 Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about my favorite books that I read in 2020. So these didn't necessarily come out in 2020, some of them did. These are just the books from the books that I read in 2020. My top 10. We're going to go in ascending order of greatness. So we're going to go from worst to best, but obviously these are all favorites. So none of them are bad. They're all great books in my opinion. The rankings are not really set. Like I had to come up with some kind of order. Some of them I mean, I don't necessarily know for sure that I would they could be interchangeable. They're all my top 10. Really the only though the only one that's like for sure for sure number one and is not interchangeable with anything else is my number one. So everything else like is like really solid and it was really tough to kind of rank them. So don't go by my ranking too much. All right. So 10th best in my opinion is Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reed. I can't decide if I like this better than Seven Husbands of Evil in Hugo. I might. Part of the charm of it is the audiobook which is read by multiple narrators. So the what the story is about is about this fictional rock band that at the point the peak of its success supposedly it broke up. And so now in the present day supposedly someone is interviewing all the members of this band and asking them how they came together and how they ultimately broke up. So it's actually an excellent format for a TV show or movie and I do believe it is being adapted because it really needs to be. But the audiobook of it is almost like an adaptation of it because you've got different narrators being the voices of each of these band members being interviewed. So it has this kind of feeling of like a PBS special which maybe that doesn't sound fun. I'm a nerd. So that sounds great. And it kind of reminded me a little bit of almost famous the movie. It really feels like a real rock band. You're like it's kind of hard to believe at times that this wasn't a real rock band. And when they talk about these iconic moments that everyone remembers and you know everybody knew that album cover and how everyone reacted to that. It's it's really really excellent and it really feels real and the characters you really they're not they're definitely not likeable characters or rock stars. So but they're really compelling and the story is really engrossing and and so I did like I wept so hard reading Seven Husbands. I just teared up a little bit with this one. I don't know if that makes one better than the other but like it was emotional but not as emotional as Seven Husbands. Absolutely excellent and highly highly recommend you experience it as an audiobook. My ninth best was Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. I think I would like to have put royal assassin on here but I haven't finished that yet as of the filming of this video. I'm not confident that I will finish it before the end of 2020. So I do think royal assassin is better than the first book the Assassin's Apprentice. However again because I haven't finished the other one I couldn't put it on here. So really Assassin's Apprentice is on is on here as like a police holder for royal assassin. Am I allowed to do that? Of course I am. It's my DNA. I can do what the fuck I want. So yeah I've just been I'm falling in love with Robin Hobb's writing and with The Farsier Trilogy I absolutely see why people love Hobb so much. The first book is really charming and really cozy and absolutely the fantasy that I imagine I'm reading whenever I imagine myself curling up with a blanket and a cup of tea when it's dreary outside. Like The Farsier Trilogy is basically it's it's the thing that I always was imagining and didn't know I was imagining. It's such a cozy engrossing yet adventure filled and heartbreak filled and character driven and excellent story that you just kind of melt into and it's so good. My eighth best book is a recent read and that is Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I was kind of blown away by this book. I really feel like oh I should have mentioned this in the beginning of the video. Sorry I just thought of it. I did not put any rereads on this list because I feel like that's if not cheating my I'm rereading a book it's most likely because I love it. So I just didn't think it was fair I guess to put a reread on this list because is it the best 2020 is really just a great book that I decided to re-experience 2020. Anyway so nothing on here will be a reread should have said that in the beginning. We're all caught up. So yeah Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood. I was kind of staggered by the character work she did because Alias Grace is actually based on true story. I do a full review on my channel for the book as well as a discussion of how it compares to the adaptation. So it's clear that Margaret Atwood did a lot of research into the real events that inspired the story and about who Grace Marx was and about whether what there is known and what we could use to base our conclusions about whether or not she really did if she really was complacent in the murder that she was imprisoned for. So I just I think she did an excellent job of weaving fact with fiction and while keeping the reader more or less keeping that line I guess pretty fairly clear for the reader which parts she is fictionalizing which parts are factual and the her portrayal of Grace Marx was so complex and so rich and so layered intricate and kind of haunting and chilling at times but also really feminist and it was just a really amazing book that I feel like I'm gonna come back to again and again and really pick apart. It's so good. Next on my list is Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did even though I picked it up because I heard so many positive things about it from pretty much everyone that had read it. I picked it up because it was either for free or like 99 cents on Kindle in July which was you know independent day month. I was like yeah that's a good one for now. This is the season for zombies in the Civil War. I hate zombies really more than anything more than any other kind of like supernatural spooky monster horror thing. So that's another reason I didn't really want to read it but something about putting a zombies in historical context makes it palatable to me so I really like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and this kind of gave me the it's entirely different and it's a lot more serious about kind of thinking about how zombies would affect historical landscape but it kind of gave me those vibes which to me is a positive thing. I feel like Galler did a really good job of sort of playing out the thought exercise of how zombies would have affected the Civil War, would have affected Civil War-era society. How zombies would actually like the mechanics and logistics