One of my goals for this year was to read more and due to certain world events (namely multiple lockdowns) I have had plenty of time to do just that! So here is a round up of all the books I read in 2020.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton
Sara Collins
Frannie Langton, a servant and former slave, stands accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. The testimonies against Frannie are damning but she claims that she can’t remember what happened that evening, even if it could save her life. She doesn’t know how she came to be covered in the victims’ blood. But she does have a tale to tell. The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic from a childhood on a Jamaican plantation and her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, through the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
I picked this one up because of the murder mystery element, but I found I forgot about the murder as the book took a different turn and was more about the struggles of a mixed race girl growing up in Jamaica and as a servant in a big fancy Georgian home. This is a good read if you are a fan of historical fiction and also enjoy an element of mystery.
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Oyinkan Braithwaite
When Korede is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she immediately knows what’s expected of her. This’ll be the third boyfriend Ayoola’s dispatched in, quote, ‘self-defence’ and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede’s long been in love with him, and isn’t prepared to see him meet the same fate as the three before him: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other.
I devoured My Sister, the Serial Killer in 3 days (which for me is extremely unusual!) and I would happily read it again and again. The short chapters make it feel as though you are reading really fast, and also mean it is very easy to say ‘I’ll just read one more’ particularly as I found the story so compelling! After reading this book I felt much more motivated to read and also had a sense of accomplishment for having read a book in such a short space of time.
I Have Sinned
Caimh McDonnell
I Have Sinned is book two in the McGarry Stateside series, a continuation of the Dublin Trilogy which also featured Bunny McGarry. Bunny McGarry (what a fantastically ridiculous name!) is a man on a mission. He left behind his life in Ireland to go to New York to find the woman he loves, who happens to have a lot of very dangerous people looking for her. The good news is that they don’t know where she is, the bad news is that Bunny doesn’t either and the only people that do are a rogue order of nuns called The Sisters of the Saint who are proving very difficult to find. Bunny’s one clue is a priest he thinks might know something, but Father Gabriel de Marcos isn’t willing to play ball. Thing is, priests don’t typically have assassins sent after them. Bunny has no choice but to save Gabriel from the demons that are on his tail.
As I had already read the previous books in this series, this one was a no brainer. Although frustratingly only available on Amazon, I think due to the author not being that well known, so I couldn’t find any of his books in my usual high street book shops. I would recommend this to you if you enjoy a crime thriller but want something a bit more light hearted – this genuinely did make me laugh out loud!
Where the Crawdads Sing
Delia Owens
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted the quiet fishing village of Barkley Cove. Kya Clark is considered unfit for polite society, living on the marsh barefoot and wild. In late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, suspicion immediately falls on the weird girl from the marsh. But Kya is not what they say. With just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.
I think almost every one I know has read (or tried to read) Where the Crawdads Sing at some point in 2020. I didn’t feel like I really got into this one until about half way through, but once I got there I was hooked! The poetic prose of the first half are pretty hard to slog through, but a friend was reading it at the same time as me and was a bit ahead so kept encouraging me to stick with it and I am so glad she did because this is a great book!
Blood and Sugar
Laura Shepherd-Robinson
June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock – horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark. Days later, Captain Harry Corsham – a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career – is visited by the sister of an old friend. Her brother, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he’s missing . To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend’s investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy that he had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family’s happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him. And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford.
Can you tell I like murder mysteries? I wasn’t expecting to like Blood and Sugar as much as I did, as normally historical fiction isn’t really my thing but I LOVED it! Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s next book is out in early 2021 and it is already on my to read list. If you are a murder mystery lover like me this is definitely the book for you!
VOX
Christina Dalcher
Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter. On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her. Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
Whilst I would recommend this book to other people, and the premise is really interesting, I don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been… Most of the book was setting the scene for the last few chapters where all the action happened. An interesting and thought-provoking read but definitely not one I will be reaching for again. After hearing such good things, VOX left me feeling a bit… meh.
Normal People
Sally Rooney
At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school soccer team while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her housekeeping job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers – one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Another book that everyone seems to have read, and it’s easy to see why. I read Normal People over one of the bank holiday weekends and I just couldn’t put it down. Such a wonderful read! I haven’t yet watched the BBC adaptation that came out this year as often these things don’t live up to the books, but it is on the list. I don’t often cry at books but this almost got me, it is quite a tragic tale.
Dark Sacred Night
Micheal Connelly
Renée Ballard is working the night beat again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out, but then checks into the case herself and it brings a deep tug of empathy and anger. Bosch is investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy and finally bring her killer to justice.
I love the Bosch TV series on Amazon and have since started reading the books. They don’t disappoint! Perfect if you love a crime thriller or police drama. Dark Sacred Night is the second in the Renée Ballard series and the 21st in the Harry Bosch series but you don’t need to have read the previous books to be able to follow the story. I know I can pick up any book by Micheal Connelly and that I will enjoy reading it – making them the perfect books for when I have hit a bit of a reading slump.
Queenie
Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
I could have read about Queenie’s life forever and ever! Queenie was on a lot of reading lists this year that were being shared at the time of the Black Lives Matter protests as an essential read to learn more about Black British culture in a way that is rarely represented in mainstream fiction. Whilst that is true I also think Queenie is a very relatable character for any woman in her early 20’s and would recommend this book to everyone!
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
Joanna Cannon
England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing and the Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren’t convinced. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, the girls decide to take matters into their own hands. Inspired by the local vicar, they go looking for God—they believe that if they find Him they might also find Mrs. Creasy and bring her home. Grace and Tilly go door to door in search of clues. The cul-de-sac starts to give up its secrets, and the amateur detectives uncover much more than ever imagined. As they try to make sense of what they’ve seen and heard, a complicated history of deception begins to emerge. Everyone on the Avenue has something to hide, a reason for not fitting in. In the suffocating heat of the summer, the ability to guard these differences becomes impossible. Along with the parched lawns and the melting pavement, the lives of all the neighbors begin to unravel.
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep was given to me as a gift and I really enjoyed it! It’s not the sort of thing I would normally read but this was gorgeous! I particularly liked how most of the book is told from the perspective of an 11 year old, which put a different spin on the story. I don’t feel this is a particularly well known book as most people I talk to about it haven’t come across it, but it should be. Again I would recommend this to everyone!
The Final Game
Caimh McDonnell
Dorothy Graham is dead. This is hugely inconvenient, not least for her. Luckily, she has planned for this eventuality. Now, if any of her truly dreadful family want to get their hands on her money, they will have to do so via a fiendishly difficult and frankly bizarre competition of Dorothy’s devising. Just because you’re dead, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a last laugh at the expense of people who made your life miserable. Paul Mulchrone, to his unending credit, is neither related to Dorothy nor happy that she is dead. What he is, however, is a contestant in this competition whether he likes it or not, which he definitely doesn’t. He and his girlfriend, the formidable Brigit, are supposed to be running MCM Investigations, a detective agency. Instead, they have to go into battle against Dorothy’s bloodsucking relatives. As if that wasn’t enough, they get hired by the aforementioned dead woman to find out who killed her.
Another cracker from Caimh McDonnell. I find his books so easy to read and so enjoyable. The Final Game follows on from the Dublin Trilogy and is just as amusing. Although I would say that this is slightly more ridiculous that the McGarry Stateside series, it’s still a book I would recommend to crime fiction lovers.
So there you have it, all the books I read in 2020. If you haven’t read any of these I hope this offers you some inspiration for your next book and if you have read them what did you think? Maybe you hated a book I loved! What was the best book you read this year?
Disclaimer – all book synopses taken and adapted from GoodReads, all photography is my own unless otherwise specified.
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