The Best Books of 2020 (So Far)

Though Philadelphia police officer Mickey is estranged from her sister Kacey, a heroin addict and sex worker, she tries to keep an eye on her when she patrols the streets. When Kacey goes missing and Mickey's fellow cops dismiss her disappearance, Mickey goes looking for her alone. Long Bright River is equal parts timely thriller, incredibly researched police procedural, and compassionate literary novel about sisterhood, addition, and family secrets that satisfies from start to finish.

To buy: $24; amazon.com.

In Why We Can't Sleep, an expansion of her viral O magazine essay, "The New Midlife Crisis," journalist Ada Calhoun looks at how factors like housing prices, the recession, and societal trends have led an entire generation of Gen X women (those sandwiched between Boomers and Millennials) to feel dissatisfied and stuck in their lives and careers. Interviewing a diverse group women across the country, Calhoun brings a quiet crisis to light and offers solutions for her peers. Why We Can't Sleep isn't just a book for Gen X women though–every woman will take something away from this. 

To buy: $26; amazon.com.

In Ann Napolitano's Dear Edward, a 12-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash and must put the pieces of his life back together while dealing with media fascination and overwhelming fame. Napolitano weaves Edward's devastating post-crash experience with heart-pounding chapters set during the final hours and minutes of the flight. Though there's so much tragedy and loss in this novel, there is also a lot of hope. 

To buy: $17; amazon.com.

Debut author Megan Angelo skewers social media and celebrity culture in her debut dystopian novel, Followers. In alternating chapters, we follow New York City celebrity blogger Orla in 2015 as she conspires to make her roommate Floss famous—and enjoy the perks that go along with that. In 2051, Marlow is a government-controlled celebrity who lives her life for public consumption and corporate sponsorship. How these women are connected will keep you completely enraptured from start to finish. This is sure to be one of the biggest books of the winter.

To buy: $27; amazon.com.

In this perceptive, biting debut novel that's perfect for Sally Rooney fans, readers follow an unnamed narrator over two decades of her life via conversations she has with other women about desire, relationships, sex, and motherhood. There's much to relate to and dogear in this slim book. 

To buy: $22; amazon.com.

After a drug cartel kills her husband and 15 family members, Lydia takes her young son, Luca, on the dangerous journey from Acapulco, Mexico, to the U.S. border—trailed the whole way by the head of the cartel. From the explosive first chapter to the last, Jeanine Cummins’s American Dirt unfolds at a breakneck pace to tell a stunning, heart-wrenching story.

To buy: $20; amazon.com.

Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age tackles big issues—race, class, employer-caregiver tensions—through a riveting story: Emira is confronted by a security guard who doesn’t believe that she, a black woman holding a white toddler, is babysitting. Horrified on Emira’s behalf, the toddler’s mom, Alix, a wannabe momfluencer, sets out to offer help where it isn’t wanted. So begins a tale of cringey overstepping and terrible secrets.

To buy: $17; amazon.com.

A cookbook connects two women, decades apart, in Karma Brown’s Recipe for a Perfect Wife. In 2018, Alice has left her job as a publicist and is feeling aimless in a new house when she finds a cookbook that belonged to Nellie in the 1950s. Paging through, she learns more about Nellie’s marriage, which doesn’t seem so different from her own. Switching between Alice’s and Nellie’s worlds, Brown deftly unravels their stories.

To buy: $26; amazon.com.

Friendship takes a fascinating deep dive into the societal, emotional, and health benefits of our everyday relationships. Science journalist Lydia Denworth investigates the crucible of teenage friendships, observes a social network of rhesus monkeys, and inspires readers to nurture their inner circles and reconnect with old pals.

To buy: $27; amazon.com.

Isabel Allende’s A Long Petal of the Sea is an immersive read about love and survival. The story follows Victor and Roser, who flee Spain as the Spanish Civil War ends in 1939. He was a soldier; she’s pregnant with his late brother’s baby. Slowly they fall in love and build a stable life in Santiago, Chile, only to be cast into upheaval again 34 years later, when Chile’s democracy ends with a coup.

To buy: $18; amazon.com.

Kathleen West’s Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes is a page-turning romp about competitive parenting and how easily scandals blow up online and IRL. Helicopter mom Julia is all too eager to score an invite to a private Facebook group for high school parents and pile on a teacher accused of pushing a political agenda. But soon—inevitably and hilariously—that same group comes for her.

To buy: $26; amazon.com.

After her wealthy industrialist father died, Ariana Neumann found a small box of his letters and papers, including his boyhood photo ID—printed with a name she didn’t recognize. In her evocative memoir, When Time Stopped, Neumann discovers her Jewish roots and pieces together the incredible, heartbreaking family history her father never told her.

To buy: $19; amazon.com.

Biographies of our founding fathers are mostly written by men, for men, Alexis Coe points out in You Never Forget Your First. Her cheeky, engaging biography of George Washington dispels popular myths (no, he didn’t free his slaves) and examines previous historians’ gender bias, particularly when it came to Washington’s wife and mother.

To buy: $25; amazon.com.

Clare Pooley’s heartwarming novel, The Authenticity Project, asks how we might live if we had no fear. One day, aging artist Julian jots some secrets in a notebook and leaves it for a stranger to find. Monica picks it up and is inspired to write down her own—and find Julian. As the notebook changes hands, it changes the people who reveal themselves in it.

To buy: $18; amazon.com.

On the eve of her 19th birthday in 1982, Oona watches the clock hit midnight—and confusedly comes to as her future 51-year-old self. From then on, every birthday, she randomly ping-pongs to another year of her life. Margarita Montimore’s Oona Out of Order is a touching novel that keeps readers guessing where Oona’s choices will take her.

To buy: $17; amazon.com.