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2020 book and media round-up
Dec. 31st, 2020 06:57 pmOne thing I have to say for 2020, it left me plenty of time and urge to read, to listen to music, and get lost in other worlds. I beat my own goal of 100 and last year's record of 106 with a total of 117 books read this year, and have kept up my focus on POC and LGBTQIA+ authors and stories. GoodReads is helping me focus and keep track, and I've joined a friend's book club for the upcoming year, since their reading list is not a set list of books but a theme, letting you choose what you want to read. My reading goal for 2021 is to reduce my 3+ shelves of TBR books into something a bit more manageable - let's say 2 shelves? Let's see how well I manage.
(update: I just counted. There are 65 fiction and 34 non-fiction books physically on the shelves here, waiting to be read. That is a terrifying 99 books. Yep, definitely need to work my way through some of those...)
2020 READING RECAP
117 books total
95 fiction
21 non-fiction
9 manga/graphic novels
2 in French
33 by POC and/or LGBTQI2A+ authors
This year's favorites were:
* The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab - I waited months to get my hands on this book. While I loved the "A Darker Shade of Magic" trilogy, I was underwhelmed by the "Vicious" books, so I held off buying this in hardcover. That meant that I finished the book this afternoon, scraping in right before the deadline for this year. This is probably the best thing I read this year, bringing me back to my love of "The Starless Sea" and "Life After Life". A girl that no one remembers, a boy who feels too much, and a god you should not pray to after dark... Just magical.
* The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - a masterfully woven tale of two sisters and the many, many ways to navigate "passing" and invisible borders.
* La fille dans l'écran by Lou Lubie and Manon Desveaux - this graphic novel caught me by surprise. It was recommended to me by a friend who is obsessed with comics and graphic novels of all kinds, and it did not disappointed. Two women who meet by chance online and who become increasingly tangled together, the characters are drawn and written by two seperate artists, creating a unique canvas of visual and storytelling imagery. The story is marvelous but it is the art that pushes this one into the best of the best category.
* Clearing the Plains: Disease, the Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk - this book was hard. It was so difficult to absorb the history untold, the damage done, and the echoing repercussions of these policies decades and centuries later. It was difficult going but everyone should read this book. Ignorance is a luxury.
* Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - urban fantasy with a distinct Native American flair, it takes all the best things about the genre and creates something new, something rich and interesting and addictive. I'm anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
* L'ami retrouvé by Fred Uhlman - this novella gets an honorable mention, not strictly Top 5 but firmly a contender. Despite the looming backdrop of the rise of Hitler in Germany and the conflicts between Jews and Nazis, this book is essentially a book about friendship. It is hopeful without being naïve, focusing entirely on the friendship that develops between two teenagers. When the political situation inevitably begins to intrude, the results are everything you expected... and completely different.
Movies were a bit harder to come by this year. I think I managed to see 2 movies in theatres before the pandemic hit (Downton Abbey and Wild Rose), and didn't have the attention span for movies at home. So I only saw 25 this year, including documentaries. Sadly, most of the pickings were slim and I only really want to highlight one:
* The Grizzlies (2018) - Based on a true story, the movie traces the formation of an Inuit lacrosse team and the harsh realities of life in the Arctic.
As for shows and exhibits... it was, needless to say, a slim year. People did what they could, however, and made concerts and musicals available online, so I managed a few:
- Hamilton: I was so, so sceptical of this. All the hype, all the obsession... and it was just THAT GOOD.
- Phantom of the Opera (25th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall): so much better than the stage show we saw.
- Port Cities did a small free concert on Instagram, lots of technical difficulties but fun to watch nevertheless
- Mother Mother did a virtual acoustic concert that was wonderful
- Bears of Legend did a virtual concert of their album "Good Morning Motherland", and it was great
And finally, last but not least, I listened to a LOT of music this year, keeping Halsey, ONE OK ROCK, and Dermot Kennedy on repeat, but adding in BLACKPINK, Amy Shark, the Treble, Donovan Woods, and Fly by Midnight to the rotation.
(update: I just counted. There are 65 fiction and 34 non-fiction books physically on the shelves here, waiting to be read. That is a terrifying 99 books. Yep, definitely need to work my way through some of those...)
2020 READING RECAP
117 books total
95 fiction
21 non-fiction
9 manga/graphic novels
2 in French
33 by POC and/or LGBTQI2A+ authors
This year's favorites were:
* The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab - I waited months to get my hands on this book. While I loved the "A Darker Shade of Magic" trilogy, I was underwhelmed by the "Vicious" books, so I held off buying this in hardcover. That meant that I finished the book this afternoon, scraping in right before the deadline for this year. This is probably the best thing I read this year, bringing me back to my love of "The Starless Sea" and "Life After Life". A girl that no one remembers, a boy who feels too much, and a god you should not pray to after dark... Just magical.
* The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - a masterfully woven tale of two sisters and the many, many ways to navigate "passing" and invisible borders.
* La fille dans l'écran by Lou Lubie and Manon Desveaux - this graphic novel caught me by surprise. It was recommended to me by a friend who is obsessed with comics and graphic novels of all kinds, and it did not disappointed. Two women who meet by chance online and who become increasingly tangled together, the characters are drawn and written by two seperate artists, creating a unique canvas of visual and storytelling imagery. The story is marvelous but it is the art that pushes this one into the best of the best category.
* Clearing the Plains: Disease, the Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life by James Daschuk - this book was hard. It was so difficult to absorb the history untold, the damage done, and the echoing repercussions of these policies decades and centuries later. It was difficult going but everyone should read this book. Ignorance is a luxury.
* Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - urban fantasy with a distinct Native American flair, it takes all the best things about the genre and creates something new, something rich and interesting and addictive. I'm anxiously awaiting the third in the series.
* L'ami retrouvé by Fred Uhlman - this novella gets an honorable mention, not strictly Top 5 but firmly a contender. Despite the looming backdrop of the rise of Hitler in Germany and the conflicts between Jews and Nazis, this book is essentially a book about friendship. It is hopeful without being naïve, focusing entirely on the friendship that develops between two teenagers. When the political situation inevitably begins to intrude, the results are everything you expected... and completely different.
Movies were a bit harder to come by this year. I think I managed to see 2 movies in theatres before the pandemic hit (Downton Abbey and Wild Rose), and didn't have the attention span for movies at home. So I only saw 25 this year, including documentaries. Sadly, most of the pickings were slim and I only really want to highlight one:
* The Grizzlies (2018) - Based on a true story, the movie traces the formation of an Inuit lacrosse team and the harsh realities of life in the Arctic.
As for shows and exhibits... it was, needless to say, a slim year. People did what they could, however, and made concerts and musicals available online, so I managed a few:
- Hamilton: I was so, so sceptical of this. All the hype, all the obsession... and it was just THAT GOOD.
- Phantom of the Opera (25th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall): so much better than the stage show we saw.
- Port Cities did a small free concert on Instagram, lots of technical difficulties but fun to watch nevertheless
- Mother Mother did a virtual acoustic concert that was wonderful
- Bears of Legend did a virtual concert of their album "Good Morning Motherland", and it was great
And finally, last but not least, I listened to a LOT of music this year, keeping Halsey, ONE OK ROCK, and Dermot Kennedy on repeat, but adding in BLACKPINK, Amy Shark, the Treble, Donovan Woods, and Fly by Midnight to the rotation.