and anatomy of the zombie and the main character she's independent in a way that is also believable for her circumstances and time period. I hate anachronistically feminist characters where it feels like their 20th century character that was plucked off of like a me-to-march and just sent back to wear a corset and I'm like this just does not fit. It is not believable that a person would behave and think this way back then because you are affected by the environment that you were nurtured in and they just simply would not think this way no matter how independent thinking and feminists they are they just they wouldn't even have the vernacular for it. So I think she did a really good job giving us a feminist character that felt believable for this imagined time and circumstance. I really really enjoyed it. I had hoped to read the sequel to it immediately thereafter I didn't get around to it but I do definitely intend to read the sequel which the name of escapes me. I do highly recommend Dread Nation and I expect to love the second one. I've heard positive things about that as well. Next on my list is Southern Book Club's Guide to Slimming Vampires by Grady Hendricks. I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. And again it's it's like horror type stuff which is not really my jam usually. Yeah I heard mainly positive things but a few people criticized it before I picked it up so I went into it sort of with tempered expectations and I was shocked by how much I loved it. In the first place the style of Grady Hendricks prose is so easy to chew through. I found myself just lying through pages and pages and pages in no time. His writing style something about it is just so digestible so it goes down real smooth. The story itself less smooth very graphic and horrific so definitely check out content warnings if you're worried about that. It is very graphic very like potentially triggering depending on what your triggers are. Sexual assault, violence, child abuse, you know physical harm, body horror you name it is in there. But I think it is also charmingly darkly comedic and feminist and I really really enjoyed it. And I felt myself raging at the frustrations that the women are feeling in this 90s kind of housewife setup where they are not taken seriously and where they are gaslit and I just oh I felt myself like absolutely raging but like in a good way because he was portraying it in a realistic believable and frustratingly so away where I was like oh so and I was kind of low key shocked that a man wrote it because he really nailed it on the whole like feminist frustration and rage and I was like good job sir that is what it's like to be a lady well done. So I absolutely recommend it as just like it's a really good you know horror black comedy and it's also really feminist and satisfying on that level as well so it was just an A plus read. Next time this is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah this is a book that I intended to read when it came out and then just didn't get around to it. I finally did read it and oh boy am I glad I did. It was so good and I do highly recommend the audiobook it's read by Trevor Noah and since it's a memoir of his experiences growing up in apartheid South Africa it lends it that certain something extra to hear him tell it because it's his story they're his memories so it's not a narrator dramatizing it it's basically like having Trevor in the room telling you about his life so I recommend it but yeah basically I it's it wasn't anything I'm a fan of Trevor Noah so vaguely I was aware that he grew up in South Africa during apartheid I knew that he was half black and half white I'd heard him use the phrase Born a Crime in his stand-up comedy because you know technically whites and blacks couldn't mix and breed according to apartheid rules and law so that his very existence was not supposed to be allowed so his existence was a crime so I knew that I just there was just so much nuance and so many humorous and incredible and harrowing anecdotes that he had and I I knew that his mother had to have been a pretty formidable woman to raise a a son who was half white during apartheid just knowing that fact about her I expected a very strong and independent and willful individual but I just had no concept of just how incredible a human being his mother is and I said it still is she's still alive I had this incredible newfound respect for his mother and for him as well I mean what he went through it's kind of it's kind of crazy where he's able to ascend to considering his beginnings it's quite a hero's journey except it's real life but I feel like if somebody fictionalized a book like this you'd be like oh that's so unbelievable but truth is often strange in that fiction and he tells it in such a charming and nonchalant way that is just a joy to listen to a joy to hear a joy to experience because he doesn't tell it in a way that feels like you're being lectured or you're being like it's a pity party he's like expecting your sympathy he tells it in a way where it's these are incredibly amusing anecdotes the sad ones and the funny ones you just want to hear more and I was so upset the book is actually fairly short and I was surprised and upset when it ended I was like no I want more please the book is an absolute treat next up I have the fifth season by N.K. Jemisin this is a book that I had intended to read for a very long time and I finally finally picked it up and I had been putting it off for so long because you know even though I'd heard it was fantastic and I expected it to be fantastic I kept hearing from everybody that it was so hard to read that it just is it's a chore to get into because of the second person style narration and so it always just seemed like a huge commitment and a really massive project to actually pick it up and read it and it always sounded like too much effort but I did finally pick it up and I did not find the writing style at all to be difficult to get into I started reading it because I grabbed a bunch of books on my shelf and was gonna try a chapter until of each until I found one that I was like vibing with and it was the first one that I picked up and I immediately vibed with it I feel like her writing style is really easy to sink into and really compelling and really visceral and it's it's sort of this bare bones style that is really really powerful I don't really know how else to say it it just it's because it's so bare bones that it almost feels like it lacks cushioning and is there's the the blows are full force for that reason she it's a really dark and feminist and harrowing portrait that she paints of I believe a future earth because it's sort of science fiction fantasy so there's magic I guess although the way that it's told it's is it magic is it is it science is it what is it is it evolution the the nature of the story telling I did not find to be an