Before I get in to my thoughts on Between the World and Me, this is officially the last book I finished in 2020.
That’s right, 2020 is an an end, at last. When I was reading through 2019’s Bookmas haul in the beginning of the year, I had no idea what 2020 would hold for me, for all of us. Despite that, I believe I was successful in my goal to read more in 2020 than I did in 2019. Reading nineteen books in 2020 feels like far too few and an accomplishment at the same time. One thing is certain, every book I read this year brought something new. Half of the books on this list were authors I never read before. I read two non-fiction books, a rarity for me. I started new series. Met new dragons! And expanded my horizons. I can’t wait for the adventures and viewpoints the books of 2021 will bring me. But for now, I’ll leave my 2020 reads and impressions for posterity.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Started: 17 July-ish?
Finished: 31 December 2020
I owe this book an apology. It is necessary for our time. It is eloquent, and powerful, and… it was a victim of my reading slump. It’s October 3rd, and I’m only 39 pages into this beautiful book. It deserves my attention, but my attention has been everywhere but the page because, well, *gestures broadly at the world*. I WILL finish this book… eventually.
And as it happens, before 2020 ends! The day 2020 ends, as it were. Whoops. WELL. I said I would finish it, and I did! Small victories were the ones that mattered in 2020, anyways.
This book is soaked in an experience I can never truly walk. Staged as a letter to his son, Coates writes profoundly at what it is to be Black in America. I’m not going to disagree with Toni Morrison, this is absolutely required reading.
The 2020 TBR — What I Read:
The following are the books that helped me weather the storms of 2020:
- The Institute by Stephen King
- An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
- Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
- Rosemary and Rue: An October Daye Novel by Seanan McGuire
- The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty
- Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas
- Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan
- The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
- The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin
- The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
- Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst
- Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
- The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates