The Best Books of 2020 (So Far)

Lucy is a 40-something white mother of two. Joseph is a 22-year-old Black aspiring DJ. When they meet at the London butcher shop where Joseph works, they’re caught off-guard by their feelings for each other, and nearly as baffled by their awkward courtship as their wide-eyed friends and family are. Just Like You by Nick Hornby is a sweet and funny testament to the wonderful things that happen when you allow yourself to follow your heart.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

Once I Was You is a candid, timely autobiography by Emmy Award–winning journalist and NPR anchor Maria Hinojosa. Drawing on her Mexican family’s relocation to the U.S. and her experience in media, Hinojosa tells the searing story of how our immigration policy came to be—and what it means for every single American. Intimate and unflinching, this memoir is packed with teachable moments.

To buy: $28, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Rebecca Farwell is leading a double life. In Pierson, Illinois, she’s Becky, the diligent, kind of dull town treasurer who lives alone in her family’s farmhouse. But her creative number crunching with the town’s money funds her alter ego’s obsession for acquiring art. As Reba, she’s a champagne-sipping, couture-wearing shark who’s made millions in the art scene in New York and Chicago. Inspired by a true story, Emily Gray Tedrowe’s The Talented Miss Farwell is a read-it-to-believe-it page-turner about a con artist whose luck can’t last.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, a fantasy novel by V.E. Schwab, a young woman in 18th-century France escapes an arranged marriage by making a bargain with the devil for the ultimate freedom: She’ll be immortal...but no one she meets will ever remember her. Then one day in a bookstore, after 300 years of loneliness, she meets a man who recognizes her. Everything changes, revealing just how much we need connection after all.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

This chilling, clever mystery begins where most suspense stories end: with the escape. When a woman flees the windowless shack where she’s been held captive, she says she’s Lena, who disappeared almost 14 years ago—she even has the distinctive scar to prove it. But her parents insist she’s not their missing daughter. The deliciously creepy Dear Child by Romy Hausmann is deftly crafted and keeps you guessing until the very last page.

To buy: $27, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

After her husband died, MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager found herself widowed at 40 and a single mom of two boys. In The Smallest Lights in the Universe, she passionately describes her struggle to balance the job that had always been her identity with her new challenges at home. It’s a beautifully written portrayal of life after loss—and the wonder that happens when you least expect it.

To buy: $28, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

When she entered law school, Brittany K. Barnett had plans for a career in corporate law. But one night in the library, she read about a single mom serving a life sentence for a first-time drug offense—and knew she couldn’t ignore the reminders of her own mom’s incarceration. A Knock at Midnight, the riveting story of Barnett’s tireless work, is proof that one person can transform a broken system.

To buy: $28, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom, Gifty is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Stanford whose family has been struck by tragedy: Her brother has died from a heroin overdose, and her mother is suicidal. Gifty copes by turning to science for answers, but in doing so, she finds herself drawn back to her childhood faith. Like Gyasi’s Homegoing, this novel will stay with you long after you’ve finished it.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

A failed bank robber bursts into an apartment during an open house and takes everyone hostage, but are any of the troubled strangers—now forced to get to know one another—quite who they say they are? Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People is an endlessly entertaining mood booster, with a spot-on message about showing up for others, even if you’ve just met.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, British convicts were shipped to Australia, and 25,000 of them were women. Christina Baker Kline’s The Exiles imagines the stories of two of them, along with that of an orphaned Aboriginal girl. Celebrating the bonds between women, the novel explores how lives that seem destined for pain might persevere.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In Katherine Center’s What You Wish For, school librarian Samantha Casey’s world is shaken up when the beloved principal is replaced by her former crush—now a safety-obsessed stiff. As they work together and learn about the suffering they’ve both endured, they find that even in hard times, joy is at our disposal.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Fast Girls by Elise Hooper blends fact and fiction to tell the stories of three trailblazing American women and their quest to compete in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Told in intricate detail, against the backdrop of a world on the brink of war, the novel shines a light on these long-overlooked athletes.

To buy: $16, amazon.com; $16, bookshop.org.

In Notes on a Silencing, Lacy Crawford recounts being sexually assaulted as a student at an elite New England prep school. Decades later, the school comes under investigation for its handling of such cases. Maddening and timely, this memoir reveals the cost to victims—and society at large—when powerful institutions protect their reputations, not their pupils.

To buy: $26, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In The Golden Cage by Camilla Läckberg, one of Europe’s best-selling crime novelists, Faye and Jack meet in business school, marry, have a kid, and build a billion-dollar business. But when the brash (and maybe diabolical) Faye discovers Jack’s affair, she shows how far she’ll go to get what is rightfully hers. Sexy, scandalous, and terrifying, this is the kind of suspense story you gobble up in one sitting.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

Rachel Meyer is an adventurous 30-something New Yorker who has recently moved to Mumbai with her Indian-born husband when her mother-in-law leaves her decades-long marriage…and moves in with them. Leah Franqui’s Mother Land is a charming, tender examination of how two women with deeply ingrained differences find their middle ground.

