Every Book I Read in 2020 (And What I Rated Them)

Grab a brew and get comfy, this could be a long one. 2020 saw me read 57 books. Not the biggest number in the world, but still something I am immensely proud of. Here’s every single book I read this year and what I rated them. There are some university books in amongst this so I’ll just stick them in at the end to make the count up to 57 even though I don’t rate them. This is in replacement of December’s reading wrap up. I read 1 book - Tinsel by Sibeal Pounder and I gave it a 4 star. It was a middle grade book about Christmas and I liked it. That’s my wrap up.

5 STAR READS

1. Leah on the Offbeat - Becky Albertalli
2. Simon vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli (Yes I read book 2 before book 1 because I am a true idiot)
3. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell
4. Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
5. The Familiars - Stacey Halls
6. The Foundling - Stacey Halls
7. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
8. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There - Lewis Carroll
9. Happily Imperfect - Stacey Solomon
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling (This was before the JK Rowling Twitter saga)
11. Wilde About the Girl - Louise Pentland
12. Wonder - R.J. Palacio
13. Sagas of Anya - Kirsten Mbawa
14. Land of the Nurogons - Aiyven Mbawa
15. Educated - Tara Westover
16. Choices Shape, Losses Break - Nia Lucas *
17. The Mum-Minder - Jacqueline Wilson
18. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
19. MumLife - Louise Pentland
20. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
21. Futures Beckon, Pasts Threaten - Nia Lucas *
22. Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging - Afua Hirsch

4 STAR READS

23. The Flatshare - Beth O’Leary
24. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
25. My Mum Tracy Beaker - Jacqueline Wilson
26. Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
27. Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
28. This is Going to Hurt - Adam Kay
29. Get a Life, Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert
30. Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future - Ashlee Vance
31. The Existence of Amy - Lana Grace Riva *
32. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
33. Wilde Women - Louise Pentland
34. One of Us is Lying - Karen McManus
35. Breaker - Annemarie Allan
36. Tinsel - Sibeal Pounder

3 STAR READS

37. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
38. Fully Functioning Human (Almost) - Melanie Murphy
39. Then She Was Gone - Lisa Jewell
40. The Arrangement - Miranda Rijks *
41. The Eve Illusion - Giovanna and Tom Fletcher
42. Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
43. Love Orange - Natasha Randall *
44. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
45. Pine - Francine Toon

2 STAR READS

46. Maresi - Maria Turtschaninoff
47. Vox - Christina Dalcher (upon reflection I should have given it a 1. Still traumatised by it)
48. Discount: A Novel - Casey Gray

1 STAR READS

49. An Abundance of Katherines - John Green
50. A Year of Marvellous Ways - Sarah Winman

UNRATED / ACADEMIC

51. Urban Regeneration in the UK: Theory and Practice - Phil Jones
52. Urban Regeneration - Peter Roberts
53. A History of Preston - David Hunt
54. The History of Preston - Alistair Hodge
55. Traditional Buildings of Britain - R.W. Brunskill
56. How Old is Your House? - Pamela Cunnington
57. Timber Framed Buildings - Richard Harris

DEBRIEF TIME!!
So there we have it. 57 books I read in 2020. Upon reflection, I was quite heavy handed on the 5 star button at the start of the year and looking back I’d move quite a few of those down. I feel like I was also overly generous on the books I gave 2 stars to, especially Vox. Maybe it was bad timing when I read that as it was at the start of the lockdown and I was anxious as hell, not sleeping due to a change in medication and that book genuinely traumatised me and I ended up flicking through the last 100 or so pages at an alarming pace. That’s what I do with any book I want to DNF - just flick through at a rate of knots. In terms of rating books, once I started to read a lot more, I got a proper appreciation for what rating I felt the books truly deserved. At the start of the year I’d only read 10 or so books the year before and I quite frankly thought every book was brilliant up until March when I read Maresi. From August onwards, that’s when I really found my way with rating books, and most of the 3 stars came in the final quarter of the year when I finally convinced myself that a 3 star rating is still good (I felt terrible giving 3 stars early in the year and I have no idea why). I’m going to try and really savour the 5 star for books I feel really deserve it in 2021 - those books that make me feel a bit lost and weepy when I’ve finished them. I have also put a little * next to the books that authors sent me to review. I want to be completely transparent with everyone! Looking back through those, I swear there were like twice that amount!

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