ordeal at all the story itself is kind of an ordeal because again the it is a harrowing landscape and the characters experiences are intense and I would warn people picking it up for triggers because there is sexual assault there is child murder there is I mean there's a lot of dark things in it so it isn't by no means a light read but I do think it's an easy read in so far as my ability to like get through it I feel like her writing style is compelling and it keeps you reading and keeps you engaged and is immediately engrossing for me anyway and it's one of the most original things that I've ever read it's so entirely unique that I'm absolutely gobsmacked by it and I wish people hadn't sort of scared me off of it I wish I'd read it sooner although I guess I mean I've read it now so it doesn't matter that I didn't read it sooner but I do feel like it does it a disservice the way people discuss it as being so difficult it's it's really not I'd say pick it up it's not hard to read the next book on my list is Between the World and Me by Tanahasi Coates this is another book that is easy to read and hard hard hard to get through this is a really short book and it is a sort of memoir style narrative that is framed as a letter from Tanahasi Coates to his son where in which he's sort of describing the the trials of being a black man in America as a sort of cautionary tale to help prepare his son for the world that he'll face as a black man in America and it is somewhat hopeful uh the suggestion that perhaps these things will not affect his son because one to be forewarned is forearmed but also that the world is changing hopefully for the better however again the way Tanahasi Coates writes it doesn't sound especially hopeful about the world changing because changing the way humans behave is more difficult than a few PSAs the way he tells it is beautiful and compelling and for that reason it's easy to read because Tanahasi Coates prose is really excellent it's easy to sink into it's easy to get into the flow of it he tells it well i found myself devouring it page after page after page however the content is again harrowing so for that reason it's not an easy read because it is heartbreaking to read but he's experienced and i did there was a moment where i sort of like get let out this guttural sob because the way he tells it is kind of it's entirely different the style of the prose from NK Jemisin but similarly my reaction to it was sort of this visceral like it doesn't pull its punches there's nothing to cushion the blow there's no artful poetry to kind of make it all kind of beautifully sad it's just hardcore just like hits you like punch to the throat sad and i just like for a second couldn't deal with it i absolutely recommend it it is blurb by tony morrison the blurb says this is required reading i absolutely agree that it is i think it honestly should be required reading in school in america at the very least it absolutely it's really short so there's honestly no excuse just fucking read it all right we're down to my top two my second best book of the year was dark age by pierce brown which i had been intending to read since it came out however i was determined to finish my reread of the red rising books uh all the red rising books before picking up dark age so that it'll be fresh in my brain my reread took a little longer than expected but i did complete my reread and then i did finally pick up dark age and boy oh boy oh boy dark age is a hell of a ride i keep saying that pierce brown's writing keeps getting better and better i thought that iron gold was his best writing to date and now dark age has dethroned iron gold and is better than iron gold it's uh people fellow fans fellow howlers had prepared me for the quintessentially pierce brown punch to the gut in terms of you know character deaths and tragic moments whatever so i was expecting to have my heart ripped out that characters would probably die or get horribly injured or tragic things would happen to part them or whatever i was expecting that i went in emotionally prepared and armored for that what i did not expect and no one had prepared me for was how banana cuckoo bonkers like crazy dark ages he was introducing things to the narrative and to the world that i didn't know was an option it was just completely insane and it wasn't insane where i was just like well that's just ridiculous and i can't even take the serious anymore like i was still taking it seriously but it was so bizarre that i was i like didn't know how to react to it i was like what the fuck is happening what what so that i was not prepared for um talk about changing the paradigm which is pierce brown's favorite expression it's a wowza i yep game changer massive massive game changer again did not know half the things in that book were an option it's just insane good insane compelling insane dark as fuck insane it was a a nuts book that i wow wow wow wow wow i highly recommend it but jesus fucking christ and now for my favorite book of the year which should come as no surprise to people who have followed me for a while the trouble with peace by joe abercrombie i mean it's joe abercrombie it's the first law it's the age of madness i already said in my review that the trouble with peace dethroned a little hatred and a little hatred had dethroned best year of cold as my favorite book in the first law universe it is the best one in the first law so far it's it's it's phenomenal it's amazing it's i just i mean i have a full non-spoiler review and a spoilery gush on my channel so check those out if you're interested in my full lengthy gushy thoughts it's it's that's also it's really hard to talk about because it's the second book in a series that is a sequel series to like his other series in this universe so like it's really hard to talk about it in any way that makes sense to anybody that hasn't read it all i have just all i can really say is that abercrombie's already incredibly amazing character work that he's brought to the table throughout his books keeps getting better like i didn't think it could get better but it does get better hid the ways that he interweaves plots is more intricate and more surprising and it's it's so good i just i don't it's really hard to be articulate about something that i love so much i fucking love it cannot wait for the third book in the age of madness i am i'm prepared to be blown away and i'm prepared now now i'm expecting the third book to be even better so the bar is quite high sir and i expect you to to exceed my expectations yep so that is it for my top 10 books of 2020 let me know comments down below if you've read any of the books that are my top 10 if you agree with me that they are fantastic or you hated them or whatever you want to let me know i post videos on saturdays other random times as well but definitely saturdays so like and subscribe and see you when i see you bye