To buy: $28, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, You Exist Too Much, traces an unnamed protagonist’s unexpected journey from her home in Bethlehem to a DJ booth in Brooklyn, New York; from the streets of Lebanon to a love addiction clinic. Written in the first person with a memoir feel, this international tale sheds a unique light on what it means to find love across boundaries.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $24, bookshop.org.

In the thriller The Last Flight by Julie Clark, two women try to escape their lives by switching airplane tickets. Claire is married to the scion of a political dynasty, whose staff watches her every move. She swaps flights with Eva—but then Eva’s plane crashes. Claire, presumed dead by her family, is given a chance at a new life, and what unfolds brings everything she knows into question.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

J. Courtney Sullivan’s Friends and Strangers follows Elisabeth, who relocates from New York City to a small town with her struggling inventor husband and infant son. She hires Sam, a senior at the local women’s college, to babysit. Over the course of the school year, the two women grow close, share secrets, and ultimately betray each other.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In Empty, Susan Burton recounts how binge-eating disorder and anorexia have jeopardized her life. Despite her outward success—admission to Yale, a dream job at This American Life, a happy family—her secret made her a prisoner in her own body. After a three-decade battle, Susan finally sought help and opened up. She reveals it all in this frank, beautiful account of her mental health journey.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

All My Mother's Lovers by Ilana Masad explores how wrong we can be about those we love. After the death of her mother, Iris, Maggie returns home to discover that Iris has left five sealed envelopes for mysterious men. As Maggie embarks on a road trip to deliver the letters and cope with her grief, she finds that Iris, never comfortable with her daughter's sexuality, had a secret life all her own.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

Plus-size Instagrammer Daphne Berg has worked hard to love herself just as she is, and it's paid off with a devoted tribe of followers. But when her former best friend—the very one who humiliated her in high school—shows up with a favor to ask for her Cape Cod wedding, Daphne is forced to decide whether she's ready to forgive. Jennifer Weiner's Big Summer is an insightful page-turner about the power of old friendships.

To buy: $12, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In this unique tale, Anna Solomon interweaves the stories of three women negotiating their places in the world: Esther, a young tribeswoman in ancient Persia; Vivian, a political wife hurt by sexism in Watergate-era D.C.; and Lily, a dissatisfied modern-day stay-at-home mom. The Book of V. asks complicated questions about power, desire, and the evolution of women's roles.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Dan Mathews knew he was in for an adventure when he relocated his 78-year-old mother across the country to live with him. What he didn't know was that her often unpredictable behavior was due to an undiagnosed disorder: schizophrenia. Like Crazy is a deeply compassionate and occasionally hilarious look at what it means to care for a parent as they enter the last phase of life.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.

Imagine if Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton had broken up after law school. That's what bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld does in her novel Rodham. Weaving together real-life events and coulda-shoulda moments, Sittenfeld spins a compelling tale about women in politics, compromise, and the fateful pull that unites Bill and Hillary.

To buy: $21, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Ana, a whip-smart woman who wants to be a scholar and writer, meets and marries Jesus (yes, that Jesus) in The Book of Longings. Sue Monk Kidd skips historians’ 2,000-year-old “Did Jesus marry?” debate, imagines he did, and asks, “So what would his wife have been like?” Inserting Ana into biblical stories, Kidd crafts a surprising, absorbing narrative.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In Karin Tanabe’s A Hundred Suns, Jessie has left 1930s Paris for Hanoi so her Michelin-heir husband can join the family business. She falls in with expats who tell her about workers’ deplorable conditions on Michelin’s plantations—and indulge her with opium. While confronting the source of her wealth, Jessie must parse what’s real and what’s not.

To buy: $19, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

In This Is Big, journalist Marisa Meltzer interweaves her personal dieting history with a compelling biography of Jean Nidetch, the woman who founded Weight Watchers. As the author chronicles her own journey through the popular program, she describes how Nidetch—despite getting and staying thin—struggled at home and at work. In the end, Meltzer learns and grows in unexpected ways.

To buy: $28, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Janelle Brown’s Pretty Things is a page-turner about scammers and social media. Swindler Nina needs to score big—her mom’s medical bills are looming, and she’s still waiting on $72,000 from her last con job. She and her partner decide to target their riskiest mark yet: Vanessa, a woman from Nina’s past who is now an Instagram influencer. But there’s far more to Vanessa than what appears on her feed.

To buy: $20, amazon.com; $26, bookshop.org.

Elizabeth Wetmore’s powerful first novel, Valentine, recounts the aftermath of a brutal rape in a Texas oil town in 1976. Via shifting perspectives—including those of Gloria, the survivor, and Mary Rose, the housewife who finds her the morning after—Valentine explores the women’s connections and traces the gossip and blame that follow the crime.

To buy: $19, amazon.com; $25, bookshop.org.