drink wine and you only justify it by calling it a book club, maybe that's an okay thing for you. But if you go to book club because you like to read and want to talk about the books you've read with other people, these books aren't going to be the best option for you.

So how do you choose your next book? There are a lot of different ways to find recommendations. You can browse in your local independent bookstore and see what the booksellers recommend. You can go to your local big box store and look on the front tables. (Did you know those front table placements are, in many cases, paid for?) You can listen to the latest celebrity to start a book club. And less and less frequently, you can read the arts section of the newspaper or listen to your local NPR station. All of these are perfectly fine ways to choose a book. But what if you want to read something that's wonderful and perhaps a little out of the mainstream? What if you was different? But you still want a book that is well written, addresses timely issues, and keeps your group talking about it long after the first glass of wine is finished. If that's what you want, have I got a list for you! The Women's National Book Association puts out the Great Group Reads list for National Reading Group Month and it has something for everyone on it. It's fiction and memoir, small press and large. It's got own voices and issues we're all talking about right now. It's a great list, chosen by readers who know book clubs and know books (and I'm one of them). I think you'll be intrigued by the choices and I'd love to hear your thoughts on any you've read.

The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Loewenstein

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

Haben by Haben Girma

The Honey Bus by Meredith May

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland

Love You Hard by Abby Maslin

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner

No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel

Retablos by Octavio Solis

Southernmost by Silas House

Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew

Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen

The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs

Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones

Sunday Salon: My annual summer reading list

Since tomorrow marks the unofficial start of summer, it's time for me to put together my annual summer reading list again. Go ahead and weigh in if you've read any of these or if they are on your own summer reading list. And by all means, feel free to add to my list if I've missed a great one. I never get through the entire list and I do end up reading things that aren't on this original list so it's always interesting to see what the final product ends up looking like.

Southernmost by Silas House
The Summer Country by Lauren Willig
The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore
The Great Unexpected by Dan Mooney
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Vacationland by Sarah Stonich
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
The Accidentals by Minrose Gwin
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
The Chocolate Maker’s Wife by Karen Brooks
The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul
Death of a Rainmaker by Laurie Lowenstein
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
An Afterlife by Frances Bartkowski
Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman
Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom
Tacoma Stories by Richard Wiley
Broken Wing by David Budbill
The Dishwasher by Stephane Larue
Man with a Seagull on His Head by Harriet Paige
In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow
The Rapture Index by Molly Reid
River People by Margaret Lukas
Retablos by Octavio Solis
Wait It Gets Worse by Lydia Slaby
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
No Good Asking by Fran Kimmel
Trolls by Stefan Spjut
Being Various edited by Lucy Caldwell
Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain
The Paper Wasp by Lauren Acampora
The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero
The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Unfurled by Michelle Bailat-Jones
The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr by Susan Holloway Scott
Tomorrow’s Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew
The Abolitionist’s Daughter by Diane C. McPhail
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
Brown White Black by Nishta J. Mehra
Walking to the End of the World by Beth Jusino
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina
The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Love You Hard by Abby Maslin
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
The Last Ocean by Nicci Gerrard
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
Sugar Land by Tammy Lynne Stoner
We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels
The Lake on Fire by Rosellen Brown
Questions I Am Asked About the Holocaust by Hedi Fried
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobb
Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti
The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt by Andrea Bobotis
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson
Bedside Manners by Heather Frimmer
Mother India by Tova Reich
Laurentian Divide by Sarah Stonich
A Catalogue of Small Pains by Meghan L. Dowling
A Dream and a Chisel by Angela Gregory and Nancy L. Penrose
Nima by Adam Popescu
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
The Ticking Heart by Andrew Kaufman
Congratulations! Who Are You Again by Harrison Scott Key
The Unbreakables by Lisa Barr
All Manner of Things by Susie Finkbeiner

And of course, I'd like to finish all the books I have started and set aside but I'll consider them bonuses since I have so many others on the list above that I really do need to read.